Sermon Tone Analysis

vs. 4.3

Romans 4

Romans 4

Question: How do you resolve this “inconsistency.”

Question: Is there a difference in righteousness and justification?

Question

Justification --

to cause someone to be in a proper or right relation with someone else—‘to put right with, to cause to be in a right relationship with.’

Some scholars, however, interpret δικαιόω, δικαίωσις, and δικαιοσύνη in the following contexts as meaning ‘forensic righteousness,’ that it to say, the act of being declared righteous on the basis of Christ’s atoning ministry

Righteous —

the act of doing what God requires—‘righteousness, doing what God requires, doing what is right.’

μακάριοι οἱ δεδιωγμένοι ἕνεκεν δικαιοσύνης ‘happy are those who suffer persecution because of their doing what God requires’ Mt 5:10.

rom 4.4-5

Question: How can something so valuable be FREE!

Doesn’t something have to be paid?

This is not to say that Paul believed salvation was in any way earned, gained, or merited by particular behavior.

His brief statement to the Romans summed up his view: “to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness” (4:5).

But faith is not passive acknowledgment of the truth of the gospel; it is active response to that truth.

As he told the Romans, “thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted.

You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness” (6:17–18).

But the implicit “theo-logic” of Paul is clear: since work means the reward is given by obligation, the reward of righteousness must not be dependent on work—for God is never obliged by his creatures; justification is a gift, freely bestowed, not a wage, justly earned.

That God acts toward his creatures graciously—without compulsion or necessity—is one of Paul’s nonnegotiable theological axioms

Rom 4

Paul drawing in a reference

Paul here is drawing in a connection from the OT.

Ps

Question: What is Paul’s purpose in drawing back to Old Testament?

Ro 4.

Question: Is this “blessedness” only for the circumcised or also for the uncircumcised?

I want to read something…tell me your response to it

Paul’s first line of argument is that God never did promise that all Jacob’s physical descendants would be included in the people of the Messiah.

He is free to choose whom he will favor, and ultimately God’s acceptance does not depend on physical descent.

Just as believing Gentiles can be regarded as spiritually Abraham’s offspring (Rom 4:11), so conversely physical descent is not necessarily a qualification for being part of his offspring.

The inheritance is not due to a qualification based on human works but entirely depends on God’s call.

It is not belonging to the physical nation of Israel that matters but response to God’s call (which goes to both Jews and Gentiles).

God is entitled to show mercy to some people and also to harden others so that they do not believe.

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Ro 4

Question: What is the “there” “for”

Question: If Abraham is the “father” of ALL OF US, wouldn’t Abraham’s “righteousness” by faith cover…everyone

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18-19

Question: Faith vs. Hope.

Same word, means the same thing?

Hope -- used 67 times in the NT.

Always same word used.

“El-pice”

25.59 ἐλπίζωa; ἐλπίςa, ίδος f: to look forward with confidence to that which is good and beneficial—‘to hope, to hope for, hope.’

ἐλπίζωa: ἡμεῖς δὲ ἠλπίζομεν ὅτι αὐτός ἐστιν ὁ μέλλων λυτροῦσθαι τὸν Ἰσραήλ ‘and we had hoped that he would be the one who was going to redeem Israel’ Lk 24:21; ὅτι ἠλπίκαμεν ἐπὶ θεῷ ζῶντι ‘because we have placed our hope in the living God’ 1 Tm 4:10.

Faith — Pistis

31.85 πιστεύωb; πίστιςb, εως f: to believe to the extent of complete trust and reliance—‘to believe in, to have confidence in, to have faith in, to trust, faith, trust.’

πιστεύωb: ὃς δ’ ἂν σκανδαλίσῃ ἕνα τῶν μικρῶν τούτων τῶν πιστευόντων εἰς ἐμέ ‘if anyone should cause one of these little ones to turn away from his faith in me’ Mt 18:6; ἐπίστευσεν δὲ Ἀβραὰμ τῷ θεῷ ‘Abraham trusted in God’ Ro 4:3; ὁ πιστεύων ἐπ’ αὐτῷ οὐ μὴ καταισχυνθῇ ‘whoever believes in him will not be disappointed’ 1 Pe 2:6.

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Question: Is the only reason the Christ suffered and died so that we **MIGHT** have faith and accept his Lordship of our lives?

With that, the main argument of the chapter is done, and Paul can move into the exposition, which is more regularly understood, of how all those who believe ‘in him who raised from the dead Jesus our lord’ share the faith of Abraham (4:18–25).

This passage also includes, as again is commonly noted, the explicit reversal of the description of human degeneration in 1:18–25, and the consequent fruitfulness (despite earlier barrenness) of the primal couple in God’s family.

The strands of Genesis 15 are thus tied together.

The whole seed; the whole inheritance; guaranteed through the Messiah, as himself the gift of the one God, to all those who share (by the spirit, Paul might have said) the faith of Abraham.

Election redefined.

PRAYER

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