Paul on justification

Justification by faith

Warm-up: How do you react when you see people in your line of work or study bragging (verbally or non-verbally) about their accomplishments?

Read: Romans 4

1) vv1-4 continue the theme of the preceding chapter about boasting, first by introducing Abraham. What has Abraham’s righteousness to do with boasting?

  • Hint: Why can’t we boast of anything that we didn’t produce by our own effort?
  • Most translations of v3 say that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness  (lat. imputare, =esteem, consider as belonging to): What happened there to Abraham?
    • i.e. was his faith counted as an especially good work? Why not? v5 […God justifies the ungodly]
    • Does imputed righteousness impart no virtue? cf Lk 11:4; 19:1-10
    • What does the story of Abraham say about it, Ja 2:20-26?
      • How do you resolve the apparent contradiction between Ja 2:24 [faith+works] and Ro 3:28 (cf Gal 2:16) [faith apart from works]?

2) vv6-8 quote Ps 32:1-2. According to this psalm, justification consists of (God’s) forgiveness. Why is forgiveness such a blessing? [Hint: How does it promote reconciliation?]

  •  v8: What does it mean “to count sins against someone”?
    • What blessing did Paul have in mind heret: That you can forgive yourself? Why not? Hint: Does anyone really count their sins against themselves? [While the offender must humble himself to ask for forgiveness, the offended party alone has the authority to forgive]
  • Does Ps 32:1-2 teach that everyone’s sins are forgiven?

3) vv9-12: Is the ‘promised blessing’ of reconciliation with God only for the circumcised?

  • How do vv9-12 refute this idea?
  • v15 “The law brings wrath, but…“: Whose wrath (Ro 1:18; 2:5-8), and what does that mean for the circumcised (Mt 3:7)?
  • A so-called ‘New Perspective on Paul’ claims that (quote)“…Paul’s references to the impossibility of fulfilling the Law is part of a theological and theoretical scriptural argument about the relation between Jews and Gentiles. …It is also striking to note that Paul never urges Jews to find in Christ the answer to the anguish of a plagued conscience.”* => Read again Ro 3:19. How does that answer to the ‘New Perspective’? [Paul’s point was to prove that the law condemns those under the law = the Jews, incl. Paul; cf Ro 2:9; 3:9; Gal 2:16]

4) vv13-18: What was promised to Abraham (Gen 17:7-8)? => How did Paul prove that this promise “did not come through the law”?

  • v14 says that if the promise could be realized by obeying the law, this would nullify both the promise and faith in the promise. Why? cf Gal 3:21
  • v16: If only grace can guarantee the promise (its fulfillment), what does that say about the law and what it can or cannot achieve?
    • Why can compliance with the law never guarantee our eternal inheritance of salvation?
    • If needed: Read Heb 3:18. How many people under Moses (i.e. the law) succeeded in inheriting salvation (symbolized by the promised land)? => Why not more than zero?

5) vv19-22: What distinguished Abraham’s faith that it could accomplish what no law could have brought about?

  • Did he more than others believe in God? Or is it because he believed God? What distinguishes the latter from the former? [he believed what God told him]

6) vv23-26 make it personal: Why can you claim God’s promise to Abraham for yourself if you “…believe in him who raised Jesus from the dead”?

  • v25: Why does justification depend on the resurrection of Jesus? cf 1Cor 15:17 Why was even the death of Jesus not sufficient to justify anyone? [Righteousness is both imputed and imparted through faith in the life of the risen Christ in us, cf Jn 15:5]

7) Personal & application

  • How do you connect the story of Abraham with your own?
  • How did you come to appreciate that works cannot justify anyone, whereas faith in Jesus does?
  • Do you think it matters what you believe whether righteousness is only imputed or also imparted by faith? Why or why not?

* Krister Stendahl, 1963; emphasis added