Romans Chapter 4 cont'd
David also affirmed that God's righteousness isn't given according to "earning it” when he declared, "How blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the person whose sins the Lord does not count against him. "
Now think about it. Is this "blessedness" only given to circumcised Jews, or is it also available to uncircumcised Gentiles? Remember, we agreed that Abraham's faith was the basis of his righteousness. Was he circumcised or uncircumcised when this was said about him? He himself was an uncircumcised Gentile when God said this to him! Only after this was he circumcised, which was only an outward sign of the righteousness that God had already bestowed on him because of his belief. This made Abraham the father of all who believe God, even uncircumcised Gentiles. So then, God's righteousness is available to them as well. And he is obviously the father of the Jews, if indeed they walk in the same kind of faith Abraham displayed while he was still an uncircumcised Gentile. For God's awesome promise that Abraham would be the father of many nations was not given to him and his descendants on the basis of religious performance, but because of the right relationship with God he enjoyed on the basis of believing God. If this promise is based on "earning it", then faith is nullified and God "owes" salvation to people.
But trying to live up to the Mosaic code actually produces greater offense and guilt in people, for where there is no clear standard, there is no clear violation.
Comments:
Up to this point, Paul has been laboring in Romans to reveal how the gospel of Jesus is a great leveler for people of all races and religious backgrounds. Our human nature tends toward trying to earn God's love and acceptance based on our moral performance--this inclination comes so easy to us. There is a certain basic "fairness" about this view of religion in our minds and hearts because we instinctively know that God is holy and He would certainly want us to behave better if we are to approach Him and have a relationship with Him. It also of gets drilled into us, at least in our culture, through our family, education, athletic and business systems. Bad performance brings punitive measures from the authorities over us and good behavior is typically smiled upon and rewarded.
Probably the closest thing on the human level to the kind of love that God has for us is the love of a healthy parent (or maybe especially, a grandparent!). Beneath the pressure a good parent may put upon a child to perform better, is an undeserved love from the very beginning of the child's life that comes from simply "being family". Ultimately, parents' love for a child can tolerate a lot of misbehavior and poor performance on the part of their daughter/son without breaking the bond of affection. Some parents certainly communicate and display this unearned love better than others and some, in their fear that their child might take a wrong advantage of this love, hardly express it at all.
But in Romans, we are talking about the relationship of a perfectly moral and all-powerful Being to human beings who are imperfect and lacking much in power. Although better behavior is commendable and ultimately an important issue (Romans 6-8 address this matter thoroughly), it is not the fundamental basis of our establishing a life-giving relationship with God. And that is actually the main point so far...we (whether Jew or gentile) can't establish a friendship with God by our own efforts. No one is good enough or holy enough within himself/herself to pull this off. All of us need God to reach down to us to initiate a relationship, it one is to be had at all. This is what the gospel of Jesus Christ is all about...this is what the Heavenly Father has done for us in Christ. And...this quality of Divine love is in line with what He modeled to us in the life-stories of Abraham and David (and others) recorded in the Hebrew Scriptures. Salvation by grace through faith is at the roots of the faith of all who have ever truly been God's friends. And now because of Jesus (who he is and what he has done) the opportunity for people of all nations to "know God" has exploded across our planet by simple agreement with the simply profound news.
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