Chapter 4                    

Romans: -1- -2- -3- -4- -5- -6- -7- -8- -9- -10- -11- -12- -13- -14- -15- -16- 
  4:1 What then will we say that Abraham discovered, our father according to the flesh? 2 For if Abraham was declared justly innocent out from works, he has a reason to boast, but not toward God. 3 But what does the Scripture say? • “Abraham believed God and it was reckoned and accounted to him into just innocence” (Genesis 15:6). 4 Moreover, the one who works reckons the payment as a debt, not a gift. 5 The one who does not work, however, but believes upon Him who presently and actively declares justly innocent those who have been without God, his faith is reckoned into just innocence.

• 6 In the same way, David also declares the blessedness of the man to whom God credits just innocence, making it to be so, completely separate from works, that is, completely separate from what a person does or does not do. 7 “Blessed are those whose lawlessness is sent away, that is, made to vanish, and whose failures to connect with God are covered, that is, are entirely blanked out. 8 Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not reckon or consider or count anything of the falling short of sin” (Psalm 32:1-2).

9 Is this blessing, then, upon those circumcised, or is it also upon those not circumcised? For we are saying that faith was credited to Abraham as just innocence. 10 How then was it credited, that is, spoken inside of God? Was it when he was circumcised or before he was circumcised? It was before Abraham was circumcised, not after he was circumcised. • 11 Abraham then received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the just innocence of his faith before he was circumcised, so that he became the father of all those who believe into just innocence, that it is also credited to them, spoken inside of God, even though they are not circumcised. 12 For he is the father of circumcision, not to the circumcised only, but also to those walking in the steps of our father Abraham’s faith when he was not circumcised.

• 13 Indeed, the promise to Abraham or to his seed, to be heir of the world-cosmos, did not come through law, but through the just innocence of faith. 14 If those out from law are heirs, then faith is unreal, and the promise is abolished. 15 The law accomplishes only anger [k]; but where there is no law, neither is there anything contrary.

• 16 Therefore it is out from faith and according to the finest details of grace, the gift of God Himself, with certain surety, that the promise is sure to all the seed, not just to those out of law, but also to those coming out from the faith of Abraham, who is the father of all of us. 17 (As it is written, “I have made you a father of many ethnic families” [l] (Genesis 17:5). • Besides that, the God whom he believed is the One continuously giving life to the dead and calling into existence things not existing. 18 In the presence of hope, Abraham believed upon hope that he might become the father of many ethnic families [l], according to what God spoke, “So will your seed be” (Genesis 15:5). 19 And not being weak in faith, he perceived his own body already become dead, being about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. 20 He did not judge that deadness through unbelief, however, but he was empowered in faith into the promise of God, giving God glory. • 21 Abraham was convinced to full measure and completion that what God had promised, He is also able to do. 22 Therefore, it was also credited to him into just innocence.

23 This was not written for him only, that it was credited to him, • 24 but also for us, to whom it is about to be credited, spoken inside of God, to those believing upon the One having raised Jesus our Lord out from the dead, 25 who was traded [life for life] through our falling away and was raised up through our being made justly innocent.
 		  
 
Gospel Comments Notes
• Ruling Verses 2 & 3: We are created to be filled with all the fulness of God; we are designed to reveal God as He is to all. Nothing Paul is saying can have any meaning apart from first knowing God’s intention for the Life relationship He designed us to share with Him.

• Ruling Verse 7: The joining together of God’s Word spoken forth, entering into union with our faith, and our faith receiving, in full, God’s Word entering us, is the ONLY Way by which we can be what we are. Nothing blocks God’s intentions more than our refusal to believe that He is telling us the Truth. Those who refuse Jesus place sin between themselves and God. Faith that speaks Christ our life honors and pleases God.

• Ruling Verse 6: We place David right at the heart of Ruling Verse 6, a man who ran straight into the Most Devoted, straight into God, with all of his sin and shame, and there rose up inside of joy knowing that his sin was gone, to seize with all enthusiasm everything that is God for himself, blessed, spoken well of, by God.

• Definition: False circumcision is hacking at the flesh to “get right with God.” True Spirit circumcision is to cut away ever speaking of one’s self as separate from full union with Christ. We belong only to God; we place ourselves inside of Him regardless. Speaking Christ alone is our seal of just innocence.

• Ruling Verse 5: Jesus always comes to us first, already in full union with us. As we believe that He is True, so God speaks our just innocence inside Himself, that nothing ever separates us from Him. We live only with God.

• Kingdom: Inside the Promise to Abraham is found the inheritance of, and stewardship over, all creation. The fulfillment of this promise cannot come from self-reliance, but only out from abiding inside of Jesus.

• Ruling Verse 1: Salvation is sharing life with God – symmorphosed with the image of His Son, the heart of the Promise to Abraham. Grace is the giving that makes it happen. Synergeoing together is this continuous giving, this calling forth of Life. Our labor with God forever is to call all things, and every next moment, into Life and into Goodness.

• Definition: Faith is not “blind,” nor does it “leap.” Faith is the receiving of every specific Word God speaks in the Gospel, that it is True and already fulfilled. Then faith looks squarely at outward appearance, and faith KNOWS that it must give way as the fulfillment of Promise stands forth.

• Definition: A God “of good and evil” is aloof and “moral,” judging all by the measure of right and wrong. A God of Life is a living God, close inside of each, desiring a shared Life together.

• Ruling Verses 5 & 7: Because Jesus resolves all differences between us and God, and because Jesus gives Himself to us in trade, life for life, we know that God speaks our just innocence inside of Himself and declares that He knows no disconnection from us. Thus our faith is conviction to full measure.		 k. Every individual breaks the law and must be executed by the command of the law. The fulfillment of the law is only death.

l. The Greek ethnos is typically translated “Gentiles.” Abraham is the father of many Gentiles, who God brings to him as his offspring. The word ‘Gentile,’ however, is a deragotary term of extreme racism, almost a cuss word and should appear in no one’s Bible ever. The Greek ethnos clearly means the various ethnic families, including the children of Israel in some contexts, that is, a consistent translation would call the Israelites "Gentiles."