(1) What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh?
M- Paul has been talking about being made right with God through grace by faith. Probably many of the people He’s writing to grew up with the Jewish roots. Paul here, seems to imagine them asking, ‘if this concept is valid, how did that work out with Abraham?’ (Abraham is referred to as their father because it was his family that received the promises of God and that the Jewish nation grew out of.)
(2) For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.
M-The Jewish people knew from Genesis 25:5 that God said about him that He obeyed his voice and kept His charge, His commandments, His statutes and His laws. The Jews obviously then thought that Abraham earned his righteousness…and could boast about it. But Paul says He will not be able to boast before God, and the next verse will show why.
(3) For what does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.’
M-The verse quoted is Genesis 15:6. It points out that Abraham believed God, and God gave him right standing not because of what He had done, but because of His truest.
A-Faith is not an emotion, or a mysterious feeling we should wait for. Faith, is putting our trust and confidence in God. Meaning, if He says something we believe it. If He promises something, we trust Him. We trust in who He is, what He does, and what He says.
(4) Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt.
M-When you give something to someone who has worked for it, that’s not grace, that’s just giving someone what they earned. Grace is giving someone something they didn’t earn.
(5) But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness
M-The person who doesn’t try to earn right-standing with God, but just believes God gets right standing with God because of His faith. He is ungodly, but God justifies the ungodly who choose to trust Him.
(6) just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works:
M-This principle of getting right-standing with God apart from works wasn’t just something that Abraham experienced. David also describes a similar thing.
(7) “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered;
M-We all do have lawless deeds (meaning we’ve broken God’s laws), we all have sins. The blessed person (the person in the best place to be) is the one who’s had their sins forgiven.
(8) Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin”
M-These verses from David are quoted from Psalms 32:1-2. A similar statement is made here. The person who is blessed is the one who’s sin the Lord will never count against Him. This is like saying ‘Blessed is the guilty criminal who gets His fines paid and declared innocent.
A-God forgiving us doesn’t mean that our sin doesn’t matter, but because Jesus paid the cost of it, God will no longer hold our sin against us. He held them against Jesus.
(9) Does this blessedness then come upon the circumcised only, or upon the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness.
M-Paul has been talking about how we can get right with God through faith like Abraham and David. Now, he asks a question probably because He knows it’s a question that will likely wonder about.
A-As we’re teaching people about God or the bible, it’s probably good to imitate the way that Paul thinks about what questions his listeners have and brings them up so they can fully understand.
(10) How then was it accounted? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised.
M –Circumcision was the sign for the Jew that they belonged to God. But, this started with Abraham. After Him, every male Jew was to be circumcised on the eight day of their life. Paul points out that God gave Abraham righteousness because of his faith, and that was before He was ever circumcised.
(11) And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still uncircumcised, that He might be the father of all those who believe, though they are uncircumcised, that righteousness might be imputed to them also.
M –It was after Abraham believed that God had him get circumcised. It was a sign that He had been made right with God. In a way, He is the father of all of us who choose to trust and believe in God and receive righteousness from Him.
A –Circumcision didn’t make anyone right with God, it was a sign that they were. In the same way, things like Baptism and Communion don’t make us right with God, they are just a sign that we have been brought into relationship with Him. Like Abraham the only way we can be made right with God is by believing His promises and trusting Him.
(12) and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of the faith which our father Abraham had while still uncircumcised.
M –The Jews loved to think of their ancestry (their relation to Abraham), but He is the father of the people who actually walk by faith, not who just get a symbol of walking by faith.
A –We are like Abraham if we walk in trust with God, just believing and doing what He says. We shouldn’t think that we’re Christians just because we go to church, have been baptized, take communion, or have a bible. We are Christians if we walk by faith.
(13) For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
M –Abraham was promised by God that his descendants would be numerous and all nations of the world would be blessed through them. But this was before the law was given by Moses several hundred years later. So, while the Jewish people prided themselves on having the law, Paul once again points out that Abraham was before Moses and the law and was made right with God by His trust.
(14) For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of no effect,
M- If you could become an heir (the ones to receive the inheritance) by just following the law, then the promise that we can be made right by trust is pointless. Abraham was blessed by God because of His trust, not because He had followed a law.
(15) because the law brings about wrath; for where there is no law there is no transgression.
M –You would blessed if you could keep the law. But no one has, so we’re all condemned and cursed by it. Where there is no law, there are no lawbreakers, but since there is a law and we haven’t kept it, it shows us that we’re under God’s wrath and in need of His grace.
A –The ten commandments sum up a lot of the Old Testament law, and it’s true, as we go through the 10 commandments (Exodus 20), it becomes clear that we’re lawbreakers and under God’s wrath on our own.
(16) Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all
M –In Genesis 17:5 God said that Abraham would be the father of many nations. But the ‘nations’ who would be his offspring weren’t just the physical family line (seed), they were going to be spiritual children. Abraham is a type of spiritual father to everyone who chooses to believe God like He did. ‘Those who are of the law’ here would refer to the Jews…who would be the physical descendants.
A –This verse points to the fact that salvation was intended not just for the Jews (even though God used them in a special way). Salvation is for every one anywhere who puts their trust in God.
(17) (as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations”) in the presence of Him whom he believed-God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as thought they did.
M –Abraham is in God’s eyes our Father since we’ve followed the same path of faith. Verse 19 will say that Abraham’s body was already dead since he was about 100 years old. Even though as far as making children, Abraham’s body was dead, God’s promise was bigger and would give life in the midst of death. God talked about his descendants who would exist even though they didn’t yet.
A –The bible says a lot about how a Christian is now righteous in God’s sight, how we’ll made perfect, and how we’re saints now. Those things are hard to believe since we know we’re not fully that yet. But God’s promise will come through just like it did for Abraham.
(18) who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that He became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, “so shall your descendants be.”
M –In the Human sense, there was no hope the promise could happen, but Abraham had hope because of who had made the promise (God.)
A –If we are shown a promise of God, we should not look at the circumstances to see if it’s hopeful, we should look to God who is bigger than our circumstances and controls them. This is faith, not a mysterious emotion, but believing what God says whether we can see how it will work out or not.
(19) And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about 100 years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb.
M –All the facts suggested that what God promised wasn’t going to happen. But Abraham was not weak in His faith (trust). We know from Genesis 17:17 that Abraham laughed when He first heard the promise. And we know that at one point He decided to have a baby through one of His servants instead of His wife. While Abraham faltered in His faith sometimes, He still did have a trust in God.
(20) He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God
M –He could have failed to believe, but He didn’t and He was strengthened in faith and praised God for what He didn’t have yet.
A –When we step in faith, God strengthens our faith. Choosing to trust God helps us to trust Him more. We should thank God for what He’s going to do according to His promises even before they are fulfilled.
(21) and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform.
M –This is part of faith, being confident that if God has said something, He is able to do it.
(22) And therefore “it was accounted to him for righteousness.”
M –Because Abraham walked in a trusting relationship with God, the Lord gave Him a righteous standing with Him (based on the sacrifice Jesus would make.)
A –It’s the people who trust God who are given forgiveness. Going to church or saying prayers or calling ourselves Christians doesn’t make us right with God. The people who choose to walk in trust with God are given grace.
