Romans 4
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CHAPTER 4
Abraham justified by Faith (4:1-12)
1 Abraham (also called Abram) was the very first Jew. God called Abraham to be the father of a new nation (Genesis 12:15; 17:3-8). Abraham is thus the original ancestor of all the Jews (Matthew 1:1-2).
Abraham was born about two thousand years before Christ’s time. He was born in the town of Ur, which was located in what is now modern Iraq. From there he moved with his father to the town of Haran in present-day Turkey (Genesis 11:31).
After that, in obedience to God’s call (Genesis 12:1), Abraham moved to the land of Canaan (which would later become Israel), a land which God had specially prepared for Abraham and his descendants.
But there was one big problem: Abraham’s wife Sarah (also called Sarai) was barren. God had promised Abraham: “I will make you into a great nation” (Genesis 12:2). But with Sarah unable to have children, how could God’s promise be fulfilled? At the time God made this promise to Abraham, Sarah was already old and long past child-bearing age. Therefore, Abraham initially doubted God’s word (Genesis 15:2-3). And so God told Abraham: “Look up at the heavens and count the stars—if indeed you can count them. … So shall your offspring be” (Genesis 15:5).
From that point on, Abraham didn’t doubt God, but believed that He would indeed fulfill His promise to give him and his wife Sarah a son.
When Abraham was one hundred years old and Sarah was ninety, Sarah gave birth to a boy. Abraham named him Isaac (Genesis 21:1-5).
In verse 1, Paul calls Abraham our fore-father,19 because Paul, being a Jew, was also a descendant of Abraham. The Jews considered themselves the only legitimate descendants of Abraham.
2 According to the Old Testament, Abraham was considered to be righteous, or justified20 (Genesis 15:6). How was he justified? The Jews mistakenly thought Abraham was justified (declared righteous by God) because he had been circumcised. God earlier had said to Abraham: “You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you” (Genesis 17:9-14). Thus the Jews thought that because Abraham obeyed God and was circumcised, he was therefore justified in God’s sight. In addition, the Jews thought that if they, too, were properly circumcised and followed the Jewish law, they would then be justified just as Abraham was (see Romans 2:25 and comment).
When Paul uses the word works in this verse, he means the “work” of obeying the Jewish law. If Abraham had indeed been justified by his works—that is, his obedience—then he would have had something to boast about. He could have boasted: “Look at me; because of my good works God is honoring me.”
But Paul says that is not so. Abraham was not justified because of his works, and therefore he didn’t have anything to boast to God about.
Here it is well to mention again why being justified is so important. It is important because, without first being justified or declared righteous by God, a person cannot be saved (see Romans 3:24 and comment). If a person is not justified, he remains condemned because of his sin, and his punishment is eternal death. Therefore, everyone needs to ask the question: How can I be made righteous in God’s sight? A righteous God will not accept an unrighteous man into His kingdom.
3 So how was Abraham justified or declared righteous? He was declared righteous not by his works but by his faith in God. By faith Abraham left his home and journeyed to the land of Canaan. By faith he accepted God’s promise that he and Sarah would have a son—even though it was humanly impossible. Therefore, Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness. Paul here has quoted Genesis 15:6, a quotation he will repeat again in verses 9 and 22.
4 When a man works, his employer is obligated to pay him wages for his work. The worker has earned his wages. The employer owes the worker his wages.
5 But God is not like a human employer. God doesn’t owe anyone anything. It is not because we have worked for God that He rewards us; rather, it is because of His mercy and grace in response to our faith that He rewards us.
One might even say that faith was a kind of “work.” One could say that in God’s sight faith is the one essential “work” a man must do to be justified (see John 6:28-29 and comment). But it is misleading to speak of faith as a “work.” After all, faith is also a free gift of God, which He gives to us out of His grace. Without God’s grace, we can’t even believe to begin with. Our salvation, from first to last, is brought about by God’s grace. God is the initiator and finisher of our salvation (see General Article: Salvation—God’s Choice or Man’s Choice?).
Paul says here that God justifies the wicked. By this Paul means that God justifies all who have faith; because through faith in Christ, wicked (unrighteous) men become righteous in God’s sight.
6-8 Paul here quotes from Psalm 32:1-3, written by David, the Jews’ greatest king. In each of these verses 6-8, there is an action described: to “credit righteousness” (verse 6); to “forgive transgressions” and to “cover sins” (verse 7); to “not count sin” (verse 8). All of these expressions describe the same action: namely, the cleansing or removing of our past sins from God’s sight so that we can stand innocent before God. When a man’s sins are forgiven, that man is declared righteous by God; in other words, God credits righteousness to him. Such a man is blessed indeed.
Like righteousness, forgiveness (cleansing) is a gift from God. We are not forgiven because of our own work or effort, but because of God’s free grace. There is only one thing we must do to obtain forgiveness, and that is to believe.
9 Is this blessedness (that is, the blessedness of righteousness and forgiveness) only for the circumcised (Jews)? The Jews thought “Yes,” but Paul says “No.” It’s for the Gentiles too.
10 The Jews claimed that Abraham was declared righteous because he was circumcised. But Paul says that is not so, because well before Abraham was circumcised, he had already put his faith in God. Many years before he was circumcised, Abraham had believed God’s promise that he would have a son and become the father of a great nation. It was because of that earlier faith in God that Abraham was declared righteous, not because of his circumcision. Circumcision was only the outward sign of Abraham’s faith.
11 In Abraham’s life, faith came before circumcision. Only after Abraham had faith, did God then give him the sign of circumcision. Paul calls this sign a seal of the righteousness [Abraham] had by faith.
Faith is the main thing; circumcision is only a sign (Genesis 17:11).
Abraham had faith while he was still uncircumcised, and it was this faith that made him acceptable in God’s sight. Therefore, Paul says, Abraham is also the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised—that is, he is the spiritual “father” of all believing Gentiles.
12 In verse 11, Paul wrote that Abraham was the father of all who believe. Here in verse 12, Paul writes that Abraham is also the father of the circumcised (the Jews). Yes, Abraham is the father of the Jews according to the flesh. But those Jews who do not truly believe in God (and Christ) are not true spiritual Jews; they are not Abraham’s true spiritual descendants. The true Jews are those who walk in the footsteps of the faith that … Abraham had. Likewise, true Christians are those who walk in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. It is not enough simply to say, “I believe.” We must walk in the footsteps of … faith.
Abraham Received the Promise by Faith (4:13-25)
13-14 When Paul writes the word law in verse 13, he means “works of the law.” In verse 14, the expression those who live by the law means “those who live by the works of the law.”
The Jewish law was given by God to the Jews more than four hundred years after Abraham’s time. Therefore, it couldn’t have been by works of the law that Abraham received the promise that he would become heir of the world (verse 13), since the law hadn’t even been given then.
In verse 14, Paul says: if we could become heirs through works of the law, then there would be no need for faith; faith would have no value. But the fact is that only through faith can we become heirs, that is, true spiritual heirs of Abraham (see Gal-atians 3:18 and comment).
In fact, it is completely impossible to become heirs through works of the law, because no one can fully obey the whole law all the time. If the promise could be received only by doing the works of the law, no one would ever receive the promise; the promise would then be worthless (verse 14).
15 The law brings wrath, that is, punishment. The law brings wrath because men can’t obey it entirely and thus God must punish them. If there were no law, there would, of course, be no opportunity for disobedience and, hence, no punishment. But there is a law—and along with it, therefore, there must be punishment.
16 Therefore, the promise of being an heir of the world (verse 13) did not come to Abraham by the law, which leads only to wrath. Rather, the promise came by faith and by grace. And that promise of being heirs comes to us also by faith and by grace. Paul says here that the promise is guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law (that is, the Jews), but also to all those who are of the faith of Abraham (that is, those who have the same kind of faith Abraham had). Abraham is the father of us all—that is, all who have faith. All believers are Abraham’s true spiritual heirs, not according to the flesh but according to faith. Only through faith can the promise of becoming an heir be guaranteed (see Galatians 3:29 and comment).
17 God made Abraham the father of many nations (Genesis 17:5)—not only of the Jewish nation, but also, in a spiritual sense, of the Gentile nations.
Paul here calls God the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were. Abraham and his wife were virtually dead, as far as their ability to have a child was concerned; they were very old. But from them God gave life in the form of a son; that is, from a situation of “death,” God brought forth new life. God transformed things that are not—things that couldn’t happen—into things that did happen! (Hebrews 11:11-12).
Also in Paul’s mind here is the fact that two thousand years after God raised up Isaac from his “dead” parents, God also raised up His own Son Jesus Christ from the dead. But not only that; God raises us up too—we who were dead in [our] transgressions and sins (Ephesians 2:1,4-5).
18 Paul here quotes part of the promise God gave to Abraham in Genesis 15:5.
Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed. To have a son at the age of one hundred was surely a hopeless thing, an impossible thing. Nevertheless, Abraham believed.
19-21 Having trusted in God, Abraham gave God all the glory (verse 20). A believing man always gives God the glory, and God will always glorify the believing man.
Let us ourselves take Abraham’s example. God has given to us also, as to Abraham, marvelous promises—promises of things such as salvation, the filling of the Holy Spirit, all the power and fullness of God Himself! Do we waver through unbelief regarding these promises? The root sin man commits against God is the sin of unbelief (see Romans 1:18 and comment). Unbelief dishonors God. Unbelief says: God can’t fulfill the promises He has made. Unbelief is the root of all sin. This is why faith is so important and necessary in God’s sight. This is why man is declared righteous by faith alone.
22 Paul here quotes again from Genesis 15:6 (see verse 3).
23-24 Here Paul says that, according to Abraham’s example, God will also credit righteousness to us because of our faith. Having, like Abraham, been declared righteous, we too will becomes heirs, heirs not only of Abraham but also of the kingdom of God. And we shall not only be heirs of Abraham; we shall be fellow heirs with Christ Himself! (see Romans 8:17).
25 In Chapter 4, Paul has described two great blessings or gifts given by God: first forgiveness (verses 7-8); and second, righteousness, or justification (verses 3,6,9,11,22,24-25). These two blessings always go together. In fact, being forgiven and being declared righteous are two of the greatest blessings of all; they are two major parts of man’s salvation. And Paul says that these two blessings, forgiveness and righteousness, are obtained not through works of the law but only through faith in Christ.
But here we want to ask a question: What exactly did Christ do for us? Why put faith in Him? Here in verse 25, Paul gives the answer. The reason for putting faith in Christ is this: It is through Him that we receive these two great blessings, forgiveness and righteousness (or justification).
First, it is Christ who was delivered over to death on the cross in order that we ourselves might not have to bear the punishment for our sins. He died in order that we might receive forgiveness and cleansing from our sins and be able to stand guiltless before God. He did this by taking our sins upon Himself and by bearing our punishment (see Mark 10:45 and comment).
Second, Christ was raised to life for our justification. He rose from the dead in order that we might be declared righteous (justified) before God. And having been declared righteous, we receive salvation, acceptance into the kingdom of God, and eternal life. This, then, is the glorious work of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This, then, is the amazing and joyful Gospel of Christ. Why should we hesitate to put faith in such a Savior!