spirit would rule.
The law in 1962 determined who’s in and who’s out. So it was in the Bible. Or so the people
living in the days of the Bible thought.
Many Christians believed they would be heirs of the bounty of the world if they adhered to the
law of God. (Romans 4:14)
Paul reminds the Christians in Rome that they had long depended upon the law to be a sieve
that determines who will inherit God’s promise – to determine who’s in and who’s out. And Paul says
they are mistaken.
The Christians could not count on the law to be their ticket to salvation. Further, Paul says
there will be those who will NOT adhere to the law who WILL BE heirs of salvation.
In his epistle to the Romans, Paul writes:
For the promise that he would inherit the world
did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through
the law but through the righteousness of faith. (Romans 4:13)
Paul wants the Christians to reconsider their belief that they can somehow earn God’s grace by obeying
God’s commands. If they work hard enough at being obedient to God, surely God will reward them –
so goes their thinking.
From this passage we have the underpinnings for the Christian doctrine of justification. To be
justified means to be made right with God.
Christians living in Rome believed they would be “made right with God” if they obeyed God’s
commands. A formula was to be followed that had been established by God:
If you keep my commandments,
then you will inherit the world.
But Paul offers a corrective.
For the promise that he would inherit the world
did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through
the law but through the righteousness of faith. (Romans 4:13)
Paul begins his dissent by questioning the entitlement the Christians claimed through Abraham.
Just because Abraham, their patriarch, had been the first person to receive God’s promise does not
mean Abraham’s descendants will continue to receive the promise. Paul questions the possibility of
entitlement for a particular historical people.
His concern arises not out of whether God makes and honors a promise, rather from whether or
not faith matters. The issue here is one of FAITH.
Does a person receive God’s grace by one’s works, or does a person receive God’s grace by
one’s faith?
If we are heirs to the world because we obey the law, then faith is not necessary. Paul reminds
us that our highest calling is to be people of faith.
Theologian Karl Barth concurs. He notes that the law cannot be the linchpin in the formula for
receiving God’s promise. Barth writes:
Since the law shares in the corruptibility of the
world, it [does not work] the promise. And indeed,
if it be regarded as possessing reality, rather than as
testifying to it, it [works] – wrath. Hence, when the
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