Read Romans 4 here (text coming …) or at Bible Gateway.
The Greek Testament has no Hebrew paragraph divisions. This is my outline of chapter four:
1:18-5:21, Justification and the righteousness of God;
1:18-3:19, The unrighteousness of man;
3:20-31, The Law cannot solve the problem of unrighteousness;
4:1-22, The faith of Abraham imputed as righteousness (justification);
4:1-3, Abraham not justified by works but by faith;
4:4-5, He who works receives earnings, but he who believes receives righteousness as a gift;
4:6-8, Blessed is the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works;
4:9-12, Abraham justified prior to circumcision that he might be the father of both the uncircumcised and circumcised;
4:13-22, Abraham received the promise by faith not works;
4:23-25, Righteousness (justification) also imputed to us by faith.
Rom 4:1-22 Chiastic Structure:
You’ll notice that the outline inspired the Chiastic structure. Outlining, especially Paul’s letters, which can be hard to understand, has helped me immensely in Bible study.
The progression of events in Abraham’s life, which Paul here recounts, are first, Abraham believed God (Gen 15:6). He believed in God, that He was Creator and God, and he believed God; he believed God’s words were true and His promise would come to pass.
Second, God established His covenant with Abraham as a result of that belief (Gen 15:18-21) and to solidify that belief.
Third, God gave Abraham the command of circumcision (Gen 17:9-14). Notice that circumcision was a work which Abraham was required to perform. Even so, it was nevertheless a sign of his covenant status with God (Rom 4:11) which followed faith (as a wedding ring is a sign of the covenant status between a man and wife, which follows their entering into a love relationship) and not the cause of the relationship (as the wedding ring is not the cause of the love between a man and his wife in the first place).
Does a man, now that he is in covenant with his wife, go out and have affairs (break the Law), because his wife’s love and her heart has been given to him by faith? No, he obeys the Law of fidelity to his wife, because they are now in covenant relationship, and he desires to do that which reveals his love for his wife.
And it is the same with us in our relationship with God. Our faith and its imputed righteousness does not nullify works, but works flow from faith, just as imputed righteousness produces works of righteousness, as a seed produces fruit of the same kind.
Leave a Reply