Sin is the predicament of all humanity. To modern ears this does not sound like much of a predicament. It seems to us that there are bigger fish to fry: environmental degradation, war, disease, and hunger. In comparison to these things, occasionally transgressing a religious boundary doesn’t warrant much concern, but this misunderstands sin. Sin, Rudolf Bultman said, is the act of cutting oneself off from the revelation that calls all worldly security into question and opens up another security. I think he’s right, sin is the determination that we we need not seek our security in God because we can find other sources of that security, or even craft our own security. Sin is always putting ourselves in the place of God. This is what happens on the opening pages of the Bible– humanity rejects God’s plan and devices their own. In Romans 1, Paul makes the case that one of the ways God judges our sin is by allowing us to continue on this path of rejection, yet he also offers a solution. “We are,’ Paul writes in Romans 3, “justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Jesus.” This solution to the foundational problem of sin comes about through faith (Romans 3:28).
Though this is without a doubt good news for the whole Roman church and for us, it was also deeply unsettling to many in the church that first read this letter. Many of those believers were Jews, and Paul’s insistence that one was justified by faith called their understanding of themselves into question. If Jews and Gentiles stand before God on the same basis these Jewish believers needed to rethink where they fit into the story and where they fit into the world. The very questions that Paul raises in 3:1, 9, 27 and 4:1 are the kinds of questions they wanted answered. “What advantage has the Jew?” “Are we Jews any better off?” “What becomes of our boasting?” “What then shall we way was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh?” These questions all arise out of a concern that Paul is taking away their election and advantage by erasing the important boundary markers between who is in and who is out.
In chapter 4 Paul answers their question by retelling the story of Abraham with careful attention to its chronology. Abraham did not place God in a corner so that the Creator of the universe owed him something because of his outstanding righteousness. Instead God in his grace called Abraham, and Abraham responded in faith. The circumcision that followed is not a work which must be done to win God’s favour, but a sign of faith in his call and promises. This means that it is faith and not works which stands at the heart of the Abraham story. Faith is foundational. So Abraham is the father of all who believe like him, whether they are circumcised like him or not. This draws the Jews and Gentiles in the Roman church together into one people and one family with a shared history.
It is important to note the way that Paul answers the question about advantage. He turns to Scripture not as a set of rules that address every particular situation, but as story that gives identity to those who acknowledge it to be the true story about history. The story gives believers a sense of who they are; that is, people of faith like Abraham. There were plenty of reasons for Abraham not to believe. He was old. He had a history of personal failure, yet he continued to believe. Faith is not easy. Sometimes it will be incredibly difficult and we will find ourselves in hope believing against hope (4:18). This kind of faith that clings to God in the midst of doubt and uncertainty is what God is looking for. This is a steadfast refusal to find our security in anything that the world offers and and an insistence that God alone is the source of our security.