Romans ~ Part 13

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As I’ve stressed in my previous post, our journey to comprehend the profound significance of Sha’ul’s Letter to the Romans is not just a study but a crucial cornerstone of our faith.

The Righteousness of God ~ Part 3

In your professional life, you may face moral dilemmas or feel the pressure to conform to unethical practices. Romans 5:13-25 emphasizes that while sin’s reign can feel overwhelming, God’s gift of grace empowers you to overcome it. To apply this, consider setting up a prayer or ethics group with colleagues to discuss challenges you face at work. Encourage each other to stand firm against unethical behavior and pray for wisdom and strength to act by God’s grace, transforming your work environment.

Promise Based On Faith

¹³ For the promise to Avraham and his seed that he would inherit the world did not come through legalism but through the righteousness that trust produces.

The promise to Avraham and his seed that he would inherit the world. The Greek word for “world” here is “Kosmos,” which means “inhabited world.”

¹⁴ For if the heirs are produced by legalism, then trust is pointless and the promise worthless. ¹⁵ For what law brings is punishment. But where there is no law, there is also no violation.

For what law brings is punishment. But where there is no law, there is also no violation. This seems to be a statement about law in general rather than about the Torah in particular: although moral behavior is absolute, unless a statute makes a particular act illegal and punishable, there is no violation, and the act goes unpunished. This general principle is explicitly applied to the Torah, insofar as it contains elements of law, in Romans 5:13 and 7:7–10.

Promise Based On Faith

¹⁶ The reason the promise is based on trusting is so that it may come as God’s free gift, a promise that can be relied on by all the seed, not only those who live within the framework of the Torah but also those with the kind of trust Avraham had—Avraham avinu for all of us. ¹⁷ This accords with the Tanakh, where it says, “I have appointed you to be a father to many nations.” Avraham is our father in God’s sight because he trusted God as the one who gives life to the dead and calls nonexistent things into existence.

God’s promise is based on trusting, so it may be guaranteed to both Jews and Gentiles who believe. If it were by law, no such guarantee would be possible. Therefore, the promise was according to grace to make it sure. Avraham was also promised to be the Father of many nations. Avraham believed in the God who created everything from nothing and gives life to the dead.

¹⁸ For he was past hope, yet in hope, he trusted that he would indeed become a father to many nations, in keeping with what he had been told, “So many will your seed be.”

It seemed humanly impossible for Avraham to become the father of many nations when he was old, but he placed his hope in God’s promise.

Avraham’s Faith An Example

¹⁹ His trust did not waver when he considered his own body—which was as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old—or when he considered that Sarah’s womb was dead, too. ²⁰ He did not, by lack of trust, decide against God’s promises. On the contrary, by trust, he was given power as he gave glory to God,

Avraham had a realistic evaluation of his prospects for fatherhood. He was about 100 years old, and Sarah was childless and long past childbearing years. Yet Avraham did not doubt God’s promise, and God strengthened his faith.

²¹ for he was fully convinced that what God had promised he could also accomplish. ²² This is why it was credited to his account as righteousness.

Avraham’s conviction that God can do whatever He promised enabled his faith to overcome the obstacle of the tangible and visible ‘facts.’ And this is the kind of faith that receives righteousness.

²³ But the words, “it was credited to his account …,” were not written for him only. ²⁴ They were written also for us, who will certainly have our account credited too because we have trusted in him who raised Yeshua our Lord from the dead—

Everything in Scripture is for our benefit. The experiences of Avraham are as relevant to us as they were to him, for we serve the same Creator God who can do the humanly impossible. We are credited as righteous before God in the same manner as Avraham: by faith.

²⁵ Yeshua, who was delivered over to death because of our offenses and raised to life in order to make us righteous. [1]

Yeshua was delivered up for our trespasses as promised in Isaiah 52:13–53:12. Who delivered up Yeshua? Was it Judas? Pilate? The Jewish Sanhedrin? Satan? Indeed, all these were causal agents in the crucifixion of Yeshua, but ultimately, the sovereign God brought it to pass to fulfill His plan of redemption (Acts 4:27–28). The Father delivered Yeshua up for our trespasses and raised Him so His righteous Servant would justify many people (Isaiah 53:11).

Our next post will begin with a new theme: Freedom from Condemnation.

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[1] Romans 4:13-25