Paul's Idea Of Justification By Faith In The Romans

To be justified in the Bible means to be in good standing with God. In saying that, there is only one way to be justified in the sight of God and that is through faith (Roman 4:1). Even though this is a common theme throughout the New Testament, and Paul is attempting to explain this concept the best he can to the Romans in Romans 4, the idea of justification through faith alone gets its origination back in Genesis 15 when God makes a covenant with Abram. Genesis 12:4 states that “Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran”. Later in Genesis 15, when God makes a covenant with Abram that even though he has no children, that he will have as many descendants as there are stars in the sky (Gobible, n.d.). Therefore, when Abram says in verse 6 that he believes in God, it truly is a great show of faith. …show more content…
Paul’s reason for this was to let the Romans know that faith is what God wanted from Abraham, and it was what he wanted from them; just as He has wanted it from everyone since the beginning of time. Also that through their faith, every one of them could be justified with God. This was an uphill battle for Paul because, as the father of all Jews, it was a widely held belief that Abraham was justified in the sight of God because of his righteous character and the keeping God’s commandments. Also known as the law. Paul sees the best way to dispel this notion is to explain to the Romans that when God makes the covenant with Abraham in Genesis chapter 15, it is approximately six hundred years prior to the law being given to Moses on Mt Sinai in Exodus chapter