Using Abraham as the prime example, Paul demonstrates that faith justifies without the Law.

Note: The reader must understand that CIRCUMCISION was the distinguishing mark between Jew and Gentile. The circumcised (Jews) were required to perform the works of the Law and the uncircumcised (Gentiles) were not.

4:1      Paul refers to the Jews' boast of Abraham as their father "pertaining to the flesh", and asks, "If Abraham is so very important, then what is it that his story really teaches us?".

4:2-5       If Abraham had observed the works of the Law, he could have rightly gloried, or rejoiced, in the blessing of receiving the Law. The Law, after all, was a glorious thing (2Cor.3:7-11). But Paul asks the really important question. When was Abraham justified with God? Paul says that it was, at the latest, Genesis 15, when Abraham is plainly said to have been considered righteous before the Lord. This must prove that Abraham, "the father of the faithful", was justified with God by his obedient faith - centuries before the Law was given! (Gal.2:15-16).

4:6-8      Paul quotes David, as he sang of the man who is made clean before God. The importance of these verses to Paul's argument is the fact that in them David says nothing of ceremonial works playing a part in justification. Now, Paul knows that the observant reader will question his "reasoning from silence", and Paul hopes that the reader will do so. For he has a question of his own, which follows in verses 9-10.

4:9-12       Paul's question: If the man whom God forgives is blessed, as David said in his Psalm, is that blessing limited to those who are circumcised? In Genesis 15, Abraham was said to be righteous, and that was before he was circumcised (Gen.17). His circumcision was the seal of the righteous faith he demonstrated before he was given circumcision. He is the father of many nations, because he is the example to all men of true faith in God. With this, Paul touches on the flammable issue of spiritual fatherhood (Jn.8:30-44; Gal.3:1-14).

4:13-18      Beyond this, God's promise to Abraham of inheriting the world was given to him while he was uncircumcised. If only those who keep the ceremonial works of Law of Moses shall receive Abraham's promise, then Abraham himself is left out because he died long before Moses was born! But the promise is to all who have like faith with Abraham.

4:19-22       Paul then exhorts these Gentile believers to trust God to be able to do the impossible, as did their father Abraham. God is able to raise the dead. Only that kind of faith will prevail against the spiritual pressures of this life.

4:23-25      Abraham's story is written not to encourage Abraham, but his children, who believe the Word of God as Abraham did in his time. Abraham believed what God was saying then. Abraham's children believe what God is saying now.

The glorious Law of Moses was made nothing by the glory of Christ Jesus.

5:1-2      There cannot be perfect peace where salvation is hoped for on the basis of performing ceremonial works, or being ritually correct. What if the bread has mildewed overnight? What if a flat tire prevents your attendance? What if you discover you have a disease which can be passed to another who drinks after you? What if you have a skin condition which is aggravated by water? What if you forget the words to the rosary? What if you've been immersed, and you discover in the final judgment that sprinkling was the only acceptable form of baptism (there are imminent scholars on both sides of the issue)? What if immersion is the right way of water baptism, but it has to be done by someone directly in "apostolic succession"?

There are literally millions of such questions which disturb the sincere conscience of men. Throughout salvation history, God has demonstrated that it is not He who is overbearing in such matters. Though insisting on obedience, He has proved Himself many times over to be patient, understanding, and merciful in matters of proper form.

In Acts 15:10, Peter acknowledges the impossibility of satisfying perfectly every prescribed detail of the Law all the time. And look at some of the many instances in which God allowed exceptions to His clear commandments: 2Chron.30:18-20 (Hezekiah's revival); Num.9:6-13 (defiled Israelites who wanted to observe the Passover).

In the midst of these examples, it must also be pointed out that God did not tolerate slackness or self-will. Examples: 2Chron.26:16-21 (Uzziah's sin); Lev.10:1-3 (Nadab and Abihu). We must not leave the impression that lack of zeal for holiness is acceptable with God.

The first point is, that when ceremonial rites are concerned, it will be physically impossible to keep them exactly as prescribed every time. And the second point is that it is virtually always the case, that because rituals are by their nature displays, they inspire competition among those who practice them. Who can have the most impressive (therefore the most "meaningful") communion supper, or baptismal sermon, wedding ceremony, or confirmation rite, or church dedication service, or appropriately dignified choir robes? It is for this reason that you have heard me say that it takes a lot of money to be a good Christian. Christianity is, as with every religion of man, a ceremonial religion. And to have the most impressive ceremony requires much money. Understood then that God did not permit self-willed disobedience, let's consider some situations in Jesus's life which demonstrated that man - not God - is the religious oppressor.

 The Sabbath day rules: (Lk.13:11-17; 14:1-6; Mk.3:1-6; Jn.5:1-11; Jn.9:1-7, 14, 16) - (Note: This is not an indictment against Jews!) - Despite the impossibility of performing as directed all the ordinances of God all the time, it was still possible to please God. Consider Lk.1:6.

When, in Psalm 119:136, David wept because God's people did not keep His Law, David was lamenting their willful disobedience, not the frailness of humans in general. He did not lament that men could not obey the Law and please God, but that they were not making the efforts that the law prescribed. The Law was good because God is good.

Now, when God wanted us to know the love and pardon what was available to us by Jesus, when He wanted to impress us with His willingness to forgive, to wipe our records clean no matter what was on them, He determined to pick out somebody who was among the worst of sinners, somebody who was guilty of bloody crimes, who was full of pride and godless rage against the innocent. He did not have to look far. He found just such a man on the road to Damascus, with orders in his ungodly hand to arrest anyone whom God had cleansed.

Paul later wrote, "For this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting" (1Tim.1:16). God had mercy on young Saul of Tarsus so that we would understand that God really was willing to forgive any who would come to Him for forgiveness!

Paul said again that the mercy shown him was not shown him in vain, but he labored more abundantly than any apostle, testifying in every place to Jew and Gentile alike - that there is now in Christ Jesus a mercy available for men which has never been offered before: "Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man [Jesus] 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" (Acts 13:38-39).

The benefits of faith are that we have access to God by Christ Jesus alone, that ceremonial correctness- indeed ceremony altogether - is irrelevant, and that, as a result, we have peace with God, trusting in Christ as our sacrifice, our Passover, our high priest, our all.

5:3-6      This section should be read backwards to understand the order of importance. Of first importance is the fact that Jesus suffered and died for us when we were helpless to deal with our ruined spirits. As a result, the holy Ghost came, bringing into our hearts a love for the things of God that we could not otherwise have. And it is love for God which enables us to rejoice in hope and to glory in tribulations, knowing that as he suffered for us, so we may be privileged to suffer for his name's sake. Then, with the love of God suffering for his name's sake, we gain experience, and having experiences by which we see the results of obeying God and the results of not obeying God, we learn to place our hope in Christ. Experience itself teaches those who wait on God the value of waiting on Him.

Given time, the truth will prove itself. In this world of darkness, those who are winners with God may appear to be losers ("the offscouring of all things") , and those who are despised by God may be highly honored; but, there is coming a world in which the good are forever blessed and the evil are forever cursed - and there will be no excuses and no appeal to a higher court.

5:7-11      The best men may on occasion offer their lives for other men such as themselves. But the love of God is shown in that while we were very unlike Him, He gave His Son for us.

Justification may be experienced now, but salvation is a future event which is "MUCH MORE" than justification. (Jesus's death saved no one. His life saves.) Reconciliation may be experienced now, but salvation is a future event which is "MUCH MORE" than justification. Atonement is something we now receive, but salvation is a future event which is "MUCH MORE" than atonement. We rejoice in our justification; we rejoice in reconciliation; we rejoice in the atonement we have received; but if salvation is MUCH MORE than these, then what will our future joy be?

5:12, 18-21      v.12 Sin entered into the world through man, not Satan, though he was the original sinner. Question: If sin entered into the world through man, then through whom did death enter into the world?  Answer:  God (Gen.3:19). The situation on earth is not a matter of man's relationship with the devil, but of his relationship with God.

(vv.18-19). Just as by the actions of one man, Adam, the nature of sin and the curse of death came upon all, so by the actions of one man, Jesus, a righteous nature and the reward of eternal life is offered to all.

v.19 The Law was given to make sin appear in our eyes to be what it was to God from the beginning: evil.

v.20 Even though the Law came and revealed the sinful condition of men, God spared men as they walked in its light.

v.21 The grace that saves accomplishes its work through righteousness. Where no righteousness is, there is no grace that saves (Tit.2:11-12).

(5:13-17) The Law came to expose sin to be sin.

Death reigned over all men, until Moses came with the Law, regardless of their connection with God (a most unexpected thought from Paul). Death reigned during that time because sin had no impediment. There was no Law by which the wicked could be judged. Death also reigned because spiritual life had not been given. The glory of Moses's Law is shown in that its entrance ended the reign of death over men! Instead, men were, in prophetic ceremonial figures, given a sort of authority over death. They used dead things to prophesy the end of death itself - Jesus's victory over the grave! That victory over death, which was shared with men when the holy Spirit came (Acts 2; Rom.6:3), was prefigured in the ceremonies which Israel constantly performed. Paul's point is that Jesus is so holy and his victory over sin and death is so great and complete that even his Old Covenant shadow liberated men from the dominion of death, and that the works of the Law were therefore glorious, holy, and good. So holy was the Law that to fail to keep it was sin, and to be diligent in it would result in eternal life. But it was Jesus which made the Law holy. It was holy only because it spoke of him.

Now that he had appeared and put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, continuation in the ceremonial Law of Moses was pointless and, in truth, continuation in those things was an implicit denial that Jesus alone is sufficient for our salvation.

Adam was a figure of Jesus (1Cor.15:45-47), but there were some ways in which Adam did not resemble him, mainly in that Jesus had no sin. So far as sin is concerned, it was the crime of one man involved that brought sin into the world. The offer of righteousness, though, was given through the sins of many: King Herod tried to kill the baby boy, people of his hometown attempted to throw him off the hill at Nazareth for telling the truth about God, Judas betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver, Caiaphas and Annas had him arrested and hired evil men to falsely accuse the Galilean prophet, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea and others in high positions believed in him but did nothing to stop the elders' cruel abuse of power, Jesus's disciples forsook him and fled, the Jewish multitude cried out for the death of the one who had healed their diseases and brought light to their lives, Pilate knowingly condemned the innocent man, and the elders laughed at the struggling Savior hanging by nails to a cross.

Nobody but Jesus did what was right in the sight of God. He won the victory over sin and death by himself (Ps.69:16-21; Isa.63:5-6).