ROMANS 4:1-25 FOR MY CHILDREN

A Targum* for my children based on Romans 4:1-25

4:1-12

But let me tell you what that doesn’t mean. It doesn’t mean that all who believe the gospel ought to be absorbed into the ethnic community created by the Torah. Christians don’t have to become ethnic Jews.

That’s obvious, because if Abraham was regarded as belonging to God because of ethnic badges, then he had something to boast about. But scripture says that Abraham believed God and was declared to be one of his people. The mark that distinguished him from others owed nothing to the sort of unique qualities, which people want to brag about. He simply trusted God.

If a person works for something, his pay isn’t considered a gift; it’s simply what is due. But how can being a friend of God ever be what a person is owed- especially when that person is a sinner?

To quote our favorite ancient King once more: “Blessed is the man whose sins God overlooks.” If sinfulness is a given for even a blessed man and the source of his blessing is the fact that God doesn’t hold him accountable for them, then… clearly, even the best have sin to deal with.

Now I know that requiring everyone to become part of God’s ancient ethnic people seems to be a simple way of solving the problem. It upholds the Torah and in a sense you end up with “one people.” But the very history of the Old Oath itself, shows that ethnic assimilation isn’t what God’s about.

When was Abraham declared to be one of God’s people? Was it before or after he was marked as a Jew. It was before he was a Jew! The sign of his “Jewishness” was a seal of the standing he had while still a gentile. From the very beginning God worked it out so that Abraham is the father of all gentiles who believe and of all Jews who are not only Jews ethnically, but who live in the trusting faithfulness that Abraham exhibited while still a gentile.

4:13-25

God’s promise to Abraham that he would inherit the world came before the giving of the Torah. If it is only for those who have the Torah, then there is no such thing as being God’s friend by simply accepting his friendship (for Abraham or anyone else). This would mean the promise is doomed. There are no heirs of the promise. That’s because those on the outside are…well, on the outside and those on the inside are condemned, because the Torah has brought wrath.

That’s why “trust” must be the distinguishing mark of those who are truly God’s friend. This makes it possible for the promise to be claimed by those who are guilty (as it must, if it is to have any impact in the real world of fallen men and women) and produce the one family that God’s own Oneness requires- a family consisting not only of Jews, but Gentiles as well. This new Israel is made up of all those who have the faith of Abraham. He is truly the father of both- the father of many nations.

This trust identifies God’s friends because it is the proper response to his offer of friendship. Contrast Abraham’s actions with those of the idolaters at the beginning of our discussion. He believed and glorified God, was promised new life, received power and the ability to conceive.

This doesn’t apply to Abraham alone. It is true for all of us who believe in him who raised King Joshua from the dead: Our Lord was delivered to death for our transgressions and raised that we might share in him the life of The-Age-To-Come.

Other completed passages of the Targum: Romans 1:1-7 , 1:8-17, 1:18-28, 2:1-29, 3:1-20, 3:21-31

*A Targum was an expanded paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures composed by Rabbis during the diaspora to aid the understanding of their “Hebrew challenged” congregations. I thought something similar might be of help to my kids. So I’ve started with Paul’s Epistle to the Romans.