In Romans 4, Paul uses the figure of Abraham to argue that “the uprightness of faith” is more important than following the law. Paul notes that Abraham was given a blessing by God before he was circumcised. Therefore, although circumcision can serve as a sign of uprightness, it doesn’t inherently make a person upright, good, or faithful. Abraham’s circumcision was a “guarantee that the faith which he had while still uncircumcised was reckoned to him as uprightness”. Paul uses this example to make the point that faith in Jesus is what leads to salvation, not following the law. Paul uses Abraham as an example of an extremely faithful person as a model to the readers of this letter. Even though Abraham was old, “he hoped and believed that he was to become father of many nations in fulfillment of the promise: just so will your descendants be”.
Other than the importance of faith over the Law, I couldn’t quite tell what else Paul thought about the law. From the reading I got the sense that he had a general respect for it but didn’t expect gentiles to follow it because he saw the law is fulfilled in Jesus, but some parts of the letter seemed to make the law seem less important than in other parts.
Anna Janzen 
Similarly to you, I also wrote about how Paul stressed the importance of faith over the Law. I appreciated this idea as he showed a more universal view of God’s love and the ability to have faith in God whether a person is obedient to the Law or not obedient. I also thought it was interesting how Paul used Abraham as a model for Christian faith and a symbol for uprightness.
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I also found it interesting that Paul had his own way of saying that people should be independent of the Law and yet Jews followed him despite their traditions and heavy dependence on the same Law.
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