ROM 4:1

"WHAT SHALL WE SAY THEN THAT ABRAHAM OUR FATHER, AS PERTAINING TO THE FLESH, HATH FOUND."

Paul is presenting something to the Jews that he is speaking to, (he is speaking their language here,) as he questions Abraham their "father."

Background/Historical content: the reader should know that the Jews highly esteemed Abraham in their day, as they do now. Here is why:

God made promise with Abraham:

(Gen 22:16-17); "And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only [son]: That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which [is] upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies."

This is the promised seed from where the Messiah would come and bring Redemption:

(Gen 3:15-16); "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee."

So, the Jews are looking for the King of Israel to come through the loins of Abraham. They know that Abraham was a Jew...what they either neglect to recall or have lost in history over time at this point is that Abraham BECAME a Jew, he was formerly a Gentile.

Let's look at Deut 26:5 really quickly:

"And thou shalt speak and say before the LORD thy God, A Syrian ready to perish [was] my father, and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there with a few, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous."

What this is saying here, is that Abraham's father was a Syrian, which is known to be a Gentile, not a Jew. It seems the Jews have neglected to acknowledge this fact. See, we often as people have a bent in our hearts toward being "works" based in our relationship to the Holy One of Israel. The Jews have seen keeping their 613 laws (not keepable, they can't follow the simple ten God gave, don't know why they set up another 603, as thought THAT will make them more acceptable to God.) So whether it be circumcision or baptism in water that makes people believe that they will be made righteous in the eyes of God, none are acceptable. No human effort will ever bring us to a place of right standing with a Just and Holy God as He is. The only acceptable format is perfection, which only Christ could be, was and still is.

I say all of that to say this: By questioning them about what Abraham has found as pertaining to the flesh, he is in fact stating to them that no works of the flesh have been accepted by God, rather that Abraham displayed FAITH in God's promise before he was ever circumcised. Thus, excluding all works of the flesh as being a way to come to God.

Christ has fulfilled all that needs to be fulfilled here. I keep drilling this, because we ALL tend to have a form of "religion" and not relationship with God, and can very easily be swayed into a works based religion instead of simple faith in Christ and what He has done for us. A good rule of thumb for those that do not know already, the way to know if you are receiving proper doctrine or not is this: if what you are being taught is to focus on Christ and Him Crucified as your way to the Father, than it is correct. Anything other than that is schewed and not truth, just scriptures being thrown together in an attempt to feed God's children. The truth is, many people do not know this simple truth, it has been lost in today's modern churches, sadly enough.

We all want to come to God based on what we DO: ie: Catholics believe their church attendance and "Hail Mary's" will save them, they worship Mary instead of Christ, the One who died and gave all of His blood for them, but they don't know the truth because it is not being taught. Everything that we could ever need is brought to us Courtesy of the Cross of Christ. case and point.

so, "pertaining to the flesh" is referring to man's only act in coming to God, is BY FAITH in Christ.

**what we are going to be covering in the next few studies is the doctrine of justification by faith: how we are justified to God by our faith in Christ**