Romans Chapter 4
How was Abraham, our father according to human ancestry, made right with God? If he were justified by his religious performance then he would have had something to boast about- even though God would have seen right through it. For the scripture makes it clear: "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness." If someone works, then his reward is not a free gift, but something he's owed for his labor. But to the one who realizes he can't earn salvation, but simply stops trying to and just trusts in the One who saves the sinful, his belief is counted to him as righteousness.
Comments:
Father Abraham...esteemed by all...was not Jewish. The Jews, as a people group, did not exist in his day. We easily overlook this simple point. He was from a culture that had devolved into polytheism and idol worship along with the other cultures of his world and time. But the Living God..."I Am that I Am"...the Omnipotent Creator of all things...intervened miraculously in his life, spoke to him and transformed him into His friend. Abraham's life and journey was shaped by God's calling him away from his land and it's culture and religion and the earth has never been the same...even though Abraham, in his earthly life, saw very few of the outcomes of the promises God made to him. He certainly sees them now. There is a great and profound continuity between this visible realm and the one we don't see with our physical eyes!
As the apostle Paul continues to unfold the essential elements of the Big God-Story of gospel of Jesus Christ in the book of Romans...he reminds us of the history of God's interventions with humanity. Before he discusses the place and purpose of the Law of Moses in God's economy, he goes back before the time of Moses to reinforce the fact that God's salvation methodology is rooted in a non-Jew "believing (i.e. trusting and responding with the deep heart) God" rather than in ritual, law-keeping and/or being born into the "right" ethnic or social group. Can God save a non-Jew? We had all better hope so...including Jewish people...for they would not exist as a people unless He could and did.
So...for God to suddenly open the way for gentiles to be "grafted in" to His covenant family, through the Messiah Jesus, is not an out of character thing for Him to do--no, not at all. In fact, it is a logical (and prophetically oft-foretold by the Jewish prophets) extension of His eternal purposes in His dealings with humanity as a whole well-grounded in His covenant with Father Abraham. This radical development in the unfolding Story of God's salvation in the earth was something that actually was, and should have been, expected by all who took the ancient prophecy of Scripture to heart.
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