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The apostle Paul’s letters are the oldest Christian documents in the Bible, and all of them probably predate the Gospels. They are arranged from longest to shortest, Romans to Philemon, and are letters written to churches and individuals addressing a variety of theological and personal issues. Paul’s letter to the Romans was written to a community he had never visited, but whose support he sought, and it contains a clear and compelling definition of the gospel: “it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith,” he says in the first chapter. “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, ‘The one who is righteous will live by faith’” (Rom 1:16-17). Having grown up a Jew, Paul knew this line from Habakkuk 2:4, and he used it as the foundation for his belief in the saving power of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
In the fourth chapter, Paul digs deeper into the power of faith by lifting up the example of Abraham, who “believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness” (Rom 4:3). He knew that for thousands of years, the term “righteousness” had been associated with adhering to a moral code based in the law of God, as in “the righteous hate falsehood” (Prov 13:5), “the thoughts of the righteous are just” (Prov 12:5), and “the desire of the righteous ends only in good” (Prov 11:23). But Paul had come to see that “there is no one who is righteous, not even one” (Rom 3:10). Looking inward, he confessed, “I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do” (Rom 7:18-19).
Paul realized that there must be a better way to be justified or reckoned as righteous. And fortunately, he found it in faith. He asked the Romans, “What then are we to say was gained by Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God” (Rom 4:1-2). But instead of receiving credit for good works, “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness” (Rom 4:3, quoting Gen 15:6). Paul read the Book of Genesis and saw that it was Abraham’s faith that made him righteous, not his works.
When Paul made this discovery, he reinvented the wheel. His insight was as fresh and unexpected as the invention of the Morph Wheel, a wheel that actually folds. According to The Atlantic magazine, a designer named Duncan Fitzsimmons began by wanting to invent a smaller foldable bicycle, and then he realized that disabled people would be helped by having wheelchairs that could collapse and become tiny. So Fitzsimmons invented Morph Wheels, which fold from 24 inches wide to about half that size. Made of glass-filled nylon, these wheels are narrow enough to fit in an airplane’s overhead bin, and they can be attached to any wheelchair with a quick-release axle. This is the first major reinvention of the wheel in 7,000 years of history.
In similar manner, Paul discovered that Abraham received God’s promises through “the righteousness of faith” (Rom 4:13), after centuries of assuming that Abraham was “justified by works” (Rom 4:2). This insight meant that righteousness can be gained by all who “share the faith of Abraham” (Rom 4:16), even if they are not able to follow God’s law to the letter. You might say that the cumbersome wheelchair of religious devotion collapsed and fit into the lives of all who have faith in Christ. “For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law,” said Paul to the Romans (Rom 3:28). This is made possible by the God who sent Jesus to make everything right in the world, beginning with our relationship with God. As Thomas Long of the Candler School of Theology writes, “Every paragraph of Romans is about how people are free to live, believe, and hope when they are confident that God’s life-giving victory is sure.”
Faith is not about purity, devotion and rigor. Instead, it is a willingness to trust Jesus and walk behind him on the path of life. Abraham put this kind of trust in God, and he “did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was already as good as dead,” said Paul, “or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb” (Rom 4:19). Instead, Abraham trusted God to be the one “who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist” (Rom 4:17). And sure enough, God did what was promised, and made Abraham “the father of many nations” (Rom 4:17).
When we have this kind of faith, we are made right with God — both now and eternally. This passage from Romans is one of the Bible’s greatest hits because it reinvents righteousness by showing that we are made right with God through our faith in Jesus Christ. This means that we can trust God to work through us, even when our bodies fail us. We can trust Jesus to lead us, even when we wander through a thicket of difficult moral choices. We can trust the Holy Spirit to uplift us, even when we disappoint ourselves and others. Being righteous in these situations does not come from moral perfection, but is based on being made right with God through our faith in Jesus.
Questions:
1. What do you see as the biggest challenge of living a righteous life?
2. How does faith justify us, making us right with God?
3. When do you find it most difficult to trust Jesus and God?
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