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Romans 4:1

Romans 4 verse 1-25

Introduction

Beck , in his 1963 New Testament translation of the New Testament , heads this section `If we believe , we are righteous . This is a perfect summing up of Paul 's message to the Roman 's at this point . In Romans 1 v 2 he tells them that the message he has , his good news , is the same one that has already been foretold in scripture . In chapter 3 v 21 he explains that those prophecies had come to fulfilment . `But now the righteousness of God has been manifested

apart from the law , though testified to by the law and the prophets

His readers were people he knew of , but hadn 't yet met . And he had heard good things . Romans 1 v 8 `First , I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you , because your faith is being reported all over the world ' N .I .V . Despite never having met them Paul felt responsible for them . He was after all the apostle to the Gentiles , a fact that he mentions on a number of occasions including Romans 1 v 5 , but also 11 v 13 where he says `I am talking to you Gentiles . Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles , I make much of my ministry ' and it is in chapter 15 v 15 that Paul explains fully his purpose in writing :-

But I have written to you rather boldly in some respects to remind you ,because of the grace given me by God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in performing the priestly service of the gospel of God , so that the offering up of the Gentiles may be acceptable , sanctified by the holy Spirit

The context

The writing of this letter seems to most scholars to follow that of the letters to the Corinthians and may have even been written from there According to Romans 15 v 24 he was planning to visit the Roman Christians on his way to Spain . In fact he did visit them some three years later , though in circumstances rather different from those he planned , for he was by that time a prisoner

The Roman Christians had as yet received no direct teaching from him or any of the other apostles , so his purpose was to instruct them in the way of salvation , but it would also be useful to him to have the support of the Roman church , situated as it was a the center of the Empire as he planned to extend his work westwards . He also wanted to discuss the problem of Jewish unbelief and the relationship of both Jews and Gentiles to the church and to Christ as Savior

The Jewish believers in the church in Rome still felt obliged to retain Jewish dietary laws . This meant that they were being rejected by the Gentiles who outnumbered them and were considered to be weak in the faith as outlined in chapter 14 and so Paul...

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