Lesson 10 - Romans 3 & 4

[Music] [Music] you know I'm not sure that more beautiful soaring hope inspiring words have been written in the Bible that what we read in Romans chapter 3 verse 24 there it says by God's grace without earning it all are granted the status of being considered righteous before him through the act redeeming us from our enslavement to sin that was accomplished by the Messiah Yeshua now while this is stated in about half as many words in most English Bible versions the versions the the meaning is still the same it is the salvation and our release from the power of sin is a free gift from God that cannot be earned it cannot be merited by our own good works nor can it be denied by our lack of good works rather it was accomplished on our behalf by the good works of Jesus Christ Yeshua HaMashiach specifically by him being so perfectly faithful that he went to the cross as our atonement and as our Passover lamb now since this is indeed the case then why does Paul spend so much time talking about and teaching about the law it can be reduced to this admittedly over simplistic but nevertheless true principle while the law and the gospel of Christ are organically connected they serve two critically important but entirely different purposes the law and the gospel are not editor's they are teammates you know for human or animal life to exist we must all have as basic needs air water and food these three necessities for physical life are critically important and organically connected but they are each for entirely different purposes nobody can tell us to choose one or even two out of the three is the most important any one of the three that's taken away from us for very long means our physical death it's the same with the law and with the gospel of Christ for centuries the institutional church has told us to choose one of the two obviously with the intent that we choose the gospel God gave us both because we need both so Paul is attempting to explain the differences between the law and the gospel and what the purposes for each are and just as important are not and that we must not confuse the one for the other we must never forget that both the law and the gospel were given by God to Israel to Israel it is only later that Christ told his disciples that the gospel was to be taken to the Gentile world this is something that actually confused and angered most Jews of Paul's day and much of what we've been reading is Paul explaining himself for bringing the gospel to Gentiles and in doing so a ambushing some of the basic principles of our judeo-christian faith so let's take up Romans chapter 3 at verse 24 we're gonna read chapter 3 from verses 24 to the end if you have a complete Jewish Bible will be on page 14:05 1405 we're gonna start chapter 3 of Romans verse 24 by God's grace without earning it all are granted the status of being considered righteous before him through the act redeeming us from our enslavement to sin that was accomplished by the Messiah Yeshua God put Yeshua Ford as the Caparo for sin through his faithfulness and respect to his bloody sacrificial death this vindicated God's righteousness because in his forbearance he had passed over with neither punishment nor remission the sins that people had committed in the past and it vindicates his righteousness in the present age by showing that he is righteous himself and is also the one who makes people righteous on the ground of Yeshua's faithfulness so what room is left for boasting none at all what kind of Torah excludes one one that has to do with legalistic observance of rules no rather a Torah that has to do with trusting therefore we hold the view that a person comes to be considered righteous by God on the ground of trusting which has nothing to do with legalistic observances of Torah commands or is the godom is God the God of the Jews only isn't he also the God of the Gentiles yes indeed he is the God of the Gentiles because as you will admit God is one therefore he will consider righteous the circumcised on the ground of trusting in the uncircumcised through that same trusting does it follow that we abolish Torah by this trusting heaven forbid on the contrary we confirm Torah essentially in verse 25 Paul explains the nuts and bolts of just how it is that the Gospel as stated in verse 24 is able to do what it claims it does in other words Paul asserts that a person is made righteous by God's free gift of grace not by any kind of work or deed but especially a Jew who is steeped in Judaism is going to look pretty skeptically at that assertion for a couple of reasons first of all because it was standard Jewish doctrine of Paul's day that simply being Jewish was sufficient for God to see a Jew as righteous and that by doing the law one maintained their status as a Jew and therefore maintained their position of righteousness before God now I'm sorry to keep repeating myself but it's necessary see when Jews insisted that they were doing the law they did not specifically mean that they were doing the law of Moses they meant that they were doing Jewish law tradition Holika the religious philosophy of Judaism was and still is that Holika is essentially doing the law of Moses because Holika was the rabbinical interpretations of the law of Moses which included a long list of subsequent rabbinical rulings about required behaviors and rituals that were derived from those interpretations but were the rank-and-file Jews consulting the Torah the law of Moses on religious matters no they were not they were following the Halle coat that the many traditions that the Pharisee synagogue teachers said they should be following thus there was no longer a clear line between Holy Scripture law Moses versus traditions of the rabbis now the second reason the Jews were skeptical a Paul's assertion of salvation is a free gift of grace for all who believed in Messiah is because they did not see a messiah as having any direct involvement in their spiritual relationship with God for them a messiah was merely a real physical descendant of King David who would militarily lead the Jews out of being oppressed by Rome and then into a golden era of Israel becoming the dominant worldwide kingdom what we ought to be furl throwing our brows about is that Paul at least in his own mind has decided that it's necessary to lecture these Jewish and Gentile believers of the city of Rome about these faith principles because clearly he is skeptical that they've been taught the gospel correctly or that they've been taught the proper doctrines to live their lives by Paul has not decided to write an extensive theology of Christianity and then randomly set it off to Rome he is responding to what he thinks are certain pressing issues within the believing congregations of Rome I'm talking about the city of Rome about all of the Roman Empire and as the Christ designated gospel to the Gentiles Paul also believes that it's not only his duty to set down the doctrines of the faith of Messiah but that he also has the authority to do so so by way of explanation as to just how it is that God offers salvation as a free gift to everyone who puts trust in Messiah Yeshua he says in verse 25 that God meaning the Father put forth Yeshua as the sacrifice for sin therefore as a sacrifice and Paul has in mind an altar sacrifice not something theoretical or allegorical the blood of Yeshua meets the toriel requirement of innocent blood being shed for the sake of the guilty now let's pause for a moment that the Greek word Telos Tyrion he'll Asteria is what is being variously translated into English Bibles as propitiation or sacrifice of atonement or expiation what is interesting is that this the Greek in the Greek Old Testament the Greek Old Testament hill Asterion is used to translate the Hebrew word Khepera and Khepera guess what that means it means mercy seat the lid on the Ark of the Covenant so the proper literal English translation is God but Yeshua forward as the mercy seat that is the mercy seat is the place where atonement is made by the high priest once per year for all Israel now God has put forth Yeshua as mercy-seat as the place where atonement must be made not allegorically but actually now I'd like to note that in Paul's day and since the Jews returned from Babylon there was no ark there was no mercy seat in the Holy of Holies and had been taken to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar as a spoil of war and it was never returned so when the high priest went into the Holy of Holies in the temple annually on Yom Kippur he still performed this required ritual of atonement but instead of sprinkling blood on the mercy seat he sprinkled it onto the floor where the Ark of the Covenant used to sit was this efficacious for remittance of sins for Israel now I can't be a hundred percent certain but I don't think so Paul continues by saying that this remittance of sin was the result of faith in Christ's blood now this passage has always created some difficulty because the usual way it is interpreted boy pay attention to these next few words the usual way it's interpreted is that it is our faith in Christ's blood that counts as our righteousness but as Joseph shulam points out quite correctly that interpretation cannot be correct because in order to arrive at that conclusion one must alter the verb and the word order of that verse and in fact that is regularly done by Bible scholars who think it makes more sense to alter the order of the Greek words in this passage but see if we leave the word order as stands in the original Greek that's verified by many ancient Greek manuscripts then the meaning changes from our faith to Christ's faith as the catalyst for atonement and forgiveness and this means very well with the meaning of verse 22 that speaks of Yeshua's faithfulness to God so when properly read what this patches is saying is that atonement has been made through Yeshua's faithfulness by him allowing his blood to be the sacrifice of atonement for all who believe now I only point this out here's the kicker okay I only point this out because too much our faith is emphasized in modern Christianity when in fact the Scriptures point to Messiah's faith to his faithfulness as the primary issue his not ours and when then you see we are to just trust in his faithfulness see often this manifests in Christians constantly being concerned about how much faith we have oh if I only had more faith I just need more faith help me get more faith Oh God give me more faith and thus we have this idea that a higher level of faith brings with it more favor and more rewards or there's the belief that if things didn't turn out the way we wanted them to it's because we didn't have enough faith then if only we could just muster up more faith more of what we want to happen would happen our faith will never be perfect our faith will never be sufficient to ward our salvation therefore we are to simply trust in messiahs perfect faith you see the difference I mean all how this relieves us that's liberty that's freedom now the remainder of verse 25 in its flow on into verse 26 is quite difficult it speaks of how you schewe sacrifice highlights God's forbearance because God passed over the sins that people are committed in the past even though he had never remitted those sins nor punished those sinners for their sins now to understand this we gotta go back a few weeks when we carefully defined what is meant by God's righteousness what is the righteousness of God and we found that first of all how God's righteousness is defined is entirely different than how human righteousness is defined human righteousness is defined as being right before God and by doing right before God God's righteousness is summed up in his saving will that is God's righteousness is his determination to take people who are not right with him and make them right with him in Paul is saying that at least for some God passed over their past sins and postponed a punishment that they richly deserved he didn't wink at those sins and forget them rather by postponing the punishment until Yeshua came now Yeshua's blood could atone for them once and for all and the mere fact that God would so graciously do this just magnifies his glory all the more so after explaining now the reason they why it is the Yeshua's death on the cross is the legal justification for God reaching down from heaven and righteous and this amazing protocol of grace Paul then asks a very simple question in verse 27 so folks what room is there left for your boasting that is clearly the sinner whose sins are atone for first doesn't deserve forgiveness second has done nothing to earn that forgiveness and third receives that forgiveness as a free gift therefore he can't hold himself up as having worked tirelessly at being Torah observant is the reason why God chose to reach down and righteous him his deeds don't earn him merit they earn him condemnation if he counts on those deeds to be his righteousness so as usual Paul answers his own question he says there is no room at all for boasting about one's work the reason for God righteous since works was never the way that one received righteousness never at any time in history rather it is trust it is trust that gains a person righteousness Paul says that another way in verse 28 obeying the law is not how one attains the righteousness that saves now Paul moves his case forward for Gentile inclusion into the biblical faith and verse 29 he asked the rhetorical question well is God only God of the Jews er as he got of the Gentiles to you of course answers his own question he says yes of course God is the god of both Jews and Gentiles because God is one God has had or in modern English there's really only one God so there can't possibly be separate God's one for the Jews one for the Gentiles really that's kind of funny because plainly this contradicts another rather widespread Christian doctrine that essentially does make the claim that there are two God's one for the Jews and one for the Gentile Christians the one for the Jews is the god of the Old Testament the Father the one for the Gentiles is the god of the New Testament the son and if we have two gods necessarily we have two different loyalties for two different sets of people along with two different sets separate sets of rules I'll see Paul tackles this question head-on he says no there is both one God and what he says and what he lays down is for Jews and Gentiles jhin's and now in verse 30 draw a Paul draws a conclusion so let me remind you that throughout this dissertation he has been following the standard rabbinical Talmud method of making his case he presents a question next he presents the ruling that a previous rabbi made next he refutes that ruling usually by saying heaven forbid then finally he pronounces his own what he believes to be correct ruling Paul's arrival at a conclusion as announced by the by beginning this verse therefore therefore here's my conclusion and the conclusion and the ruling is since there's only one God logically meaning then that God must be God of everyone Jews and Gentiles then God will righteous those who are circumcised Jews based on their trust just as he will righteous those who are uncircumcised Gentiles also based on their trust but now in verse 31 comes the question of the ages because of all the previous arguments he's made about Jews and Gentiles and that the law the Torah does not save only trust in God saves does that mean the torah's abolished because of trusting in other words since because of the issue is blood sacrifice on the cross and which we can place our trust does this now render the law obsolete replaced therefore abolished now how might Paul answer that question big question and regardless of his answer what might he base that theology on I think I know and I think most of you know as much as I enjoy using the complete Jewish Bible on this passage I just want to use the King James Version only to demonstrate that it doesn't matter which version we use the outcome is always the same okay listen to Matthew 5:17 through 19 in the King James Version think not that I come to destroy the law or the prophets I come not to destroy but to fulfil for verily I say unto you until heaven and earth pass not one jot or tittle shall in no wise pass from the law until all is fulfilled whosoever therefore shall break one of the these least Commandments and shall teach men he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven but whosoever shall do and teach them the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven Paul's answer then of course is directly connected to Yeshua statement and his answer to the question of if after all that he said regarding the Equality of the gospel for a Jew and Gentile and that the law does not save does that mean the law is therefore abolished and what does he say heaven forbid and let's face it truly had he said otherwise he would have been refuting his own Savior let's move on now to Romans chapter 4 move on to Romans chapter 4 is that that that's at the top of the page if you have a complete Jewish Bible at page 1406 Romans chapter 4 starting at verse 1 then what should we say that our Hammar forefather obtained by his own efforts for if Abraham came to be considered righteous by God because of legalistic observances then he has something to boast about but this is not how it was before God for what does the Tanakh say Avraham put his trust in God and it was credited to his account as righteousness now the account of someone who is working is credited not on the ground of grace but on the ground of what is owed to him however in the case of one who is not working but rather trusting in him who makes ungodly people righteous his trust is credited to him as righteousness in the same way the blessing which david pronounces is on those whom god credits with righteousness apart from legalistic observances blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven whose sins are covered over blessed is the man whose sin Auden I will not reckon against his account now is this blessing for the circumsized only or is it also for the uncircumcised for we say that Abraham's trust was credited to his account as righteousness but what state was he in when it was so credited circumcision or uncircumcision not in circumcision but in uncircumcision in fact he receives circumcision as a sign a seal of the righteousness he had been credited with on the ground of the trust he had while he was still uncircumcised this happened so that he could be the father of every uncircumsized person who trusts and thus has righteousness credited to him at the same time be the father of every circumsized person who not only has had a Brit Milah but also follows in the footsteps of the trust which Avraham Avinu had when he was still uncircumcised for the promise to Abraham and his seed that he would inherit the world did not come through legalism but through the righteousness that Trust produces for if the heirs are produced by legalism then Trust is pointless the promised is worthless for what law brings is punishment but where there is no law there's also no violation the reason the promise is based on trusting is it so 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 that Abraham had over hem Avenue for all of us this accords with the Tanakh the Old Testament where it says I have appointed you to be the father to many nations Avraham is our Father in God's sight because he trusted God is the one who gives life to the dead and calls non existent things into existence 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 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 he did not by lack of trust decide against God's promise on the contrary by trust he was given power as he gave glory to God for he was fully convinced that what God had promised he could also accomplish that is why it was credited to his account as righteousness but the words it was credited to his account were not written for him only they were written also for us who will certainly have our accounts credited to because we have trusted in him who raised yoshua our Lord from the dead Yeshua who was delivered over to death because of our offenses and he was raised to life in order to make us righteous in Jewish terms Romans chapter 4 is essentially a Midrash it's an interpretive discussion of Genesis 15:6 that's what it's all about and there in Genesis 15:6 we read he Avraham believed Anat and I and he God credited to him as righteousness so Paul is going to justify his assertion that trusting faithfulness is what actually confirms the law of Moses doesn't abolish it by citing Abraham and he begins by addressing a standard premise of Judaism that clearly existed then and it exists to this day that is called scoota vote it's good a vote the merits of the father's the merits of the father's scoot a vote now this was a belief that was part and parcel with the concept that Jewishness itself guaranteed righteousness before God however it peeled that on and back another layer by claiming Jewish righteousness on the basis of the righteousness of their ancestors of the fathers now the keywords of verse one are by his own efforts in other words the Jews believed that Abraham was righteous on account of his deeds and that Abraham's righteousness had a great deal to do with their own righteousness now first let me comment it's sadly fascinating that Abraham is all but disconnected from modern Christianity all but disconnected even though Paul has appealed to Abraham on more than one occasion to prove not only the efficacy of the gospel but also of the law Abraham is seen by the church today as more connected to Judaism and even to Islam and yet here in the New Testament Paul shows us that the plan of redemption we all count on is directly connected to Abraham but even more if Paul can prove to his readers that if Abraham had no claim to glory because he did not receive his righteousness through his deeds then neither can anyone else claim glory from their own deeds from our own deeds next Paul says that if Abraham was righteous by God justified by God because of his works well then he certainly would have something to brag about but that's not what happened rather Abraham put his trust in God and God credited this trust as Abraham's righteousness the point Paul is making is that the law didn't yet exist and Abraham's day and it wouldn't for another six centuries so it can't be by works of the law that God saw Abraham is righteous rather if any work was involved the work was merely that of trusting in this in second temple Judaism it was indeed believed that Abraham was righteous before God on the ground of his deeds in the book of Jubilees which was written sometime in the second century BC says this Abraham was perfect in all of his deeds with the Lord and well-pleasing in righteousness all the days of his life so Paul was disagreeing with the standard Jewish beliefs of his day he says in verse 3 but see but this is not how it is before God it's directly refuting it this is not how it is before God meaning Abraham did not establish his righteousness before God through his works and his deeds instead Paul quotes Genesis 15:6 as how Abraham came by his righteousness and it was simply credited to him by God on account of Abraham's trust so to explain now how it was that Abraham was credited with righteousness Paul provides a simple analogy he says that a person who works for a wage doesn't receive his pay because of a favor he doesn't receive his pay as a gift it's not an act of grace by his overseer he's earned it by his own hard labor the reward is due him so that worker can rightfully glory in it on the other hand if a person does not work but rather merely trusting God to make people who are not godly into people who are righteous well then that person is earned nothing so nothing's owed the trust they have in God is simply imputed to them by God is righteousness what that person received righteousness was not owed to him it was given as a favor as a gift well in verse 6 Paul drags out King David into the picture to use what he had to say is yet another proof that works and deeds are not what makes a person righteous before God in fact Paul is using psalm 32 to properly interpret genesis 15:6 only the first two verses are actually quoted by paul but it was a rabbinic principle that only quoting part of a passage indicated that all of that christmas scripture passage was to be referred to and thus just kind of read into the discussion so let's hear what David had to say about the source of righteousness including for those like himself who were Jews and they had the law we're gonna do that by reading all of the rather short psalm 32 psalm 32 by David Amma skill how blessed are those whose offence is forgiven those whose sin is covered how blessed those to whom Adonai imputes no guilt and whose Spirit is no deceit when I keep silent my bones wasted away because of my groaning all day long day and night your hand was heavy on me the SAP in me dried up is in a summer drought what I can when I acknowledge my sin to you when I stop concealing my guilt and said I will confess my offenses to Adonai then you you forgave the guilt of my sin this is what everyone faithful should pray at a time when you can be found then when the floodwaters are raging they will not reach to him you are a hiding place for me you will keep me from distress you will surround me with songs of deliverance I will instruct and teach you in this way that you are to go I will give you counsel my eyes will be watching you don't be like a horse or a mule that has no understanding that has to be curbed with a bit and bridle or else it won't come near you many are the torments of the wicked but grace surrounds those who trust in out and I be glad and at and I rejoice you righteous shout for joy all you upright in heart so Paul uses this psalm of David to make a key point God forgives and gives righteousness to those who have sinned and yet people who have sinned do not deserve that forgiveness however in verse 2 God imputes or he retton's depending on your Bible version no guilt to the center this righteousness could in turn be given to that sinner who God now no longer sees as a sinner well the verse 8 instruction about the way you are to go is referring to the law of Moses the Torah but notice this is not associated this is key this is not associated with how one becomes righteous going the way one is to go and receiving righteousness are two different things going the way one is to go does not cause righteousness but receiving righteousness does open a person's heart to God's instructions to his wise counsel as found in the law so that he can go the way one is to go it's a cause in effect verse 10 of Psalm thirty two is something we should carefully note it says that grace surrounds those who trust in God now please notice something David lived a thousand years before Christ and yet what's he appealing to grace I've said it before but it bears repeating grace is not a New Testament innovation Christ did not open the era of grace grace is an Old Testament principle naturally brought forward into the New Testament era grace is more than a principle you see grace is an attribute of God in fact the Levitical sacrificial system was grace in action because God decided he would accept the blood of sinless animals to pay for the sins of guilty humans who owed him the debt of their own blood that's grace grace versus law as it's often framed in Christianity is an oxymoron the law was grace because God gave Israel away to a for the trespasses and to return to peace with him which didn't involve the human trespasser losing their own life nor did it involve them earning their way back into God's good graces so we all of us need to be ambassadors to the church in general to help them to understand the goodness of God and the history of true grace that extends back to the beginning of humankind on earth well back to Romans chapter 4 and verse 9 Paul asks his straw man yet another question now is this blessing that David was speaking of in his song for the circumsized only can't only Jews expect such a blessing of unmerited grace or does this extend to the uncircumcised to Gentiles I mean I can't even imagine the can of worms that Paul's just opened this would have caused fury among many of the believing Jews in Rome who read this letter but Paul is undaunted and he continues with this his line of reasoning by pointing out the unthinkable abraham was righteous by God before he was circumcised in other words before he was officially a Hebrew while still a Gentile he was given righteousness because he trusted God his righteousness did not come because of circumcision in fact the biblical timeline has Hebrew tradition he was not circumcised until 29 years had passed since the event of Genesis 15:6 so Paul has just annihilated the standard Jewish argument that fleshly circumcision was the requirement for used to have their decided advantage over Gentiles and to obtain righteousness because as Paul said near the end of Romans chapter 2 true circumcision is of the heart it is spiritual and not literal so that his praise comes not from other people but from God but it also proves something that he has been arguing since Romans chapter 1 since Abraham received his righteousness from God long before the law existed then it cannot be that the law is the vehicle to receive righteousness can't be even more it is that circumcision was not given as a sign of Jewishness it was given as a sign and seal that one has a trusting faithfulness in God that's what he says here not my words it's his I want to add something that people have been following Torah class for many years already know it is that not only did the way for receiving righteousness get revealed through Abraham but it is that deliverance salvation if you would came upon Israel they were delivered and redeemed from Egypt before they received the law before they ever arrived about Sinai and this Redemption happened with utterly no deeds or merits on their part it happened purely by God's grace he and he alone fought Egypt through supernatural plagues forcing Egypt to release God's people so here we have further proof that doing the law is only something for people who have already been redeemed it's not a means of redemption and to Paul as he says over and over the last night didn't God nailed to the cross it continues in full force and that is because its purpose is especially important to believers it is needed to show us what pleases God and what sin is listen to first John listen to John in first John 3:4 again will use the King James Version whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law for sin is transgression of the law it's John's words for the Apostles Paul and John long after Christ was crucified arose the law remained the standard the law remains the manual for living the redeemed life that God gave to us all as a free gift of grace or as Paul says there's only one law because there's only one true God is he not the god of both Jews and Gentiles thus in Romans 411 Paul says that God righteous Abraham before he was circumcised so that Abraham could be counted as the father of the uncircumcised as well as the circumcised fighting words to be true all right to the Jews of Rome I did not like this but Paul's use of a holy scripture and his logic is impeccable good luck fighting that you probably have had enough to think about for one day so we'll conclude Romans chapter 4 next week [Music] you see [Music] you

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Length: 54min 7sec (3247 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 03 2019