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Commentary on Romansby Michael Bugg Chapter 4The Faith of the FathersRom 4:1 Then what should we say Avraham, our forefather, obtained by his own efforts? Rom 4:2 For if Avraham came to be considered righteous by God because of legalistic observances, then he has something to boast about. But this is not how it is before God! Rom 4:3 For what does the Tanakh say? "Avraham put his trust in God, and it was credited to his account as righteousness." (Gen. 15:6)
i. Heb 7:1-2, 9-10 - This Malki-Tzedek, king of Shalem, a cohen of God Ha'Elyon, met Avraham on his way back from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him; also Avraham gave him a tenth of everything. . . . One might go even further and say that Levi, who himself receives tenths, paid a tenth through Avraham; inasmuch as he was still in his ancestor Avraham's body when Malki-Tzedek met him. ii. “And his brothers also went and fell before him” (Gen. 50:12 ): R. Said R. Benjamin bar Yefet said R. Eleazar: That is what people say: A fox in his time, bow to him. A fox? What is his shortcoming, relative to his brothers? Rather, if it was said, it was said in this way: “And Israel bowed at the head of the bed” (Gen. 47:31) — Said R. Benjamin bar Yefet said R. Eleazar: “A fox in his time, bow to him.” (b. Megillah 16b) 1. In other words, the epithet “a fox”—not a complimentary term—was applied to Joseph because he allowed his father to bow to him, scandalizing the rabbis. iii. Mat 22:41-46 - Then, turning to the assembled P'rushim, Yeshua put a sh'eilah to them: "Tell me your view concerning the Messiah: whose son is he?" They said to him, "David's." "Then how is it," he asked them, "that David, inspired by the Spirit, calls him `Lord,' when he says, `ADONAI said to my Lord, "Sit here at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet"'? If David thus calls him `Lord,' how is he his son?" No one could think of anything to say in reply; and from that day on, no one dared put to him another sh'eilah. 1. In the same way, Yeshua here points to Messiah’s pre-existence and pre-eminence over David, since no father would normally call his son “my Lord.”
i. Two teachings here: 1. Trusting the Holy One is counted as merit – absolutely true! 2. Abraham’s merit descends to his children-only partially true. a. While Abraham’s trust secured Israel’s national place (Rom. 11:28), b. but it cannot save the individual from judgment, just as Noah’s trust did not declare Abraham righteous. Wages vs. a GiftRom 4:4 Now the account of someone who is working is credited not on the ground of grace but on the ground of what is owed him. Rom 4:5 However, in the case of one who is not working but rather is trusting in him who makes ungodly people righteous, his trust is credited to him as righteousness.
i. If we obtain right standing with God by our works, then why do we pray for His grace? Should we not rather approach Him to ask for our due recompense. ii. Yet that is not what Judaism does – the liturgy is continually focused on God’s unmerited favor.
i. Rom 2:9-10 - Yes, he will pay back misery and anguish to every human being who does evil, to the Jew first, then to the Gentile; but glory and honor and shalom to everyone who keeps doing (ἐργαζομένῳ, “works”) what is good, to the Jew first, then to the Gentile.
i. We aren’t doing good works as a labor that we are being “paid” God’s grace for. ii. Rather, we are responding to a great Gift that we can never earn and never repay with our own small gift back—our good works, so that men will give glory to God when they see them (Mat. 5:16)—out of love, gratitude, and loyalty to the Giver.
i. Parable of the Talents (Mat 25:16) - The one who had received five talents immediately went out, invested it (lit. “worked it”) and earned another five. 1. Had his master not given him the talents, he would have had no way to earn more. 2. He was not investing them as his own money to earn his own fortune through, but being a good steward for his master: “Well done, good and faithful servant!” ii. Joh 3:21 - But everyone who does what is true comes to the light, so that all may see that his actions (“works”) are accomplished through God. iii. Joh 6:28f - So they said to him, "What should we do in order to perform the works of God?" Yeshua answered, "Here's what the work of God is: to trust in the one he sent!" The Faith of DavidRom 4:6 In the same way, the blessing which David pronounces is on those whom God credits with righteousness apart from legalistic observances: Rom 4:7 "Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered over; Rom 4:8 Blessed is the man whose sin ADONAI will not reckon against his account." (Psa. 32:1)
The Seal of CircumcisionRom 4:9 Now is this blessing for the circumcised only? Or is it also for the uncircumcised? For we say that Avraham's trust was credited to his account as righteousness; Rom 4:10 but what state was he in when it was so credited - circumcision or uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision! Rom 4:11 In fact, he received circumcision as a sign, as 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 uncircumcised person who trusts and thus has righteousness credited to him, Rom 4:12 and at the same time be the father of every circumcised person who not only has had a b'rit-milah, but also follows in the footsteps of the trust which Avraham avinu had when he was still uncircumcised.
i. Practiced by the Egyptians in the 1 st Century, as well as the Syrians and the Arabs (Philo, The Special Laws I 1:5; Epistle of Barnabas ix) ii. Nevertheless, was knows as the “well-known bodily sign” of the Jews (Tertullian, Apology xxi) iii. It remained important among Jewish followers of Yeshua, who were known for their zeal for the Torah (Acts 7:8, 21:20-21). iv. It was considered great for various reasons (m. Nedarim 3:11): 1. Many covenants (numbered 13 in the Mishnah) were given by it – in fact, the rabbis considered “circumcision” and “covenant” (both translations of b’rit) to be one and the same. 2. It overrides the Sabbath (cf. John 7:22). 3. It was not set aside even for a moment even for Moses (cf. Exo. 4:24f) 4. It overrides prohibitions in dealing with tzararat 5. Abraham was only called perfect when God called him to circumcise (cf. Gen. 17:1) 6. It was supposed that the world was made for the sake of circumcision, based on a play-on-words in Jer. 33:25 v. Interestingly, there is serious discussion in the Talmud (Abodah Zarah 26b ff) about whether a Gentile could perform a circumcision, and under what circumstances—suggesting that the issue had come up! R. Meir and R. Judah, for example, allowed it if there was no suitable Israelite physician. (There is a debate about which one allowed the Samaritan over a Gentile.)
i. Jewish 1. Necessary (meaning, Jewishness) for salvation (Acts 15:1) 2. “In the Hereafter Abraham will sit at the entrance of Gehinnom and will not allow any circumcised Israelite to descend into it. As for those who sinned unduly, what does he do to them? He removes the foreskin from children who died before circumcision, places it upon them and sends them down to Gehinnom.” (Gen. R. 48:8, quoted by Cohen, Talmud 381) ii. Christian 1. Was given because of the deception or hostility of an evil angel, which it allegedly offered some protection against (Barnabas, ibid; Origen, Against Celsus V, ch. xlviii) 2. “Therefore, for all those who had been delivered from the yoke of slavery, he would earnestly have to obliterate circumcision, the very mark of slavery.” (Tertullian, Against Marcion V, ch. 4) 3. Lactantius called it “plainly irrational.” (Divine Institutes IV, ch. xvii) i. As a sign 1. A permanent mark cut on the most sensitive, most deeply treasured, and most hidden part of the male anatomy. 2. “[T]here is the resemblance of the part that is circumcised to the heart; for both parts are prepared for the sake of generation; for the breath contained within the heart is generative of thoughts, and the generative organ itself is productive of living beings. Therefore, the men of old thought it right to make the evident and visible organ, by which the objects of the outward senses are generated, resemble that invisible and superior part, by means of which ideas are formed.” (Philo, Special Laws, I, ch. i.6) a. Unlike Christian commentators, who took the knowledge of a symbol to negate the physical rite, Philo rebuked those who took the knowledge of the reason behind a mitzvah to negate the performance of it. ii. As a seal 1. Gr. σφραγίς, the impression made by a signet-ring, which indicated and authenticated the author of a document, certifying that it was written by his authority, even if a scribe was employed. a. Sha’ul speaks of the Corinthian Assembly as being the seal of his apostleship—that is, the proof that his work was really done under God’s authority (1Co. 9:2). b. Despite the existence of false teachers, the firm foundation of the Lord’s work stands upon two seals (2Ti. 2:19): i. The Holy One knows who is truly His, ii. and those who are truly His depart from iniquity. 2. Abraham’s circumcision served as a sign and a seal that he and his posterity belonged to the Eternal One. iii. In the Renewed Covenant 1. Col 2:11-13 - Also it was in union with him that you were circumcised with a circumcision not done by human hands, but accomplished by stripping away the old nature's control over the body. In this circumcision done by the Messiah, you were buried along with him by being immersed; and in union with him, you were also raised up along with him by God's faithfulness that worked when he raised Yeshua from the dead. You were dead because of your sins, that is, because of your "foreskin," your old nature. But God made you alive along with the Messiah by forgiving you all your sins. a. Sha’ul’s point i. was not to annul physical circumcision for Abraham’s physical descendants, ii. but to emphasize the spiritual circumcision that Jew and Gentile alike shared as Abraham’s spiritual descendants.
Seed vs. SeedsRom 4:13 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. Rom 4:14 For if the heirs are produced by legalism, then trust is pointless and the promise worthless.
i. In Hebrew, as in English, “seed” (zerah, זרע) is a collective noun, having the same form whether it is singular or plural.
i. Here in Romans, “seed” is taken in the plural, parallel to “heirs” ii. Gen 15:13, 18 - ADONAI said to Avram, "Know this for certain: your descendants will be foreigners in a land that is not theirs. They will be slaves and held in oppression there four hundred years. . . . That day ADONAI made a covenant with Avram: "I have given this land to your descendants - from the Vadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates River - iii. Gen 22:17-18 - I will most certainly bless you; and I will most certainly increase your descendants to as many as there are stars in the sky or grains of sand on the seashore. Your descendants will possess the cities of their enemies, and by your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed - because you obeyed my order."
No Law?Rom 4:15 For what law brings is punishment. But where there is no law, there is also no violation. Rom 4:16 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.
i. that since Abraham’s promise was given before the statutes of the Torah, ii. no later violation of the Torah could annul it, iii. any more than later obedience to the Torah could earn it. iv. Neither could rejection of the Messiah cause Israel to lose her promises.
i. First, He establishes a relationship ii. Second, He redeems the person(s) iii. Third, He establishes the terms of the covenant
i. “who live within the framework of the Torah” – lit. “those who are of/from the Law”; that is, the Jewish believers, those raised from birth in the Torah 1. Sha’ul does not contrast these with those “of faith,” but puts them alongside them. 2. “Those who are of the Torah” are distinct from “those who are of the works of the Law” (cf. Gal. 3:10). a. There is a difference between coming from a place of Torah and trying to win the gift by legalistic observance of it. ii. “those with the kind of trust Avraham had”; the grafted-in Gentiles 1. Just as Avraham left the idolatry of Ur of the Chaldees on God’s say-so without knowing his destination, so the former pagans of the Ekklesia had left their idolatry and started following Yeshua to a destination that they didn’t yet know.
i. Physical circumcision marks the physical descendants ii. “Spiritual circumcision” marks the true offspring of both Our Father AbrahamRom 4:17 This accords with the Tanakh, where it says, "I have appointed you to be a father to many nations." (Gen. 17:5) 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. Rom 4:18 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."
Trust Over TheologyRom 4:19 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. Rom 4:20 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, Rom 4:21 for he was fully convinced that what God had promised he could also accomplish. Rom 4:22 This is why it was credited to his account as righteousness. Rom 4:23 But the words, "it was credited to his account . . . ," were not written for him only. Rom 4:24 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 - Rom 4:25 Yeshua, who was delivered over to death because of our offences and raised to life in order to make us righteous.
i. When Jonah protested, God responded, “[S]houldn't I be concerned about the great city of Ninveh, in which there are more than 120,000 people who don't know their right hand from their left - not to mention all the animals?” (4:11) ii. The Ninevites were so ignorant of right and wrong, they didn’t know which hand was clean – yet God showed mercy because they responded even to the little bit of light they were given.
i. “executing . . . all over again” 1. not referring to a resumption of sacrifices, which the Apostles never ceased (Acts 21:26, 24:17) 2. but to falling away from the faith with full knowledge, thus bringing shame to the reputation of Yeshua.
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