We hear the Word of God which brings the faith needed for us to believe. So what the people in times past had faith in was not the same as what we have faith in today, obviously, because more words of God and more things of God have been revealed to us today. In times past there was no book of Romans or any book of our new testament today.

But it’s still faith that God counts for righteousness throughout human history.

So Paul’s teaching that salvation will ultimately be by grace through faith to everyone who believes, because no one can save themselves. It has to be by God’s grace through faith.

As we travel through the epistle to the Romans we can’t help but realise it’s importance to the church, the Body of Christ today.

How sad it is that this epistle, especially the chapters we’ve studied, is almost completely neglected by modern church leadership which miserably fails to teach it’s precious people the truth so clearly and painstakingly outlined in Paul’s epistles, especially Romans.

Outside of Paul’s epistles, Romans through to Philemon, we simply cannot know the purpose, the foundation of the Body of Christ and our individual part in it.

Romans 4:16 says, therefore it is of faith, not your works, not your circumcision, not the law, that it might be by grace.

And so if Isarel received righteousness or the promises or blessing from God by works, by the law, through circumcision, or national heritage then it’s not by grace. It’s based on who they are in the flesh and what they’ve done in the flesh, it’s not by grace.

That’s what the Old Testament taught as well. God’s a gracious God. He had to be merciful to give his blessings. And Paul’s doing everything he can to urge them, the Jews, and us, to understand that.

Through the rest of Romans 4 Paul’s talking about how it’s by grace through faith, and how that’s a righteous and good thing and how faith stands alone so the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to that which are of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham.

Paul’s showing in Romans 4 is that it was never enough for Israel just to be “under the law.” They also had to have faith. Without faith, even an Israelite could not receive the promises. Paul goes back to Abraham to show this.

Not all Abraham’s physical children received the promise—only the children of promise, the ones who believed. Not all the circumcision received it—only the ones who believed. Not all Israel received it—only those who believed. Jesus Himself taught this when He said Israel had to believe on Him to receive the kingdom.

So Paul turns from talking about Israel to saying Abraham is quote “the father of us all.”

Why? Because as we’ve pointed out many times, Abraham was counted righteous before circumcision, before the law, and before Israel even existed. He had nothing but faith. That’s why, based on Abraham’s pattern, righteousness can be imputed to anyone who believes—Jew or Gentile.

Romans 4:11 says circumcision was only a seal of the righteousness Abraham already had by faith when he was uncircumcised.

That made him the father of all who believe, whether circumcised or not. Righteousness is imputed by faith—not works, not circumcision, not Israel, not the law.

In Romans 4:17 Paul quotes Genesis 17: “I have made thee a father of many nations.”

God didn’t say “I will make you”—He said “I have made you.”

The promise was already settled.

Galatians 3:8 says this,

And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. 

Abraham didn’t know about the cross or resurrection, but he knew God’s words and believed them. That’s why Galatians 3:9 says those who are of faith are “blessed with faithful Abraham.”

Abraham heard God’s promise of a seed and many nations. He believed, and God imputed righteousness to him.

Paul’s point is simple: if Abraham received righteousness by faith before circumcision and before the law, then anyone can.

Even Israel must come by faith, not by saying “we have the law” or “we’re circumcised.” And since Abraham was uncircumcised when he believed, Gentiles can also receive righteousness by faith.

So Abraham is the father of Israel who believe, and the father of Gentiles who believe. And for the body of Christ today, the pattern is the same: we trust God, we respond in faith, and God imputes righteousness. That’s the whole point of Romans 4—righteousness by faith avaiable for all.

However the content of faith differs between dispensations and that’s vital to understand.

Abraham believed he would be the father of many nations. Moses believed Israel would be a blessing to the world. Gentiles in time past believed they would be blessed through Israel. But today we believe the gospel of Christ’s death and resurrection as we just read in Romans 4:24–25.

Same God, same faith, same imputation—different message.

Abraham’s the only one of the patriarchs promised to be the father of many nations, and the only one given a promise before circumcision. That’s why he alone can be “the father of us all.”

Gentiles who believe do not inherit Israel’s earthly promises. They’re not the promised nation. They receive righteousness by faith, but not Israel’s land or kingdom blessings.

And the body of Christ today is not Gentiles seeking blessing through Israel—we’re saved today directly by grace through faith.

That is Paul’s whole argument in Romans 4.

In Galatians 3:16 Paul says

Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. 

The promises were made to Abraham and his seed, singular, not seeds, plural, and this seed is Christ.

Some people struggle with that because Genesis and Romans 4 clearly show God promised Abraham many descendants—“as the stars” and “as the dust.” Paul himself says Abraham would be the father of many nations. So why does Paul stress one seed instead of many?

Because both are true.

God promised Abraham a multiplied seed—many nations—but that whole multiplied blessing would come through one son.

Abraham had Ishmael and other children, but the promised line came through Isaac, who pictures Christ.

So in Galatians 3 Paul’s not saying Gentiles get Israel’s earthly blessings. He’s saying Gentiles in the body of Christ receive blessing through the one Seed, Jesus Christ.

Galatians 3:7 says those “of faith” are the children of Abraham—not by flesh, not by circumcision, not by Israel’s covenants. Galatians 3:9 says those of faith are “blessed with faithful Abraham.” Galatians 3:22 says the promise is given “to them that believe.” while Galatians 3:26 says we are children of God “by faith in Jesus Christ.”

So how do we get imputed righteousness? By faith in Christ’s finished work. Abraham is our father only in that sense—faith, not flesh.

Romans 4:17 says Abraham is “the father of us all” before God, who “quickens the dead.” Romans 4:18 says Abraham believed “against hope” that he would become the father of many nations.

What Abraham believed is different from what we believe, but Who he believed is the same as us. How he responded is the same, and what God imputed is the same—righteousness by faith.

The “seed” in Romans 4:18 is the multiplied seed. In Galatians 3 Paul shows that the multiplied nations come through one seed—Christ. So the seed is many but through one.

Romans 4 explains why faith alone glorifies God more than any work. People attack “faith alone” by saying it ignores good works, but Paul shows faith is powerful because its object is God Himself. Abraham’s faith was not faith in himself, or faith in faith, or faith that “anything can happen.” It was faith in God, who “quickens the dead” as Romans 4:17 states.

“Quicken” is a strong word. It doesn’t just mean “the giving of life”—it means giving life to the dead.

1 Corinthians 15:45 says,

And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.

Jesus, the “last Adam,” is a quickening spirit. We’re born spiritually dead, and Christ makes us alive. That’s why the word “quicken” matters.

In John 5:21 Jesus tells us,

For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. 

Jesus is the one who’ll raise the righteous and the wicked. He’s the quickening one.

1 Corinthians 15:36 says a seed is not quickened unless it dies. Life from the dead is God’s specialty. That’s why Abraham’s faith was strong—he trusted the God who brings life out of death.

So Paul’s point in Romans 4 is simple:

• Abraham believed God.
• God imputed righteousness to him.
• This happened before circumcision, before the law, before Israel.
• Therefore righteousness can be imputed to anyone who believes—Jew or Gentile.
• And today we believe the gospel of Christ’s death and resurrection, and God imputes righteousness to us the same way.

In Romans 4, Paul shows what was “dead” in Abraham’s life. Romans 4:19 says Abraham did not consider his own body “now dead,” nor the “deadness of Sarah’s womb.” They were too old to have a child. Yet God promised Abraham a seed. So Abraham had to trust the God who brings life out of death. That’s the whole point.

Scripture gives many examples of God quickening dead wombs:

• Rebekah in Genesis 25
• Hannah, mother of Samuel in 1 Samuel 2:21
• Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist Luke 1:5-25
• And even Mary’s miraculous conception Luke 1:27-38

God brings life where there is no life.

Romans 4:17 says,

(As it is written, I have made thee (Abraham) a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.

When God speaks, His words create reality. Our words don’t.

He told Abraham, “Your wife will have a child,” even though everything looked impossible. God’s words never returns void.

This isn’t like people setting goals and hoping they reach them. We fail all the time. But when God says something will be, it will be—even if it requires supernatural intervention.

Genesis 1:3 shows this,

And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. 

His words have power. Our words do not. This’s where the Word‑of‑Faith movement goes terribly wrong. God’s words create; man’s words do not.

Isaiah 46:9–10 rebukes false gods and shows God’s uniqueness,

Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, 

Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:

You want to be sure the Bible is really the word of God? God proves it by prophecy—He tells the future and brings it to pass. Men fail at this constantly. False prophets have always existed, from Elijah’s day to now. But God’s word stands.

Isaiah even named Cyrus 100 years before he was born, describing how he would send Israel back from Babylon. Ezra records the fulfillment. The Bible is full of prophecy and fulfillment across 1,500 years and 40 writers. No other book can do that.

Isaiah 46:11 says,

…I (God) have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it. 

Isaiah 55:11 says God’s word will not return void,

So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. 

That’s why Abraham could trust God. And that’s why we can trust Him. The same God who quickened Abraham’s dead situation is the God who quickens our dead spirit when we believe the gospel.

That truth helps us today when we wonder why God uses weak, ordinary people in the church to preach the gospel of grace.

God doesn’t want the “best” people—He wants sinners who’ll just believe what He says.

There’re many people who think they’re good but reject God just as there are those who know the extent of their sinfulness but believe God. Those who trust His word become the vessels He uses.

So, Abraham believed God “who quickens the dead and calls those things which be not as though they were.” That’s the heart of faith and hope. When God speaks something that’s not yet seen, faith believes Him.

If you think God’s words are nonsense, you don’t believe.

But Abraham heard God say he would have a son through a barren wife, and he believed. Even though he laughed at first he trusted the God who brings life out of death.

Hebrews 11:1 says,

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 

Faith is not blind willpower. Faith must rest on what God said. If we believe a pastor, a priest, or anyone else instead of God’s words, our faith is empty.

Faith comes by hearing the Word of God as Romans 10:17 says. God’s words are the substance and the evidence that those words are true is that God Himself said them, and God cannot lie.

Faith glorifies God—because the object of faith is God’s power and truth. Abraham didn’t trust his own strength or ability. He trusted God’s promise.

Romans 4:19 says of Abraham,

And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara’s womb: 

At nearly 100 years old, everything he saw in the natural told him the promise was impossible. But God’s words made him rethink what he saw in the natural. Faith changed his thoughts. That’s what strong faith is—not strong works, but strong confidence in God’s promise, what He’s said.

Romans 4:18 says Abraham “against hope believed in hope.”

His situation was hopeless, but God had spoken. Abraham expected God to do what He said.

That’s hope—expecting what’s not yet seen.

The same thing happened later when God told Abraham to offer Isaac. Hebrews 11:19 tells how Abraham believed God would raise Isaac from the dead if needed. He trusted God’s promise more than what he saw with his natural senses.

So what is weak faith and strong faith?

Strong faith is not strong works. A person can do many good works and still have weak faith. Strong faith is believing God’s words even when everything we see says otherwise. Weak faith is trusting what we see in this world and through our natural senses more than what God said.

Romans 4 teaches that Abraham’s faith glorified God because he believed God’s promise, not his own ability. And that’s the same kind of faith God counts for righteousness today.

Paul’s point in Romans 4 is simple: God promised Abraham a seed, and Abraham knew he could not produce that child by his own works.

This was before the law and before circumcision. Abraham said, “We can’t do it—God will have to.”

That faith—not works—was counted for righteousness.

Sarah had the same kind of faith. Hebrews 11:11 reads,

Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. 

She knew her womb was dead, but she believed God anyway. She laughed at first, but she still believed.

Their faith was strong because the object of that faith was strong—God Himself. Faith glorifies God when it trusts what He said He would do.

Jesus said in Matthew 26:41 “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Our flesh is weak. The law is weak when it comes to righteousness.

Romans 8:3 says the law “was weak through the flesh.”

Galatians 4:9 calls the law “weak and beggarly.”

Our good works are weak too. None of these things can justify us. Only faith is strong because it rests on God’s power not ours.

Some Christians misunderstand the “little faith” and the “mustard‑seed faith” that Jesus spoke of.

In Matthew 6:30, Jesus rebukes Israel for their “little faith” relating to their provision. That passage is not written to the church, the body of Christ today. Paul tells us, “If you don’t work, you don’t eat.” Different dispensation.

In Matthew 16, Jesus again says “O ye of little faith” when the disciples think He’s talking about bread to eat. They believed in Him, but they didn’t understand His words. That’s the key.

Faith is tied to understanding God’s words. If we don’t understand what God said, our faith is little. If we understand and believe what God said, our faith grows.

Faith’s not measured in “bars on a chart” or “levels.”

Hebrews 11:1 says faith is “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” The substance is God’s words. The evidence is that God Himself said them.

Faith comes by hearing the Word of God. If we believe in something God never said, that’s not faith at all.

In Matthew 17:20, Jesus says faith like a mustard seed can move mountains. But again, faith only works when it is based on what God said. Did God tell me to move a mountain? I can’t believe something into existence if God never promised it.

Churches today often claim “we can do anything if we believe,” but if God didn’t say it, that’s not faith it’s unbelief dressed up as faith and it’s a cruel deception.

Abraham’s faith was strong because he believed God’s promise even when everything he saw said it was impossible.

Romans 4:19 says he “considered not his own body now dead” nor Sarah’s dead womb. God’s words changed how he thought. That’s what strong faith looks like, trusting God’s promise over what our eyes and our other senses see and feel.

So Paul’s whole point is that:

• Flesh is weak.
• The law is weak.
• Works are weak.
• But faith in God’s promise is strong.
• And that’s why God counts faith for righteousness.

So, when Jesus said, “If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you can move mountains,” that only works if God actually told you to move a mountain.

If God didn’t say it, you won’t do it. When God told Moses to lift his staff, the Red Sea parted. If some Israelite boy tried the same thing today, nothing would happen. Why? Because God didn’t tell him to do it. It’s God who works, not people. Faith comes from what God said, not from what we dream of and try to imagine.

That’s why “people of faith” in every religion are not the same. What are they believing? Do they know the true God? Are they believing His words? If not, their faith is empty.

Even many churches today believe things God never said. Faith comes by hearing God’s Word. Abraham knew God, heard what God said, and believed Him. That’s why his faith was strong—because he believed that God could do what He promised.

Christians often say, “We can do anything if we have faith.”

No.

We can do anything God said we can do. If God didn’t promise it, it’s not faith—it’s wishful thinking.

God did give some people miracle‑working power in the Bible, but He didn’t give that to you and me. What He gave you and me is the power of the gospel, the power which saves sinners as we see in Romans 1:16.

Faith doesn’t grow through feelings, music, or emotion. Faith grows by hearing God’s words and believing them and we must rightly divide those words.

If we believe something God said to Israel or Abraham or Moses or David but never said to us, that’s not faith.

Philippians 4:13 says,

I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. 

Paul wasn’t saying he could do anything he imagined. He meant he could endure anything—abundance or suffering—because Christ strengthened his inner man. His faith rested in Christ’s work, not his own strength.

Grace through faith is strong when we’re weak. We walk by faith, not by sight as 2 Corinthians 5:7 says. We don’t look at circumstances for truth—we look at God’s Word. When Paul was weak, Christ was strong in him says 2 Corinthians 12:9–10.

Romans 4:20 says Abraham “staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God.”

To stagger is to doubt what God said. Abraham and Sarah both laughed at first, but they believed. They didn’t stagger in unbelief—they were persuaded God would do what He promised.

So, strong faith is not strong works. It’s not boldness, stubbornness, or education. A person can be bold and still believe the wrong thing. A person can be highly educated and have no faith at all.

Faith comes only from hearing God’s Word and being persuaded that God will do what He said.

Tradition, rituals, candles, and ceremonies are not faith. Faith is trusting God’s promise.

So when Romans 4 says Abraham was “strong in faith, giving glory to God,” it doesn’t mean he held a worship service. It means he honoured God by believing Him. That is what glorifies God—trusting His Word.

God is glorified when a man believes what He said and trusts that He’ll do it.

That’s glorifying God, not stubbornness, not good works, not building temples God never told us to build.

Israel glorified God under the law because God told them to do those works. But in this dispensation, God never told us to build temples or perform Israel’s rituals. Faith today is simply knowing what God said and believing He will do it.

In this dispensation, God promised eternal life when we die if we trust in Christ’s death and resurrection.

He didn’t promise wealth, health, beauty, or an easy life. He promised resurrection. And since that promise is fulfilled after death, no one can test it or disprove it. We either believe God or we don’t.

That’s why faith today is undefeatable—because it rests on God’s promise, not on anything we can see.

Abraham had to see God’s promise fulfilled before he died. If he died childless, God would be a liar. But for us, God’s promise is fulfilled after death. So everything rests on faith in God’s word.

Romans 4:21 says Abraham was “fully persuaded” that what God promised, He was able to perform. God didn’t promise and then Abraham perform, God promised and God performed. Faith is simply being persuaded that God will do what He said.

If we don’t know what God said, we can’t have faith. But if we hear, “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord,” then you know exactly what God promised.

Hebrews 11:1 also says,

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

What’s the evidence? Scripture. What God has said.

Christ died, Christ rose, Christ lives. That’s the proof God keeps His word. But faith itself rests on God’s character. Romans 3:4 says, “Let God be true and every man a liar”. People fail. No matter what the movies may portray, man’s word can’t be relied on but God’s word never fails. This’s why we need to be sure of what exactly His word is.

1 Thessalonians 2:13 says this,

For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe. 

The Word of God “works effectually in them that believe.”

God works after faith—that’s why it’s grace through faith. Without trust, there’s no relationship. God says, “Believe Me, and I’ll give you everything I’ve promised you in Christ.”

Paul told Timothy this in 1 Timothy 4:13,

Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.

That’s how faith grows—through God’s words, not through man’s books or man’s words and that’s why Bible study matters.

Romans 4:21 says God is able to perform what He promised. He’s able. That’s faith. Hearing what He said, knowing that He’s able and believing that He will.

Israel’s New Covenant also depended on God performing, not them. The Old Covenant said, “You perform.” The New Covenant said, “I will perform.” God puts His Spirit in them so He performs through them.

So Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3:4–5,

And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward: Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; 

That knowledge that our sufficiency is of God made Paul an able minister, not Paul himself. God revealed His wisdom, and Paul believed it.

So, Romans 4 teaches:

• Faith glorifies God.
• Faith rests on God’s promise.
• Faith trusts God’s ability.
• Faith stands when everything else falls.

Because God said it, God performs it.

God’s sufficiency is His grace . It’s Him doing what we cannot do.

That’s what Abraham learned. He didn’t stagger at God’s promise. He was fully persuaded that God was able to perform what He promised. That’s grace. Not the grace of the cross yet, but the grace of God giving him a son when he and Sarah were as good as dead. It was by grace, not works, and through faith in what God said.

So Romans 4:22 says, “therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.” At the start of the chapter Paul asked, “What did Abraham find?” He found that righteousness was counted to him when he believed God. Now Paul explains why. It’s because Abraham believed the righteous One who promised to do something only God could do. That’s why faith is counted for righteousness.

But our faith must be in what God actually said, or it can’t be counted for righteousness because it’s not faith.

Paul told the Corinthians he preached “Christ and Him crucified” so their faith wouldn’t be in vain.

In 2 Timothy 1:12 he says, “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able…”—same pattern as Abraham. Faith in God’s promise, and God’s ability to perform it.

Then Paul turns from Abraham to us.

Romans 4:23–24 says it wasn’t written for Abraham alone, “but for us also.”

We learn from Abraham.

Only Paul gives the doctrine for the Body of Christ today, but as 2 Timothy 3:16 says,

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 

And Romans 15:4 says,

For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. 

Hope is tied to faith. It’s the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. We learn from Scripture that God always does what He says. That’s why we can trust the gospel of grace now, today.

Paul even uses Moses’ law for instruction and for our example and we see this in 1 Corinthians 9:10, 1 Corinthians 10:6 and 10:11. He’s not putting us under the law—he’s teaching it so we can learn from it.

We can, and should, learn from Israel’s failures, Abraham’s faith, David’s trust, Daniel’s courage. We just can’t claim their covenants or promises. There’s a difference in dispensations.

Romans 4 shows righteousness is by grace through faith for all who believe God. Abraham was saved by grace through faith, but his faith was in God’s promise of a seed—not in Christ’s finished work.

Our gospel explains how God can save all men: through the cross.

So Romans 4:24 says righteousness is imputed to us “if we believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead.” Abraham believed God would give him a son. We believe God raised His Son from the dead.

Romans 4:25 says Christ

…was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification. 

That’s the condition for imputed righteousness and for God not imputing sin as we’ve seen in Romans 4:6–8.

Same God. Same grace. Same principle of faith. Different content of faith. Abraham believed God’s promise of a seed. We believe the gospel of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. And God imputes righteousness to all who believe.

Who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead? God did—the whole Godhead.

Galatians 1:1 shows the Father raised Him, Jesus said He would raise Himself in John 2:19 and John 10:17-18, and the Spirit raised Him in Romans 8:11 and 1 Peter 3:18.

Jesus was God in the flesh as Colossians 2:9 tells us,

For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

His resurrection was the work of God Himself.

Paul says in Romans 10:8–9 that salvation comes by believing God raised Jesus from the dead.

Peter preached that to Israel in Acts 2, that Jesus is Lord and is risen. But what’s missing there is why He died and rose.

That’s what Paul adds in Romans 4:25: He was delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification.

That’s the gospel according to Paul.

All the apostles preached Christ’s resurrection but Paul explains its meaning. Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again for our justification, 1 Corinthians 15:1–4.

2 Corinthians 5:21 has this,

For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. 

Christ was “made sin for us”. Righteousness is the key and the reason. Without righteousness we cannot have peace and relationship with God.

Romans 3:24 says we’re “justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” Justified  means to declare or to pronounce, one to be righteous.

This is the difference between dispensations.

Abraham believed God would give him a seed, and God counted that faith for righteousness.

We believe God raised Christ from the dead for our salvation, and God counts that for righteousness too.

Abraham trusted God to quicken or to put life into his and Sarah’s dead bodies. We trust God’s performance in Christ’s death and resurrection.

That’s the lesson of Romans 4, that righteousness comes by grace through faith, and now—unlike Abraham—we’re placed in Christ, which Paul will unfold in Romans 5.

Of course we find faith and grace throughout the Bible but in this dispensation today, God dispenses his grace freely to all mankind and that’s his primary operation today and Paul communicates what that means, and how it came about in the book of Romans.

This is why, without the book of Romans, we cannot properly understand salvation, making it the most important book for the church, the Body of Christ, today.

So we’ve seen both Abraham and David as examples of imputed righteousness by faith without works, and both of them were leading figures in Israel’s covenant history and vital to Israel’s identity.

Israel as a separated nation, a separated people, created by God, the only nation that ever has been and they were given special covenants and blessings and privileges and much of that goes back to Abraham and David.

That’s why Matthew 1:1 records Jesus as the son of Abraham, the son of David, matching Jesus as the Messiah back to those important figures in Israel’s covenant history.

Both Abraham and David were given sure promises, and Paul points that out. Abraham was given promises way back in Genesis 12 and then they were confirmed multiple times in Genesis chapters 13, 15, 17 and 18.

In Genesis twelve and fifteen, God made promises to Abraham without conditions. He just said, I’m going to make your seed like the stars, the number of the stars.

Abraham simply believed what God said even though he had no clue as to how God could ever make that happen.

He simply said to himself, and this is my thoughts, not the bible, I have no idea how God made all the birds and animals, the plants, the air that I breathe, and the stars that I see yet there they all are. He did it. So if God tells me He’ll do this in me I believe it.

Then God counted his faith for righteousness.

David likewise, before David committed his infamous sins of murder and adultery, God had already given him a promise of sure mercy that his family, his house, would not cease to be in the royal lineage of Israel. We see that in 2 Samuel 7:15.

And so his seed, his son, would be the Messiah. And so David was given a sure promise of guaranteed mercy.

And then he sinned.

And of course, God forgave him, not by the law which would condemn him to death, but because of this promise, the sure mercies given to him.

Both David and Abraham responded to these promises from God by faith. That’s the only way they could. There was no condition attached to them. There was nothing to do to get those promises except trust that God would do what He said.

As a result of that trust, that belief, both received the blessing of imputed righteousness, which is the theme of Romans 4, that a man is justified without works, and by faith without the deeds of the law.

We’ve learned that it wasn’t the works of Abraham, that made him righteous, even though Abraham did works.

James talks about the works that Abraham did, the works to leave his country, the works to circumcise his flesh, the works to offer up his son Isaac on Mount Moriah.

He did works that were praiseworthy in Israel’s history. So did David. He was one of the greatest Israelites in history.

So David and Abraham both did works!

Under the covenants God made with them they had a part to perform and they’d be blessed if they did and cursed if they didn’t.

But what Paul’s teaching us is what did not come from keeping those covenants was righteousness!

That righteousness came when it was imputed to them or accounted to them as a result of their faith.

This is what we’ve learned from Paul that according to the scriptures it wasn’t the works of Abraham or David that justified them before God. It was faith without works, when they simply believed God that those things that He promised he was both able to do and would do.

We saw up until verse nine, that both Abraham and David didn’t know about Christ’s cross and how that would be the means to their salvation, they simply believed that even though they had no clue how God would or even that He could save them, they believed that what God had said He was able to also perform.

That’s what Paul’s preaching. They were sinners and they couldn’t be justified by works so on what basis could God show them mercy? By faith. Faith that believed God above and beyond their own senses.

God made these men promises and they were promises that they knew were impossible with man but in spite of that they believed what God had said.

That and that alone was the basis of their righteousness, just as it is today.

It’s a belief that has no basis in human achievement, no possibility of fulfillment by a human hand and really, in its completeness, it’s even beyond our ability to fully understand.

Paul reveals that it’s through Jesus Christ and faith in His blood, that people can be redeemed by His grace.

Paul’ll say later in his ministry, in 2 Timothy 2:8 that Jesus Christ who was of the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to my gospel.

He connects Christ’s resurrection to the promise given to David, and how that was according to his gospel, and, in Galatians 3:28-29 he says,

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. 

And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

We’re children of Abraham, if we’re in Christ by faith.

Abraham is the father of the Jewish nation in the flesh through his son Isaac. He’s also the father of a great number of Gentiles through His son Ishmael born by the handmaid Hagar. But he’s also the father of all those who believe by faith as Romans 4:11 tells us.

So Abraham and David, and all of those throughout history who’ll be saved, need Christ’s cross even though they didn’t know that Christ would die and be resurrected.

Even His own disciples in His earthly ministry didn’t know that He needed to die.

All that the cross accomplished, the salvation freely available to all by grace through faith, was first revealed to the Apostle Paul.

Paul’ s already spoken about righteousness by faith and it being without works, but here in Romans 4:9 he’ll talk about righteousness being without circumcision.

Now the context of Romans 4:9, as is usual in the Bible, is important and the context is within Paul explaining a great blessing in Romans 4:6-8  and we’ll redefine the context by reading those verses,

Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. 

Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.

We saw last episode how impute means to put on someone’s account or to reckon something to them.

So these verses talk about God reckoning or accounting righteousness to a person without them working for it or doing anything to contribute to that righteousness.

This imputed or accounted righteousness is a great blessing because through it our iniquities are forgiven and our sin will not be accounted to us.

First, what’s the difference between sin and iniquities?

Sin is usually a general term for anything that goes against God’s will. It includes wrong thoughts, actions, attitudes, or failures to do what’s right.

All iniquities are sins, but not all sins are iniquities.

Iniquity is generally a deeper level of wrongdoing and refers to twisted, immoral, or corrupt behaviour that’s usually habitual, intentional and often showing a heart sold out to evil.

The Bible also talks about our transgressions which are knowingly breaking God’s law, specifically the Mosaic law and it’s 613 points.

So Paul here in verse 8 is agreeing with what David said in Psalm 32:1,

Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

In Verse 9 and 10 (Romans 4:9-10) Pauls asks this question, and he’s still speaking to this mixed Jewish and Gentile audience and he’s still speaking of this great blessing of imputed righteousness,

Cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also? for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness. 

How was it then reckoned? when he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. 

Why would Paul ask such a question and why does he answer it himself saying not in circumcision but in uncircumcision?

Why’s he bringing up this point about circumcision and when Abraham was circumcised and what does it actually mean, the circumcision and the uncircumcision?

The circumcision is referring to the nation of Israel while the uncircumcision is referring to the rest of humanity, the Gentiles, but there’s a lot more to it than that.

To understand what the circumcision means we need to understand the covenants God gave to Abraham.

So far in Romans Paul’s labouring on teaching us about righteousness by faith alone without works and he’s used Abraham and David to show how this was true as we’ve just said in this episodes introduction.

Genesis 17 is an important chapter for the covenants given to Israel through Abraham.

This is not the promise given without conditions in Genesis 12. This is later when God makes a covenant with Abraham that would require works to be done.

At the beginning of the chapter in Genesis 17:1-2 God appears to Abraham when he’s 90 years old and says,

I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. 

Then, in Genesis 17:4, God says to Abraham,

As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. 

Notice God says, my covenant is with thee.

See God had already made a promise to Abraham in Genesis chapters 12 and 13 and in Genesis 15:6 we see it confirmed along with the fact that Abraham’s belief in what God promised was accounted to him for righteousness.

And now God gives more detail to this covenant. He’ll be a father of many nations, not just the one as in Genesis 12 and 15. That’s why his name is going to be changed from Abram to Abraham. It means many nations, father of many nations. We see that in Genesis 17:5.

Then in Genesis 17:6-9  God says,

And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. 

And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. 

And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God. 

And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations. 

God promised the land to Abraham’s seed forever.

What God’s doing here is laying out what he’s promised to Abraham already.

Here’s where we notice the word “therefore” in the last verse, verse 9.  Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore.

But what is there to keep so far? Nothing!

God’s promised the land as a blessing but He hasn’t told Abraham to do anything yet except to go to the land.

Now we come to Genesis 17:10-11 and God says to Abraham,

This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised. 

And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you. 

This is new information. What’s this going to do? This act of circumcision will be a flesh token, a sign in the flesh of the covenant that Abraham already has.

If you’re not circumcised, you’re cut off from this covenant.

This is interesting because there’s now something that has to kept and those who don’t keep it don’t get the thing God promised.

Remember, God promised to Abraham specifically and his seed. But not all of Abraham’s seed’s going to get it. That’s what we see here in the circumcision, a separation from those who will get it and those who won’t. And who’s going to get it? The circumcision, those that’ve obeyed their covenant duty to be circumcised. That’s the separation.

The prophets spoke in great detail about the nations of the world being blessed through God’s chosen people, Israel, and their kingdom come.

This was God’s plan and the finishing touches to that plan were that the Messiah would come in the flesh, and die as an atonement for the sins of the world. He would prove He was the Messiah through mighty signs and wonders.

Then the New Covenant promised to Israel in Jeremiah 31, Ezekial 36:26-28 and Hebrews 8:7-13 would be enacted with the coming of the Holy Spirit after Christs resurrection and ascension. Under the New Covenant God’s laws would be placed in Israel’s hearts and minds ensuring those laws, which they could not keep in their own strength, would now be kept and they would be empowered to survive what was coming.

Then a period of tribulation would come that would bring God’s wrath and judgment to the unbelieving world and cleanse it of that unbelief.

Through the Holy Spirit’s power and God’s prophetic promises, the remnant of believing Israel would be saved through the tribulation after which Christ would return, completely restore the earth and set up His earthly kingdom where He would rule from Mount Zion for 1000 years. Israel would be the nation of priests God intended it to be, bringing the knowledge of God to the whole world.

This didn’t happen, obviously.

Why?

Because of Israel’s unbelief!

They rejected the Messiah, His message that the Kingdom was at hand and His apostles.

Though given many chances to repent Israel’s final rejection came with the stoning of Stephen in Acts chapter 7.

The great period of the kingdom on earth and Israel’s blessings were placed on hold.

God ushered in a new dispensation through the apostle Paul that would offer righteousness to both Gentile and Jew through faith alone just as Abraham and David were imputed righteousness.

Instead of inheriting the earth, as was intended for Israel, it’s now a heavenly hope. All those who believe and trust in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ have a heavenly heritage.

The earth is still the heritage of the nation of Israel, who will one day, after this great dispensation of grace is over, walk in the plans and purpose that God had for the nation all along.

So when Paul asks, does this blessedness come on circumcision only, what blessing is he talking about?

The one in Romans 4:5-7. Verse 5,

But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. 

Verse 8, (Romans 4:8) clarifies it by repeating King David from Psalm 32:1-2 .

Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.

So Paul answers his own question in verse 9 (Romans 4:9) about whether this blessing comes to the circumcision only and the answer is, “of course not!”

He’s challenging the necessity and the need for Israel in the flesh, the need for Israel’s covenants at all, the covenants given to them to make them a special people.

His challenge is from the standpoint of the mystery gospel of grace that was kept secret before the foundation of the world but now, through Paul, has been manifest or made known.

He’s undermining what makes Israel unique and this’s why the Jews stoned him and never stopped persecuting him.

You see what Paul’s trying to show them is that although God’s promises to Abraham will come to the nation through the obedience of circumcision, righteousness does not. Righteousness comes by faith without works, just as it did to Abraham and David.

Righteousness was accounted to Abraham before the covenant of circumcision and before Israel was a nation and before the law was given, which we’ll see next episode. Abraham wasn’t even alive when the law was given by Moses.

Paul’s proving this from Jewish scripture to show his audience, which, remember includes Jews, that their own scriptures testify that what he says is right. He’s laying the foundations of the gospel of grace in these early chapters of Romans.

But he’s also putting into question the entire covenant system to Israel, which promised that they would be the channel of blessing to the world, going back to Genesis twelve.

So circumcision identified God’s covenant and identified Israel as the covenant people. Circumcision separated Israel from the Gentiles.

Ephesians 2:11-13,

Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; 

That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: 

But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.

The circumcision was separated from the uncircumcision in their temple, especially in the New Testament Herod’s temple.

There was a wall where the uncircumcised couldn’t get past.

In the tabernacle there was separation, where only priests could go, and then another one where only the high priest could go.

But then as they built Solomon’s Temple, then later Herod’s Temple, they built walls around the temple for Israel.

Gentiles who wanted to worship the God of Israel could come to the temple, but they couldn’t go past a certain point because remember, the temple is for Israel.

Gentiles couldn’t go in to offer a sacrifice. Only Israel could, and only Israel could take their sacrifice to the priest, and only the priest could go further in.

So there’s a wall of partition between circumcision and uncircumcision. That’s what Paul references in Ephesians 2:14,

For he (Jesus Christ) is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; 

Of course, Jesus didn’t literally tear down the stones in the temple, but Paul’s saying it’s meaningless now.

1 Corinthians 3:16 says this,

Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

So this access to God is what Paul’s preaching according to the mystery. You don’t need circumcision. You don’t need Israel. Circumcision means identifying Israel. You don’t need their covenants.

Circumcision was a covenant for them, an everlasting covenant.

You don’t need that if you’re justified by faith, without works, without the flesh, without circumcision.

That’s why Paul’s argument is so important.

Even as far as acts chapter ten, Peter goes to a Gentile who’s uncircumcised, and he says, you know, it’s not lawful for a Jew who is circumcised to keep company and to go unto an uncircumcised Gentile. Peter’s still abiding by this covenant, knowing that God would bless the world through the nation Israel.

But Paul, in Colossians 3:11 says,

Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all. 

So, circumcision identified God’s covenant people. If you weren’t circumcised, you weren’t in God’s covenant. You were strangers to them. But now Paul says, there’s neither circumcision nor position.

It doesn’t matter today. If we’re in Christ we’re not in a covenant.

The New Covenant, the New Testament is Israel’s new covenant and saying we’re in it is making ourself Israel.

But Paul says that now Christ is all and in all, in this new creature, the Body of Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery.

And he’s answering his own question in verses 9 and 10 (Romans 4:9-10) by saying Abraham’s faith was accounted for righteousness before he was circumcised.

Circumcision had no bearing on his being accounted righteous.

So we see Romans 4:11-12. Let’s read,

And he (Abraham) received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also: 

And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised. 

Paul is showing us that timing matters.

He already said earlier in Romans 4 that Abraham was counted righteous before he ever got circumcised. Now he asks again: When did Abraham get this blessing? Before or after circumcision?

Paul wants us to pay attention to when things happened, not just that they happened.

This is part of dividing the Bible correctly.

If we ignore timing, we mix everything together and think God was dealing with everybody the same way in every age. But He wasn’t. Even in Abraham’s own life, the order of events matters.

So Paul asks Israel simple questions they should know, but they struggled because they trusted in their flesh, their works, and their covenants. To understand Paul’s point, we look back at Genesis and follow the timeline.

In Genesis 23, Sarah dies aged 127, and Abraham is 136. Isaac is 36 when his mother dies.

That’s right after Genesis 22, where Abraham offers Isaac on Mount Moriah. People often picture Isaac as a little boy, but Genesis 22:6 says he carried the wood for the offering. That’s not a toddler job. Of course, someone else carried His own wood up a mountain too, Jesus.

Genesis 22 is full of shadows of Christ.

Isaac was strong enough to carry the wood and old enough to understand what was happening. Twice the chapter says in Genesis 22:6, 8 that they went quote “both of them together”. That means agreement, not a little child being dragged along. If Isaac was strong enough to carry the wood, he was strong enough to resist Abraham, but he didn’t.

This pictures Jesus willingly going to the cross.

Now back to the timing.

In Genesis 21:5, Abraham is 100 when Isaac is born. But Abraham was already circumcised a year earlier in Genesis 17, when he was 99 which we see in Genesis 17:1, 24.

That’s also when God said Sarah would bear the promised child, and although both Abraham and Sarah laughed, they believed.

Before that, in Genesis 16:16, Abraham is 86 when Ishmael is born. That means Ishmael was born while Abraham was still uncircumcised.

And even earlier, in Genesis 15:6, God counted Abraham’s faith for righteousness and that’s the moment Paul’s talking about in Romans 4—the blessing of righteousness being imputed by faith.

Paul asks: does this blessing come only on the circumcision? No, because Abraham received it in uncircumcision.

Finally, in Genesis 12:4, Abraham was 75 when God first called him and gave him the promises: the land, the seed, the great nation, and that he would be a blessing to the world.

So the order of things is clear:

– God called Abraham at 75.

– God counted his faith for righteousness at about 85.

– Ishmael was born at 86 while Abraham was still uncircumcised.

– Abraham’s circumcision came at 99.

– Isaac was born at 100.

Paul uses this to show that righteousness came before circumcision, so Abraham is the father of all who believe—circumcised or not—if they walk in the same faith he had before the sign of the covenant, circumcision, was given.

Abraham had to wait twenty‑five years for the son God promised him.

God said He would make a mighty nation from Abraham, but although he was already old he still believed.

Time kept passing, but God teaches us patience. We think everything’s got to happen fast but God knows the end from the beginning.

We shouldn’t be lazy, but we also shouldn’t panic. God works on His own timeline.

There were about 24 years between God counting Abraham righteous and giving him the covenant of circumcision.

Paul uses this in Romans 4:10 to ask,

How was it then reckoned? when he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. 

The answer is clear in the next verse, Romans 4:10,

And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also: 

Abraham lived over twenty years as a man counted righteous without works, simply by believing what God said.

This matters because circumcision marked out the covenant people of Israel.

It gave blessings the uncircumcised didn’t have. So Paul goes back to Genesis 12 to show the timing where God promised Abraham a land, a great nation, a great name, and that all families of the earth would be blessed in him and Abraham obeyed at age 75.

In Genesis 12:7 we see,

And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land:

So the promise was to Abraham and also to his seed.

Then, in Genesis 13:14–17, after Abraham and Lot separated, God repeated the promise and added the word “forever.”

He also said Abraham’s seed would be like the dust of the earth, too many to number.

This is not the single Seed (Christ) that Paul talks about in Galatians 3, but the multiplied physical seed God promised Abraham. Both truths exist: the one Seed (Christ) and the many seeds (Israel).

In Genesis 15, Abraham wondered how God would give him a seed since he had no child. He suggested Eliezer, his servant. But God said no, the heir will come from your own flesh, Genesis 15:4.

In Genesis 15:5 God then showed him the stars and said his seed would be that many and in Genesis 15:6. Abraham believed, and God counted it to him for righteousness.

But notice something here. The covenant itself was not “righteousness by faith.” The covenant was about land and multiplied seed. The righteousness by faith was simply how Abraham received God’s word, not the content of the covenant.

People tend to mix these things and say all the promises to Abraham are fulfilled in us. But Paul doesn’t say that. He only uses Genesis 15:6 to show the pattern of imputed righteousness.

God must still fulfill the actual covenant promises of land, nation, and multiplied seed to Israel. Jesus didn’t cancel them. Peter didn’t cancel them as we see in Acts 1:6-7. Paul didn’t cancel them as we see through Romans 11. God will keep His covenants; just not yet.

As we keep reading Genesis 15, God doesn’t just use the stars to number Abraham’ seed. He also tells him when his seed will return to the land.

God says they’ll be in bondage for 400 years, then they’ll come back and that’s in Genesis 15:13–16.

Now Abraham finally has a timeline. But he also realises he’ll be dead long before this happens, So Abraham starts thinking, “If God promised me this land, and my seed won’t return for centuries, then God must raise me from the dead.”

That’s why we see in Hebrews 11 that Abraham believed in resurrection. God said “forever,” even though people die. Jesus later said God is “not the God of the dead, but of the living.”

At the end of Genesis 15, God makes a covenant through a sacrifice and gives Abraham the exact borders of the land—from the river of Egypt to the Euphrates.

This is real geography, real dirt, not something spiritual in heaven. Paul never teaches that Abraham’s land promise somehow became spiritual.

In Romans 4, Paul only uses Genesis 15 to show that God counted Abraham’s faith for righteousness.

Paul’s saying that in the same way Abraham was counted righteous—by faith without works— God uses today relating to the Body of Christ.

But the covenant itself was not about righteousness. God promised Abraham a kingdom, a nation, and greatness he did not reveal how He would justify sinners. That part was still a mystery until Christ.

So Paul uses the Old Testament to show the pattern of faith, while keeping Israel’s covenants separate from what God gives us today.

Paul brings up circumcision because it’s a huge issue for Israel.

The word “covenant” appears 25 times in Genesis, and half of them are in this one chapter. Genesis 17 is where God gives the covenant of circumcision, the sign that marks Israel as His covenant people. If you were an Israelite reading this, you’d say, “This is where our nation begins—land, seed, and now circumcision.”

But Paul reminds them that Abraham was a sinner justified by faith without works, and so was David, and so are we.

Then in Genesis 17:1 we read,

And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.

Genesis 17:3-4,

And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying, As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. 

God had already spoken to Abraham several times about this covenant, but now He adds more detail: Abraham will be father of many nations, not just one. That’s why his name changes from Abram to Abraham.

In Genesis 17:6 God says to Abraham,

And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. 

Then, in Genesis 17:7 God says,

And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. 

God ties “everlasting” to the land as well and says in Genesis 17:8,

And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God. 

Some people who try to tie the Body of Christ in with this covenant say that land, as on earth, was temporary; that now our land is heavenly, but God said the land of Canaan was an everlasting possession and He meant what He said.

Then in Genesis 17:9  we see,

And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations. 

But before circumcision is given in the next verse, what was there for Abraham to keep? Nothing

God had only promised blessing and land. Abraham was just walking around waiting for God to do what He said. He still hasn’t been told to actually do anything yet except walk the land.

Then in Genesis 17:10-14 God finally gives the thing that Abraham must keep, circumcision.

This is new information. Every male child must be circumcised. God says this will be the token, the sign, the seal of the covenant Abraham already has.

The land, the blessing, the nation—those promises were already given. Now circumcision marks who actually receives them.

If a man is not circumcised, God says he is cut off from the covenant. That’s Genesis 17:14.

So not all of Abraham’s physical seed will get the blessing.

Circumcision separates who’ll receive the promises and wont.

This is the beginning of the division that later becomes Jew and Gentile, even though Israel doesn’t exist yet. Circumcision is the foundation of that separation.

God says in Genesis 17:12–13 that every male child must be circumcised at eight days old. Even servants bought with money must be circumcised. God says, “My covenant shall be in your flesh.”

This is not a spiritual covenant. God promised a seed from Abraham’s flesh, then put the sign in their flesh making this very physical because later Jesus Himself will come in the flesh. He’d shed His blood in the flesh, and fulfill the spiritual side of God’s plan, but here in Genesis 17 the covenant is about earthly people, earthly land, and a flesh‑and‑blood nation.

The eighth day is interesting. Only in 1943 did scientists discover that vitamin K and prothrombin—needed for blood clotting—peak on the eighth day of a newborn’s life. Before that, a baby could bleed to death. But God told Abraham the right day thousands of years earlier. Science just caught up.

God warns that the uncircumcised man is cut off from his people. Paul later calls Gentiles strangers from the covenants of promise. The covenants he refers to are the land, the seed, and the blessing. Circumcision is the doorway into those promises.

Then in Genesis 17:15–21 God speaks of Sarah.

This is the first time He says clearly that the promised son will come from her. Abraham laughs in his heart, remember he’s 100, and Sarah’s 90. God hears his thoughts and answers him.

Abraham even says, “O that Ishmael might live before thee.” But God says no, Isaac’ll be the one. The covenant will be with Isaac, not Ishmael. Ishmael will be blessed and become a great nation with twelve princes, but the everlasting covenant goes through Isaac.

After God finishes speaking, Abraham—now 99—circumcises himself and Ishmael, and waits for Isaac to be conceived and born.

This is why Paul in Romans 4 talks about when Abraham was circumcised. Abraham already had the covenant promises long before circumcision. Circumcision was only the token that marked who would receive those earthly promises. And even though Ishmael was circumcised, he still did not receive the covenant. Isaac did. Timing and order matter.

Islam says the Bible is wrong and that Ishmael’s the one who gets the land, seed, and blessing but the Bible very clearly says the covenant goes through Isaac, not Ishmael.

That’s why history splits between Israel and Islam. But that’s not Paul’s point. In Romans 4:11, when Paul says Abraham “received the sign of circumcision,” he means Abraham already had righteousness by faith long before the circumcision, which was simply the token, the sign, or the seal of what God had already given him by faith.

Circumcision simply identified who would inherit the covenant. It’s why God said the uncircumcised man was “cut off” in Genesis 17:14.

This is why Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:22 that Jews “seek after a sign.” God gave Israel signs, miracles, and prophets so they would know the true God in a world full of idols. Today we know Him through the Scriptures that record those signs and through Christ who fulfilled them.

In Galatians 5:3–6 Paul says that circumcision profits nothing in Christ. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision matters—only faith. In Galatians 6:15, he says what matters is being a new creature in Christ. How do you get in Christ? By faith, the same way Abraham received righteousness.

This is what Paul calls “the gospel of the uncircumcision.” You don’t need circumcision or the law to receive blessing from God. That Abraham was blessed while uncircumcised is our pattern. What saves us is not land, or seed, or earthly blessing but righteousness, and that comes by faith without works, just like Abraham.

A sinner is justified freely by God’s grace alone through faith in Christ Jesus. And so that excludes all boasting of the flesh, boasting of how righteous a person is by their supposed good works, their church going, their praying or singing or their charity or more importantly their nationality, whether Jew or Gentile.

All these are worthless in earning salvation.

This might be a good place to define what salvation actually is. It’s a term used so often but is also often misunderstood.

All mankind suffers the disease of sin.

We inherited this state from the first man, Adam and there’s absolutely nothing we can do, in ourselves, to change that state.

If we’re really honest with ourselves and we’re prepared to take an honest assessment of what we do and think each day we’ll know the truth of that statement.

Trying to work out that sin nature in our own works is futile and this is exactly what the book of Romans details. That’s what makes the book of Romans the most important book of the bible for you and me today. It’s why Martin Luther said in his preface to the Epistle to the Romans, “It is worthy not only that every Christian should know it (Romans) word for word, by heart, but also that he should occupy himself with it every day, as the daily bread of the soul”

The disease of sin has a consequence which is inescapable. The bible calls it wages or the thing that’s due to each of us because of sin.

Those wages for sin is death, eternal death, not just of the body but of the spirit and soul, the real us.

God must condemn the sinner to this eternal death because of His absolute and pure justice. He has no choice. The penalty must be paid.

But God, in His infinite wisdom and love, made a way to satisfy His perfect justice and save the sinner.

He took on humanity in the form of Jesus Christ who was totally man, like us, so able to pay the price for sin, but also totally God and therefore sinless and perfect, so equally unable to suffer eternal death for sin that He didn’t have.

Salvation is the act of being saved from sin and it’s penalty of death through trusting in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross and his bodily resurrection that paid those awful wages of sin for us, on our behalf, so we wouldn’t have to. His sinless blood pays for our sins, earns forgiveness, and gives us eternal life.

Salvation is the gift of God by grace but the only way we can receive that gift is through faith. Faith is hearing the Word of God, the Word I just outlined, and choosing to believe it. We trust that the Word relating to sin and it’s payment is true and in that moment that we believe we’re saved from sin and death. It’s that simple. It’s pure simplicity is the biggest stumblingblock for the the Jewish unbeliever and foolishness to the Gentile unbeliever.

Salvation’s not a product of:

– Prayer

– Popes

– Baptism

– Confession

– Good works

– Turning from sin

– Commandments

– Church membership

– Mass or the Lord’s Supper

From 1 Timothy 2:4 we know God’s purpose and His desire for mankind,

Who (God) will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. 

So we saw last episode that the nation of Israel did in fact have cause to boast, but the gospel of the grace of God removes those boasts.

The gospel of the grace of God destroys any religion that tries to reach God through a person’s works.

Salvation is not by our works and that’s what separates Christianity from every religion.

Even though good works are good, they simply can’t save anyone. Christianity is realizing that our works can never justify a person, only Christ’s work can and that’s what Paul’s explaining, and we saw the righteousness of this in Romans 3.

So, the boasting of the flesh is excluded, because by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight (Romans 3:20) yet Romans 3:31 says that the law is not made void through faith, in fact, the law is established.

How is the law established if doing the law doesn’t justifies us?

Isn’t it the law’s intent to get people to do it?

Well, as we saw in Romans 3, that’s not really the point of God giving the law.

It gives a standard of righteousness. It teaches right and wrong gives the knowledge of sin, but it was never intended that everybody would do the law. God new full well that would never happen.

People need something else, something spiritual. They need hope, an inner motivation.

That’s what grace does. It gives a blessed hope through Jesus Christ. But the law can’t change people.

So this is what we’ve learned so far in Romans.

Now we come to Romans chapter 4 and lets read through the first 3 verses first,

Romans 4:1-3,

What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? 

For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. 

For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.

Now,  we’ve already said that the words “What shall we say then” means we’re still in the context of Romans 3:31, but where did Abraham pop up from?

We were talking about sinners and how there’s none righteous and about God sending Jesus to die for sins.

We’re talking about salvation not being our works of our flesh.

And suddenly we have Abraham.

To add to that we have David down in verse 6, (Romans 4:6),

Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works,

If you look below this recording there’s a simple timeline graphic showing where Abraham, David and the law fit. You’ll also notice that James is included and you’ll see why soon as we look at James 2;14-24 in comparison to Romans 4:1-5.

As you see on the timeline Abraham’s way back in Genesis and then you have the beginning of Israel through Abrahams son Jacob who you remember had his name changed to Israel. Then the twelve tribes of Israel would come from his twelve son’s. Then we have  Moses and the law then David the second king of Israel.

Abraham and David had a very special place in Israel’s past.

The first verse in the New Testament, Matthew 1:1 tells us this. It says,

The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

These two are at the beginning of the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1:1. Jesus is the Son of David and he’s the son of Abraham.

See these two men had a special significance for the nation of Israel. Abraham and David are symbols of Israel’s privilege in their flesh and Paul’s about to explain Abraham and David.

So, Romans 4:1, leading straight on as part of the previous verse (Romans 3:31),

What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found?

Abraham was the father of the nation. Remember, they had three fathers in Israel, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And Abraham was the first. To him was given the promise that from him would come a nation, a nation, and they’d be a blessing to the world.

Then, later, he was to be the father of many nations as well, not just the one.

He was also the beginning of circumcision when God gave him the covenant of circumcision and subsequently in the flesh of every Jew thereafter, which separated Jew and Gentile, the nation of Israel from all other nations. You can see how this all fits in the timeline below.

Now there’s a lot of so-called Abrahamic faiths, the two main ones being, of course, Islam and Judaism.

In comparing them, one has Abraham’s son Isaac as their claim, that’s Israel and Judaism and the other has Abraham’s son Ishmael as their claim. That’s Islam. Of course, unlike Judaism and Christianity, Islam stops the Bible at Ishmael.

But Abraham is the father of both.

What about David? He didn’t start the nation of Israel but he was the king. When you think of Israel you think of Jerusalem and David.

There were three kings in Israel before the nation split into two. Saul, was the first one but he failed pretty quickly then David was next and then David’s son Solomon.

Solomon was wiser and smarter and wealthier than David. But it’s David who built that kingdom. He conquered the rest of the land, and did great things together with God and we’ll see more of this in the next episode.

David planned to build God a house, which God said, no, your son’s going to do that.

David wrote 75 of the Psalms and remember 1 Samuel 18:7,

And the women answered one another as they played, and said, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.

Then there’s the exploits like David, and Goliath.

David’s faith was in God, the God of Israel.

The King, the kingdom and the royal line in Israel is defined by David.

David was given a special covenant, because he was a friend of God. It was a covenant of mercy and a covenant that his house would never cease to be from the throne of Jerusalem. We’ll see next episode how this covenant of mercy is critical to us today.

So the Messiah, the Savior of Israel, would come from David. Even today Israel honors David as being unique to them.

So when you think of Abraham and David, these are people that define Israel’s covenant heritage, the nation and their coming Messiah, making them unique.

So when Paul says that you can’t boast in the flesh or the works of the law he brings up Abraham and David and he says, “Let’s see how they were justified before God and we’ll see it from your own scriptures, Israel.”

This’s what Paul’s doing in Romans four. He’s speaking to an audience that cares about Jewish history.

We often think that in Romans Paul’s only talking to Gentiles but he’s writing to those in Rome, Gentiles and Jews.

He’s making a case as to how he’s right to go to the Gentiles, even though God had a special, privileged people and he’s speaking here to those Jewish concerns.

He says here Abraham, our father.

Why? Because Abraham was the father of Israel and of course Paul himself was a jew, and we mustn’t think that when Paul writes Romans, he’s only writing to Gentiles. He’s not. He’s writing to Jews and Gentiles.

Remember in Romans 2:16 he says, behold, thou art called a Jew? See he’s got to deal with Jewish concerns before he can say the gospel’s given freely to all, and he has to prove that to Israel because up until Paul salvation was only possible through Israel.

Jesus was a Jewish Messiah. He was the son of David, the son of Abraham and the fulfillment of those covenants given to Israel.

So Paul says he was a minister of the circumcision, the Jew, and yet he explains Jesus Christ being the Savior of all the world, even though, as God’s chosen nation, Israel is fallen.

In Romans 11:11 Paul distinguishes between a temporary stumbling and a complete fall and that Israel’s rejection of the Messiah’s not final.

In Romans 11:25 and Ephesians 4:18 Paul’s describes Israel’s temporary blindness.

He’s saying salvation is without the law, without Israel and without their covenants.

That’s a huge shift for the Jewish people, the only people that God ever created as a nation and the only religion God ever established.

So what’s our father mean? The father of Israel! Abraham is the father of Israel.

Obviously, he’s also the father of many nations.

Remember, his name was Abram to begin with then God changed his name to Abraham, which meant father of many nations.

The original promise in Genesis 12 was that a nation will come from you, a nation that’ll be above the other nations, and they’ll bless the other nations.

But then God promised that many nations would come from Abraham. Just to emphasize that, yes, there will be a nation, a special nation. But you, Abraham, will also father many other nations.

He didn’t father every nation but he fathered Israel through Issac and then Jacob and then the Ishmaelites through Ishmael and the Edomites through Esau.

So God’s promise came from Abraham through his son Isaac, then through Isaac’s son Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel, and then to all of Jacob’s (Israel’s) sons.

So there were nations from Abraham that were not Israel.

Romans four goes on to talk about him being the father of us all, the father of all.

In what sense can he possibly be that? He’s not Adam.

Romans is going to talk about that. He’s the father of faith, the father of all who believe! That’s the only way he’s the father of all. It’s not in the flesh.

Galatians 3:7 says,

Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. 

He’s not everyone’s father in the flesh but he was Israel’s father in the flesh.

It’s important to know who we are because we’re not Israel. Israel in the flesh is fallen.

So he says, what shall we say then as pertaining to the flesh, hath Abraham found?

See, “pertaining to the flesh” is also how we know that the subjects continuing from chapter three (Romans 3), that we can’t boast in our flesh.

In Romans 4 Paul’s referring to people who held promises in their flesh through Abraham and David who did great things in their flesh and not just in their flesh.

Such as the promise to Abraham that he’ll have a son in his flesh even though he was very old. And his wife was too. Abraham believed God even though their was a hiccup with Hagar.

David, had a promise that his son would be the Messiah.

So it’s through his flesh once again. But they also believed. They had faith that God was able and would do what He promised.

David didn’t have to fight Goliath, but he did because his faith in the Lord led him to do it and many other great things.

Paul’s making the argument that you can’t boast in your flesh or what you do and he’s using Abraham and David as examples of ultimate boasting in the flesh in Israel in the great things they did. David was the greatest Jew in Israel’s history. Solomon had wealth and wisdom but he came second to David, his father.

Abraham left the country he came from to walk out in faith to a country God promised him, wandering around his whole life in that country and never receiving it. He also went to sacrifice his son on the altar when God told him to. He did everything God asked of him. Abraham and David did things, things instrumental to the foundation of Israel and their establishment as God’s special people.

So what did Abraham learn according to his flesh, this phrase Paul uses, “what hath our father found?”

Paul’s asking the question, according to Israel’s scriptures, what did Abraham, our father find or learn?

He’s saying read your own scriptures. Every good Hebrew Jew studies the Torah and this is what Paul’s urging them to do.

Another person did the same thing.

In Luke 24:25-27, after Jesus’s resurrection, He joined two of the disciples who were walking on the road to Emmaus and they were puzzled by all that had happened in the previous few days. Let’s read,

Then he (Jesus) said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: 

Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? 

And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

When Abraham was alive in Genesis he learned he had to circumcise his flesh and that the fruit of his loins, Isaac, had to be offered. He learned he had to leave his family and go to another country. He learned all this. But what else?

Paul points out a specific thing he learned.

He’s going to say that he learned that it wasn’t about his flesh.

He doesn’t really say, clearly because it’s obvious that what he learned pertaining to his flesh was that before God no flesh can glory.

Abraham left his country and his family and offered up his son Issac all based on his faith that what God had promised He was able to perform, (Romans 4:21).

We also see this in Hebrews 11:19,

Abraham…Accounting that God was able to raise him (Isaac) up, even from the dead;

God promised Abraham would have a son when his wife Sarah was barren and it was impossible for her to bear children. She was 90 and he was 100 years old into the bargain.

Abraham believed God, but thought well, maybe I’ll try to get this done on my own. And he took the handmaid, Hagar remember? And Hagar bore a son that way.

But God said, nope!

I’m going to do it through Sarah even though in the flesh she’s barren. That the child would be through her.

When God told Sarah she laughed at it but she still believed. So here we’ve got this picture of grace and faith. Abraham had to believe God and he said, if that’s what you say, that’s what will be. I’ve got no idea how You’re going to do it and even though all my mind tells me it’s impossible I believe You more that my own wisdom.

God specifically said the promised seed would not be through Ishmael, but through a sin born of Sarah whose name would be Isaac.

We see this in Genesis 17:17-19.

So the lesson he learned was that it wasn’t his flesh that was going to do it and it wasn’t Sarah’s flesh, for sure. God had to do something he had to intervene outside of the laws of nature.

In 1 Corinthians 1:29 we read,

That no flesh should glory in his presence. 

1 Corinthians 1:29 is Paul referencing Jeremiah 9:23-24 which reads,

Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: 

But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD. 

Jeremiah 9 is one of many Old Testament witnesses to Paul’s epistles that teach about what we’re to glory in. Not the things we’ve done, but knowing God and what He’s done and what He’s said He would do.

So Abraham learned back in Genesis that his flesh couldn’t glory before God, which verifies Romans 4:2.

For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. 

Abraham learned it wasn’t about his flesh and he couldn’t glory in his flesh before God.

But Romans 4:2 also raises the question that if that’s what Abraham learned, then how was Abraham justified?

We’ve already seen multiple times through our studies that God’s justice is perfect therefore demanding judgement and payment for sin. How was Abraham, who knew nothing about Jesus Christ and the cross, to be justified.

Well, what does the Scripture say?

In what may well be the most important verse in the bible relating to how we interact with God, Genesis 15:6, we learn this,

And he (Abraham) believed in the LORD; and he (The Lord) counted it to him (Abraham) for righteousness. 

Look at Romans 1:17 which says,

For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. 

Paul’s gospel of grace is for today, and he was set apart to preach it by Christ Who gave him the mystery of this dispensation of grace that had never before in history been revealed.

This gospel of grace is backed by Scripture.

Paul quotes Habakkuk 2:4—“the just shall live by faith”—like it sums up the whole Bible.

You’ll find hundreds of verses about blessings and curses for doing or not doing things, but Paul picks this one. He’s saying, “My gospel stands on Scripture.”

In 1 Corinthians 15:3, Paul says Christ died for our sins “according to the Scriptures.”

Some people think Paul’s gospel isn’t based on the Old Testament, but they’re missing the link.

The mystery was hidden before, not known, and the body of Christ wasn’t talked about. But now, through Paul, we understand grace, the need for a Saviour, and justification by faith. That’s what Paul’s showing.

Abraham knew nothing of this but God most certainly did. Abraham simply had to believe that God had a way just as He was able to miraculously birth a nation through a 100 year old man and a barren, 90 year old woman.

God had a way, know to Him before the foundation of the world. The same way you and are are justified today by faith in the shed blood of Christ on the cross so was Abraham justified. It was just that he didn’t know of it, be we, through Paul’s gospel, do! Abraham believed that God had a way but didn’t know the way, we believe God came and made the way and we know it but the way to justification is the same, through Jesus Christ!

This gospel isn’t plan B.

It’s not that Israel failed and God had to try something else. No. Grace was God’s plan from before the world began. Everything since creation was leading to this: salvation by grace through faith.

Israel thought their law and their nation were the end goal, but Paul says they missed something. Even Jesus in Matthew 23:23 and Luke 11:42 said they were doing outward things but missing the things of the heart.

Paul reveals the mystery in Ephesians 3:10, the manifold wisdom of God now made known. Manifold means many fold. Of divers kinds; many in number; numerous; multiplied. Such is God’s wisdom.

In Romans 4, he uses the law and the prophets to witness to what he teaches. He’s not saying they taught his gospel back then, but they give evidence that it’s true.

Romans 3:21 says, “But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested (or revealed and made known).”

That “but now” is Paul’s message. But now salvation is not through trying to keep the law, it’s by grace. But the law and prophets still witness to it.

All Scripture matters. 2 Timothy 3:16-17,

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. 

Romans 3:24 says we’re justified freely by grace through Christ’s redemption. Verse 25 says Christ died according to the Scriptures. Verse 26 says God’s righteousness is now declared, which wasn’t before, but the old Scriptures show God justifies by faith. Believing in Jesus and receiving grace freely is the new part.

Romans 4:24 wraps it up: if we believe on Him who raised Jesus from the dead, we’re justified. That’s Paul’s gospel. He uses Abraham and David to show it’s true. They didn’t know the gospel of grace. They received justification by faith but the way it would happen was kept secret. But now it’s revealed to us today by Christ Himself through Paul.

So Paul asks in Romans 4:1, what did Abraham learn about the flesh?

How Abraham was justified in this verse is the cause of so much controversy and contention and it’s due to a failure to rightly divide God’s Word. A failure to understand the timing of things or the context of which things are spoken of. That’s what it means to rightly divide the word. It’s simply seeing what the context is.

Then, when we see a change in the context of what God’s doing, and we see how man was told to respond to that context change, then we need to change accordingly.

We have to let that happen and respond to those changing timings of God. Not everything through history was the same.

As we’ve said time and again during our studies, God Himself, Who He is, never changes but the way he deals with mankind most definitely does change and that should be clear and obvious as we read scripture.

There are things that also stay the same. One is that we should always have faith towards God, which means taking God at His word. Another is that God’s always merciful towards man. But God also changes what he does through history and this’s what defines the context or the dispensations or or the different ages in God’s operations.

And so we need to divide those contexts rightly.

One of our catch cry verses is 2 Timothy 2:15,

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. 

If we miss that, then we’ll try and blend these contexts, these ages and try to make them fit all together and they just won’t fit and this is what’s caused centuries of theological disagreement with Romans 4:2 and James 2:17-18.

Romans 4:2 questions Abraham’s justification by works, which is what every Jew would have thought and that’s what James wrote in James two.

To see the issue clearly we need to compare these verses side by side.

Romans 4:2 clearly teaches that Abraham was not justified by works but by faith, whereas James 2:24 says,

Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.

Faith without works is dead.

That phrase, justified by works appears two times in the Bible, one in Romans 4:2, the other time in James 2:24  and they’re both talking about Abraham.

And so which is it? Both require faith but is he justified by faith without works or by faith and works?

These two passages have been the topic of a many, many books and centuries of dispute, not the least of which was the Reformation separation of Martin Luther and others.

Let’s take a look at Hebrews and, as we know, the Book of Hebrews is written to Hebrews.

Hebrews 11 talks about those in the past and their faith.

Hebrews 11:6 says,

But without faith it is impossible to please him (that’s God): for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. 

God rewards those that seek him.

Hebrews 11:8.

By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. 

So Abraham was told to go, and he believed, and he obeyed. The Lord told him to do something.

So Hebrews eleven is talking about the importance of faith. But it’s by faith they did what God said to do. By faith they did.

When God told Abraham to go he didn’t stay at home and say, “I believe you, God, I’m just not going to do anything about it.”

His faith would have been dead because how can you say you believe that God has a promised land for you over there if you don’t get up and go as God said to do.

That’s what faith Hebrews is talking about here. By faith he did.

Look at Hebrews 11:9-10,

By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: 

For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. 

Abraham, by faith, did. He walked, he went, he left, he sojourned. He built tents. He set up altars. By faith, he did it.

Hebrews is dealing with the Hebrew audience saying how can you do? The answer? Strengthen your faith.

Many Christians learn that lesson as well, but how do we increase our faith?

We understand God’s word.

Romans 10:17,

So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. 

Romans is just as much the Word of God as Hebrews or the book of James.

Look at James 2:14,

What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?

And that’s the default idea about Abraham’s justification, that he’s justified by his works, having left his home and his country and offering his son Isaac or doing what God told him to.

But in Romans 4 Paul labors on the fact that salvation is by faith without works.

One way Christians try to reconcile James and Romans is by saying that Paul talking about salvation while James was talking about service.

But is that correct?

James doesn’t mention the cross at all. He didn’t talk about salvation at the cross?

Noone understood what the cross fully did before the dispensation of grace was given to Paul. See our timeline graphic below.

Everyone before Christ talked about salvation without the cross.

Remember when Jesus told His disciples that He must die in Matthew 16:21–23, Mark 8:31–33, and Luke 9:22 and other places they didn’t believe Him?

In Matthew 16:21–23 Peter even rebukes Jesus, saying, “This shall never happen to you!” “Not on my watch”, says Peter.

Jesus responds with, “Get behind me, Satan!”

In acts two, Peter was blaming Israel for crucifying their Messiah.

He wasn’t offering it as this glorious thing that just happened, but Paul did.

Paul’s letters are where we find out about salvation through the cross of Christ Jesus freely by grace to all. He glories in the cross.

James 2:14 asks, “Can faith save?” He’s not asking for an answer—he’s making a point. He says if someone claims to believe but doesn’t do good works, that faith is dead.

Paul, on the other hand, says in Romans 3 that we’re justified by faith without works.

He proves it from Scripture and from the fact that Christ had to die because we couldn’t save ourselves. If we could have, God wouldn’t have sent His Son. So Paul’s gospel is about grace—God saving sinners by faith, not by works.

James isn’t wrong. He’s just not talking about what God’s doing today.

He’s saying the same thing that was known through the ages and even what Jesus said in His earthly ministry that salvation is by faith not only in God but also what He said to do and what He said to do is all over the old testament and the old testament section of the new testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and early Acts.

He’s saying if you claim faith but live wickedly, you’re a hypocrite and that’s true.

James gives an example: someone’s hungry and cold, and you say, “Be warmed and filled,” but don’t help them. That’s useless. He says faith without works is like that—dead. But that’s not eternal salvation. That’s just helping someone in need. Still, James is showing that real faith should act.

But Paul’s message is that today, now, God saves the worst sinners by grace, without works, and He’s righteous to do it.

That’s what Romans explains. Paul’s presenting the fact that under this dispensation of Grace that was revealed to Paul, God has not given mankind anything to do.

Before this dispensation of grace there was always something man had to do and after this dispensation is complete and the prophetic timeline starts ticking again there’ll be works that’ll need to be done in association with faith again!

Now, James never mentions the cross. His idea of faith isn’t the same as Paul’s. That’s controversial, but it’s true. God revealed things over time, so our faith is based on what He’s revealed to us today.

James says faith without works is dead. Then he asks, wasn’t Abraham justified by works? Paul says in Romans 4:2, if Abraham was justified by works, he could boast—but not before God. Paul’s point is, Abraham wasn’t justified by works. James says he was. Who’s right?

James is writing to Israel and we see that clearly in James 1:1 which states,

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.

This audience all believed Abraham was justified by works.

Paul, given revelation by Christ, says no.

James points to Genesis 22, when Abraham offered Isaac. He did what God said.

Hebrews 11 says he did it by faith. See the faith was the motivator for the works.

James says that fulfilled Genesis 15:6, where Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. But Paul says that belief came before the works, before God gave Abraham something to do and that the faith he had in what God said before the works was what justified him.

James 2:24 says,

Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. 

If God tells you to do something and you don’t, your faith is dead. Rahab, David, Moses, Noah—they all did what God said. Noah didn’t just believe; he built the ark. Solomon said, “Fear God and keep his commandments.” Revelation says the same.

So James is right—but something’s missing: the finished work of Christ, the ultimate work the fulfilment of the law and the reason for the works.

Paul teaches that salvation today is by grace through faith in Christ’s work. James teaches that faith must be shown by works. They’re both right—in their own context.

People twist Scripture trying to make them say the same thing. But if the Bible says something that doesn’t fit our view, maybe our view needs to change. Let God be true.

Both Paul and James talk about Abraham. Same man, but justified in different ways at different times. God spoke to Abraham more than once, and he responded each time.

We’re used to having the same teaching passed down for generations, but Abraham didn’t have that. God was revealing things step by step in his lifetime.

In Genesis 12:3, God promised to make Abraham a great nation and bless all families through him. That promise was unconditional, but Abraham still had to obey—Hebrews 11 says he went by faith. Then in Genesis 15, God told him his heir would come from his own body, not just someone in his house.

He took Abraham outside, showed him the stars, and said, “So shall thy seed be.” Abraham believed, and God counted it to him for righteousness (Genesis 15:6). No works, just faith.

Later, in Genesis 17, God gave Abraham a new covenant—circumcision. He wasn’t circumcised before, but now God said every male child must be. If not, they’d be cut off from the nation (Genesis 17:14). So Abraham had to obey. That’s a new instruction. Then in Genesis 22, God told him to offer Isaac, the son born from the promise. People say that’s harsh, but God didn’t let him go through with it. He provided a lamb instead.

Hebrews 11:17 explains Abraham’s thinking—he believed God would raise Isaac from the dead if needed. That’s faith. But he still acted. So yes, Abraham was justified by works in Genesis 22. But he was justified by faith alone in Genesis 15. Every time God spoke, Abraham responded in faith. Genesis 15 was faith alone. Genesis 22 was faith and works.

Paul uses Genesis 15 to show justification by faith without works. James uses Genesis 22 to show faith with works. Both are right—in their context. Paul points out that Israel’s system of boasting in works goes back to a man who was first justified by faith alone. That’s before circumcision, before offering Isaac. Paul will later ask, was Abraham circumcised or uncircumcised when he was justified? He was uncircumcised. We’ll see that in Romans 4:10.

So we don’t twist Scripture to make it fit our view. Let the Bible say what it says. Abraham’s story shows how God’s instructions changed, and how faith responded. That’s the key to understanding both Paul and James.

Genesis 15 shows Abraham was justified by faith before circumcision, before Israel even existed. He wasn’t a Jew yet—just a man who believed God. That means God doesn’t need Israel or the law to justify someone by faith without works. That’s Paul’s point. James sees Genesis 15 as fulfilled through Israel’s covenants, through works. But Paul says no—Abraham was justified by faith alone.

Jesus never explained His death during His earthly ministry. He said He’d die, but didn’t reveal why. That came later through Paul. James teaches what Jesus taught before the cross: “You’ll know them by their fruits.” So James says faith without works is dead. He’s talking to the twelve tribes about their covenant with God, which required obedience and holiness.

Paul reveals the mystery: Genesis 15 was fulfilled by Christ. Belief counted for righteousness only makes sense because of Jesus’ atoning death. Romans 3 says God is just and the justifier of those who believe in Jesus. That’s how Abraham was justified—by faith, not works. James doesn’t respond to this mystery. He talks about justification before men, not before God.

Works only make sense in a covenant system where both parties agree to keep their part. You and I are not under a covenant today, contrary to what many Christians think. Israel was and will be in the future, but in the future when they walk in their new covenant it will be entirely different because of Jeremiah 31:31 and Hebrews 8:8. Next time they’ll keep their side of the covenant because as Hebrews 8:10 and Jeremaiah 31:33-34 says,

I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.

Outside of a covenant, which we are today in the Body of Christ, it’s grace through faith alone.

Paul’s faith in Romans 3 is in Christ’s finished work: “justified freely by His grace through the redemption… through faith in His blood.” Christ died for our sins. That’s the work It’s His work, not ours. Romans 4:2–5 says Abraham’s works don’t count before God. If you work for righteousness, it’s debt, not grace. But God justifies the ungodly by faith alone. Abraham was justified before circumcision, before Israel, before the law. Paul uses that to preach salvation by grace.

Then, in the next episode, in Romans 4:3-8, Paul brings up David, Israel’s greatest king, who sinned, and was still justified without works.

This passage covers a shift in dispensations from the law to grace, and from Israel to all, both Jew and Gentile. Paul doesn’t invent a new gospel; he reveals a mystery that was purposed by God long ago before the foundation of the world but that He kept a a mystery right through all those ages up until Paul to whom this mystery was made manifest and made known to all through Paul.

Ephesians 3:1-7

For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward: 

How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ) Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; 

That the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, (that’s in Christ’s body, the Body of Christ) and partakers of his (God’s) promise in Christ by the gospel: 

Whereof I (Paul) was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power. 

This mystery that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs with Christ and in body as members of His body, was not known by the prophets of old and was not revealed until Paul.

This change in dispensations was definitely not because God changed His nature.

Hebrews 13:8,

Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever.

Malachi 3:6,

For I am the LORD, I change not;

God’s nature never changes and His overriding purpose never changes, but very clearly the way He deals with mankind and the progressive revelation He gives to man does change!

Let’s quickly look at this because it’s a vital key to understanding scripture.

Hebrews 1:1–2

God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son…

This shows a shift from revelation dispensed through the prophets to revelation dispensed by Christ Himself.

Ephesians 3:2–3

If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward… by revelation he (God) made known unto me the mystery…

Paul introduces the “dispensation of grace,” a new administration seperate from the law.

Colossians 1:25–26

…according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God; Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations…

Paul was entrusted with a previously hidden truth now revealed.

Galatians 3:23–25

But before faith came, we were kept under the law… the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ…

The law is pictured as a guardian or a tutor that taught lessons concerning the holiness of God, the sinfulness of man, and the need for atonement.

Romans 5:13–14

Sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses…

This separates the time before the law from the Mosaic era.

Acts 13:38–39

…through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.

Paul contrasts justification by faith with the limitations of the Mosaic law.

1 Corinthians 9:17

…a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me.

Paul acknowledges a specific stewardship of the gospel message that was given to him.

Ephesians 1:10

That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ…

This points to a future completion of God’s ultimate plan.

These verses collectively show that while God Himself never changes (Malachi 3:6, Hebrews 13:8), His methods of dealing with mankind—through law, promise, grace, and future glory have varied according to His purpose and timing.

Now this dispensation of Grace that we live in today came about because Israel fell, and God began creating a new creature—the Body of Christ.

God kept this mystery a mystery because God’s intention was to give Israel every possible opportunity to inherit the long promised and prophesied Kingdom of God that He promised them way back to the time of Abraham, Issac and Jacob.

With the coming of Christ, the Messiah, this promise was finally at the feet of the nation of Israel. All they had to do was walk in by faith, by believing that the Messiah had come and that He was Jesus who walked among them.

Remember that Jesus came to Israel for this purpose announcing, with John the Baptist, that the Kingdom of heaven was at hand. See Matthew 3:2, Matthew 4:17, Matthew 10:7, Mark 1:15, Luke 21:31.

In Matthew 15:24 Jesus states,

But he (Jesus) answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 

But the nation of Israel rejected the Messiah and murdered Him. They rejected Him in spite of the unmistakable signs and wonders that proved who He was.

They rejected God and His power at Christ’s resurrection and they rejected the Holy Spirit when He was sent at Pentecost according to Jeremaiah 31:31, Hebrews 8:10 and Joel 2:28.

The final, last straw came when they stoned Stephen after Stephen had clearly shown them the fulfilment of their history up till that date.

This caused God to place His program for Israel and the earthly kingdom on hold and Israel was blinded temporarily.

Romans 11:25

For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. 

Now, in this current interlude to God’s timeline that we know as the dispensation of grace, there’s no difference between Jew and Greek.

Colossians 3:11,

Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all. 

Even though God, in His perfect foreknowledge knew this would be the outcome He still performed absolutely according to His promises to Israel who were given every possible opportunity to walk into their promised kingdom and their incredible prophesied position. Even though currently and temporarily set aside, that promise will never change. It will be realised in the future after this dispensation of grace is over.

So, Paul uses the Law, the Prophets, and Christ’s work on the cross to preach justification freely to all, including those in Rome.

Romans 3:21–26 is not just doctrine, it’s dispensational, revelation, and deeply rooted in God’s eternal purpose.

So, after all that lets go to Romans 3:27.

Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. 

So, this comes right after Paul says in verse 26 that God justifies those who believe in Jesus.

Lots of people say they believe in Jesus, but Paul’s talking about more than that. We’ve got to believe in what He did not just that He existed as a historical figure. We’ve got to believe His sinless blood was shed for our sins (verse 25), the free gift of grace (verse 24), and the fact that we’re all sinners (verse 23).

We can’t just grab verse 26 and skip the rest. It’s all one sentence, all connected.

As we asked last time, Did Christs death on the cross save us?

If that were true every person that ever existed would be saved and we know that’s not true.

The key to all things with God is belief, faith. Without faith it’s impossible to please God, Hebrews 11:6.

It’s our belief in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ that saves us.

So Paul asks, “Where is boasting then?” That’s a big question. Before the cross, Israel had a special place.

Romans 3:1–2 says they had advantages—God gave them His law, His promises.

Romans 2:17 says they boasted in God, and verse 23 says they boasted in the law, and rightly so! God gave them His word, His law, and access to Him and that was a privilege.

But now, Paul’s preached the gospel and shown that all are sinners, even Israel, and salvation is now only by grace through faith in Jesus Christ and where that grace is concerned there’s now no longer Jew or Gentil. All are the same.

So where’s the boasting now? It’s gone. Verse 27 says it’s excluded. Why? Because salvation isn’t by trying to keep the law or by our works anymore. It’s by faith in what Christ did, His works, That means nobody’s got a special edge. Jew or Gentile, rich or poor, educated or not—salvation is offered to all on the basis of faith.

Ephesians 2:8-9

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. 

Back then, Israel had laws only they could follow. They had an access to God that others didn’t. That was their boast.

But now, Galatians 6:14 says we glory only in the cross of Christ. That’s the only thing worth boasting about. Not our background, our behavior, or our religion.

Even today, some Christians think they can boast because they’re saved. But Paul says no. We didn’t earn it and we didn’t deserve it. It’s a free gift.

Romans 3:24 says we’re justified freely by His grace. That word “freely” wipes out any idea of earning it. And verse 21 says it’s “without the law.” So if salvation isn’t by law, you can’t boast in the law.

Paul keeps saying “His, (Gods) righteousness” not ours. Under the law, Israel could say “look what we did, look who we are” But now, it’s “look what Christ did.” That’s the shift.

Deuteronomy 6:25 says,

And it shall be our righteousness, (Israel’s) if we observe to do all these commandments before the LORD our God, as he hath commanded us. 

If Israel kept the law, it would be counted as their righteousness. But now, that’s gone. Paul says it’s excluded.

Even Christians today can get this wrong when they start boasting in their good behavior, their church attendance, their clean living. But that’s not the gospel. Good works are good, for sure and Ephesians 2:10  tells us this,

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

But they’re not the reason or the method by which we’re saved. We can’t boast in them. That opens the door to pride, selfishness and confusion.

So Paul’s walking through history here. Israel had the law, had the promises, and had the access. But now, all are sinners, and all need grace. And that grace is offered to all. That’s why boasting’s excluded, because salvation isn’t about what we’ve done—it’s about what Christ did for us.

Unsaved people may say in talking about Christians, “I live just as good as you do,” and they’re probably right.

In the flesh, in the natural man, there’s no real difference between a saved sinner and an unsaved one. The change happens in our spirit when we believe.

Even then, even when our old inner man, our flesh is dead in Christ it takes a changing of our mind, a renewing of our thinking—to walk right and even then salvation isn’t based on how well we live.

If it was, then better living would mean better salvation. But that’s not grace—that’s law. That’s the wrong gospel.

So then, Paul asks in Romans 3:27, “Where is boasting then?” It’s excluded, shut out, banned.

You can’t boast in the law when salvation is without the law. You can’t boast in God as if He’s only yours. Israel used to boast in their God, the God of Israel. But now, Romans 3:22 says salvation is “unto all and upon all them that believe,” and “there is no difference.” That means Jew and Gentile are on the same level. Israel has no special access anymore.

This’s what got Paul in trouble. He wasn’t just saying Jesus is the Jewish Messiah. He was saying Israel, the law and the covenants, aren’t needed any longer in order to be saved.

That was heresy to many people. But Paul shows in Romans that this gospel is backed by Scripture, witnessed by the law and prophets. It’s what Christ told him. So it’s not out of line or heretical, it’s just new to their ears. It’s the mystery revealed.

In Romans 3:29 Paul asks,

Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also: 

That’s why Israel can’t boast anymore because God’s also the God of the Gentiles as well.

Paul says boasting is excluded and asks the question “by what law?” in such a way that he’s going to inform them what makes this a principle.

He then explains that it’s not the law of works which excludes boasting, but the law of faith.

That tells us two things:

1. The law of works—doing good, avoiding bad—can’t remove sin or make any man righteous. Romans 3:20 says no flesh is justified by the law. The law only shows us our sin.

2. Faith is not a work. Paul makes a contrast between works and faith. If faith were a work, it would fall under the law of works. But Romans 4:5 says faith is counted for righteousness, not earned. So faith isn’t something you do to earn salvation—it’s the method or the channel by which we receive it.

Ephesians 2:8–9 expands on this and we read,

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. 

That’s the same truth Paul teaches in this passage of Romans 3:21–28. Salvation is by grace, through faith in Jesus Christ and His blood. No boasting’s allowed.

Romans 3:28 gives the conclusion:

Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. 

You and I couldn’t reach that conclusion before verse 20. From Romans 1:18 to 3:20, Paul shows how all are under sin—Gentiles, Jews, everyone.

Romans 3:10 says,

As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: 

Romans 3:23 says,

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; 

So in verse 21, Paul starts explaining the gospel: the righteousness of God without the law.

This ties back to Romans 1:17, where Paul says “the just shall live by faith.”

From creation to Israel, Paul walks through history showing that works won’t save anyone. God’s wrath is on all, and the only way to be justified is by faith.

Romans 2:13 said,

For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. 

But now Paul shows that no one can do the law perfectly. So the only way is faith. Faith comes by hearing the Word of God—not by doing the law. That’s the shift. That’s the gospel. And that’s why boasting is gone.

If you’re under the law and say, “I heard it, but I’m not doing it,” then you’re not justified. Romans 2:13 says it’s not just hearing—it’s doing. But Paul reveals something new in our passage (Romans 3:21–28): the righteousness of God without the law. That’s the only way faith can stand alone and justify us.

When we get to Romans 6 we’ll see the explanation of why we’re not under the law anymore.

In Romans 2, Paul talks to Israel. They boast in God and the law, but he asks, “Do you do it?”

Romans 2:21 says,

Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal? 

See, you teach others, Israel, but do you teach yourself?”

You say don’t steal—do you steal?

Romans 2:26 says,

Therefore if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision? 

This shows that even Gentiles who keep the law’s righteousness are counted as circumcised. Paul’s point is that Israel didn’t keep the law, even though they boasted in it. So boasting is excluded. You’ve got nothing to brag about.

So, Romans 3:28 says a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.

That clashes with Romans 2:13 and James 2, which say the doers of the law are justified and that was true under the law.

Jesus said similar things in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John,  but Paul’s conclusion in Romans 3 is something we couldn’t possibly know without the mystery being revealed to Paul.

It wasn’t taught before and if we removed Paul’s 13 epistles from the bible we wouldn’t know about it now because it’s not revealed anywhere else in the bible.

But now, we know what Christ did—not just for us today, but for sins under the law that are past as we saw in Romans 3:25.

People in the Old Testament and those living in the law, outside of the mystery revealed by Paul, had things they were required to do, but they failed.

Christ died for them too and Romans 3:26 reveals that God now justifies freely by grace through faith in Christ’s work.

Faith was always there, but now it stands alone. In the past, faith had to be proven by doing something—like offering sacrifices. God saw that as faith, even though the animal sacrifice itself didn’t save them. But now Paul says it’s without the deeds of the law. That means no sacrifices, no rituals, no works. Just faith.

That’s the mark of this dispensation. It’s not that faith or grace are new—it’s that they now stand by themselves. Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone. The nation Israel, the priests, and the covenants are no longer needed for salvation.

Paul says “but now” those things are removed. What’s replaced them?

Romans 3:21–26 says: the blood of Jesus Christ. That’s why we’re Christians. We worship Christ and His finished work.

Jesus was Israel’s Messiah who came fulfilling all the prophesies spoken of by the prophets for centuries.

Now the death of Christ declares God’s righteousness. God is just because He has made a way to save sinful man while still requiring the full payment of the penalty of sin.

He can justify the ungodly without condoning their sin or compromising His own righteousness because a perfect Substitute has died and risen again.

Christ is now all we need. Salvation from sin through His death, burial and resurrection is offered freely to everyone today and we find this truth only in Paul’s epistles.

The wonderful Romans 3:28 is the faith-alone verse,

Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. 

Acts 13:38–39 backs this up. Paul stands and speaks to the Jews in the synagogue at Antioch and says,

Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man (Jesus Christ) is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins:

And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.

Through Jesus, forgiveness is preached, and all who believe are justified from things the law of Moses couldn’t fix. The law couldn’t justify you—but Jesus can.

That’s not something that Peter and the Jewish apostles said. Neither did Jesus Himself say that while He was on earth.

Paul can say it though because this new dispensation, the dispensation of grace, was given to him. Christ gave him new information that God did not reveal before Paul.

So Paul starts Romans 3:21 with “but now”—the righteousness of God without the law. He starts and ends the gospel sentence with that.

We need to understand why we’re not under the law.

If we just say “we’re not under the law” and leave it there, then the question could be asked, “Then why do good?” and that’s a fair question.

Back in Israel’s program, if you didn’t do what God said, you were cut off, Some even died.

That’s what 1 John 3:7 talks about.

John’s not writing to the church, the Body of Christ, today, he’s writing to the tribulation remnant, and in 1 John 3:7 he says,

Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. 

He that “does righteousness,” many people try to separate that from the doing of the law, but how do you know what’s good without the law God gave? Scripture is the only standard we’ve got. This happens mainly because people have been taught by tradition that 1st John and the other Jewish epistle were written as instruction for us the Body of Christ today. It was most certainly given for our learning and understanding, just like all scripture is as we see in 2 Timothy 3:16 – 17,

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 

That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. 

All scripture is given for our doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness but not all scripture written specifically to us for our instruction. We must use context to understand the difference.

1 John 2:2 says,

And he (Jesus) is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. 

Then in the next verse, 1 John 2:3-4 we read,

And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. 

He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 

These’re tough verses when you compare them to Romans 3, where Paul says all are sinners and the law can’t justify anyone.

So how do we know God? Not by our works, but by the faith of Christ (Romans 3:22). It’s not about doing what Christ commanded—it’s about trusting in what He did.

Romans 2 talks about God judging every man by his deeds (verse 6). But Romans 3:28 says a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.

That seems like a contradiction unless we understand how Paul, in Romans 2, is walking through history, showing how God used the law to expose sin. But in Romans 3, he reveals the gospel, righteousness without the law.

If we stop reading at Romans 2, we’ll miss the point. The same as if we stop at Acts 2, you miss what God revealed in Acts 9. We’ve got to keep reading. Romans 3 is progressive revelation. Paul’s not making it up, he’s showing what God’s been doing all along.

Some people see the seeming contradiction between Romans 3, righteousness without the law, and James 2 where faith and works is required.

They try to fit it in to one combined teaching by saying Paul’s only referring to the removal of Israel’s ceremonial laws—like the ones that relate to circumcision, holy days, and special foods, but the moral laws like loving your neighbour must still be kept.

They say Paul taught faith plus works, just not Israel’s special works. But Paul clearly says “without the deeds of the law”. Not just some of them, all of them.

Most church denominations teach faith plus works.

They say James is correcting people who misunderstood Paul. But the real issue is they don’t rightly divide the word of truth and so they don’t see the dispensational change.

Romans 2 and 3 are both Paul, but he’s speaking historically in chapter 2 and revealing the mystery in chapter 3.

There’s no split between ceremonial and moral law. That’s man-made. The Ten Commandments include both. For example, “don’t commit adultery” is moral, but “keep the Sabbath” is ceremonial. Yet they’re all part of the same law given to Israel.

Teachers and preachers in many, if not most, modern, man organised churches teach this mixture that yes, we’re saved by grace through faith, but we must do the works of the law to either complete or keep salvation.

Often this mixture is subtle but whether subtle or blatant it causes confusion amongst church goers and all because these pastors and teachers have failed to see the dispensational changes in the bible, particularly where the mystery dispensation of grace is revealed to and by our apostle for today, Paul.

Paul says we’re justified by faith alone—without the law. That’s the gospel for today. It’s not faith plus works. It’s faith in Christ’s finished work. That’s what saves. That’s what makes us righteous. And that’s why we don’t boast in ourselves—we boast in Him, Christ.

Under Israel’s law, every one of the 613 commands was a moral requirement. You couldn’t pick and choose. James 2:10 says this,

For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.

See, if you break one, you break them all.

God held them accountable for every law—not just the “big ones.” People try to split the law into categories: ceremonial, moral, civil. But that’s man-made. The Bible doesn’t divide it like that. All 613 laws were given by God, and they were all binding.

Even in society today, civil laws help keep order.

Are they less moral? No. A law is moral if God gave it. So when Paul says “without the law” in Romans 3:20–21, he’s not just talking about Israel’s ceremonial stuff. He means the whole law—everything that was given to show right from wrong.

If Paul only meant ceremonial laws, then Romans 3:20 wouldn’t make sense. He says “no flesh” is justified by the deeds of the law. No flesh includes everyone, not just Jews. And the law brings the knowledge of sin—not just because someone didn’t wear tassels or tithe mint, but because they broke deeper commands like “thou shalt not covet” (Romans 7:7).

Jesus rebuked Israel in Matthew 23:23,

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. 

This rebuke was not for skipping ceremonies, but for ignoring the weightier matters: judgment, mercy, and faith. Those are the hard laws.

The priests could tithe easily—that was their job. But loving God with all your heart and loving your neighbour? That’s harder. That’s where sin shows up.

So when Paul says “without the law,” he’s removing all works—ceremonial, moral, everything. If you say he’s only removing Jewish rituals, then you’re still stuck with the hardest laws. And those are the ones people fail at most.

Paul says no one’s justified by any deeds of the law.

If the law only showed sin through ceremonies, it wouldn’t apply to Gentiles. But Paul says the law shows sin to all. That includes moral failures like not loving God or our neighbour. That’s why the law brings the knowledge of sin.

In 1 John 2:29 we read,

If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him. 

If you do righteousness, you’re born of God. But 1 John is written to remnant Israel under their covenant, not to the church, the Body of Christ, today. It’s a book of law and love. Paul’s gospel is different—it’s about grace and faith without the law.

We can’t split the law into parts. God didn’t and Paul didn’t. The law was one whole system, and it’s been set aside today.

Today, we’re justified by faith alone in Christ’s finished work. That’s the gospel of grace. That’s what Romans teaches. And that’s why we don’t go back to the law—not even the so called “moral” parts—to try and prove we’re righteous.

Good works are what we should be doing but when we try and earn salvation by those works we’re in grave error.

So, according to 1 John 2:29 if you know God is righteous, then everyone who does righteousness is born of Him.

Then in 1 John 3:6 it says whoever abides in Him doesn’t sin, and whoever sins hasn’t seen Him or known Him.

That’s a hard saying.

If Paul and John are teaching the same thing, and we’re only removing ceremonial laws, then 1 John would be our instruction. But John doesn’t talk about tassels or circumcision, he talks about keeping commandments. And if you don’t, you’re not of God. That’s not grace. That doesn’t line up with Paul.

1 John 3:10 says,

Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him. 

In 1 John 3:18 we have,

My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. 

This’s the verse people use to say works are needed in this dispensation. But Paul doesn’t teach that our love earns us anything with God. He teaches that God loved us while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8). It’s His love, not ours, that saves.

If Paul was only removing ceremonial laws, salvation wouldn’t be any easier. You’d still be under the law and condemned by it. Romans 2 and 3 make that clear.

Romans 2:14 says Gentiles who don’t have the law still do things in the law by nature. That can’t be about ceremonial laws.

Gentiles weren’t shaving their beards a certain way or wearing special clothes. Paul’s talking about basic things like don’t kill, don’t steal—things even pagans knew were wrong.

Romans 2:21–22 shows Paul using moral laws like “don’t steal” and “don’t commit adultery” to prove Israel’s guilt.

These are the same laws that people that believe in salvation by faith plus works say are the fruit of true faith.

But Paul says these laws don’t justify anyone. So if you’re not justified by “don’t steal,” then you’re not justified by faith plus works either.

Paul’s argument is simple: the law shows sin, but it doesn’t save. Not stealing, not committing adultery, or loving your neighbour are good things, but they don’t justify you. Only faith in Jesus Christ does. That’s the gospel of grace. That’s what Paul taught. And that’s what rightly dividing God’s word helps us to see.

Paul says in Romans 3:27,

Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. 

If only ceremonial laws are removed, then you can still boast in your moral behaviour. That ruins Paul’s point.

Romans 4:2 says if Abraham was justified by works, he could boast—but not before God. Abraham didn’t have Israel’s law. He was justified by faith alone in Genesis 15. God told him something, he believed it, and that was it.

Even Gentiles who didn’t have the law had a conscience. Romans 2:14 says they did things in the law by nature. That’s not about tassels or feast days—it’s about basic right and wrong. God gave them a conscience, and that’s how they knew what was good. But even that didn’t justify them.

Romans 1 says people didn’t thank or glorify God. That’s a good thing that they should’ve done, but they didn’t. Paul’s whole argument is that no one, Jew or Gentile, is justified by works. Not ceremonial, not moral, not anything. Only faith in Christ’s finished work saves.

James talks about helping the poor and showing love. That’s all good stuff, but James wasn’t dealing with the same issue Paul was.

Paul’s explaining how sinners can be made right before God. James is talking to believers who claim to follow Jesus but don’t live it out. James didn’t know the mystery yet—Christ hadn’t revealed it.

That’s not to knock James or make him any less important in scripture. His words are true and just as vital as Paul’s, but in their context. It’s a different context to Paul, a different audience under a different dispensation.

But Paul’s gospel is different. It’s grace through faith, without works.

Romans 3:28,

Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.

In the next episode Paul answers a logical question. Do we then make void the law through faith? Until then may God richly bless you all.