Romans 4 How were people saved before the coming of Jesus? Introduction All of us are aware of a reasonable number of questions that are repeatedly asked about the Bible by people enquiring about our faith. They range from simple factual ones like ‘Where Cain find a wife?’ to more profound philosophical ones like: ‘If God is all loving and all powerful how come that He allowed evil to exist, even flourish in the world?’ Or ‘What about people who have never heard the Gospel, how can they be saved?’ Paul has already addressed that one in Romans 2:12-16, possibly it was a familiar question at his open air meetings. His answer was simple yet profound -on the basis of how they responded to the knowledge they had of God in their consciences each would be judged by God. Those people who had greater knowledge of the truth and opportunities to respond to it would have higher expectations placed on them than someone in a less advantageous position. Another staple one concerns the way people are accepted by God into His family. It is at the heart of this chapter and Paul’s answer is a vital component to our evangelistic message today also. For many of his readers /hearers were Jewish and the man they most revered was Father Abraham. How was he saved? Did God accept him on the same basis as us –or in a different way? This is a crucial question that had to be answered clearly as the shape and identity of the Early Christian Church depended on it. If Abraham (or anyone else for that matter) was saved by some other way, then the question is immediately raised about whether that possibility might be open to other people as well. However, if the opposite was true, that is showing that the way God accepted Abraham was in principle no different to people living after the start of the Christian Church on the Day of Pentecost, then this implies a consistency of the way of salvation on God’s part. For us in the twenty-first century it might be no major issue to find that God worked in a different way before the coming of Jesus. We could easily handle a ‘then’ and ‘now’ scenario. After all in the practise of worship there were some big changes not least the contrast between repeated animal sacrifices and the once-for-all time sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. Therefore, on the surface it appeared likely that something very different was happening in New Testament times. It was essential, then, for Paul to address this issue in the first century AD context, and so appropriate that he chose as his first example the most revered figure in the Jewish faith –‘Father Abraham’. Did the death of Jesus and his sacrifice in any way connect with or apply to people who had already lived and died? Were they saved primarily through Jesus’ sacrifice, although they never knew Him or had the chance to respond directly to His message as we understand it? In Hebrews 11, a key chapter for interpreting some of the Old Testament faith stories, it states: And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him (Hebrews 11:6). Is there any way in which these
prominent Old Testament figures were justified by faith through the grace of God, rather than on the basis of their good works? The stakes could not have been higher. The first part of Romans 4 is taken up with answering this important question. 1. What was it that Abraham believed? (a)The crucial question (Romans 4:1) What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, discovered in this matter? This was the pivotal question for a significant number of Jewish followers of Jesus. There were some in their ranks who held so strongly to their Jewish identity that they were convinced that a Gentile (anyone not born Jewish) must become a Jew and practise all the Jewish religious rites –as well as believe in Jesus –in order to be saved. Representatives of these views seemed to follow Paul around visiting churches 1