"What shall we say, then, that Abraham, our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found?" (verse 1). Here begins a new chapter, but the same theme - justification by faith. Several of the Jewish apocryphal books taught that Abraham was justified by keeping the law, or that Abraham was saved because of his obedience, or that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were sinless. One book teaches that Abraham served God from the age of three. Another teaches that Abraham was perfect. Paul asserts that Abraham was saved by faith alone, and that he had no goodness of his own.
Abraham was the forefather of all Jews by flesh. Abraham was a genuine Jew. The Jews inquired of Jesus, "art thou greater than our father Abraham?" He is the forefather of all (both Jews and Gentiles) by faith.
"For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath something of which to glory, but not before God." (verse 2). If a man is justified before God by his good works - he has grounds for boasting in himself. God saw nothing in Abraham, back in Ur of the Chaldees, that merited His calling and salvation. He lived 430 years before the law was given, so the law did not justify him before God (Galatians 3:17). Abraham trusted in God as is shown in Hebrews 11:17-19.
"For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness." (verse 3). The Scripture (singular, one particular scripture); Paul quotes from Genesis 15:6. See also: Galatians 3:6, 7. Abraham was a believer! Abraham was reared in paganism; his people were polytheistic, and Nanna, the moon god, was one of their foremost deities. Joshua 24:2 says, "And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the river of old (the Euphrates), even Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor; and they served others gods." See: Genesis 12:1-3 for God's sovereign and unconditional promise. It was not the greatness of Abraham's faith that saved him, but the greatness of a gracious God in Whom he placed his faith. Faith is the channel whereby God's grace saves us; faith is a trust or committal. Faith is simply a convinced heart reaching out to receive God's free and unmerited gift of salvation.
Sure, Abraham's faith was limited and incomplete. So was Adam's - (seed); so was Jacob's - (scepter); so was Moses' - (a prophet); so was David's - (one who would rise to occupy David's throne); so was Isaiah's - (the sin bearer); so was Daniel's - (God's anointed); so was Micah's - (birth in Bethlehem). Abraham believed God - he took God at His word! There are misinterpretations of this passage. It does not say that Abraham believed, and it was counted to him for righteousness; nor that Abraham was a godly man, a god-fearing man, and a pious man. Nor does it say Abraham delighted in obeying God so he did what God told him.
Paul uses a "bookkeeping term" here - "credited" - God took the sin of Abraham from the ledger book of Abraham's life and transferred it to the ledger book of Christ, Who died for such sin. He took the righteousness of Christ from Christ's book and transferred it to Abraham. Abraham believed the gospel; his faith concerned redemption; he believed in the coming of Jesus Christ specifically.
"Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt." (verse 4) Illustration: The employer hires; the employee works; there is an agreement as to the wage. When the work is done a cash settlement is made in which the employer is debtor, and the employee is creditor. The money paid by the employer to the employee is a not a gift. It is the payment of a debt; it is earned by the employee. Salvation is not a reward for work done; it is a gift.
"But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness" (verse 5). What did God reveal to Abraham? Genesis 12-18 is a preview of the gospel. God made a covenant with Abraham on the terms of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus said in John 8:56, "Your father, Abraham, rejoiced to see my day; and he saw it, and was glad."
The truly penitent sinner cries out with Micah (6:6, 7), "With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the High God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousand of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?"
Justification before God is based on:
F acts - not a blind leap in the dark; a fact - God's redeeming work through His Son Jesus Christ.
A greement - with the heart the believer receives the truth from God's Word.
I nternalization - inner desire to accept and apply that truth.
T rust - unreserved confidence in God/trusting God to keep His promises. Repentance toward God and trust in God's word.
H ope - Christ is not seen with the physical eye but believed anyway. "Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet believed," Jesus said to Thomas (John 20:29).
So Justification is the declaration by God that He is now acquitting that person, and that He is going to put on him the righteousness of Christ and regard him as righteous. It is a matter of "reckoning" or "imputing," or "putting to one's account."
"Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness apart from (without) works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin." (verses 6 - 8). David is the second witness that Paul puts on the witness stand. Verses 6-8 confirm what Paul writes in verse 5. Psalm 32:1, 2 read, "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile." Blessed - (happy) is the man who has everything he needs. What David writes here is - (1) his sins were forgiven, "sent off," or" sent away" -separated; (2) his sins were covered, "atoned for," or "blood has been applied on the mercy-seat;" and (3) his sins were not counted against him - "credited," or "reckoned" to Someone else. Happy is the person who is given a "clean slate." Jeremiah ( 31:34b) wrote, "...For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." The Psalmist (103:12) wrote, "As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us." Not only does God forgive the sinner, but He reconciles us fully; there's harmony between God and the sinner. II Corinthians 5:19, 21, reads, "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation...For he hath made (Christ), who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." David was well acquainted with God's grace and forgiveness (Psalm 51:1-14).
Never, never -- once God has forgiven our sins and covered them; He will remember them no more. He will never remind us of our sins. The songwriter wrote, "Oh to grace how great a debtor/Daily I'm constrained to be!/Let thy goodness like a fetter/Bind my wandering heart to thee."
"Cometh this blessing, then, upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also? For we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness." (verse 9). The writer gives two examples from the Old Testament to exemplify justification by faith - Abraham and David. Both these characters were directly associated with the Jews. He now anticipates a question and proceeds to answer it. Since Abraham was justified before he was circumcised, he represents both Jew and Gentile; thus God has included in His redemptive plan those individuals of every branch of the human family.
"How was it then reckoned? When he was in circumcision, or uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision." (verse 10). Barnhouse states, "Paul has turned the Jew's boast upside down. It is not the Gentile that must come to the Jew's circumcision for salvation; it is the Jew who must come to a Gentile faith, such faith as Abraham had long before he was circumcised...When Isaac was saved he was not saved by his circumcision any more than was his father before him. God never promised salvation except by faith. He never promised a perpetual nationality except to circumcised men who believe" (Vol II, p. 260). Circumcision, whatever benefit it may bestow upon the Jew, has nothing to do with salvation. That which comes after the fact cannot cause the fact. Both circumcision and the giving of the law came later - in the case of the law 430 years later. Most of us cannot claim royal ancestry from the physical standpoint, but we belong to royalty if we have placed our faith in the same God and the same Lord Jesus Christ as did Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
"And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised, that righteousness might be imputed unto them also; and the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised" (verses 11,12). Circumcision was a mark (a seal) in the sense of ownership which warns intruders not to intrude. It was a mark of permanent ownership. Paul used this same word 'seal' in I Corinthians 9:2, "...For the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord." The Corinthians were Paul's mark of God's ownership; they had placed their faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as had Paul, and they were the evidence of God's grace bestowed upon them. In others words, the Corinthians were a living evidence that Paul was an apostle. The word is used over and over again in Revelation 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9. The seal is an evidence of God's ownership; it is a certification that something is true, like a notarized sworn statement.
The salvation of Abraham was not made contingent upon circumcision, but upon faith. The fact that Abraham was circumcised after he was saved forever testifies and attests to the fact that he was already justified by faith. Why go to all the trouble? Paul answers that he might be the father of all believers, who, like Abraham, their spiritual father, were saved when they too were uncircumcised.
Since the first century the custom of Christian baptism, which is conducted by immersing the candidate in water, is a public attestation of the same experience to which Abraham gave testimony when he was circumcised. Water baptism is important to the Christian, not that it saves him or assists in salvation, but it is a means of showing willingness to obey the divine command of our Lord.
Abraham is an example of a circumcised Jew who was a Christian first and who later became a Jew. Thus he is a spiritual father of Gentiles who believe as Abraham did, for he was a Gentile when he first believed (Galatians 3:6,7). So Paul is making the point here that to become a 'son' of Abraham one must believe as he did. A circumcised Jew can be saved, but only if he believes on Christ and His sacrificial death on Calvary alone, which would rule out any confidence that he might otherwise have in the fact that he is a Jew. Abraham had a perfect salvation before he was circumcised; circumcision could not add anything to his salvation. So it is with the Christian, he has perfect salvation before he is baptized. Nothing can add to that salvation - water baptism, church attendance, partaking of the Lord's supper, tithing, confirmation, nor moral reformation.
"Walking in the steps of the faith," is a natural metaphor for 'close imitation,' of Abraham's
faith; it may be a military term meaning ' to march in file,' and 'to be in line with.' The ground
covered by each leader is in turn covered by each follower. Abraham is the leader of the band,
and we walk, not abreast, but in file, following in the footprints left by Abraham. Peter uses the
same word (I Peter 2:21), "For even hereunto were ye called, because Christ also suffered for us,
leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps (example)..."
The writer continues to write about Abraham's faith, and how he was justified by his faith and not by his works (verses 13 - 25). Abraham chose to place his faith in Jehovah God, and God credited it to him for righteousness. He trusted God long before the law was given; this fact Paul reiterates in the following verses.
"For the promise that he should be the heir of the world was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith" (verse 13). The promise made to Abraham came long before the law. If the promise had its origin in the law, then Abraham could not have had it until he was circumcised. The law post-dated the Abrahamic promise by 430 years, so says Galatians 3:17, "And this I say, that the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot annul, that it should make the promise of no effect." The meaning of the word "promise" is interesting. Promise can mean 'assurance that something will be done.' The word is used in Romans, Galatians, Ephesians, and Hebrews and relates to the covenant promise of God to Abraham and his descendants, both to Israel as a nation and to the elect for salvation. All of Abraham's posterity, both Jew and Gentile, who have Abraham's faith, benefit from the promise. Not only does the promise include salvation of the soul, but it also means that the saved shall fall heir to everything God has created. "Therefore, let no man glory in men. For all things are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's." All of Abraham's descendants by faith will inherit the things that our Lord inherits, for we are fellow-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17; Galatians 3:29).
"For if they who are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of no effect, because the law worketh wrath; for where no law is, there is no transgression" (verses 14,15). If Abraham and his fellow believers became heirs by the law, the Gentiles are omitted of the promise. The law was given to Abraham and his fleshly posterity (the Jewish nation). Furthermore, faith amounts to nothing (it is made empty), and the promise is of no value. "Worthless" means to render nugatory by replacing with something better; to nullify. The covenant of grace supersedes the covenant of the law and thus abolishes the law as a supposed way of salvation. The legalists of our day say that salvation is obtainable through human merit - circumcision, water baptism, sabbath observance, or the practice of high ethical standards; if this were true then the death of our Savior on the cross was unnecessary (Galatians 2:20,21).
The law can never give salvation; in fact, the law does not make a man an heir, it makes him a criminal who deserves the wrath of God. God's law is the legal expression of His holiness; it tells what God considers right and wrong. Where there is no law there is no realization of sin. Without the law we do not know we are transgressors. The law turns sin into transgression, and transgression provokes God's wrath. "For I had not known coveting, except the law had said, 'Thou shalt not covet'." There is no deliberate disobedience of positive commands where there is no positive command to disobey. Paul's observation herein is that where there is no law there is no transgression is the ground of the view that all who die in infancy are safe (Romans 5:13,14).
"Therefore, it is of faith, that it might be by grace, to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all (as it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations), before him who giveth life to (quickeneth) the dead, and calleth those things which are not, as though they were; who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, so shall they seed be." (verses 16 - 18). Based on faith the promise is certain or firm. It is steady, unmoveable, and dependable. The promise is secure; "it is an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast," (Hebrews 6:19). The promise in extended to all those who place their faith in the same God that Abraham trusted. He is the spiritual father of all the faithful, both Jew and Gentile. Our salvation depends upon God's gift of grace by faith. God wanted to make our salvation sure, so He put salvation on a grace basis (God's grace). The conclusion is that salvation is by grace through faith alone, and totally divorced from human merit. This plan of salvation is for the Jew with all his advantages as well as for the disadvantaged Gentile (Galatians 3:29). If this fact seems radical, Matthew 3:9 reads, "For I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham."
Abraham's faith must grow. When God promised Abraham that his seed would inherit the earth, and that he would be the father of many nations, Abraham's faith must have been in the embryonic stage. In fact, Abraham's patience was tried in that he had waited many years, and God had not blessed him with a child by Sarah. When he learned that Sarah was past the age of child-bearing, he tried to help God by taking Hagar as his handmaid and through her conceive a son. Only after Abraham understood that God could bless him with a son through Sarah did his faith begin to mature. Jehovah God was able to "bring the dead to life and call into being that which does not exist." God was able to quicken Sarah's womb, and in her old age she could bear a son; Isaac's conception was miraculous. God wants the faithful to accept the supernatural. Abraham finally accepted the concept of an omnipotent God, and he recognized that he was helpless or impotent. He no longer trusted in himself but fully trusted in Jehovah God. Our God is a God of the resurrection, and He is the mighty victor over death; in fact, He is the God of creation. God is able to call non-existent things into existence (Genesis 1:1). Just as God said, "Light be:" He said to Sarah's womb, "Alive be." Those of faith have no trouble believing that God created the earth, that He made Sarah's womb alive, that Jesus could arise from the grave, and that God can give 'birth from above.' Our God is a miracle-performing God.
The promise of God was contrary to hope; that is, hope from the human standpoint. It seemed futile to Abraham to hope that God's promise could and would be fulfilled. Yet he used his hope as a means of faith. Abraham believed in order that he might be a father of many nations. 'Hope against hope and by means of hope' is a dramatic way to describe the struggle in Abraham's mind, and he balanced the reasonableness of God's promise from a human point of view against the faith that, if God said it, He was able to willing do it.
"And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb" (verse 19). By now, at an advanced age, Abraham recognized that Sarah no longer could conceive a child. Abraham must have ruled out all possibility that God could keep His promise naturally or by natural law. He had to believe the supernatural since the natural means was no longer available. When Abraham recognized his helplessness, then God granted him the faith to believe that God was able to bring to pass His promise. Abraham at this point in time had now grown to the point that He was able to take God at His word. The strength of Abraham's faith became the strength of God's ability. Science and reasoning may have cried out, "It is impossible." With God, however, all things are possible. Abraham rejected the voice of reason although he listened carefully to what it said. So the Christian hears God's statement that the virgin had a son, who lived sinlessly, died vicariously, arose victoriously, and is coming triumphantly. Although science says it is impossible; with God all things are possible.
"He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform." (verses 20,21). "(Abraham) staggered not...," which means Abraham "examined the facts and made a decision." When one doubts he is uncertain in his decisions and hence may be said to stagger. God's promise started Abraham to thinking; natural law argued against God's promise, but the character of God, Who made the promise was not uncertain. Abraham was made strong in the sphere of faith. "God will strengthen the faith of any honest doubter who glorifies Him by trading off the uncertainties of science for the certitude of 'thus saith the Lord'" (Yeager, Volume XI, p. 405). To give glory to God means recognizing the glory He has and taking the place appropriate to the creature over against the Creator. Just as unbelief dishonors God, so faith glorifies Him. Abraham glorified God by 'letting God be God,' and by trusting Him to be true to Himself as the God of creation and resurrection.
Abraham was fully persuaded and convinced that God was able to do what He had promised; he was thoroughly dogmatic. God had the power to do what He said He would do; He possesses omnipotence, and He possesses integrity. "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork" (Psalm 19:1).
"And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness." (verse 22). God credited to Abraham righteousness for his faith. The words 'credited to his account' also means impute, count, lay to one's charge. Righteousness was entered upon the books of heaven as an asset held by him and credited to his account. Abraham believed that which was neither scientific nor reasonable. Thus in the opinion of the world he became a fool. But God credited his account with righteousness. "And (Abraham) believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness" (Genesis 15:6).
"Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him, but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus, our Lord, from the dead; who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification." (verses 23 - 25). Paul here cites Genesis 15:6 and states that it was not written just for Abraham, but for Abraham's seed in the faith.
These verses were written for the benefit of all those who would trust in the same Jehovah God. Everyone is saved for precisely the same reasons that Abraham was saved, and Abraham's story is a lesson to all. The righteousness of God is accredited to all those who by faith trust in Abraham's God. The same God that raised up Abraham's son, Isaac, the promised heir, from the dead also raised up the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead. Genesis 22:5 is a lesson in faith, "And Abraham said unto his young men, 'Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and (we will) come again to you." Literally, two (Abraham and Isaac) would go, and after two (Abraham and Isaac) had worshiped, two (Abraham and Isaac) would return. That's real faith. Abraham resolved to follow God's directions to the letter. If Abraham had literally offered his son, Isaac, upon the altar, he had faith that God could raise him from death.
The Lord Jesus Christ was delivered unto death, but God raised him for our justification. Just as
Jehovah God had the power to raise Isaac from death, had Abraham literally offered his son, so
God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. But there is something more here - Jesus was raised for
our justification. The ones who place faith in God and His Son will be acquitted from their
sins. This is in essence Paul's theology of vicarious atonement, with its reconciliation as well as
the bodily resurrection. The guilty sinner must believe that God can save those who place their
faith in the God Who raised up the Lord Jesus Christ.