{"id":437,"date":"2006-01-23T20:09:41","date_gmt":"2006-01-23T20:09:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2006\/01\/romans_45.shtml"},"modified":"2021-05-29T02:46:47","modified_gmt":"2021-05-29T02:46:47","slug":"romans_45","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2006\/01\/romans_45.shtml","title":{"rendered":"Romans 4-5"},"content":{"rendered":"

Romans 4 is a challenging passage, and encouraging too. It’s exciting to see how Abraham’s faith gained him the gift of righteousness from God, just as our faith in Jesus does today. Abraham was the beginning of what would become the Israelite nation. Paul’s point here was that all the law and the history and the prophets began, not with obedience and righteous living worthy of praise from God, but with simple faith and trust in him who “calls into existence the things that do not exist.” (Romans 4:17, ESV) It’s a powerful testimony of God’s amazing love, patience and grace that He has given first to a family based on his faith, then to a nation now to anyone who will call on His name in faith.
\nWhile that big picture is encouraging and amazing, I have this feeling that there are many nuances that I’m missing here. Do you ever read a passage and feel that there’s something in it that’s escaping you, that you just aren’t getting? That’s how I felt reading Romans 4 this time through. I’ve felt that before, with the entire book of Hebrews for example, and later on it’s clicked. Some of those passages are now my favorites (I love<\/em> Hebrews now), perhaps because of all the head scratching that proceeded the ‘aha!’ moment.
\nRomans 5:2 – If the grace of God is a room we stand in, faith is the doorway we must pass through to get there. Or perhaps more accurately, Jesus is the doorway and our faith in him is our ‘backstage pass’ or ticket to get in. Perhaps that gives us too much credit.
\nRomans 5:10 – I wonder if ‘reconciled’ and ‘saved’ in this verse mean two different things. I used to think of them both as salvation, in the saved from Hell sense, but now I wonder. For it says “now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.” We are saved through His life after we are reconciled. In other words, His death and sacrifice provide reconciliation that enables His life to save us form a world of hurt. For once we are reconciled, we begin to examine His life and emulate it. In doing so, we are saved from the pain of sin and its consequences. Things we would have done before without thought, and would have hurt us and others in the process,, we now run from. In that way, once we are reconciled, we are then saved.
\nRomans 5:19 – Some see in this verse, and the surrounding passages guilt that was placed upon everyone because of Adam’s sin. But Romans 5:12 says “death spread to all men because all sinned” and that is the context of verse 19. Also, if you look at verse 19 and say that Adam’s sin made everyone guilty, apart from any action on their own, it would be consistent to use the second part of the verse to say that Jesus’ obedience made everyone<\/em> justified apart from any action on their own. Even those who take the view of original sin and the Calvinist position that we do absolutely nothing in our salvation (it’s all God’s doing, period) would not say that Jesus’ obedience justifies everyone<\/em>, would they?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Romans 4 is a challenging passage, and encouraging too. It’s exciting to see how Abraham’s faith gained him the gift of righteousness from God, just as our faith in JesusRead More Romans 4-5<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nRomans 4-5 - salguod.net<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2006\/01\/romans_45.shtml\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Romans 4-5 - salguod.net\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Romans 4 is a challenging passage, and encouraging too. 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More on that later, first, on with my study of Romans. Romans 9:30-33 - See here, the Gentiles attained something they did not pursue. How? One answer is simply that God gave it to them, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Quiet Time Journal"","block_context":{"text":"Quiet Time Journal","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/quiet-time-journal"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":969,"url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2009\/09\/romans_11_-_gods_plan.shtml","url_meta":{"origin":437,"position":1},"title":"Romans 11 – God’s Plan","author":"Doug Schaefer","date":"September 9, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Romans 11:1-6 - More evidence, direct statements frankly, that God chooses at least some, setting them aside for his purpose. What does that look like, I wonder? it's tempting to say that God has somewhat randomly and arbitrarily picked some to be his and that means that they do not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Quiet Time Journal"","block_context":{"text":"Quiet Time Journal","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/quiet-time-journal"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":979,"url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2009\/10\/romans_14_-_judgement_and_ownership.shtml","url_meta":{"origin":437,"position":2},"title":"Romans 14 – Judgement and Ownership","author":"Doug Schaefer","date":"October 7, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Romans 14:1-4 - I wonder, how would broader Christianity be different if we simply followed verse 1: \"As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions.\" Verse 4 reminds us that we each must stand before God. What we believe is important\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Quiet Time Journal"","block_context":{"text":"Quiet Time Journal","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/quiet-time-journal"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":941,"url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2009\/05\/romans_4_-_faith.shtml","url_meta":{"origin":437,"position":3},"title":"Romans 4 – Faith","author":"Doug Schaefer","date":"May 5, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Romans 4:1-12 - Obedience to any law of God without faith is of no value. The power is in the faith, not the deed. Abraham was an example of this. He sought God and believed in him. He did not try to reason with Him or question Him, he simply\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "God and Church"","block_context":{"text":"God and Church","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/god-and-church"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":445,"url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2006\/02\/romans_9.shtml","url_meta":{"origin":437,"position":4},"title":"Romans 9","author":"Doug Schaefer","date":"February 11, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Romans 9:3 - I cannot imagine saying this. I guess I can imagine the longing to have those you love know what you know, but to wish to be cut off? Romans 9:13 - Was this God speaking about Jacob and Esau? Did God say he hated Esau? Romans 9:14-24\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Quiet Time Journal"","block_context":{"text":"Quiet Time Journal","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/quiet-time-journal"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":448,"url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2006\/02\/romans_10.shtml","url_meta":{"origin":437,"position":5},"title":"Romans 10","author":"Doug Schaefer","date":"February 18, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Romans 10:2 - I always read this passage with self justification of my judgment and criticalness of others' faith. Their zeal is not based on knowledge. 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