Paul ties words together, and the bundle of words he creates exclude others. The words in his bundle are promise, faith, grace, and \u201call\u201d and these words are tied together by \u201cGod\u201d and \u201cfamily.\u201d God\u2019s promise to Abraham, to make him a father of many nations (Gen. 17:5) \u2014 the big family, is by faith and therefore by grace. Therefore,<\/em> it is not by Law and it not limited simply to those who are of the Law (Jews) \u2014 little family. So, Romans 4:16-17. Paul ties words together, and the bundle of words he creates exclude others. The words in his bundle are promise, faith, grace, and \u201call\u201d and these words are tied together by \u201cGod\u201d and \u201cfamily.\u201d God\u2019s promise to Abraham, to make him a father of many nations (Gen. 17:5) \u2014 the big family, is by faith […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1752],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-romans"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nAs Tom Wright puts it, \u201cthe universal availability of the promise is Paul\u2019s main thrust.\u201d Wright says the main subjects of chp. 4 are Abraham, his family, and his God. His suggestion is worth more consideration: there is some clipped syntax in 4:16-17, and it fills in gaps left open in 4:1-2. It is about what is going on \u201cbefore God.\u201d
\nThis God, as Paul finishes off 4:17, gives life to the dead. He brings this out of nothing \u2014 and this surely describes the arise of faith in the Gentile. The Gentile comes to faith in spite of not having the Torah.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"