Romans 4

Study Guide 125: Romans 4:1-6:14 BY FAITH Overview Paul had shown that all humanity lies, spiritually dead and without hope, under the judgment of God. The Law in which Israel had hoped was no aid to salvation, but rather a mirror set up to display the sinfulness of human beings. Yet Paul did not abandon hope. Jesus Christ by His atoning sacrifice has made salvation possible. His blood released the flow of life and righteousness which comes to us as a gift. But how is this gift received? In Romans 4:1-25 Paul reviewed sacred history, and highlighted a principle which has operated from the beginning, but which Israel had over looked: faith. This towering chapter is one of the Bible’ s clearest and most powerful explanations of the nature of faith, and particularly of saving faith. In Romans 5:1-21 Paul invited us to experience the peace that faith in Christ brings. We have been reconciled to God through Christ’ s death; we will be saved through His life. Romans 5:1-21 then examines the theme of life. Adam’ s sin brought death into the world. This dark heritage has been the burden of every human being born of Adam’ s line. But Jesus, a new Adam, brings life and the gift of righteousness as well. And then, in a pivotal section of this book, Paul taught that the key to our new lives is the union that faith forges with our resurrected Lord. Because we are now in Him, life and true goodness can and will be ours.

Commentary Like other chapters in Romans these chapters are theological in character, and introduce theological terms. It is helpful to preview them, so that when we meet them in the text each passage’ s teaching will be clearer. Justification. The Greek word translated “ justify” or “ justification” means “ to acquit,” “ to vindicate,” or “ to pronounce righteous.” These are important judicial terms, and the theological meaning is borrowed from the courtroom. In justification God clears those who have been charged with sins or failures. The Bible makes it clear that God will clear no one of the charge of sin on the basis of his or her efforts to keep the Law. One can be justified — declared righteous — only on the basis of faith. The exciting revelation of Scripture is that with the declaration of righteousness God has also made possible the experience of righteousness. Thus in many contexts “ justification” includes both God’ s “ not guilty” verdict pronounced over the forgiven sinner, and the moral transformation of the sinner, which also is by faith. Grace. God’ s gift of righteousness is received by faith, but is rooted in His grace. Grace is a dominant theme in the New Testament, but has Old Testament roots. Those roots are sunk deep in the compassionate and caring nature of God, who can be appealed to for mercy “ according to Your unfailing love; according to Your great compassion” (Psalms 51:1). In the New Testament “ grace” (charis) has become a pivotal theological term. There grace affirms a radical view of relationship with God. It affirms God’ s attitude of love and acceptance. It affirms each person’ s helplessness. Grace is action of a caring God who stoops to lift us up, not because of any merit in ourselves, but simply because of His great self-sacrificial love. Reconciled. This term is not a common one. But it is important. The word implies a restoration of relationship, a return of the harmony that once existed between God and human beings. The point is that conversion brings both a change of position, and a psychological and spiritual change, so our inner attitudes are brought into harmony with the divine reality. We who were once enemies of God now “ rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:11). Baptized. This term appears in Romans 6:1-23, which speaks of believers as those who are “ baptized into Christ Jesus.” As do words in every language, “ baptism” refers to different things. One reference is water baptism, which is a symbol of the spiritual reality spoken of in Romans 6:1-23. An other is the baptism by the Spirit spoken of in 1 Corinthians 12:13, which that passage defines as an act of the Spirit which unites us to Jesus and to other members of His body. In Romans 6:1-23, “ baptism” is our union with Jesus itself: a bonding to Christ that is so real that we are considered both to have died with Jesus and to have been raised with Him. So “ baptism” in Romans 6:1-23 does not speak of water baptism (the symbol) but of our union with Jesus (the reality that water baptism symbolizes). For an in-depth discussion of each of these key terms, see the author’ s Expository Dictionary of Bible Words (Zondervan). LINK TO LIFE: YOUTH / ADULT Write each of the four terms on the chalkboard. Ask your group members to jot down their own definitions of each word. Then briefly share data provided in the commentary about each. After sharing, work with your group members to develop a single-sentence definition of each term as it is used in this section of Romans.

Faith: Romans 4:1-25What is this “ faith” that Paul proposed as the key to experiencing that salvation Christ has won for us? Faith and justification (Romans 4:1-8). “ Faith” is what justified Abraham and David, representative Old Testament saints. “ Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness” (cf. Genesis 15:6). It’ s not a question of what Abraham and David did or did not do to please God. The question is to whom does God credit righteousness? In this argument Paul again asked us to be clear on the character of those involved in the transaction. Abraham and David, like you and me, were sinners. But God is the God “ who justifies the wicked” (Romans 4:5). The term justification is central here, and its meaning is summed up well by Article 21 of the Augsburg Confession: it is “ as when my friend pays the debt for a friend, the debtor is freed by the merit of another, as though it were his own. Thus the merits of Christ are bestowed upon us.” Paul’ s return to the Old Testament to demonstrate justification by faith is important. God is One, and Scripture is in full harmony with Scripture. The whole Word of God testifies to God’ s willingness to justify the ungodly, and in every context that justification is by faith. Justification for all (Romans 4:9-12). The Jewish reader was likely to object that this justification was for God’ s covenant people alone. Paul pointed out, however, that Abraham was counted righteous before he was circumcised! Thus he is the “ father” of all those who believe, circumcised and uncircumcised alike. Faith is a universal principle that applies to all humanity’ s relationship with God. Abraham’ s offspring (Romans 4:13-17). The term “ father” here is used as “ founder of a line or family.” That which makes a person one of Abraham’ s offspring is not physical descent, but rather faith in God. Those who are physically Abraham’ s descendants and those who are not must alike become members of his spiritual family. This is possible only by believing in the God in whom Abraham believed. Resurrection (Romans 4:18-24). Abraham’ s faith, portrayed so powerfully in the Old Testament, has a distinct New Testament flavor. When God told Abraham that he and Sarah would have a son, it was a promise that life would spring from the bodies of those who were “ dead” as far as childbearing was concerned. Abraham faced this fact — “ that his body was as good as dead — since he was about a hundred years old — and that Sarah’ s womb was also dead.” But Abraham did not “ waver through unbelief.” He believed the promise God had given. And this faith was “ credited to him” as that righteousness his actions showed he did not possess. We too believe the message of life springing from death — the message of a resurrected Lord, who died for our sins and was raised for our justification. And for all of us who, like Abraham, commit ourselves to the God we are “ fully persuaded . . . had power to do what He had promised” (Romans 4:21), there is a righteousness we do not possess credited to our account. LINK TO LIFE: YOUTH / ADULT Involve your group members in direct Bible study of Romans 4:1-25. Your goal is to help them develop a group definition of saving faith. Begin by having pairs read the chapter together, underlining phrases that help them understand the nature of “ faith.” Then have each team try to write down 5 to 10 statements about faith that sum up items they have underlined. Come together and put a combined list of statements on the chalkboard. Then, referring to this list, work together to come up with your group’ s definition of saving faith.

New Life: Romans 5:1-6:14 A life of peace (Romans 5:1-11). The result of our justification through faith is “ peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” This peace with God is objective and subjective. Objectively we have “ gained access” to God, for the ground on which we stand is one of grace and not of works (Romans 5:2). Subjectively, our new “ at peace” relationship with God has multiple expressions. We “ rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.” “ Hope” here and in the rest of the New Testament is a special term. It is not a word suggesting uncertainty (as, “ Well, I hope I can make it.” ) It is instead a word of confident expectation. Christian hope is a sense of certainty that brings us joy, even if present circumstances are painful. Paul specifies the basis of this joy producing hope. First, we know that present suffering is intended by God to produce the inner transformation of our character that God has always intended (Romans 5:3-4). Second, the Holy Spirit who has been given us pours out God’ s love in our hearts. There is the inner witness of the Spirit that God does love us as His own (Romans 5:5). Third, there is the object evidence of God’ s love for us seen in the Cross. Christ died for us when we were still numbered among the ungodly. Surely the One who died for us when we were sinners and saved us from God’ s wrath will, now that we have been reconciled to God, save us “ through His life” (Romans 5:6-11). The ever-living Jesus will keep us, and bring us through this life to the glory for which we hope (Romans 5:2). A life of righteousness (Romans 5:12-21). We come now to one of the key passages in the Scripture — one which theologians pore over. Despite the questions the passage raises (for instance, as to the nature of imputed sin), the primary message of the passage is exciting — and clear. Sin entered the world through Adam, and all descending from him have been sinners. Spiritual death, as God had clearly warned (Genesis 2:16-17), struck humankind. While no one was charged with “ sin” (in the technical sense of a violation of divine law) until the Law was given, all were spiritually dead. Thus death reigned, bringing all humankind under necessary condemnation. But then Jesus Christ came into the world, bringing a grace-gift to us. What flows from Jesus is not death, but life. What relationship with Adam meant was death; what relationship with Jesus means is eternal life — and righteousness. For just as sin is associated with and expresses spiritual death, so righteousness is associated with and expresses spiritual life! Through Jesus, we come to life again and our new life will be marked by the reign of righteousness! Union with Christ (Romans 6:1-14). Paul here described a great reversal. We who were dead through Adam lived in sin. Now we who are alive through Jesus are dead to sin. All this flows from the fact that our union with Jesus is in fact a real (not merely symbolic) union. We were bonded to Jesus so that His death was ours, and His resurrection ours as well. In this union our “ old self” died to sin. A new self was created that is “ alive to God in Christ Jesus.” This new self is intended to live a righteous life. Paul calls on us Christians to acknowledge by faith the reality of our death and new life, and to “ not let” sin reign. As those who have been brought from death to life, we are to offer ourselves to God “ as instruments of righteousness.” We who relate to God through grace rather than Law will not be mastered by sin. These few verses in Romans 6:1-23 are pivotal in the Book of Romans and in our lives. In Romans they serve to shift our gaze from what Jesus’ death means for us in our standing with God, to consider what Jesus’ death means for us in our present experience. And as pivotal verses, they deserve a closer look.

Romans 6:1-23 Revisited: Romans 6:1-14In Romans 1-5 the Apostle Paul proclaimed the Good News of peace with God. Christ’ s redemption, received by faith, offers the forgiveness of sins. Now, writing in the distinctive form of the diatribe, in which the writer inserts periodic objections which an imaginary opponent may make, and then answers them, Paul raised an important question. What shall we conclude from this promise of a salvation by faith, and an imputed righteousness? “ Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?” (Romans 6:1) That is, is the assurance of forgiveness a license to sin? Some might even go further. Since our sin seems to give God the chance to display His grace, shall we go on sinning so that even greater displays of grace might take place? Paul responded to this idea with an exclamation: “ By no means!” We might paraphrase it as an explosive, “ Never!” And Paul says, “ We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” What happened to the sin nature? Paul’ s exclamation, and the verses which immediately follow, are the key to understanding the victory over sin which Christ has won for us. Historically, there have been many different approaches to the “ victorious Christian life.” Each of them is related to a particular idea of what has happened to the Christian’ s sin nature. *Eradication. According to this theory, when a person becomes a Christian the sin nature itself dies. This means that the very capacity to sin is removed; whatever a Christian desires or chooses must flow from the new in him and not the old. Our common experience as well as the Bible’ s promise of continued forgiveness makes it plain that this theory does not fit the facts. *Suppression. According to this theory, when a person becomes a Christian he or she is given the power to control the sin nature. The capacity and the desire for sin are still present, but the Christian is responsible to hold down that desire. In this approach a great deal of emphasis is placed on the Law as a tool for suppression. Guided by the Law’ s demands, and always aware of his own personal responsibility, the individual fights for mastery over his old self. This grim struggle is something that Paul described in Romans 7:1-25. The apostle himself apparently once took this route — and failed. *Self-crucifixion. Noting that we were crucified with Christ (see Romans 6:6; Galatians 2:20), this approach to the Christian life visualizes our sin nature as something that struggles to get off the cross again. It is the believer’ s responsibility, then, to live the “ crucified life.” Each temptation calls for renewed surrender to God. At times this approach to Christian living has led individuals to see every human desire and pleasure as an indication of sin. When this happens, they have been led into a joyless life of denying themselves those very things which God gives us “ richly . . . to enjoy” (1 Timothy 6:17, KJV). *Penalism. This approach views all temptations as attacks of Satan. The problem is never located within us; it’ s always the fault of Satan. The right response to Satan’ s attack is rejection. We are to resist Satan on the authority of Jesus, who at the cross won final victory over His enemy and ours, the devil. But what Paul taught in Romans 6:1-23 is different from each of these four ideas. Paul’ s argument rested on a unique understanding of what did happen at the cross. And Paul taught us a unique way to respond when we sense sin’ s inner pull; a way that promises a freedom such as we have never known! This way of release is based on the realization that through Christ’ s work on the cross our sin nature was rendered powerless. Oh, it still exists. And it still pulls us toward evil. But we do not have to respond. We are no longer slaves to sin! Union (Romans 6:1-4). Paul began here with the concept of identification, of our union with Christ. Paul’ s point was that this union with Jesus is not merely “ legal” but is real. Because we who believe are now “ in” Christ, His death was our death, and His resurrection was our resurrection. Being “ in Christ” is the very root and essence of the new life of the Christian. We have passed from death to life (the powers of death have no hold on us anymore). We are not “ in the flesh,” or “ in sin” anymore. It is as if we were citizens of a new country — in Christ. This being the case, we have a share in Christ’ s triumph over the forces of death and hell. As they could not hold Him in their power, they no longer hold us in their power. The Cross, irradiated with the light of Easter morning, is the fundamental fact which will determine not only the history of the cosmos but our own personal history as well. “ Old self” (Romans 6:5-10). This crucifixion of the “ old self” (a term for the sin nature) did not eradicate the old desires or motives. They continue to betray our “ place of origin,” as a tell-tale accent marks our speech. The crucifixion of the “ old self” did not remove the pull of temptation. Instead, what happened was that the “ body of sin” (that whole package of old and warped responses) was rendered powerless or inoperative (Romans 6:6). We will still feel the temptations, but are not in their power. Our days of slavery are ended. We are now free to choose the good. Like Jesus, you and I are now alive to God, and we can choose to live for Him. Response to sin (Romans 6:11-14). How is the believer who feels a temptation to sin to respond? Paul’ s answer is, with faith. For salvation is a matter of “ faith from first to last” (Romans 1:17). We are to consider ourselves to be dead to sin (Romans 6:11). In other words, consider what God says about the “ death” of your sin nature in respect to its power over you to be true. Realize you do not have to surrender to your temptations. Then, with full trust in the life that Jesus has given us, actively yield yourself to God, surrendering all to Him for acts of righteousness. In essence, we are to step out and do what is right, confident that as we obey the Lord, He will strengthen and enable us. Donald Grey Barnhouse used to give this analogy to explain. He told of a crew whose captain went mad and was replaced in mid-voyage by the first mate. Now the old captain had no authority; the new captain was the one to be obeyed. Yet Barnhouse suggested that the crew might very well find itself jumping to obey when the old captain shouted out his orders. What the crew had to do was to constantly remember that the old captain need no longer be obeyed, and learn to respond to the voice of the new. It’ s like this with us, Barnhouse suggested. Our old natures will keep on shouting out orders. But they have been stripped of all authority over us. We can obey them, but we do not have to. What we must do is to listen for the voice of our new Captain, Jesus, and choose to obey Him. He and He alone is to be obeyed, for the sin nature no longer can rule our lives. The truths that Paul presented here in these early verses of Romans 6:1-23 do promise us a victory and freedom of which many have only dreamed. And the practical implications of this teaching are astonishing. The past is now powerless. One of our greatest bondages has been to our past. In a very real way, our pasts determine our futures. The habits we’ ve developed and the tastes we’ ve cultivated have “ programmed” our personalities. Each time we surrender to a temptation, we make it harder to resist the next time. Each sin in which we have indulged has paved the way for the next. But that whole cluster of programmed responses was dealt with on the cross! We still feel the pull. But our future choices are no longer determined by those bad decisions we made in the past. “ I can’ t help myself” is no longer true! We have so many ways to talk about the bondage we experienced in the past. “ I can’ t stop myself” is a cry that expresses hopelessness. So is, “ The temptation is more than I can bear.” No matter how true such statements may have been once, they are no longer true. Now, at last, there is release and hope. On the solid basis of God’ s own Word I am assured that the power of the past over my present has been broken by Jesus. And I choose, by faith, to act upon that good word. The next time inner conflict comes, I will present myself to God and let His righteousness find expression in me.

Romans 6:1-14 What Identification MeansHow We Respond to Find Victory I. Union with Christ in His death.I. Understand what union with Jesus means. Sin in our bodies is rendered inoperative, robbed of its lordship.We were crucified with Christ that the dominance over the body of our sin nature might be rendered inoperative. II. Union with Christ in His resurrection.II. Believe (count what God says as true: “ reckon” ). We are made alive with Christ, Free to serve God.Stop turning yourself over to sin. Trust God’ s promise that you no longer must sin. III. Act on what you believe. Present yourselves to God rather than to sin and do His will. Teaching Guide Prepare Study carefully Romans 6:1-23, looking especially at the verbs in Romans 6:8-14. What do they tell you about our part in claiming the victory Christ won for us on the cross?

Explore

1. Put these statements on the chalkboard: “ I can’ t help myself,” and “ The temptation is more than I can bear.” Ask each person to think of times when he or she has felt that way, and to identify what most likely stimulated those feelings in him or her. Then promise that in this study you will together find a way to avoid such failures.
2. Use the “ link-to-life” suggestion above to work together toward a definition of saving faith from Romans 4:1-25. When that definition has been determined, explain that since the believer is to live a life of faith “ from first to last,” faith plays a key part in the victory Christ has promised over sin in our lives.

Expand

1. You may wish to define key theological terms found in this section of Romans. You can do this in a minilecture or as a participatory activity, outlined in “ link-to-life” above.
2. Or go directly to Romans 6:1-23. In a minilecture cover the four concepts of “ what happens to the sin nature” discussed in the commentary. Give out copies of the chart above. Ask each person to locate and underline in Romans 6:1-14 verses or phrases on which each item on the chart is based. Form teams to discuss insights, and any questions individuals may have. Conclude with a summary, using the “ old captain” illustration the author includes. The main point is that we are no longer bound to sin: we are now free to choose to obey God. We can yield to temptation, but we no longer can say we “ have to” or “ can’ t help it.”

Apply Ask each person to remember the temptation each identified at the beginning of the group meeting. Ask each, without revealing the problem, to write down what he or she is going to do next time the temptation arises. Then have several share these steps. Close in prayer, thanking God for victory and the freedom that now is ours to obey Him.