Author: Ben Bourland

9 Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well, and to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised. Romans 4:9-12

This is such an awesome point that Paul is making here in Romans 4 and can be applied to our own lives today. I can call myself a Christian and even have the title of elder or even Follower of Jesus…but that does not make me righteous.

Abraham was declared righteous by faith before he was circumcised. This means his right standing with God wasn’t based on a physical act or religious identity. Circumcision was a sign, a seal of the righteousness he already had by faith. Therefore, Abraham is the spiritual father of:

• The uncircumcised who believe (Gentiles),
• And the circumcised who not only bear the sign but who also follow Abraham’s example of faith – faith in the Lord Jesus now that the He as the Messiah, has come to bear sin.

Faith, not ritual, title, or heritage, is the basis for being made right with God. This opens the door for everyone—Jew and Gentile alike—to be part of God’s family through faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

APPLICATION

I need to be careful of the Pharisaical propensities that I might have as a serving follower of Jesus. I must preach the gospel to myself every morning and live a life that is not my own. I have been purchased at the highest price. I still live in this earthly carcass that is bent on responding to the world’s pleasures and enticement of sin. I am reminded of Hebrews 12:1&2a. “Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud witnesses, let us through off everything that hinders, the sin that so easily entangles…let us run with perseverance, the race that has been set before us, looking to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith…” This is one of my memorized passages of scripture and one that is so wonderful to pray through to remind myself Who matters.

5 And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.” Romans 4:5-8

Just as a someone has their monetary debts covered by a gift of mercy, Jesus bore our sin, and the Father does not count them against us! How crazy is that?!?

When Jesus secured our freedom from sin, God forgave our lawless deeds. God’s plan for us is so perfect. When we accept the truth of Jesus and His blood poured out for us, our sin is covered. We still did them, the old man in us did live, and our new man remembers what we have been saved from. It is this heart condition that David is talking about above from Psalm 31:1&2. This passage continues with “I acknowledged my sin to You, and I did not cover my iniquity!” I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.

David was a man after God’s own heart yet as we know, David was no saint. He committed some of the most heinous sins, yet in his grief and shame, he humbled himself before the LORD of Hosts and cast all his sin at the foot of God. His faith produced a bestowing of righteousness and the moniker of a “man after God’s own heart”. David’s story, from his earliest years, was a man who knew God was real, saw the hand of God so deliberately in his own life, yet also fell in so many yucky ways. In the end it was his brokenness and contrite heart before the Lord that captured God’s favor on him.

The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit.
    You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.

Psalm 51:17 (NLT)

APPLICATION

Psalm 51:17 is such a beautiful capture of the type of heart God is looking for. He is not looking for the righteous pious servant, no, God is looking for a broken and contrite heart that stands before a mighty and holy God. A heart that recognizes the depravity it contains relative to pure and just God. This must be my state in all that I do – whether that is at work or serving as an elder at church. He is everything, I am nothing…if anything good comes from His life in me, it is only Him Who deserves all the glory. In short, my life IS HIS. It is He Who lives in me.

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and  are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. Romans 3:21-24

Wow! I have been chewing on this one passage for multiple days. Reading it, reading the passage before it, and reading it again.

The first underlined piece above comes right after Paul talking about those who are judged ‘under the law’…all of us. We are sunk in our sin that is defined by the law of Moses. There is no way to escape it! Until…the “BUT NOW”. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law. Meaning, following under the rule of the law was impossible. We sin and then the law just helps us see that we have sinned. There is no way for the law to save us because it is impossible for us to stay obedient to the law. “But NOW” there is a new way to receive the righteousness that only ‘following the law perfectly’ could produce before.

through the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for ALL who believe

For those who believe AND have faith in Jesus Christ, EVEN THOUGH they have ALL SINNED and fallen short of the glory of God, ARE JUSTIFIED by His GRACE as a GIFT, through the redemption that IS IN Christ Jesus.

This propitiation by His blood is ONLY received by FAITH. It’s all here —It’s amazing to me that it could not be any more clear but so many are still confused.

Tomorrow we are going to see how it is that God had passed righteousness onto people in the Old Testament through something called ‘Forbearance’.

APPLICATION

Oh, how grateful I am to the Creator God of all that we know and see, to provide us a way to receive His gift of righteousness we could never earn. My sin, even if it is small, is enough to separate me from God for all eternity…but no, in His love He manifested another way other than the impossible way of perfectly adhering to the Law…through faith in His Son, the Truth, the Life, and the Way. Thank you, God, Almighty for the gift of your Son!!

19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. Romans 3:19-20

It may look like Paul is singling someone out here….but he is not. Those under the law is -> every unredeemed human being. The children of Israel have the law through Moses and the Gentiles have the works of the law written on their hearts (Romans 1:20). So, every single person is held accountable to God.

“Every mouth stopped” — there is simply nothing anyone can say in their defense when God’s guilty verdict is pronounced on the whole human race. Finally in verse 20, Paul tells us that no human being can appropriately follow the law God requires. Every single one of us are plagued with the inability to follow it perfectly.

The law makes sin known to each person, but that knowledge can’t save us from the sin that has been revealed to us. This is the condition every person must come to fundamental understanding of; applied to their own lives, in order to see the amazing gift of the gospel.

APPLICATION

Even after coming to this place in my own life, seeing my own separation from God in sin that carries with it a deserving of the wrath of God, and laying all of my worthlessness at the feet of Jesus…I still need to preach this to myself every day. My justified spirit lives in this fallible carcass. My dependence on the Lord, His Word, and His Holy Spirit are His tools that give me the strength and discernment to see my sin and confess it before God and repent. I hope to get as close as I can to being like God’s Son before He returns or takes me home. That means that I must continue to throw off the old self and embrace the transformed heart that desires God, not this world or anything in it.

9 What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, 10 as it is written:
“None is righteous, no, not one;
11 no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
13 “Their throat is an open grave;
they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 in their paths are ruin and misery,
17 and the way of peace they have not known.”
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” Romans 3:9-18

No single person (outside of our Lord Jesus Christ) can stand and say that they have done enough to get to heaven. Being better than the person standing next to you is not going to make the bar. Paul’s whole message is that there is no way to a Hope in Heaven that we can do by our own means. We all, through the fall of Adam and Eve have inherited a sinful heart and before we can even reason to do right, we have already sinned to the extent that we deserve to be punished for it. Paul goes into excruciating detail on all the ways we have all stepped in to the state of guilt before a Holy and Pure God.

Just look in the world we live in today. Our news is full of it, our TV is infested with it, and no matter where you go on Social Media, it is rampant. Our only hope is a faith in the One Who already paid the ultimate price….a sacrifice of perfect man Who has no sin, so that He could be made sin for us. Experiencing the separation from God that we all deserve. BUT, the Father raised Him on the 3rd day, setting Him on the throne to not only rule Heaven today, but also the be the Judge on that fateful day.

APPLICATION

I deserve what I was destined to receive before I met my Savior. It is only by God’s grace through His Son alone that I have an eternal hope. Spiritual death for me has been conquered by Jesus Christ and His righteousness has been credited to me. For this! I am forever grateful and serve Him with all that I am, and all that I can do. Thank you, Jesus, for rescuing me from the pit!

5 But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.) 6 By no means! For then how could God judge the world? 7 But if through my lie God’s truth abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? 8 And why not do evil that good may come?—as some people slanderously charge us with saying. Their condemnation is just. Romans 3:5-8

This whole aside is Paul anticipating and answering the objection that his teaching actually calls into question the very holiness and purity of God’s character.

I like how John MacArthur talks about this broken rationale that the Lord is somehow made more righteous when we sin all the more. They would say that it is like a jeweler setting a diamond on black velvet to make the stone appear even more beautiful. When Paul says he “talks in a human way”, he is just paraphrasing the weak logic of his opponents. They simply have unregenerate minds that are simple in natural rationale rather than seeing the supernatural truth of God’s gift; yet also fruit of repentance and the transformed heart that produces a desire for righteousness, where the power of the Gospel helps one stay on the path to pursuing it.

Looking to the judgement, Paul’s argument continues in that if God condoned sin, He would have no position or righteous basis for passing judgement.

Finally, the most awful thing is that Paul’s message of the gospel that is Salvation by grace through faith alone had been so perverted by his critics, who argued it provided not only a license to sin, but outright encouragement to sin.

APPLICATION

One of the things that the Lord has solidified in me since becoming a believer, Christ follower, and devoted disciple of Jesus, is the simple truth that you better check the genuineness of your Salvation if you are not becoming more and more like Christ everyday…not only that but desiring to do so out of the sheer gratitude of the price He paid on YOUR behalf….sins you should be punished for…for all eternity. This love of Jesus drives us not to earn our spot in heaven…no, He has already secured that for us…it drives us to want to glorify Him and honor Him with the lives He has graciously allowed us to live here on earth before He returns or takes us home.

1 Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? 2 Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. 3 What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? 4 By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar, as it is written,

“That you may be justified in your words,
and prevail when you are judged.” 

Romans 3:1-4

Paul figured that the Jewish readers would disagree with his assertions that God has not guaranteed to fulfil His promises to every physical descendent of Abraham.

The Jews had knowledge that the Gentiles did not have. They had been raised with the teaching of the Old Testament, what Paul calls ‘The Oracles of God’. The Greek word used here, “logion”, is a diminutive form of the common New Testament form “logos”. Which is normally translated “word”. These ‘logion’ are important sayings or messages, most importantly supernatural ones. So, the Jews had received the very words of the True God.

Before any Jew, regardless of the purity and understanding of their lineage, can receive the promises, that person must come to repentance and faith.

⁶ But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, ⁷ and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring.

Romans 9:6-7

God WILL fulfil all the promises He made to the nation of Israel, even if individual Jews are not able to receive them because of their unbelief. I love how John MacArthur talks about this, “Even if all of mankind were to agree that God had been unfaithful to His promises, it would only prove that all are liars and God is True.” This is the meaning behind the ‘As it is written’ reference to Psalms 51:4 in the passage.

APPLICATION

How grateful I am to have God’s Word in my hands. What a gift I have in being able to read, discern, and have the Holy Spirit speak to me in a supernatural way in my life; guiding me on my journey to become more like King Jesus Himself. I am also going to be held to a responsibility of reading and understanding His Word. I must ask myself everyday whether I am just reading/hearing the Word or am I also putting that received understanding and truth to my own life, every day. I am a citizen of the Nation of Israel, and one that will receive all the promises of the True God because of my belief in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

25 For circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. 26 So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? 27 Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law. 28 I. 29 But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God. Romans 2:25-29

For the Jews, circumcision was a sacred sign of the covenant God made with Abraham (Genesis 17:10–14). It was traditionally performed on boys when they were eight days old, marking them as set apart for God and identifying them as members of His covenant people.

However, Paul explains that this outward sign only has value if it is matched by obedience to God’s law. If a Jew is circumcised yet continually breaks God’s commands, the covenant sign loses its meaning—spiritually, it is as if he were uncircumcised. The physical mark cannot save or preserve the covenant relationship when the heart is far from God.

Conversely, Paul says that if someone who is not circumcised—such as a Gentile—lives in obedience to God’s Word, that person is regarded by God as though they were circumcised. In other words, true covenant membership is not about the external ritual but about the inward reality.

Paul concludes with a striking statement:

“For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.” Romans 2:28-29

This “circumcision of the heart” is the Spirit’s work—transforming a person’s inner life so that they love, trust, and obey God. Outward rituals can point to this reality, but they cannot replace it.

APPLICATION

Just saying I am a Christian or ‘Follower of Jesus’ does not make me one. I must know, believe, and trust in Who He says He is. Doing this means I fully understand and embrace what He did for me on the cross. That heart condition (a transformed heart) is one that produces ‘fruits of the Spirit’ and contributes to an ever-growing sanctification of my life.

17 But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God 18 and know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law; 19 and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, 20 an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth— 21 you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? 22 You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? 23 You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. 24 For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” Romans 2:17-24

This passage is a very strong rebuke to the Jews for having an arrogance about their heritage, knowledge of the Word, believing they understand the will of God, and that they are to be a light to the world. If they have this and then do what is contrary to this swagger they carry, that is BAD news. The way Paul wraps this section up, says it all.

“The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”

Romans 2:24

Sometimes I look at how Paul reinforces his points with being exhaustive about the various questions he asks and wonder why he spends so much time calling out the items he chooses…it’s because he knows his audience. I am sure he has been plagued with the “what about this” and “what about that’s” of the churches and believers living in this period of persecution and culture. He essentially “idiot proofs” his messages (letters).

APPLICATION

Sadly, we in our day need this too. The best takeaway I have found from reading scripture is to take a hermeneutical approach to reading and study. In almost all cases, what Paul has had to say can be directly applied to the world and situations I am in today. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. God is never wrong in how something is communicated in His Word…it is me who needs to get my understanding straight in terms of what the Lord means for us.