John:
Do you think it is accurate to say: “God measured Abraham and judged him righteous”?
I really believe this is what Moses and Paul are saying.
Also, I cannot recall perfectly what you have said in the past about Romans.
I believe Paul is saying that we can be truly good. Is that what you hear?
THANKS!
Paul is saying we can truly be good, but not with “measure” as a “quantity”, like a yard-stick. God “evaluates” us as either “one of my People” or “not one of my People”. He judged Abraham to be that. Being one of the People is “righteousness”.
Look at the neighborhood where you live. For example, I am in Minnesota. A “righteous Minnesotan” is “one of the Minnesotans”, meaning one living here as a Minnesotan lives, and not living as a non-Minnesotan might live.
A person robbing a convenience store is not living as a Minnesotan lives, but is living as a non-Minnesotan lives. This one is not a righteous (good) Minnesotan. And he is not justified in using the name “Minnesotan” in talking about himself (in the truest sense of the word), even though he was born her and lives here.
Paul is telling the Romans (Gentile converts) that they, like Abraham, have this Citizenship into being the People. God is “looking for those who will take him at his word”, as Jesus said to Satan, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” - taking God at his word. That is what Abraham did, and what the Romans did. They did not depend on being born into the people or changing stones to bread, but took Jesus at his word (in the Gospel announced to them).
Now they are the People (just as a Minnesotan is a Minnesotan), Not only that, but in making them “the People”, God put his Spirit into them so they now knew how to live out their new “being the People”, being good. He didn’t just consider them his People, but gave them goodness to use.
