Living Water - Romans 4:1-15

I’ve been trying to think about an outline for Romans, or some type of progression, and I guess I just want it to be more linear because I struggle with the language. At the time Romans was written, many Jews believed that they would be saved because of their heritage and because of their obedience to the Law of Moses. Paul is trying to explain that this is not the case.

One resource that has helped me with this concept is the seminary student manual (SM). It says, “Imagine that you are dying of thirst in the desert and that there is a bottle of water on top of a nearby hill. Which of the following options will save you?

Your belief that the water can save you. (Yes, because if you don’t believe that the water can save you, then you will make no effort to reach it.)

Your effort to get to the water and drink it. (Yes, because the water can be there and you can believe in its saving abilities all day long, but if you don’t do anything about it, then it doesn’t do you any good.)

The water. (This is ultimately the right answer; there is nothing else that can save you. Your belief won’t magically convert into cellular nutrients provided by the water, and the walking that you do to get over to the water will not save you if the water is not there.)

 
I thought that this was a very poignant analogy of how salvation works. Ultimately, only the water can save you. If there is no water on the top of the hill, no amount of belief or walking will make your body have the water that it needs, neither of those activities can create the water. Likewise, no amount of faith or good works can repay the debt to justice that we have incurred, it is not the same currency. The only way that we can be saved at all is through the atonement of Jesus Christ.
With His sacrifice, he provided us the opportunity to participate in repentance, but he isn’t going to come down to where we are and force the water (repentance) down our throats, we have to make the choice to accept the salvation, and we have to put in some effort to obtain it. The effort isn’t a payment from us to Him for his gift, but as a master psychologist, the Savior knows that people are more invested and committed to things that they must get to expending at least some of their own efforts for.
Honestly, if it were to be a completely straight across analogy, I think that the Savior would stand on the hill with our salvation, and as we moved toward him, he would come down to meet us, and then help us climb up that hill with him. That’s the beautiful part about it, he doesn’t just provide a way for us to be saved, but he actively does whatever he can to help us reach it. He matches our efforts a hundred times over, but we still have to make them.
The SM says, “Some of the Jewish Saints in Rome overemphasized the importance of their own efforts and of the law of Moses in being justified.” This makes sense because the Jews at the time of Christ really didn’t understand the law of Moses as a type of the atonement. Jehovah gave Moses the laws and ordinances so that they could prepare themselves for the coming of the Messiah and His sacrifice of his life for them. That’s what all the “first born lamb without blemish or broken bones” thing was about, they were to carry out the sacrifices of Moses’ law and be able to look forward to and understand at least a little bit better, the actuality of salvation. We can look at the people in the Book of Mormon, even though they weren’t always righteous, as being able to connect the law of Moses and sacrifices to the future coming of the Savior and the atonement.
To help the Jewish Saints understand the disconnect between salvation and the law of Moses, Paul reminds them of their father Abraham. There is a lot of JST and back and forth about circumcision, which I still don’t understand the obsession with, but the IM gives a nice summary, saying, “Since Abraham lived centuries before the law of Moses was given, he was an ideal example of someone who was justified through faith in Jesus Christ and not through the law of Moses.
Quoting from Genesis, Paul noted that ‘Abraham believed (had faith in) God, and it as counted unto him for righteousness (justification.)’ Abraham received this assurance before he was circumcised. Under the law of Moses, circumcision was the rite by which male Israelites ‘accepted the responsibilities of the covenant.’ Thus, Paul was able to show from scripture that individuals were not justified through obedience to the law of Moses- they were justified through faith in God’s promises.”
If I put myself in a position where I have lived a whole life about very strict obedience to set of specific laws regarding the physical aspects of my existence, then I can see how it would be difficult to switch my perspective from that of physical obedience to spiritual obedience. I guess if we really think about it, the law of Moses was very much about physical obedience, not speaking the Lord’s name in vain, not murdering, stealing, committing adultery, lying, these are all very physical aspects.
Sure there are a few that are more spiritually based such as making God your first priority in life or not coveting your neighbor’s stuff, but even though are physically based, don’t covet your neighbor’s house, wife, etc, have no graven images. The main difference between the lower law of Moses and the higher law of Christ is that He took obedience from a mostly physical realm to a spiritual one. Now suddenly it’s not enough to just not murder, (which is physical) but you must not be angry either (which is spiritual).
So not only was the law of Moses itself more focused on controlling yourself physically, but also about physical ordinances, sacrificing animals, ritual purification, etc. Now Paul is trying to help these Jewish converts make the transition to spiritual based religion, controlling yourself spiritually, and spiritual ordinances like baptism and confirmation.
In addition to helping the Jewish Saints make the distinction between salvation from the law of Moses vs. salvation through the atonement, Paul is also able to help them accept that Jews are not the only ones that are able to be accepted by Christ into the gospel. By focusing on Abraham’s salvation before his circumcision, Paul is pointing out that God saves those who haven’t been circumcised and therefore the saints should be accepting of all who want to participate in the gospel, regardless of their lineage.