In the first three chapters of his magnum opus Paul focuses on two ideas. First and primarily, all people are in need of the righteousness of God. Every person is a sinner and has fallen short of His glory (3:23). Sinners are hopelessly lost, cannot hope to be righteous on their own (3:11-18), and in fact left to themselves sinners will worship the creation rather than the Creator (1:25). Second, God provides His righteousness to those who turn to His Son Jesus by faith (3:22). The Father placed all His wrath against sin upon His Son (3:25) so that He might be both just (in that God judged sin as He must as One who is righteous) and the justifier (One who can now show mercy upon sinners).
It's time to illustrate the second point particularly and Paul does so in chapter 4 by using one of the Old Testament 'big guns.' The apostle uses Abraham as his example for justification by faith. He focuses upon Gen 15:6: "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness." His primary point, especially to those in the church who were Jewish believers, was that righteousness was credited to Abraham before he was circumcised. Why is that important? Gentiles too could claim Abraham as 'father.' I am sure that fact was news to many a Jew and good news to many a Gentile.
The bottom line for Paul was the person who can look to Abraham as 'father' is the one who believes. It makes no difference whether that person is a Jew or a Gentile. Concerning the result of Abraham's faith Paul wrote: And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised, so that he would become the father of all those who believe but have never been circumcised, that they too could have righteousness credited to them. And he is also the father of the circumcised, who are not only circumcised, but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham possessed when he was still uncircumcised [NET]. Abraham is the father of all believers.
Why does Paul deal with the relationship between Jews and Gentiles at all? When reading chapter 4 one needs to understand a bit of the background of Romans. There seems to have been friction between Jewish and Gentile Christians in the church. It is likely Jewish believers still looked at Gentiles with the disdain of their upbringing. Jewish Christians probably felt Gentiles in the church were 'lesser' to some degree because of their Jewish pedigree. Paul uses Romans for several purposes, but one was to remind both camps of their brotherhood in Christ. All, both Jews and Gentiles, were sinners. All, both Jews and Gentiles, had to believe in Christ to receive God's righteousness. All, both Jews and Gentiles, could look upon Abraham as the father of the faithful. All believers, both Jews and Gentiles, were family.
The Jew/Gentile friction that seems apparent in the Roman church is the reason for Paul's discussion of Israel in chapters 9-11 (I'll get to that later). This friction seems to be at the forefront of some of the ethical sections of the letter as well. Some scholars believe his primary purpose for Romans is to deal with this. I do not agree, however, one cannot deny that it is an underlying theme in epistle.
By the way, it is worth noting the relationship between the two groups was also on the forefront of Paul's mind as he writes Romans. He is taking an offering from his primarily Gentile churches to the Jewish believers in Jerusalem who were struggling. He hopes the offering will be a bridge built to unite the two groups. One can see that the apostle would be particularly burdened to deal the fellowship problem in Rome.
The hermeneutical principle found in chapter 4 of Romans is the need to understand—as much and as far as possible—the background of a biblical book. The fact that Paul is dealing with a church made up of both Jews and Gentiles, and that it appears each group had problems with the other, can help to clarify some of Paul's argument for the interpreter. Background issues are found in any good testament introduction Bible dictionary or commentary.
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