A Divine Promise Received through Faith—Lectionary Reflection for Pentecost 2A/Proper 5 (Romans 4:13-25)
Romans 4:13-25 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
13 For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. 14 For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. 15 For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law, neither is there transgression.
16 For this reason the promise depends on faith, in order that it may rest on grace, so that it may be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (who is the father of all of us, 17 as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”), in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. 18 Hoping against hope, he believed that he would become “the father of many nations,” according to what was said, “So shall your descendants be.” 19 He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was already as good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old), and the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. 20 No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21 being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. 22 Therefore “it was reckoned to him as righteousness.” 23 Now the words, “it was reckoned to him,” were written not for his sake alone 24 but for ours also. It will be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, 25 who was handed over for our trespasses and was raised for our justification.
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Throughout
his letters, Paul finds himself having to defend his outreach to Gentiles, at
least on a basis different from what traditional Jewish outreach looked like.
Central to Paul’s message, at least in Romans, is the role Abraham played in
this scenario. The message Paul wants his readers to understand is that God’s
covenant promises to Abraham predate the law given through Moses. In fact, as
Paul notes, the promise was made before circumcision was made a sign of the
covenant. The promise made to Abraham that his descendants would inherit the
earth came through the righteousness of faith. In other words, when God called
Abraham, it was an act of grace, received through faith in God. What was true
for Abraham must be true for his spiritual descendants.
I will
confess that I find Abraham to be a fascinating character (see my book Called
to Bless) in large part due to the covenant promise made to Abraham that
through his descendants the nations would be blessed (Gen. 12:1-4), and more
specifically for our purposes, through one particular descendant, Jesus (see
Matthew’s genealogy, which starts with Abraham—Matthew 1:1-17).
In
chapter 4 of Romans, Paul points to Abraham as one who exemplified what it
means to be righteous by faith rather than through keeping the law. He offers
Abraham as this exemplar because he is seeking to ground his ministry to the
Gentiles in God’s promises made to Abraham. Thus, both Jew and Gentile have
been included in the family of God through the grace of God, received by faith.
Perhaps we would be better off envisioning God’s promise of grace that leads to
righteousness as not an act of faith on our part, but as an act of God’s
faithfulness. As Ron Allen and Clark Williamson point out, “What is at stake
for Paul is God’s faithfulness to God’s promises and Christ’s faithfulness to
God. Romans 4 is not about our faith in God or justification by our faith. It
is about the inclusion of Gentiles because God is faithful to God’s promises to
Abraham” [Preaching the Letters without Dismissing the Law, p. 69].
One of
the challenges that Paul’s letters present is that in contrasting the law with
faith, is that it lends itself to devaluing not only the Torah but also our
Jewish siblings. Is the law truly only good for bringing wrath upon those who
seek to follow it? Of course, this not only impacts how we view the Jewish
faith, but perhaps undermines the efforts of those Christians who want to
ground the United States Constitution in the Ten Commandments or place the
Commandments on the walls of our schools. Now, that is another matter, but I
wonder how Paul would feel about these efforts. But, getting back to the law
and our Jewish siblings, would they view the law in this way? If we pursue the
question here, it would seem that central to Paul’s concerns is the necessity
of circumcision for inclusion in the family. When it comes to God’s wrath,
earlier in the letter, Paul insisted that we are all subject to God’s wrath
before ever lifting up the role of the law (Rom. 2:12). So, it would seem that
Paul is concerned here with what is required of Gentiles to be included in the
family of God.
For me,
this conversation impacts my interfaith relationships with Jews and Muslims,
both of whom claim spiritual descent from Abraham. My friends Ed, Amin, and I have embraced each
other as brothers, with our connection to each other traced back to Abraham. Of
course, as a Christian, I trace that spiritual ancestry back to Abraham through
Jesus to Isaac, whereas my Muslim friend traces his spiritual ancestry to
Abraham through Ishmael. This brings us back to the idea of God’s faithfulness
to God’s promises made to Abraham, such that our inclusion in the family is an
act of divine grace. Because it is an act of grace, it is not something we earn.
It isn’t a badge of honor we get to wear, suggesting that we are better than
others. This promise is not only for those who are adherents of the law, but
all who share Abraham’s faith, since he is our spiritual father. This is in
fulfillment of the promise that God made Abraham the father of many nations. Since
Paul is directing himself specifically to a community that includes both Jew
and Gentile believers, he emphasizes that their joint connection to the
promises comes through their belief/trust (pistis) in Jesus. He is the
connector to Abraham and the promises God made to Abraham and his descendants.
Since
the focus here is on the trust/faith Abraham placed in God, Paul points us back
to the story of Abraham’s embrace of the covenant promise made to him
concerning nations being blessed through Abraham’s descendants, a promise made
to Abraham when he and Sarah were not in a position to produce descendants.
Nevertheless, Abraham believed God’s promise despite the realities of his life.
This is how Paul put it:
He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was already as good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old), and the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. 20 No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21 being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. (Rom. 4:19-21).
He did not waver despite the realities of his life situation.
The result was that God reckoned his faith/trust in God’s promises, that
is, God’s faithfulness to God’s promises, as righteousness. The same is true
for those who affirm the testimony that God raised Christ from the dead, after
Christ “was handed over for our trespasses and was raised for our justification”
(Rom. 4:25). This is not a passage that defines a particular atonement theory,
including penal substitution. Rather, it is a call to trust God’s promises,
just as Abraham did, for in Christ’s death and resurrection, we experience justification.
That is, we are reconciled to God by God through Christ (2 Cor. 5:18-19).
As we
ponder this word from Paul focusing on putting our trust in God, even as
Abraham did, such that we are justified and made righteous, whether circumcised
or uncircumcised, we are all part of the one family of God. Nevertheless, as
Sarah Heaner Lancaster reminds us:
If being counted righteous makes us heirs of God’s rule, it also calls us to live according to the rule that is our inheritance. Living according to God’s order rather than the order of the present world will often put us at odds with the generally accepted way of doing things. No wonder so many tasks God calls us to do seem hopeless! Trust in God, however, gives us the hope we need to persevere, glorifying God all the while. [Lancaster, Romans (Belief), p. 87].
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