NOTES for Rom 4:16-25

Paul speaks of what follows directly from the hierarchy of levels of existence that he describes throughout the letter to the Romans. In first place for the apostle are the relations that connect us with God and with people; in second place is the Torah as an instrument for establishing and consciously building these relations; and in third place is religiosity, internal and external, which may, or may not, be a consequence and outward expression of such relations.

Moreover, if the first two levels are absolutely necessary for a person because without them he will have no normal spiritual life, the third can be considered optional: in principle one can do without it. But if so, then in a person's relations with God the impossible becomes possible. If the Torah were the highest thing that sets the limit of a person's spiritual possibilities, no one would have to count on salvation.

Indeed, once violated, or more precisely destroyed, for to violate the inner Torah means to destroy it, losing the spiritual core on which all relations with God rest, the Torah can no longer be restored again by any human effort. Here it is not even a mountain, but a kind of abyss: having rolled down a mountain, one can still hope to climb it again, but having fallen into an abyss with sheer walls, one cannot count on climbing back up, even if by some miracle one remains alive.

But living relations with God are greater than the Torah. Having them, one can hope that there is a chance to begin again even when everything has been destroyed. In fact, Abraham too, in Paul's thought, begins in just this way, from the beginning, having nothing except those relations with God from which all the rest later grew, the whole history of the people of God. Such a beginning gives hope to us as well, but in our case the issue is the beginning of life with Christ in the Kingdom of God. The scale of the events is incomparable, but the logic is the same: first relations with God, with Christ as King of God's Kingdom, and only then all the rest, all the possibilities open to the one ready for these relations.

The apostle Paul reveals the meaning of Christ's gospel words through the example of Abraham. The promise of salvation was given to Abraham not for his good works, but according to God's mercy, and he received it not according to the law, as though he had taken what was owed to him, but through an astonishing faith in the goodness and almighty power of God. Such faith, such trust, brings a person into a special relationship with God. Then the person's inner system of values changes; evil becomes inwardly repulsive to him, and this is the "righteousness of faith." How much easier it is for us than for Abraham to accept such faith, because God's goodness and almighty power were shown to us by the Father, who gave the Son over to death and raised Him for our justification.

If the promise of being heir of the world were "owed by law" to people, there would be no relationship in it, there would be no personhood of ours; neither the human being nor God would be participating in it. If our life were governed not by a loving God and the human being created by Him, free and choosing relationship with God, but by some terrifying universal code, then violation of the law would mean exile forever from the people of God, while observance would mean automatic inheritance, according to law, without personal relationships, without Encounter.

But the Lord grants us the promise, the inheritance of the world, not for keeping a set of rules and obeying the law, but for faith, that is, the choice of relationship, the recognition that He is God, beyond hope, as with Abraham. And God responds not by fulfilling a contract, signed and sealed, but with mercy and love.