Romans 4:1-12
“One Family”
May 15, 2011 - Fourth Sunday in Easter

         “It was nice to see the lights on in your place. We’re glad when the weebits visit.”

         “The ‘weebits?’” I asked.

         “Yes,” said our talkative neighbor by our cabin in northern Arizona where we vacationed last week. “We call you the ‘Wee Bits’ because of your sign, you know.”

         Then it dawned on me. Over our cabin door hangs a sign added long ago because of my mother’s family’s Scottish roots. It reads “Wee Bit o’ Heaven.” Hence, the members of our family (and anyone else who uses our cabin) are now together known as the “Wee Bits.” That sign has become our family identity, at least to the more permanent residents of a little cluster of homes in Oak Creek Canyon.

         One of the great issues for Paul in the letter to the Romans is what constitutes family identity for the people of God. In chapter 4, he considers that identity in regard to Abraham, especially concerning whether it’s a matter of fleshly, physical ancestry.

         The very first verse needs a retranslation. The problem is the word translated “discovered” in the TNIV. It’s the Greek word heurisko, from which we get that shout of finding or discovery, “Eureka!” But here it throws the sentence structure off so much that some commentators, like Karl Barth, just decide to leave it out. Most others handle it by combining two phrases into one sentence.

         But verse 1 should begin with just, “What shall we say then,” “question mark,” end sentence there, “What shall we say then?” That’s exactly how the same three words are translated in chapter 6 verse 1 and chapter 7 verse 7. Then instead of asking about what Abraham found, the question really concerns how Paul and his readers relate to Abraham. “Have we found Abraham to be our forefather according to the flesh?” is a much more literal translation of that second sentence.

         In other words, Paul is still working on one of his big issues in Romans, which is how it is that Gentiles, non-Jews, can belong to the people of God. He is wondering if being descended from Abraham, the great forefather of God’s people is a purely physical, racial  matter or if there is another dimension to being Abraham’s children.

         That’s the context for the issue of “works.” Paul wants to show that belonging to Abraham’s family is not based on racial descent and observance of the Law, the Torah, so that only Jews or people who look and act like Jews can be counted part of the family. Instead, Paul argues, anyone and everyone who enters through the right door can be reckoned a child of Abraham and in covenant with God.

         The problem was that Jewish Christians made faith in God into something “according to the flesh.” They thought in order to have a Christian identity, you had to have a Jewish identity. If you weren’t born a Jew and brought up to observe the Commandments, then to truly believe in Jesus you needed to convert to Judaism, start keeping the Law, and start looking like a Jew. If you were a man, you needed to be circumcised.

         It’s the same issue that concerned Paul back at the end of chapter 2. Is being a Jew, belonging to God, a matter of how you look and act outwardly, or is it something more internal, a work of the Holy Spirit?

         As it turns out, most of our daughter Joanna’s friends at the University of Chicago are Asian. She’s doing Asian Studies and learning Chinese, so she’s naturally gravitated to hanging out with Chinese, Korean and other Asian students. A few weeks ago she told us those friends have started calling her “egg,” which means that to them she’s white on the outside, but yellow on the inside. Joanna’s inclusion in that little Asian community is not based on her physical descent or appearance, but on what’s happening in her mind and heart that connects her with her Asian friends.

         In Romans 4, Paul wants to show that even Abraham’s inclusion in the people of God, in what became the Jewish community, is not “according to the flesh,” not a matter of how he looked or what he did on the outside. So, as verse 2 says, even if Abraham had done the “works,” had kept the Law before he ever knew about the Law (which is what some of the rabbis may have taught), that didn’t give him any reason to boast before God.

         But Abraham’s inclusion in God’s covenant people was not based in Law. To prove this from Scripture, Paul quotes the Law to show that Abraham had “righteousness,” had a standing with God, well before Abraham had begun to observe any of the covenant regulations that God would give him and the Jewish people. So verse 3 cites Genesis 15:6, which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”

         The whole of Genesis 15 shows Abraham was “righteous” and that God welcomed him into a covenant long before Abraham did anything righteous. Verses 4 and 5 of Romans 4 show us that being included in God’s covenant people is not based on specific racial or religious markers, as if those might obligate God to us in some way.

         Paul pictures anyone who works for a salary. If you do your job, then you are owed your pay. If your employer fails to pay you or shorts your paycheck, then you can take him to court. But God doesn’t owe anyone anything. He’s not obligated to include us in His covenant. The righteousness that matters, the righteousness that includes us in God’s people is not a job. Verse 5 says God justifies, makes righteous, not those who work, but those who believe in and trust God: “their faith is credited as righteousness,” just like Abraham.

         Verses 6 through 8 are another Old Testament example from Israel’s greatest king. David was known as a “man after God’s own heart,” but it wasn’t because he obeyed the commandments perfectly. The ugliest chapter in David’s life was committing adultery with a friend’s wife and then having that friend murdered to cover up what he had done. Yet David was still credited righteousness by trusting God. He wrote Psalm 32 to express his gratitude for that grace: “Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed are those whose sin the Lord will never count against them.”

         Both Abraham and David teach us that God’s justification, His making us righteous, comes through faith and not by keeping religious regulations. In Paul’s context of Jewish versus Gentile believers, justification doesn’t happen by external religious marks like circumcision. Verse 9 asks head on, “Is this blessedness,” this forgiveness and inclusion in God’s covenant people, “only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised?”

         Well, Joanna’s friends don’t expect her to change the color of her skin or die her hair black or get plastic surgery on her eyes in order to look like them. I suppose Joanna could do those things, but I doubt it would make her friends appreciate her anymore. They might like her less for trying way too hard to fit in. In the same way, God does not expect those who come into his covenant to adopt all the external marks before He welcomes them. That’s true now and it was true even back then for Abraham.

         Verses 9 and 10 tell us that Abraham’s faith was “credited to him as righteousness” even before he was circumcised. That verse about Abraham believing God and being credited with righteousness is from Genesis 15, but the whole circumcision thing doesn’t happen until Genesis 17! God’s covenant with Abraham is not based on “the flesh,” on what commandments Abraham did or didn’t perform. It’s based in Abraham’s willingness to trust God and receive righteousness as a gift, as grace.

         Now, don’t get the wrong idea. Paul never suggests that either Jewish or Gentile believers can just ignore doing what’s right and just believe. No, he just wants to keep faith as the priority. Verse 11 goes on to say that Abraham did do just what God asked. “He received circumcision,” not as a work to earn his place in God’s covenant, but “as a sign, a seal of the righteousness he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised.”

         When you and I do Christian acts of righteousness, whether it’s being baptized (the rite which replaces circumcision), receiving Holy Communion, or performing works of service and love toward others, we do these things not to obligate God to us or to earn our place in the covenant. We do them as signs and seals of our faith that God has chosen to make us righteous through Jesus Christ.

         What Paul has going here for us is the incredible, glorious good news that there is a community, a family on this earth that is like no other. You are welcome even if you have not been born into it. You are included even before you start doing all the things that mark you off as a member of the family. You are part of God’s covenant people simply by virtue of believing that God wants to include you through what He’s done for you in Jesus.

         That’s what Jesus meant in the text we heard this morning from John 10. “I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep… whoever enters through me will be saved.” Paul explains that Jesus meant we don’t even need to look much like His sheep when we enter Jesus’ flock. We just need to come in the door by believing and trusting in Jesus. That’s enough. He will welcome us in and start transforming us into good sheep, into the righteous people we are meant to be.

         Beyond our reading this morning, in John 10:16, Jesus also said “I have other sheep… I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice and there will be one flock and one shepherd.” That’s exactly what Paul says in different terms in Romans 4. Verse 11 says Abraham is “the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised,” and verse 12 says he is “also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also follow in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.”

         Being in the family or in the flock, however you put it, is by faith. That’s how Abraham came in and it’s still how anyone comes into the great covenant family God is creating in this world. Believe in and put your trust in Jesus Christ and His righteousness and God welcomes you. The gate is open to anyone, no matter how bad you are or how little you might look like a Christian right now. You enter by faith and then receive the gift of grace which makes you righteous.

         That’s the difference between the Christian family and every other family or group or association or race on earth. Even Joanna’s wonderful friends might not have welcomed her so warmly if Joanna wasn’t studying Chinese, didn’t really care for Asian food, and thought that the ways and culture of the East were thoroughly weird. Their inclusion of her was conditional on some external works and attitudes that Joanna displayed. But Jesus includes those who believe in Him regardless of how they look on the outside at the beginning. That’s how Abraham got in, how David got in, how peasant fishermen like Peter and John got in, how a prostitute like Mary Magdalene got in, how a right wing religious zealot named Saul got in and became Paul. It’s still how you and I and everyone else gets in. We believe and trust in Jesus Christ and God credits that faith to us as righteousness.

         This good news that God includes anyone who believes in His covenant family makes the Church of Jesus Christ a unique blessing to those who enter. Look at our reading from Acts 2:42-47 today about the life the first believers shared. They came together to learn from the apostles about their new faith. They shared their possessions with each other and helped those among them who were in need. They wanted to be together all the time, receiving Holy Communion “with glad and sincere hearts and praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.” Who wouldn’t want to be a part of that?

         Everyone who walks in the door of our cabin under that sign “Wee Bit O’ Heaven” becomes a “Wee Bit,” and enjoys the sound of the creek, the beautiful red rocks, the birds singing and the deep blue sky and crystal clear stars at night. Everyone who comes into the people of God through the door of Jesus Christ is blessed with an even richer and deeper experience of heaven come to earth.

         Down deep, whether consciously or not, most people are wishing or even dying to be a part of the kind of covenant community God created in Jesus. It’s the kind of whole and joyful life we all seek and need. Outside, people are lonely, people are lost. I’ve heard about two suicides now in the last month, people some of you knew. Our friends, our families, our own selves want to belong, want to be included in this blessing of God’s covenant people.

         While we were on vacation, I took a hike with my friend Jay up the West Fork of Oak Creek. We met a number of other hikers along the way, but as we passed a couple of older women, one of them spotted the cross I always wear. As we went by she said, “Are you walking along handing out blessings?”

         I didn’t quite catch what she asked, so I stopped and said, “Excuse me?” She replied, “Are you giving blessings? I’d like to be blessed.” That threw me, but I did the first thing God put in my mind. Standing there in the middle of the trail with the creek gurgling alongside, I placed a hand on her shoulder and pronounced the ancient blessing of Aaron in Numbers 6, “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine upon you…” and so on.

         When I was done, her friend stepped up and said, “I want one too!” So I did it all over again. This time when I finished my friend Jay said, “Amen!” Then the first woman asked, “Are you teaching your apprentice to do blessings too?”

         I should have said something clever and Yoda-like such as, “A long way to go, has my apprentice, yet.” But I’m not that quick-witted. Still Jay the apprentice and I were still chuckling a half mile later. Then Jay said, “You know, it just shows that people are hungry for something spiritual. They want to be touched by God and to know it’s real.” He’s right.

         Paul is telling us the blessing of God is there for anyone who will receive it. It was there for Abraham, it’s there for you and me, and it’s there for all our seeking friends and acquaintances and even for our enemies. We and they can all be included in the blessing through faith in Jesus Christ. It’s as simple and as profound as that. There is one family and one flock and one way to enter through Him.

         May God credit His righteousness, His justification to you in peace and blessing today as you trust Christ our Lord in faith. And like that first church in Acts may He show us all how to find and welcome and include those the Lord is still blessing into His family.

         Amen.

Valley Covenant Church
Eugene/Springfield, Oregon
Copyright © 2011 by Stephen S. Bilynskyj