Abraham Justified by Faith
1What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, discovered in this matter? 2If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about--but not before God. 3What does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness."[1]
4Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. 5However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness. 6David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:
7“Blessed are they
whose transgressions are forgiven,
whose sins are covered.
8Blessed is the man
whose sin the Lord will never count against him."[2]
9Is this blessedness only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham's faith was credited to him as righteousness. 10Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? It was not after, but before! 11And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them. 12And he is also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.
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V1 — Proof that the gospel is rooted in the Old Testament Scriptures.
Paul has repeatedly gone out of his way to establish this fact. (See
Romans 1:2 and 3:21 and now 4.) Why? His audience was primarily Jewish
Christians, and they had grown up learning the law from rabbis who
taught justification by works. Paul just finished teaching justification
by faith in chapter 3. When people are set in their ways, it’s hard to
get them to accept change. That’s why Paul hammers on the truths he
teaches as being rooted in the Old Testament. He first uses the example
of Abraham, and then he uses David, perhaps 2 of the 3 greatest heroes
of Judaism, to make his point. So Paul asks, “What does Abraham’s
situation say about this?”
It’s very important to understand the context, the culture, the
audience, and Paul’s purpose when reading chapter 4. Many Jewish
Christians, being new in their faith in Christ, and certainly all
Jews, would have struggled with justification by faith; they looked
at Abraham as being righteous on his own. So Paul strived to take
them to the traditional proof texts of the Jewish rabbis in order to
show them that his teaching was true. Paul knew that his contemporaries
would have appealed to Abraham to prove that salvation was by works,
by one’s own righteousness, at least to some degree by one’s own merit.
But Paul appeals to Abraham to show that, in fact, the Old Testament
Scriptures teach the opposite. Salvation is by grace and received by
faith. There is continuity here, as all people ever to be saved are
saved by grace through faith, regardless of when or where they lived.
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V2-3 — If salvation has anything to do with you, then boasting is
possible. The Jews of Paul’s day taught that Abraham was chosen by
God because of his righteousness. They taught that since he was the
most righteous man of his day, God chose him to be the father of Israel.
Furthermore, they also taught that Abraham was without sin, that he did
not need to repent, and that he had kept God’s law perfectly throughout
his life. Here are examples:
In the prayer of Manasseh, which was written a couple of centuries
before the time of Christ, we read: “Therefore, You, O Lord, the God
of the righteous have not appointed repentance for the righteous, for
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who did not sin against you. But you have
appointed repentance for me, a sinner.” There’s the suggestion that
some people out there that don’t need to repent, that some haven’t
sinned other than Christ. From the book of Jubilees, a Jewish work
written before the time of Christ, we read: “Abraham was perfect in
his deeds with the Lord and well pleasing in righteousness all the
days of his life.” I wonder if the author of that read Genesis 12-17.
The Abraham in Genesis 12-17 was a man who fell into sin and displeased
the Lord and wounded his own people and had to be restored in his feeble
faith. Yet this is what the Jewish rabbis taught. Even in commenting on
Genesis 15:6, which is quoted in Romans 4:3, “Abraham believed God, and
it was credited (or imputed, as we’ll see) to him as righteousness,” the
rabbis said: “Our father, Abraham, became the heir of this and the world
to come simply by the merit of faith. His faith was a work whereby he
earned the right to the inheritance of this world and the world to
come.” This is what the Jews thought. And so Paul countered this by
suggesting that Abraham, then, would have had a reason to boast before
God. But the Jews couldn’t imagine boasting before God! Paul knew that
they wouldn’t dare boast before God, so he closed the argument with
“but not before God.” That helped make the point that the Jews already
knew but did not admit: It’s not in us! If it was in us, then we’d have
something about which to boast. The Jews hadn’t taken their beliefs to
the logical conclusion. They just accepted what they had been taught
without going deeper, without carrying it out. And that is dangerous
to do for us today as well. If you say that God is saving you because
of something in you, that’s wrong. Do you think God looked out and saw
that you were good or saw something good in you that wasn’t in others,
and that’s why He saved you? That’s wrong. If that were right, you
could boast before Him. Paul makes that clear right here. There is
no boasting before God.
To clarify, faith is the means of receiving righteousness. Faith is
not righteousness, nor is it the cause of righteousness. Through the
channel of faith, by faith, Christ’s righteousness is credited or
imputed to us. Here’s a poor analogy: We would not say that the wire
in our wall is the cable TV signal, nor would we say that the wire
caused or merited or earned or deserved the cable TV signal. The wire
is absolutely essential for our television to receive a cable signal.
But in and of itself, the wire is not the signal. The wire is the
conduit or channel by which we receive the cable TV signal. Faith is
not righteousness / justification, nor does it cause or merit
righteousness / justification. Oh, it’s absolutely essential for
righteousness / justification. It’s the conduit or channel through
which God accomplishes His justification and His salvation. God
justifies us and credits Christ’s righteousness to us through faith.
This question still remains: Why do some have faith and not others?
Is it something in them? If so, how can they not boast?
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V4-5 — Imputation. What an amazing statement that “God justifies the
wicked”! God declares the ungodly to be righteous! How do we respond
to understanding that? Do we understand what imputation means? Paul
helps us with these verses. It’s an accounting term, like debit and
credit. Justification and imputation work together to accomplish
salvation. In justification we are declared not guilty though we
are guilty, righteous though we are not righteous. And imputation
is how God justifies. He imputes Christ’s righteousness to us through
faith, so that He can righteously declare us righteous. He “credits”
to our “account” the righteousness of Christ. He cancels the
immeasurable debt we owe, but not only that. He also gives us His
requirement to enter His presence, the priceless righteousness of
Christ. What an amazingly gracious gift! Verse 4 explains the way
people would expect this transaction to be accomplished. Paul addresses
the hypothetical question: “What must we do to take advantage of this
transaction?” Paul says, “Nothing, because if you could do something
to gain God’s grace, then God would owe you His grace. It would no
longer be a gift. And this is contrary to salvation by grace, for
grace would not be grace; it would be like a wage, an obligation,
paid out as compensation.” God owes us nothing. Since salvation is
a gift and not an obligation, we receive it through faith, not by
works.
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V6-8 — Blessed is the man. Paul again goes to the Old Testament
Scriptures to show that David held this position of justification
by faith, salvation by grace. David says, “Blessed are they whose
sins have been covered and forgiven. Blessed is the man whose sin
the Lord will never count against him.” “Blessed”=deeply secure,
not deserving; due to God’s divine benediction, your lawless deeds
are covered and forgiven and not imputed. God does not credit your
sins to your account. This is an example of non-imputation. Both are
essential for salvation. So God imputes Christ’s righteous to the
believer’s account, and He does not impute the sins of the believer
to the believer’s account. And Paul proves this right here, using
only the Old Testament. Paul does not see justification as only the
imputation of righteousness or only the forgiveness of sin. It’s both!
And the blessedness of both conditions is by faith, apart from works.
This doctrine for the mind is designed to produce joy in the heart.
Be secure that you are justified!
Notice that David says the blessed man is the man whose works the
Lord does not consider. The blessed man is deeply secure that God
accepts him not on the basis of what he has done, but on the basis
of what Christ has done. David does not stand before God and say,
“Lord, I’m trying to be a good person.” David says, “The man who
is really blessed is the man whose sins God doesn’t count against
him.” Understanding imputation and non-imputation are important,
as we will discuss imputation more when we come to Romans 5:12. I’ll
make a statement regarding that passage for you to ponder until we
get there: “The sin of Adam was imputed to all mankind, as every
person was ‘in Adam.’ Adam was our representative, and when he sinned,
the entire human race was counted as sinners.” Just as the
righteousness of Christ was imputed to me through faith, so the sin
of Adam was imputed to me through my humanity; I descended from Adam.
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V9-10 — The blessing of God for all kinds of men. Paul again is dealing
with those folks coming from Jewish heritage that thought things were
different regarding God’s favor toward Jews and Gentiles. He returns
to the point he made in chapter 2, that salvation, that justification,
that the imputation of Christ’s righteousness, that the non-imputation
of one’s sins to their account, all of these glorious truths, are for
the uncircumcised as well as the circumcised, for the Gentile and the
Jew. And Paul proves this again from the Old Testament. He asks his
audience a question: When was Abraham justified: before or after his
circumcision? Since Abraham was justified some 14 years (29 years by
Jewish counting) before he was circumcised, it was not his circumcision
that accounted for his righteousness. Abraham was declared righteous
while he was a Gentile! Paul’s point is to emphasize that justification
is for all who believe, for all who have faith. Nothing that we do,
whether ceremonial or moral, contributes to that justification, because
the ground or basis of that justification is not something in us, and
it’s not something that we do, and it’s not even our faith; it’s
grounded in what Christ did. And therefore, circumcision or other
outward rituals contribute nothing to that justification. Salvation
is based on nothing in the person. There’s nothing in a person that
conditioned God to save them. Our faith did not cause God to save us.
We have faith, because He saved us! We need to know that assuring
truth of His justification by grace through faith. It’s absolutely
essential for assurance of salvation.
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V11-12 — Circumcision as a sign of faith. There are many churches that
teach that a person must be baptized with water in order to be saved.
Paul’s words here negate that assertion. Acts 15:1-2 “Some men came
down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the brothers: ‘Unless
you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you
cannot be saved.’ This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute
and debate with them.” First, note that the Jews had learned that to
refuse circumcision was to reject the covenant community and refuse
the promises that God had made. Genesis 17:14 “Any uncircumcised male,
who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his
people; he has broken My covenant.” In other words, “he who refuses to
be cut is cut off.” Now here in Romans, Paul is saying circumcision
doesn’t matter for salvation. Elsewhere Paul recommends Gentile converts
to Christianity not to be circumcised, and that those who would force
them to be circumcised are, in fact, themselves rejecting the covenant.
And the Jewish Christians and Jewish hearers of Paul’s words as he first
says them were likely scratching their heads in confusion, disbelief,
or flat out anger with his apparent contradiction of the Scriptures.
Can you hear them saying, “Hold on Paul! You’re saying, ‘In the Old
Testament, to refuse the sign of circumcision is to refuse God and
His promises. In the New Testament, to demand that Gentiles be
circumcised is to refuse God and His covenant promises. How does
that mesh?”
Paul says that circumcision is a sign and a seal. It is an outward
sign of an inward reality. It’s a seal, which doesn’t bring about
the inward reality, but confirms it. As a sign, circumcision was to
remind Abraham of God’s love for him, and as a seal, circumcision was
to confirm to Abraham that God had credited him as a righteous man
based not on his deeds. That was important, as Abraham continued sinning
after he was declared righteous. Is the same true for us regarding
baptism? What is the connection between baptism and circumcision?
This is a very deep theological topic that to this day causes division
and disunity, and we’re not going to break the surface of it here, but
I am curious to know what you think. If baptism is the same as
circumcision, then why not baptize infants, just as covenant children
were circumcised? Is baptism part of the “obedience of faith” that
Paul desires to bring about in his ministry? When is a person saved?
Most of us would say, “The moment we believe in Jesus Christ as
Savior.” Others might say, “The moment we confess Christ as Savior.”
Would any of you say, “The moment we rise from the waters of baptism”?
An act like baptism, or any other act of obedience to God, does not give
us right standing with God. But the acts of obedience are signs and
seals that our faith is real and that Christ is our perfect
righteousness. When our lives begin conforming to the revealed will
of God, this is a sign of faith. Our lifestyles even become signs
and seals that our faith is real and that we have the righteousness
of God revealed in Christ.
Justification by faith—getting right with God, being acquitted in His
court, having our sins forgiven, having the righteousness of Christ
imputed to us and our sins imputed to Him, (not becoming righteous,
but being counted as righteous while we are still sinners), and all
this by faith alone—that is what the first 7 or 8 chapters of Romans
are mostly about. For Paul, it was the heart of the gospel message. The
book of Romans is the most systematic and extensive of Paul’s efforts
to put his message in writing. And it is all structured around the
great truth of justification by faith.
So we see from Romans 4, so far, that Paul returns to the Old Testament
to make four key points regarding justification by faith. First,
it excludes boasting before God in our right standing with Him.
The eliminated boasting should enhance our joy, as there is nothing
we must contribute. Remember, “Blessed is the man…” What joy it is
that our sins are not credited to our account on God’s ledger! Second,
it includes the righteousness of Christ, imputed to us apart from works,
regardless of what we do. Again, what a joyfully amazing thing to
consider that we have the righteousness of Christ credited to our
account! Third, Paul makes clear that works or acts of obedience,
like circumcision or baptism, have their proper and essential place
in the believer’s life as signs and seals, but not as the grounds of
justification. First is justification, then sanctification. Fourth
and finally, the truth of justification by faith opens the way to
all people groups to be included in the covenant family, which was
thought to be only for Jews. And this family of believers, having
Abraham as their father (Galatians 3:7), will one day inherit the
Kingdom!
13It was not through law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. 14For if those who live by law are heirs, faith has no value and the promise is worthless, 15because law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression.
16Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring--not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. 17As it is written: "I have made you a father of many nations."[3] He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed--the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.
18Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, "So shall your offspring be."[4] 19Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead--since he was about a hundred years old--and that Sarah's womb was also dead. 20Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. 22This is why "it was credited to him as righteousness." 23The words "it was credited to him" were written not for him alone, 24but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness--for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. 25He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.
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V13 — Those who receive the righteousness of Christ by faith will
inherit the world. What an amazing thing to consider! The covenant
promise of God was not for Abraham alone; it wasn’t for his physical
descendants alone; it wasn’t only for folks before the time of Christ;
it was for all who received the righteousness of Christ by faith; the
covenant promise of God is for all believers, all who have faith in
God’s promise. And what’s the promise? They will inherit the world.
That’s not what God said to Abraham in Genesis. How does Paul make
“All nations of the world will be blessed” into “heir of the world”?
Perhaps Paul extrapolates this statement as further evidence that we
can’t earn it. You don’t earn an inheritance; you’re born into it
(or in this case, re-born into it). It’s a gift. Nothing you did
brought you into the position of inheriting the world. What could
anyone do to become heir of the world? Rather, believers are justified,
considered righteous, and adopted as children of God and are therefore
co-heirs with Christ of all creation!
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V14 — If righteousness comes by law, then faith has no value and the
promise is worthless. In v13-14, Paul points out to the Jewish
Christians who thought Abraham was righteous by his own works of
obedience that the justification Abraham received came some 400
years before Moses announced God’s divinely revealed law from Mt.
Sinai. So, long before Moses gave God’s summary of His moral code
to the people of God, God had declared Abraham to be just, which
makes it very clear that obedience to God’s law is not the conduit
or channel through which Abraham was declared accepted by God.
Faith is.
Paul says that God displays His love by imputing Christ’s righteousness
to us through faith, rather than by the law. Some people might say that
the exclusive truth of Christianity, that Christ is the only way, makes
God out to be selfish with His love. They might say, “Since the
Christian God saves only those who have faith in Christ, His saving
love is conditional!” They want to think that God loves everybody
so much that He will save all people without condition. They don’t
realize that God’s righteousness requires justice. They also don't
realize that God provides the condition that He requires: faith. God
doesn’t owe sinners anything, except eternal damnation. Paul takes this
claim that God is selfish with His saving love if righteousness is by
faith and refutes it with 2 statements: (1) faith would have no value;
(2) the promise would be worthless.
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How would faith have no value? If righteousness comes by obedience
to the law, then whoever is a good person will be called righteous.
Then salvation is by a person’s goodness or obedience, so God saves
only those who obey Him. Because they obey Him, He saves them. In
other words, they save themselves; they earn their salvation; they
condition God’s love by their obedience. Thus faith has no place
in the equation of salvation. Furthermore, as we have seen, the law
can’t bring righteousness; it only brings wrath.
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How would the promise be worthless? Remember Paul just spent 63
verses (about 2 whole chapters) explaining that all men are sinful
and no one is righteous. So if righteousness comes by obedience to
the law, and no one has obeyed the law, then no one inherits the
world. Thus the promise would be worthless. It’d be like promising
ten billion dollars to Brian Daniel if he’d win the next NASCAR
race. Impossible.
Paul is saying that if salvation is based on a person’s goodness or
obedience, then people save themselves, and God just waits, hoping
they will obey, so He can pronounce His blessing on them. This is
not the way it works. God doesn’t just anxiously await our decisions
to see whether or not we will be obedient. He loved us first. He knew
those who are His before creation; they hear His voice when He calls,
because He opens their ears; and He justifies them through the
channel of faith, not by their obedience.
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V15 — Law brings wrath; there is no transgression where there is no
law. Paul again says that the law cannot save us; it can only
condemn us. Our hope cannot be in our obedience to the law, because
no one has obeyed the law in its entirety, with the exception of the
God-Man, Jesus Christ. The law demonstrates that man has violated
God’s standards, and it brings wrath. And it’s very interesting to
see how a person’s attitude changes when that reality of the law is
brought to light. When the law is on someone’s side, they like to
speak about the rule of law and appeal to it. But when the judgment
goes against them, it’s funny how insignificant the rule of law is
to them. They’ll deny its importance. People will give lip service
to God’s standards, but apart from grace, nobody likes the law. Apart
from grace, all people know that the law condemns; it brings wrath.
Before we are saved, the law is our enemy. Afterwards, it is the
Living and Active Word of God.
Why does Paul say that “there is no sin where there is no law”?
Remember, he’s dealing with Jews who appeal to the law as their
justification. He’s reminding them the law’s purpose was never to
justify. The purpose was to reveal sin more clearly. Where there
is law, there is law-breaking. The law, apart from grace, actually
exaggerates that tendency in mankind’s fallen sinful nature to go
against God. So what about where there is no law? There was no law
prior to Moses and the Exodus. Were the people before that time still
sinners? Of course. Romans 5:12-14 helps us see what Paul is saying.
And we’ll study it in detail when we get there. It has to do with the
imputation of Adam’s sin to our account. Paul’s point is that, while
all kinds of sinful attitudes and actions might have gone unnoticed,
because there was no specific commandment that was violated, as we
saw in Romans 1, the folks without the law still knew what was right.
Paul says that the Gentiles who do not have the law are a law unto
themselves. Sin was dormant sin before the law was given, and there
may have been some vague uneasiness about it; but then the law came,
and every vague or questionable act was a specific violation of an
explicit commandment.
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V16 — The promise is by faith, so that it may be by grace for all who
are Abraham’s children. Paul was always addressing hypothetical
questions. He knew his audience. He knew what their objections would
be. And in v16-17 he answers an objection that is not revealed in the
text, but it was certainly there. Paul’s Jewish Christian audience
would have asked, “Why is justification by faith alone if God wants
us to live a life filled with righteousness and obedience to His law?”
Paul gives 3 more answers to this great question, in addition to the
many times he’s answered it already in Romans. People just didn’t get
it. How could it be? What was God’s purpose? Why, Paul? Why is
justification by faith?
First, justification is by faith, because the law brings wrath. The
law can’t justify. Second, justification is by faith, because faith
corresponds to grace, while works correspond to compensation. Third,
justification is by faith, because faith opens the door to the Gentiles.
The first 2 reasons have been discussed earlier. Regarding faith
corresponding to grace, grace is the guarantee; the only way that
our eternal future can be guaranteed is if it rests on God’s grace.
Grace is the free and undeserved work of God to bring His people to
glory. Grace is the mighty, omnipotent purpose of God to make sure
we get our inheritance. But this third one is pretty neat. In order
for God to be faithful to His promise to Abraham, justification
(and salvation) had to be by grace through faith. God promised
Abraham that he would be the father of many nations. Now if Abraham
is going to be the father of many nations, then the way of that
salvation can’t be the Mosaic law, because only Israel keeps the Mosaic
law. Only Israel has circumcision as the command of Moses. Only Israel
has the ceremonial code, the dietary laws, and the various other laws.
So if God is going to give the nations to Abraham as his spiritual
inheritance, then it’s got to be through some other means that the
Mosaic law; and Paul says, “It’s by faith.” The pagan Mark Twain said,
“Heaven goes by favor; if it went by merit, your dog would go in, and
you would go out.” Justification is by faith, because it accentuates
divine grace. We’re saved by God’s favor, by His mercy, by His gift.
We can’t earn or merit or deserve that.
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V17 — God gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as
though they were. Paul first emphasizes God’s power to give life to
the dead. I see two potential meanings here: Perhaps he’s alluding to
the way that God opened the womb of Sarah, this woman who was barren
and way past the days of child bearing. God opened that womb, which
was a grave, and He brought forth life from Sarah. Then again, perhaps
Paul is talking about the grace of God, which by the power of the Holy
Spirit, quickens the spiritually dead to new life. Perhaps Paul is
talking about the rebirth.
Then Paul emphasizes God’s power to call things that are not as though
they were. Again, I see two potential meanings: This perhaps points to
that multitude of descendants that Abraham would have. Abraham, a
childless man, had a name that meant “great or exalted father.” And
God, in mercy, granted him that which did not exist, a multitude of
sons, when He came to him in a covenant relationship in Ur of the
Chaldees. Then again, maybe Paul means that God calls His people
righteous, though they are not. Those whom God calls to spiritual
life, He justifies. Remember the golden chain of salvation: Those
He foreknew, He predestined. Those He predestined, He called. Those
He called, He justified. Those He justified, He glorified. He calls
us righteous, though we aren’t.
So, God gave life to the dead when He opened up the womb of Sarah and
when He quickened us to spiritual life, when He gave us eyes to see
and ears to hear though we were blind and deaf. And He called things
that are not as though they were when He gave multitudes of descendants
(yet to exist) to Abraham and when He declared us righteous though we
were not. Deadness must come to life and non-existence must exist. That
is what grace does. Man cannot do this. Man cannot raise the dead. And
man cannot create something out of nothing. But God can, and God does
in order to guarantee the promises for His people. That is the meaning
of grace. Grace not only gives us better than we deserve; grace gives
us what we cannot produce: spiritual life, the sight of glory, the
hearing of divine truth, the tasting of spiritual sweetness. It all
comes into being by the grace of God. That is why the promise is
certain. God’s almighty grace guarantees the promise: it brings
spiritual life out of death and enables us to believe and keep on
believing; and it overrides our demerit in the act of justification.
The promise, just as Romans 9:16 says, is not finally dependent on our
fickle will, but on God’s sovereign grace. It doesn’t depend on man’s
desire or effort, on man who wills or runs, but on God Who shows
mercy.
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V18-22 — In hope, Abraham believed against all hope. He did not waver,
but was strengthened in faith. He glorified God persuaded that He had
power. The Jews in Paul’s audience finally give in to what Paul has
said—justification is by faith alone. But now, what’s the next thing
on their minds? Logically, if they think justification is by obedience
and it’s not, and they finally concur that justification is by faith,
then they’ll want to know what faith is. So picture them asking Paul,
“What must I do to be saved?” They realized now, finally, that it
wasn’t in them. So how was it possible? Remember what Jesus said:
“With man this is impossible. But with God, all things are possible.”
So Paul, in the rest of chapter 4, answers the question, “What must I
do to be saved?” by answering 3 other questions; let’s call them A, B,
and C. Here he begins by answering A, the question: “What is saving
faith?”
He is talking about Abraham’s faith in the moments leading up to his
planned sacrifice of Isaac. Many people think Abraham believed that
God would provide a substitute in order to fulfill His promise, but
Hebrews 11:19, in which Abraham represents a “type” of Christ, explains
that Abraham did not expect a substitute. He was fully trusting in God
to resurrect Isaac from the dead if necessary in order to fulfill His
promise. That was the faith of Abraham. He persistently believed God’s
Word despite all the evidence to the contrary. So Paul is telling us
what faith is by giving us the example of Abraham. Faith is trust in
God and His promises despite our circumstances and evidence to the
contrary—in hope against hope. Do those two little phrases not go in
the opposite direction: in hope against hope? Really, they don’t
contradict one another. Abraham, in his thoughts, contemplated his
human condition and saw no hope. Although there was no reason for
him to hope at the human level, still he hoped in God, he believed
in God and in His promise. So in hope against all hope, he believed.
There was no human reason for him to expect a son or to be the father
of many nations. He was almost 100 years old. He was childless by his
wife, who was long past childbearing years. There was no reason for
him to think that God’s promise would be fulfilled. But against hope
in hope he still believed. And this is saving faith, according to
Paul.
And we are in the same position. We have no hope of forgiveness from
our sin, given the Holiness of God. We have no hope of being counted
as righteous in His sight. Yet through faith, in hope against all hope,
we are justified. We believe, like Abraham, that God will resurrect
from the dead in order to fulfill His promise to us. And He did. Christ
lives! Do you doubt this? 4000 years ago God spoke to a man who had no
children, and who would not have children until he approached 100, and
He said, “One day your spiritual descendants will be numberless.”
Today, more than two billion people claim to worship the God of
Abraham. Two billion people claim Abraham as their spiritual Father.
What a confirmation that God can be taken at His Word! God is faithful.
He fulfills what He promises. And we don’t doubt it. And we glorify God
by not doubting, which is what Abraham did. By persevering in faith, we
glorify God.
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V23-24 — Abraham is an example for us all to know that justification is
by faith. Now Paul moves on to answer B, the question: “What does the
experience of Abraham have to do with me?” Think about it: What does
Abraham’s experience, really unlike anything we’ve ever gone through,
have to do with us? At this point, the Jews thought, “But we didn’t go
through the circumstances that Abraham went through. God didn’t work
with us like that. So how does his experience with God relate to mine?”
And Paul’s answer may surprise us. He says, “The story of Abraham’s
justification by faith was written for us.” This is not the only time
Paul says something like that. In 1 Corinthians 10:1-13, Paul says
that the events and circumstances surrounding the Exodus happened to
serve a purpose greater than themselves. What went on over the 40 year
wanderings were for us, not merely for them. Considering that makes me
feel small. The Exodus and its circumstances were to serve as warnings
for us, not merely to teach and purify the Israelite people! Consider
this statement: God’s eternal purpose to enter into an everlasting
covenant of grace, of special blessing, with a man named Abram, whom
God chose based on nothing in him, was recorded for us, so that we
might see the glory of God in the fulfillment of His eternal purposes.
Abraham’s justification by faith was to serve as an example for those
who would come after him that we might know the glory of God in
justification by faith. Does that make sense? Abraham wasn’t blessed
just for him. He was blessed for us. The Exodus wasn’t just for those
people. It was for all of God’s people. And I would argue that every
event in all of history occurred not just randomly, not just by the
natural course of the time-space continuum, but by design, for the
unchanging eternal purpose of God in glorifying Himself, His Son as
Savior, and—consider this—even us as recipients and sharers of His
glory.
Now I just said that Abraham’s situation was not really much like ours.
But in a way, it is. We have the same faith in God and we believe in
His power and His promise just as Abraham did. Our faith is not in
faith. We are not saved, because we have faith in our faith. If our
faith is in our faith, then our faith is not faith. We have faith in
God, in His power to resurrect the dead, and His promise to resurrect
the dead. We have faith in Jesus Christ, that His work really did
accomplish our redemption; and we have faith in the Holy Spirit,
Who quickens us to life in the re-birth. It’s not faith that saves
us; it’s God. But it’s by faith that God transfers His salvation,
His saving grace, to us.
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V25 — Christ died for our sins and was raised from the dead for our
justification. Finally, Paul moves on to answer C, the question:
“Where specifically should my faith focus?” Here the Jews say,
“Okay Paul, now I know what faith is, and I know why Abraham’s
story is relevant to me, but what ought to be the focus of my
faith? Where specifically, Paul, do you want me to look?” And Paul
says, “Look to the cross and see the empty tomb.” Faith looks to
the promise of God fulfilled in the Person of Jesus Christ through
His death and resurrection. We don’t say, “It’s because I believe
that I’m saved” or “It’s what I believe that saves me.” We say with
Job, “My Redeemer lives. I know Whom I believe.” Or rather, “I am
known by Him” (Galatians 4:9).
Footnotes
- 4:3 Gen. 15:6; also in verse 22
- 4:8 Psalm 32:1,2
- 4:17 Gen. 17:5
- 4:18 Gen. 15:5
Bible text from
Gospelcom.net. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by
International Bible Society.