The ‘Romans’ in Paul’s letter to the Romans are a mixed group of Jewish Christians and Gentile/Greek Christians.
If you were a Jewish Christian, you thought you were superior to the Gentile/Greek Christians because you were part of Israel, God’s chosen people who were given circumcision and the Law of Moses. Belief in Jesus was belief in the long-awaited Messiah.
If you were a Gentile/Greek Christian, you thought you were superior to the Jewish Christians because you didn’t need circumcision and the Law of Moses to be made right with God. You had faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior and didn’t need the Jewish stuff.
In this chapter, Paul pulls the rug of superiority out from under both groups. God made promises to Abraham, and Abraham trusted God to make good on those promises. By using the trust/faith Abraham had in God, Paul makes the argument that Abraham is the father of all who have faith…Jew and Gentile/Greek.
This strikes a blow to the Jewish Christians who might think that through circumcision and lineage they are children of Abraham. Paul says they are children of Abraham because they have the faith and trust of Abraham.
It also strikes a blow to the Gentile/Greek Christians who do not see a need to learn anything from their Jewish Christian counterparts. They don’t need circumcision or the law to be right with God through faith in Jesus. Paul pulls them up short, reminding them that in Abraham they have a model of faith and trust in God. Abraham is their forefather in faith.
Therefore, as this chapter closes, the Jewish Christians and the Gentile/Greek Christians have three things in common: they all have sinned, all of them are made right with God through faith in Jesus and both have Abraham as their father and model in having faith in the God’s promises.
