Justification by Faith: Our Father Abraham (Part 1)

PRAY AND INTRO:

To emphasize his point that justification is by faith alone, Paul goes back to the very foundation of Jewish heritage, using Abraham to illustrate key aspects of this justification by faith.

What Paul demonstrates in Rom 4:1-12 is that…

Not even Abraham can boast in good works because he was counted righteous by faith in God’s promise, before circumcision, making him the spiritual father of all who are justified by faith.

The example of Abraham being counted righteous by believing God proves that justification is by faith alone apart from works, and that not even circumcision is a work which justifies, but that righteousness is a gift of grace received by faith in God’s promise.

How and when did God count Abraham righteous? Was it by works or by faith? Was it before or after the sign of circumcision? And what does this mean for application to Paul’s audience, and to us?

Paul uses an illustration from the life of Abraham that justification is by faith, and offers an explanation of that faith with relationship to the sign of the covenant, in order to make application that Abraham is therefore the spiritual father of all who believe, both Gentile and Jew.

Romans 4:1–8 ESV

1 What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? 2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” 4 Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. 5 And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, 6 just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: 7 “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; 8 blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”

This is the first stage of Paul’s argument from the life of father Abraham:

The example of Abraham (stated & supported by Scripture) proves that justification is by grace through faith and not wages for works. (Rom 4:1-8)

Paul uses the example of Abraham to contradict the prevailing narrative of justification before God by one’s own works. Not only had works-based righteousness become the predominant view in Judaism, it seems to be the way that man designs religion, as opposed to God’s way, and is therefore the predominant view of all religious ideas of our own making: that we can earn our way to being right with God. Perhaps you can see why the Holy Spirit, speaking through Paul, is so keen to dismantle it.

But according to Genesis 15:6, which Paul here quotes, Abraham was in fact justified by God as a gift, for his faith in God’s promise, and this same truth of justification being by God’s grace is embraced by King David as well, whereby God forgives and does not count our sin against us. The implication in quoting David is that apart from grace, Abraham’s and David’s unrighteousness must be counted against them. But God, in his grace, blesses the one who has faith with forgiveness and forensic righteousness before him.

Let’s follow Paul’s argument from the beginning.

Paul to fellow Jews: Not even our ancestor Abraham can boast in justification by works. (verses 1-2)

“Our forefather according to the flesh” means that he is the biological ancestor of the Jewish people, of Israel.

In verses 1 & 2, Paul here picks up again his thought about the exclusion of our boasting in self (v. 27) since justification is by faith apart from works, even good works that are consistent with God’s law (v. 28).

For if Abraham was justified (stood as righteous before God) because of his own good works, then he would actually have something to boast about. Paul’s just stating a simple fact, that if it were true, Abraham would have legitimate reason to boast in himself, that he lived such a good life that God labeled him as “righteous” before God because of his good deeds.

But Paul can hardly let these words escape his lips, before quickly adding, “but not before God.” Before the ink can dry as Tertius writes Paul’s words (Ro 16:22), it is quickly added, “but not before God.” Abraham can’t boast in the presence of God no matter how many good works he did, as Paul will go on to explain, because those works could never achieve sufficient merit that God should justify him because of such works. (He develops this further in v. 4 when talking about wages for works, as we shall see.)

And are we not tempted, whether it be only in our hearts or also in our speech, to boast in our works rather than in God’s grace and in the Lordship and work of Christ?

The point for Paul here is that not even Abraham would dare boast in his works, because that would be tantamount to a sinful man standing before the holy God and declaring that he deserves for God to declare him righteous. Such a posture only compounds our sin.

Instead, Scripture explicitly records that it was believing God’s promise [faith] that was “counted to him as righteousness” [justification]. (verse 3)

Here is where Paul quotes the extremely significant text of Genesis 15:6 “And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.”

Jewish teaching at this time desired to make Abraham the exemplar of Torah obedience, that by his faithfulness when tested he was declared righteous, so they would tie Gen 15:6 to Gen 22 when he was prepared to sacrifice Isaac in obedience to God’s test. But Paul contradicts this narrative and shows that Abraham was counted as righteous by faith, not by works. What Abraham proved was his faith by that obedience, not that he earned righteousness by passing that test.

ESV Study Bible:

The ESV Study Bible Chapter 4

Faith and works are fundamentally opposed, for faith means trusting in or relying on a promise of God’s work and not depending in any way on human performance.

Are we ever in danger of putting obedience to God, which is right and good, in the wrong place of expectation for ourselves and others?

Again, boasting in self is truly excluded because…

Paul explains: Justification cannot be wages for our works but is God’s gracious gift of justifying the ungodly through faith alone. (verses 4-5)

Justification (to be declared righteous) cannot be our due for works… for at least two reasons: The God who creates does not owe anything to his creatures, and the just wage for our lives is not justification but condemnation (for God must be just/righteous). Even Abraham was from a family of idolaters before God called him (Joshua 24:2).

Again, if justification were by works, God would owe it to us because we earned it. - But the notion of God owing anything to man is absurd. We owe God our allegiance, and he owes us nothing. We have instead put ourselves in his debt with our ungodliness, and therefore whomever he justifies, it is “by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Ro 3:24).

So if you try to be justified by works, what will your wages be? (You will, instead of being justified, receive the wages of your sin, which is death.) Paul will state this contrast again with utmost clarity in Rom 6:23.

Romans 6:23 ESV

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Therefore, in Rom 4:5 Paul clarifies that the one who responds in faith to God recognizes that he is ungodly and deserves punishment for it, and is therefore trusting completely in God’s gracious promise and not in oneself.

And all of this is reinforced further in Scripture from the mouth of King David.

King David also understood this: True blessing is for “the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works,” “against whom the Lord will not count his sin.” (verses 6-8)

First Paul sets this up in v. 6 with the crediting of righteousness to one’s account, and then the second part shows the logically necessary other side of that coin by the quotation from Psalm 32:1-2 where David emphasizes God’s gracious forgiveness of sin, by which “sins are covered” and not counted against him.

Speaking of blessing and being blessed draws attention to God’s grace, because it is God who bestows blessing. So too, the blessing is for those who do not get what they deserve but instead receive forgiveness (from God), and to have their sins covered over by God, and for the Lord to therefore not count that sin against him. Again there is clear acceptance of what the sin deserves, contrasted with the grace of God to not count it against him.

So here Paul emphasizes God’s grace to the ungodly. And that this is God’s grace to the ungodly is recognized by the one who believes in God’s promise, trusting in him by faith in God and not in what one achieves, because he knows what he deserves for his ungodliness. But by God’s grace through faith he receives forgiveness of his debt and righteousness credited to his account.

Have you recognized that your sins reveal the depth of your ungodliness and that you cannot possibly pay such a debt sufficiently to be put in the right with God? Have you come to realize then that it is completely by the grace of God that he offers you a chance at redemption through the payment Christ Jesus made, to be received by faith. It is all God’s grace through the work of Christ, and not your works in any way. Such an approach to God is the only way to be right with him, by faith in his promise alone, where he makes you right by his grace.

And Paul argues that Abraham and David serve as examples of clearly recognizing this truth and responding to God in faith, not counting on their works.

Now Paul will continue: This blessing of forgiven sin and receiving righteousness to one’s account by faith, to whom does this blessing apply? Paul has said it is “the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe,” without distinction (3:22).

So then Paul can further use the example of Abraham’s faith to show that this salvation is equally available to Gentiles as well as Jews, and that such faith unites us into one spiritual family with Abraham as our father.

Romans 4:9–12 ESV

9 Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. 10 How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. 11 He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well, 12 and to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.

The example of Abraham’s faith shows that justification by faith is equally available to Gentiles as well as Jews, and that such faith unites us into one spiritual family with Abraham as our father.

The blessing of justification by faith apart from works applies to all people, as is proven from Abraham being counted as righteous before circumcision, making him the spiritual father of all who are justified by faith. (Rom 4:9-12)

The flow of Paul’s reasoning here is to first raise the question of whom this blessing is for. Paul then reminds us that it was by faith that God counted righteousness to Abraham’s account, in order to then show that such a right standing with God by faith was something that happened BEFORE he was circumcised as a sign and seal of ratifying the covenant.

Paul concludes therefore that such makes him “the father of all who believe,” whether they are uncircumcised Gentiles or are circumcised Jews who walk by faith and do not depend on their works to be right with God.

Again, after quoting David about God’s blessing of forgiveness, which Paul says also results in credited righteousness, Paul asks [again to fellow Jews]:

Paul to fellow Jews: Is this blessing (of justification by faith) only for the circumcised or also for the uncircumcised? (verse 9a)

We should anticipate where Paul is going with this, because he has just recently stated in Romans 3:29–30 “Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.”

There the argument was that God is the only true God and is therefore God over everyone. Here Paul will argue from the order of God counting Abraham righteous by faith, which was before the sign of circumcision.

When did it happen that Abraham was counted righteous by faith, before or after circumcision? (9b-10)

[read vv. 9b-10 again] To be precise, some 13 years passed from the time Abraham believed God’s promise and the point at which the covenant was sealed with the sign of circumcision.

Since it was before, Paul then explains that it logically follows that…

Obedience to the sign of circumcision was therefore an outworking of Abraham’s faith but not the cause of God crediting righteousness to his account. (verse 11)

Not even circumcision is a work which justifies, but only faith in God’s promise. Obedience is the outworking of faith. (In Abraham’s case it was obedience to the sign of circumcision for all the males in his household.)

Douglas Moo explains why this was so important that Paul wanted both Jews and Gentiles to understand: “Circumcision, therefore, has no independent value. It cannot effect one’s entrance into the people of God; nor does it even “mark” a person as belonging to God’s people apart from a prior justifying act. Abraham was declared righteous while still uncircumcised. His later circumcision added nothing materially to that transaction; it simply signified and confirmed it.”

Finally then…

This makes Abraham the father of all who are reckoned righteous by faith apart from works. (11b-12)

Paul doesn’t want anyone to overlook the obvious: Abraham was himself uncircumcised at the point that God called him and he responded in faith. Paul uses that same order to first show that Abraham is therefore the father of any others among the uncircumcised who respond to God in faith for their justification.

Paul goes a step further still to state unequivocally that those who are circumcised must also have the faith of Abraham, apart from merely the sign, to truly be spiritual descendants of Abraham.

So then not only is Abraham an example of righteousness by faith in God’s promise, as is reiterated by David, but also for Paul Abraham is the father of all who believe, Gentile as well as Jew. We are united in a single household of faith in God promise, a promise fulfilled through the Messiah Jesus Christ, who is now the substance of our faith.

Paul is here doing to very important things: First, he really rocks the boat of Judaism, destroying any notion of being “in” the people of God simply by virtue of physical descent or even by merely religious observation. That religious observation must come from true worship, which comes from those who have received forgiveness and righteousness by God’s grace as a gift, through faith alone.

Secondly, Paul seeks to use the example of Abraham, and his faith, to unite the two groups. They are one in Christ, and should behave as one in Christ. This seems to be an important theme for Paul in this letter to all the saints who are in Rome: They need to put away infighting over which Jewish things to observe, and instead patiently pursue unity in their diversity, accepting one another and giving one another room to have some differences of whether or not to observe certain Jewish rituals and festivals, and so on. The point is, they are one by faith in Christ and should live like it.

In conclusion, let’s quickly review some implications we might meditate on from this text [from Paul’s illustration from the life of Abraham]:

Concluding implications for us from Paul’s explanation concerning Abraham

Justification (being in right standing with God) is a gift of God’s grace to be received by faith alone.

Implication #1: Faith is not a work. Faith is not a work because faith is the opposite of trusting in self. Faith trusts only in the gracious promise of God and in his willingness and ability to bring it about.

Another important implication we should understand: The order of Abraham’s justification by faith and the sign of circumcision proves that religious obedience must result from faith and not be a means to achieve justification. - Faith precedes good works. Good works proceed from faith. Good works do not justify, but it is faith alone in the promise of God to work which justifies. Good works then serve as a sign of faith’s commitment to God (but still, they are not what justifies).

What justifies is the forgiveness of sin through Christ’s atoning work and the imputing of his righteousness, which is all by faith in God through Christ’s work, not our works.

A final implication from the example of Abraham: The blessing of justification by faith is for everyone apart from the sign of circumcision, which means it is also apart from any other demographics that would divide us. “For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” (Rom 3:22b-24).

This is how we must see ourselves and others in our need for Jesus, and how we must see ourselves and others as we submit to Jesus and love one another and serve alongside one another in his kingdom.

PRAY

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