{"id":1403,"date":"2009-12-07T23:13:28","date_gmt":"2009-12-08T05:13:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.org\/blog\/?p=1403"},"modified":"2009-12-07T23:13:28","modified_gmt":"2009-12-08T05:13:28","slug":"romans-42-no-bragging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/romans-42-no-bragging\/","title":{"rendered":"Romans 4:2 – No Bragging"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Romans 4:2<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

For if Abraham was justified by works, he has<\/span> something<\/span><\/em> to boast about, but not before God.<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Truth to Learn<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Abraham was not saved by doing good works.<\/p>\n

Behind the Words<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cBoast<\/span>\u201d is translated from kauch\u0113ma<\/span><\/em>, which is derived from the verb kauchaomai<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cto brag\u201d or \u201cto boast.\u201d Kauch\u0113ma<\/span><\/em> refers to the object of bragging or \u201csomething worthy of bragging.\u201d<\/p>\n

The word translated \u201cbefore<\/span>\u201d is pros<\/span><\/em>, which relates the object \u201ctoward\u201d which something is directed. In this case, Paul is saying that Abraham has nothing about which he can brag toward God.<\/p>\n

Meaning Explained<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Paul is continuing on with the rhetorical question that he posed in the previous verse. <\/span>These few verses are where he is demonstrating to the Jewish Christians in Rome the truth about what he has been saying for most of this letter, namely that justification comes by faith, not works.<\/p>\n

Although it might look like circular reasoning at first glance, here\u2019s what John Calvin said about the sense of this verse,<\/p>\n

If Abraham was justified by his works, he might boast of his own merits. But he has no ground of boasting before God. Therefore he was not justified by works.<\/p>\n

You see, if Abraham did have some grounds for boasting, he would have boasted about them to God. But he never did because by his own acts he knew he was not worthy of justification. <\/span>Hence, he was not justified by works. <\/span>If you read Genesis 11:27 \u2013 25:10<\/span><\/strong> you will see that, although Abraham did some amazing and faith-full things in his life, he had a problem with lying, especially concerning Sarah his wife. <\/span>This is not the sort of thing that would qualify someone to be justified by works, is it?<\/p>\n

On the surface it may appear that Paul\u2019s and James\u2019 teachings with regard to faith and works are at odds, for James said:<\/p>\n

And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God. You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.<\/span> (James 2:23-24<\/span><\/strong>)<\/p>\n

This is the problem with quoting Scripture out of context. For you see, James is not teaching that righteousness is achieved by works. He is teaching that works are the proof of faith and its resultant righteousness. If a person has genuine faith in the blood of Jesus Christ then his or her works will give evidence of saving faith. I\u2019m sure that we all can think of someone who claims to be a Christian but doesn\u2019t act like one. James would say that this person has no faith because they have no works to prove it, and Paul would agree.<\/p>\n

Application<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

All Christians should be doing good works. Not to gain salvation, or to receive complete sanctification, and certainly not to keep from losing salvation. We should be doing good works because it\u2019s what our Heavenly Father does and it\u2019s what He wants us to be doing. It demonstrates our family resemblance. It\u2019s part of the family business!<\/span><\/p>\n

In God\u2019s service, for His glory,<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"signature\"<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2009 Will Krause. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –<\/p>\n

<\/span>If this message or this link was forwarded to you by a friend and you wish to receive future verses directly to your inbox, you can call the church phone \"\"(618) 614-3070<\/span><\/span><\/span> and leave a message telling us your name and e-mail address or you can send an e-mail to:\"e-mail<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Romans 4:2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. Truth to Learn Abraham was not saved by doing good works. Behind the Words \u201cBoast\u201d is translated from kauch\u0113ma, which is derived from the verb kauchaomai, meaning \u201cto brag\u201d or \u201cto boast.\u201d Kauch\u0113ma refers to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[606,607,597,75,412],"class_list":["post-1403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-boasting","tag-bragging","tag-justified","tag-righteousness","tag-works"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-mD","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1403\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}