Paul really camps out on the story of Abraham, to make the point about grace being given or granted vs. grace being earned.  Abraham God and it was credited to him as righteousness.  It isn’t complex, and it doesn’t REALLY require a lot of explanation.  In fact, to non-believers, I think this is pretty straight-forward and clear, that grace is given not earned.  Again though, half of Paul’s suspected audience were Jews who’d been working all of their lives to EARN their grace; that chapter is really for them.  There is plenty in Romans that is more directed at the gentiles, but I think this chapter is for the Jews.

And I understand their plight - that they don’t feel like grace being given is fair, especially in light of their sacrifice and their work to earn it.

Like we talked about yesterday though, ultimately, it isn’t ‘fair’ the many of us REALLY want, but it is that we want to be the judge.  Remember the pray bottle analogy from yesterday?  We want to hold the bottle...that’s what it is.  But that option is not on the table.  Besides, the only thing that really is fair is that everyone gets it the same way, and that it is free.

Another little literary idea, or really, a language thing, that we often miss is the idea behind the ‘it was credited to him as righteousness’.  In reality, God doesn’t let people off of the hook for sin - not in the New Testament or the Old Testament.  A just God wouldn’t do that - He would judge sin.  What happens is that our faith in Jesus, based on the New Testament teaching of Jesus, allows Jesus’ sacrifice to ‘stand in’ for ours.  In other words, if the punishment for sin is death in the Old Testament, so it is in the New Testament; but Jesus is that sacrifice, in our place, IF we choose it.  When we choose faith in Christ, righteousness is credited to us, as it was Abraham.

That truth brings to lie an interesting idea though.  For 1500 years the Jews thought that God had given them the Law as the method through which they could gain God’s love, and their salvation.  Kind of like when I send my son out into the yard (well, I will do this...he is 3, so I can’t yet!) to mow the grass.  He thinks it is about the grass, and it is a little, but it is mostly about teaching him the value of hard work, and a work ethic.  The Jews thought it was about gaining God’s love, but it was really about God pointing out that we can’t pull off the Law, we can’t execute on His standards, apart from Jesus.  It was always about Jesus.