This whole matter of having a right standing with God puzzles many people. Elaborate schemes are concocted to garner what the sinner thinks is adequate for achieving righteousness before God. For instance, some Muslims answer the call to prayer five times a day where go through ritual washings and then recite Arabic prayers and go through prescribed motions while facing Mecca. They fast during the month of Ramadhan, give alms, and at least once, make a pilgrimage to Mecca. Yet with all of that, there’s no assurance that they are in a right relationship to God. Nothing in all their busy-ness takes away sin or changes their standing with God. But it does make them feel better that they have been so busy!
The same kind of thing happens in Christian circles. Some go through elaborate rituals or devoted service to achieve right standing with God. They attend daily mass, regularly enter the confessional booth, get involved in social action, give money to help the impoverished, and guard the environment. Yet none of that takes away sin; none of that changes one’s status before God. Yet it does make a person feel better that he’s done something apparently religious.
Our interest today is not to feel better about our religious activities but rather to know that our sins are forgiven and that we’re accepted by God. Multitudes feel good about themselves for their religious posturing but they are still in their sins and under the wrath of God. They get quite upset if you even suggest that their good deeds amount to nothing in God’s sight. How we feel about ourselves is really not that important in light of eternity. What matters is God’s assessment of us. Only when God counts us righteous in Christ do we have happiness in the present and hope for eternity. Yet how can so many remain so blind to the provision of God for righteousness? That’s a big part of what Paul answers in Romans 4.
To help us understand the chapter, let’s see how it is connected the previous chapter before we look more closely at verses 1-3. In a sense, chapter 4 is a commentary on chapter 3 [C. Vaughan & B. Corley, BSC: Romans, 51]. Consider the connections.
(1) In light of 3:21, (as well as 1:2) that the “righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,” note that justification by faith is consistent with the teaching of the Law and the Prophets as illustrated by Abraham and David (4:1-2; 6).
(2) In light of 3:25-26 that the basis for justification is God’s public display of Christ in His propitiatory death at the cross, note that justification by faith through this work of Christ is the only way that God could be just in declaring sinners to be righteous, including sinners like Abraham and David. Paul illustrates this through Abraham and David, showing that they were declared righteous by God and the foundation for that rested in the provision of God for righteousness. They received this righteousness through faith which anticipated the cross. God had to be just in declaring them righteous, and that justice was sealed by Christ at the cross (4:3; 7-8).
(3) Paul asks in 3:27, “Where then is boasting?” If anyone might have reason for boasting according to Jewish thought, it would be Abraham. Yet before God he had no ground for boasting when it came to a right standing with God (4:2). Paul intends to show this lest anyone think that Abraham was justified by his works.
(4) Does God have one way to save Jews and another way to save Gentiles? Paul asks that question in 3:29-30, maintaining that the oneness of God necessitates that He does not have a Jewish way of justification as well as a Gentile way. What Paul stated in principle in 3:30 he illustrates through the Old Testament record of Abraham and David (4:3, 6). The Apostle explains that the imputation of righteousness declared concerning Abraham was stated in Genesis for our sakes as well so that we might trust in Christ alone (4:22-25). We are saved in the same way as Abraham—through faith.
(5) Does faith nullify the Law? No, Paul tells us in 3:31, it establishes the Law. He further builds his premise by showing that Abraham was justified by faith before the Law was given. Therefore the Law was never given as the means to righteousness before God; that remained the realm of faith all along (4:13-16).
It seems that most people are happy with their perceptions about God and eternity rather than depending upon the revelation of God’s Word. Some prefer remaining in ignorance rather than understanding truth and walking in it. This struck me recently in Central Asia when we spoke to a man that was my age. He acknowledged the New Testament as one of Islam’s four holy books. I asked if he had read the New Testament; he said that he had not. I asked that since it was a holy book to him if he was interested in reading it. “No,” he told me. Instead, he would rely on the local imam’s comments on it rather than reading the truth for himself. His perception was that the New Testament had been corrupted and was full of errors. I told him that I had read 2nd century Greek manuscripts that were consistent with modern translations, and that was 400 years before Islam began. He told me, “I don’t care. I don’t want to read it!” He stood by his perceptions even though they were grossly wrong.
But that’s not just in Islam. On several occasions I’ve spoken to people who claimed to be Christian yet they had no understanding of the gospel. After giving some explanation of the teaching of Scripture, they would respond, “I don’t care what the Bible says; I believe what I believe.”
It was something of that mindset that Paul encountered with some of the Romans. Many professing Jewish Christians struggled over the doctrine of justification by faith alone. Certainly, their families gave them grief over believing that only through the death of Christ is one’s sins forgiven and only through His righteousness credited to one’s account does the believer have a right standing with God. So Paul seeks to clear up the misperceptions about how to have a right standing with God. But to do so he would have to address the most righteous person in Judaism, Abraham.
Paul begins by asking, “What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found?” There’s some variance in translations and interpretations at this point regarding his use of “according to the flesh.” Was he speaking of physical or spiritual descent? That’s certainly true that Abraham is the father of the faithful according to physical and spiritual descent. Or did Paul mean that Abraham found out that his flesh lacked the power and strength to pursue righteousness? That too is true. So either way we take it, both are true.
To say that Jews idolized Abraham is not a far stretch. The father of the faith was considered by some to have been perfect in righteousness. One wrote, “We find that Abraham our father had performed the whole Law before it was given” (Kidd. 4:14). Another wrote, “Abraham was perfect in all his deeds with the Lord” (Jub. 23:10). Another stated that ‘Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were seen as men “who did not sin against” God’ (Prayer of Manasseh 8) [quoted by Leon Morris, The Epistle to the Romans, 195]. Yet another said of Abraham, “no one has been found like him in glory” (Sir. 44:19) [quoted by Doug Moo, NICNT: Romans, 256].
To hear such comments makes you wonder if they read the same story in Genesis that we read! Abraham came out of paganism and idolatry. He struggled to rely upon God when a famine came into the land. He lied to keep out of danger. He listened to his wife when he should have listened to the Lord. Yet because of all that Abraham represents for the faithful it is easy to overlook his sin and just sort of slide into a perception that he was always righteous. And it is just as easy to transfer that same idea of righteousness to oneself. But misperceptions at this point present us with the danger of thinking that Abraham was able to overcome his sinful nature by the sheer power of his will. At worst, that denies the devastating effect of human depravity, and at best, it gives us a false hope that we can overcome our sin through the arm of the flesh.
You see, if one man can merit salvation then why not every man? If Abraham had enough gumption to do the right thing before God so that he did not need a mediator to atone for his sins then maybe I don’t need one either. Yet is that what Abraham “found” as the father of the faith?
Paul anticipates that some will say, “Sure, Abraham was righteous! He was found just before God because of his works!” Oh really, Paul comments. “For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about…” Yes, you are right; if Abraham achieved a status of righteousness before God by his works then he has the ground for boasting before God. If Abraham did this then I agree, he can brag all that he wants.
Yet, immediately, the Jew would recoil at such a thought of a mere man boasting before God. He might have ground for boasting before man “but not before God.” To boast before God means that the flesh has achieved what only God could do. Boasting uplifts human ability and power and wisdom while at the same time claiming to have an edge over God. Boasting in achieving righteousness implies a denial of the all-sufficient grace of God in salvation. If one can boast in the flesh then he does not need God’s grace. He’s sufficient in himself and therefore does not need God. Boasting denies the absolute need for grace that abides in every heart.
Yet the Scripture clearly teaches that God has so designed the universe that no man can boast before Him. He reminded the children of Israel, “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt.” You did not do it; I did. The Lord told Jeremiah, “Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the Lord” (9:23-24). We have no ground to boast of our wisdom or our might or our wealth for it is the Lord who is the giver of every good and perfect gift; it is the Lord who raises up and who brings low; it is the Lord who is the giver of life and the sovereign over death.
Here is precisely the battle point of the flesh when it comes to responding to the gospel. To trust in Christ alone for righteousness before God means that I give up all right to boasting in the flesh. As the hymn writer put it,
I will not boast in anything
No gifts, no power, no wisdom
But I will boast in Jesus Christ
His death and resurrection
(“How Deep the Father’s Love for Us,” Stuart Townend).
Is your boast in Christ alone?
Is the doctrine of justification by faith a new teaching found only in the New Testament? Did Paul come up with it, as some would suggest? The Apostle asks the simple question, “For what does the Scripture say?” His use of the singular, “Scripture,” indicates the unity of biblical revelation; he’s referring to the consistent message of the whole of Scripture. The use of the present tense, “say,” points to the way that the Scripture continues to speak consistently. And we would say, whether one is reading Old or New Testament, there’s continuity in the message of God’s grace for sinners. Paul indicates that there’s only one covenant of grace in the whole of Scripture by which sinners are pursued by the Lord God that He might give them eternal life through His Son. There’s not an Old Testament covenant of grace and a New Testament covenant of grace. Though there’s “a difference in administration” in both Testaments, “it is the same covenant of grace,” as Martyn Lloyd-Jones indicates [Romans: Atonement & Justification, Exposition of Chapters 3:20-4:25, 157]. There are not two ways of salvation: one for Jews and another for Gentiles, as some might think. What the Apostle does in the next verse and beyond is to show that all who are justified before God are justified in the very same way; that’s the consistent teaching of Scripture.
As the father of the faith, Abraham serves as the primary example of how God saves sinners (Luke 19:10). Paul quotes from Genesis 15:6 where the first use of “believe” is found in the Bible. It sits in the background with Enoch and Noah but here it is stated clearly. “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” We realize immediately that the statement has to do with Abraham’s standing with God. What he lacked was righteousness. What he could not achieve through his works was righteousness. What he received by faith from God was righteousness.
Notice how this crediting of righteousness took place: “Abraham believed God.” More than believing about God; he believed God. What does that mean? First, it means that Abraham recognized God as God. It was God that had called him out of Ur of the Chaldeans—a pagan and idolatrous land—to the land of Canaan which God would give him. Abraham recognized that the gods of his fathers were merely idols that could not speak or act. God the Creator of heaven and earth commanded and Abraham believed and obeyed (Gen. 12). As God, Abraham saw that He could be depended upon; that God is true and righteous and good and faithful and unchanging. He would not have ventured out of the comforts of his homeland not knowing where he was going unless he had come to a place of relying on the character of God.
Second, to believe God also means that Abraham believed the promises of God. The Lord had given the roots of the gospel in His promise to Abraham, “And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed” (12:3). The promise of countless descendants was reiterated again in chapter 15. Then Moses records, “Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness” (15:6). He did not say that Abraham worked or did great deeds and thus God counted him righteous. He believed God. No work transpired; no list of religious actions was followed. He believed God. Nor is there any mention of co-mingling works and faith to receive righteousness. He believed God. He did nothing to obligate God as though God owed him righteousness. He believed God; then God counted that believing as righteousness.
So how was Abraham justified before God? In the same way that we are justified before God—through faith we are declared righteous before God. Faith is not viewed as a work; it stands antithetical to any work of righteousness. Rather faith is the means that God gives to receive what God provides regarding righteousness. Faith looks outside oneself to the God that gives righteousness through His Son. Faith trusts in the faithfulness of God in securing pardon and forgiveness through the atoning death of Christ. Faith relies on the sufficiency of God to save to the uttermost all that come to Him through Christ.
Notice the word “credited”—“it was credited to him as righteousness.” It is an accounting term, as you might expect, though it also carries legal ramifications, too. The word means to account or to reckon or to consider or to credit or to put on one’s account. It implies that a transaction takes place. That which was not previously on one’s account is now authoritatively placed there. Believing is not an equivalent to righteousness but rather is the means toward this imputation of righteousness. Abraham’s account before God lacked righteousness. The one thing he needed to have peace with God was righteousness. So, as he believed God, the Lord credited it to him as righteousness.
We may not use that word imputation very often but it is a good term. There are three imputations in Scripture. First, Adam’s sin was imputed to his posterity. That’s the negative imputation. “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned” (Rom. 5:12). “So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men” (Rom. 5:18).
Second, Christ’s righteousness was imputed to us. That’s what Paul spoke of in chapter 3, in Romans 4:3 and later in more detail in chapter 5. Here is alien righteousness, that is alien to us in that it is not our own, credited to those having faith in Christ. Paul calls it “the righteousness of God” (Rom. 1:16-17; 2 Cor. 5:21). How righteous is your standing with God? Just as righteous as Christ, for indeed, the righteousness that we have before God is that of Christ our Savior.
Third, our sin was imputed to Christ so that He might bear God’s judgment against us and fully atone for our sin. “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21). Think of it! “My sin, o the bliss of this glorious thought, my sin not in part but the whole…was nailed to the cross and I bear it no more, praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, o my soul!”
Do you see your need for the righteousness of Christ? None of us forces God’s hand at imputing the righteousness of His Son but rather it comes as an act of free grace. The passive voice in “it was credited to him as righteousness” indicates the action of God. Abraham believed God and then God, out of His free grace, accounted it as righteousness. Abraham’s standing forever changed before God. And so does yours when you put your faith in the Lamb of God who has taken away the sin of the world!
Imputation of Christ’s righteousness means that every moment of the day, God accepts me as He does His Son. Think of that, especially when you feel the weight of your weakness and sinfulness: your acceptance by God is not based on your righteousness but on that of God’s Son. “But, you don’t know how much I struggle. You don’t know how much I falter and fail. You don’t know how weak my faith is.” No, and I don’t have to know that; I know enough of my own struggles and failures to understand that I have nothing to offer God but the rags of my unrighteousness. But my claim before God’s throne is not what I’ve done but the perfect righteousness of the Son. For every condemnation, return to this doctrine of imputation; in every trial and temptation, think upon the righteousness of Christ for you; in every situation of doubt and distress, remember that your standing with God is not grounded in what you’ve done but in what Christ has done on your behalf.
I think that it’s imperative that we see what took place. “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” No lapse took place for God to test Abraham out to see if he would measure up or if he would be good enough or to see if he would last. The imputation of righteousness is not a process like sanctification. Here is the divine declaration: God declares us righteous in justification while in sanctification He makes us righteous in our practice.
In that moment of faith a divine transaction occurs. Where Abraham had only sin and stood in condemnation, as he believed God, everything changed in a moment. That’s what happens to every sinner that comes to the end of himself and no longer looks to himself for righteousness but clings to Christ. He looks to Christ to bear away his sin; he looks to Christ for righteousness to stand before God. God transfers his sins to Christ who bore them away at the cross. God transfers the righteousness of His Son to the sinner that believes. Though the practice of righteousness is a process that continues until we stand perfected before the Lord in His presence, in a moment of time, when we believe, God imputes the perfect righteousness of Christ to our account so that our standing with God is just as secure as that of Jesus Christ.
“Abraham believed God.” Well, that’s fine for Abraham, but I need to get my act together; I need to make some changes; I need to quit some bad habits; I need to clean up my life. No! Believe God’s promise and provision in Christ. Look to Him as your righteousness; lay no claim to self-righteousness; Christ is enough.
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