https://youtu.be/Ajc9WRqtMe0
In our word-by-word, verse-by-verse study of Romans last time we finished chapter 4 and our expanded translation reads as follows.
Rom 4:1; "Therefore to what conclusion are we forced, that Abraham our human forefather has found?" or "Therefore what do we conclude that Abraham our forefather has found?"
Rom 4:2; "Assuming that Abraham was justified by means of works, he has a basis for boasting, but not before God."
Rom 4:3; "For what does the scripture say? Now Abraham had believed the God (the Lord Jesus Christ), and it (faith in Jesus Christ) was credited to him (Abraham) for righteousness."
Rom 4:4; "But to him who works for salvation his compensation (reimbursement) is not credited according to grace, but according to obligation."
Rom 4:5; "But to him who does not work for salvation but believes on him who justifies the unbeliever, his faith receives the imputed credit of God's righteousness."
Rom 4:6; "Even as David also communicates the blessing to the man to whom the God credits righteousness apart from works."
Rom 4:7; "Happinesses to those whose lawlessnesses have been forgiven and whose sins have been covered over."
Rom 4:8;"Happy is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin."
Rom 4:9; "Is this blessing therefore for the circumcision (the Jews) only? or is it also for the uncircumcised (the Gentiles) also? For we contend that his faith was credited to Abraham for righteousness."
Rom 4:10; "How then was it credited? While he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision but in uncircumcision."
Rom 4:11; "In fact he received the ritual mark of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness from the faith (exercised toward Christ) in the status of uncircumcision: that the same one (uncircumcised Abraham) might be a pattern to all who believe during uncircumcision; that God's righteousness might be credited to them."
Rom 4:12; "And the pattern of circumcision, not only to those from circumcision [Jews], but also to those who advance in the ranks from the source of doctrine, like our father Abraham in uncircumcision."
Rom 4:13; "For not through the law is that promise to Abraham and to his seed, that he will be the heir of the world, but through righteousness (imputed) by means of faith."
Rom 4:14; "For if they by means of the law are heirs (and we assume they are), then that faith has been voided with the result that it is permanently invalidated, and that promise has been cancelled."
Rom 4:15; "For the law brings about wrath (from God's justice) but where the law does not exist also no distortion of the law exists."
Rom 4:16; "For this reason it is by means of faith, in order that it might be in accordance with grace; that the promise of salvation might be valid to all the seed; not only to those from the law, but to those Gentiles from Abraham's faith; who is the pattern with reference to all of us."
Rom 4:17; "(As it is written, "I have made you the father of many nations"). He is our father in the presence of God whom he believed-the God who makes the dead alive and summons the non existent into existence."
Rom 4:18; "Who beyond hope of sexual prosperity believed in hope of fulfillment, in order that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which he had spoken, So your seed shall exist.
Rom 4:19; "And so, not becoming weak in the faith, he completely understood his own body which had become sexually dead when he was approximately one hundred years old; likewise he completely understood the barrenness of Sarah's womb."
Rom 4:20; "That is, with reference to the promise of God he did not stagger in unbelief; but he was energized (power was poured into him) by means of doctrine (resident in the soul), giving glory to the God."
Rom 4:21; "And having been fully convinced that what he himself (God) had promised he is able also to accomplish."
Rom 4:22; "And for this reason (salvation adjustment to God's justice) it (faith in Christ) was credited to him (Abram] for righteousness."
Rom 4:23; "Not it was written for him alone, that it was credited to him."
Rom 4:24; "But also for us to whom it was destined to be credited, when we believed on him who resurrected Jesus our Lord from deaths."
Rom 4:25; "Who was delivered over to judgment because of our sins and was resurrected from the dead because of our justification."
This Chapter discussed two major Christian doctrines. The doctrine of the Abrahamic covenant and the doctrine of Imputation.
The Abrahamic covenant is a unilateral unconditional covenant or (agreement) that God made in favor of Abraham and his progeny. This covenant originates from God's justice and it being an unconditional covenant means there are no strings attached.
This covenant is a unilateral deposition that God made in favor of Abraham that like all covenants, it is a part of God's immutable divine decree that is revealed in His Word. Abraham and his progeny are the beneficiaries without merit.
The source of this blessing to Abraham and his descendants is not related to any merit in Abraham or his descendants, but it is the product of Abraham's adjustment to God's justice that resulted in the imputation of God's righteousness to Abraham that is the predicate for all direct blessing from God.
The source of this blessing to Abraham and his descendants is God's justice. God's justice is free to fulfill this covenant to Abraham at the point of his adjustment to God's justice through the attainment of spiritual maturity.
It's one thing to be the beneficiary of a covenant via salvation and rebound; it's another thing to recognize and understand what the covenant implies in spiritual maturity.
The original declaration of the covenant is in Gen.12: 1-3; "Now the Lord (Jesus Christ) had spoken to Abram, `Go from your land, and from your relatives, and from the place of your birth, to a land that I will show you;
v2 And I will manufacture from you a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will cause you to become great; therefore, you will become a blessing.
v3 And I will bless those who bless you, but the one who despises you, I will curse, and all the races shall be blessed through you."
Verse one emphasizes Abraham's isolation and separation from his home in Ur for the fulfillment of the covenant, for the development of the new race, and for his spiritual advance. This required separation from his family to avoid personal distraction. Land is specified because Ur was about to be invaded and conquered.
Verse two is Abraham's logistical grace support that is required to fulfill the promise. All four categories of blessing were given to enhance his spiritual momentum in anticipation of his reaching spiritual maturity with its historical spiritual impact.
Verse three has three clauses that describe blessing by association, a curse on anti-Semitism and a clause describing the Messianic blessing because Jesus would be a descendent of Abraham.
The land grant of the Abrahamic Covenant is described in Gen 13:14-16. "And the Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, `Now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward;
v15 for all the land that you see, I will give to you and to your progeny forever.
v16 And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if anyone can count the dust of the earth, then your descendants also can be counted."
This land grant is more completely defined and its dimensions are defined in Gen 15:18-21.
The Jews do not have any right to this land until Jesus Christ returns at the Second Advent. Any land that they acquire while living in the devil's world must acquired and maintained by conquest, as with all other nations. This started when they defeated Jericho after they crossed the Jordan River from the wilderness.
Until the Second Advent, the Jews only occupy the land by seizing and holding it under the principle of freedom through military victory under aegis of the divine institution of nationalism.
To date during human history in the devil's world the largest amount of land that they ever occupied occurred under the rule of King David after he conquered the indigenous population of the Jebusites.
The borders of the land promised by the covenant go from the Nile River to the Persian Gulf to the Euphrates River and the Mediterranean Sea.
The covenant was confirmed to Isaac; Gen 26:1-4;
This was done to establish that the covenant would not be fulfilled through the line of Ishmael or any of Keturah's sons.
The covenant was also confirmed to Abraham's grandson Jacob, Gen 35:10-12; this is why the title of Jesus Christ as "the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob" is so significant and it is why the name of the Jewish nation is Israel.
The covenant was confirmed at the time of the Exodus, Exod6: 2-8; when the Jewish nation was formed under the authority of Moses. The covenant was the basis for God delivering the Jews from slavery in Egypt, and moved them to the Promised Land as a free nation.
Six hundred years after the death of Abraham the blessings from God's covenant with one mature believer, Abraham, were still flowing to his descendants.
In our study of Romans we saw that the mechanics of God's covenant with Abraham demanded supergrace sexual prosperity for God's promise to be fulfilled.
Gen 17:1-7; Rom 4:13-18.There is blessing to the Jews of every generation under the aegis of God's omnipotence on the basis of blessing by association with Abraham from logistical grace.
Gen 17:2, "That I may give My covenant between Me and You; I will cause you to be multiplied by maximum deployment of My power."
The new race and the land are brought together in the covenant, Gen 17:8. "I have given to you and to your descendants after you, the land of your pilgrimage, all the land of Canaan, for an eternal possession and I will be their God."
Circumcision is the confirmation ritual that acknowledges that this is an unconditional covenant, Gen 17:9-14; Rom 4:13-18. In Israel circumcision is a reminder that God keeps His word.
Circumcision means that any Jew, who believes in Jesus Christ, will be the recipient of this covenant forever. Circumcision illustrates the faith-rest life and Abraham's dependence on God's omnipotence and faithfulness for the fulfillment of God's promises
The covenant was amplification after Abraham Passed the momentum testing of placing his son Isaac on the alter, Gen 22:17-24.
The Abrahamic covenant became the basis of Joseph having something greater in dying than he ever had in living. Joseph's coffin was a doctrinal reminder to the Jews that God would deliver them from Egypt. It was never placed in the ground, but was carried with the Jews out of Egypt into the Promised Land, Heb 11:22.
God has promised a city forever suspended over the Land, Rev 21:2, 10. This city, the New Jerusalem, extends from the Nile to the Euphrates, and from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf.
This city that is part of Abraham's eternal escrow blessings as a mature believer is so beautiful that as it comes into view it is described as a bride coming down the aisle in her wedding dress.
The New Jerusalem is described as a 1500 cubic mile cube that orbits the earth over Israel forever as part of the new heavens and new earth. Rev 21:10-27;