Romans 4:1-4 ‘Abraham Justified By Faith’

Initial Considerations

• Paul is talking to Jews in Rome and so his reference to historical Scriptural characters would be quite illuminating and essential. Similar to when he goes to the Greeks and talks to them from the point of view of philosophy, creating a common bond – so for the Jews he talks about the patriarchs and such (Abraham and David anyway)
• He is basically continuing his thesis of justification by faith and not works, but showing how that is played out in the Old Testament.

Text
Rom 4:1
WHAT then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh?

• Why does Paul choose to use Abraham as an example? Well Abraham was really the initial patriarch from whom all Jews come from. So what was true of him must be true of all Jews (see Jhn 8:39). Also, if Paul can show that God meant for righteousness to be by faith right from the start, even for the Jewish Patriarchs, then it would contrast with contemporary Judaism, making clear that justification was indeed by faith.
• So Paul asks the question – what did Abraham ever get by doing good things? Remembering that Abraham was a pinnacle of righteousness for the Jews.

Rom 4:2
For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.

• Paul then brings back his earlier statement that if we are justified by works than we can boast. If Abraham was then justified by works then he would have something to boast about. Now the Jews may have agreed with this, given they probably thought he should be able to boast!
• However, he could not boast before God. If all our righteousness is as dirty rags (Isa 64:6), then even if we do more good things than everyone else then we still have no reason to boast to God. 

Rom 4:3
For what does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness."

• This verse is very important. The Scripture comes from Gen 15:6 where Abraham had just believed God’s promise to make him into a nation as countless as the stars. Of course, it implies much more than just belief in this promise. It implies belief throughout his life since God had tested his faith (and in his continuing faith in the future – for instance when he obeyed God to sacrifice his son Isaac, before God provided the sacrifice Himself).
• Belief here means faith. Note that faith is not a work. Faith is not something we do or work at. Neither is it faith that saves us. Indeed, it is the blood of Christ that saves us through faith. Faith is like the rope that pulls us through – without it we can’t be saved, but it does nothing on its own.
• Accounted was a legal or financial term. It means to take something from one person and credit it to another person. In this case, God took His own righteousness and credited it to Abraham through faith.
• Interestingly, we get the picture here of righteousness as sort of like an object that can be moved and credited. That is, righteousness exists. This supports the idea that sin is merely an absence of righteousness, as darkness is an absence of light. That is, light exists, but darkness doesn’t have substance.

Rom 4:4
Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt.

• Under the law of works, anything we do is not added up to our tally (as so many religions would have us believe), rather, the ‘good’ things are merely lost, and the bad things are counted against us. We can only ever amount to debt under works because any good we do is not really good at all (again see Isa 64:6). Without the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and His transformation, we are not capable of fulfilling the law.
• For this reason, we need grace, but works will never attain us grace – because grace can’t be attained! The definition of grace is that it is given.

 

SUMMARY
Paul makes strong his thesis that justification is by faith alone without works by going back to the very beginning of the only religion that could in any way compare to Christianity and saying that even that religion should be based on faith, and was based on faith before being distorted. Thus, old testament saints were justified through faith just as we are today.

WHAT DO I LEARN?
More and more I keep seeing the theme coming through that there is nothing I can do or say or think or feel to earn God’s grace, forgiveness and righteousness. Nothing is of ourselves – and this carries through as Christians as well – every day is a complete surrender to Christ and God’s will and doing our best just to get out of the way!