Chapter Four

Abraham was justified only through faith (1–12). The promise given to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world was given apart from observance of the law (13–17). The very descendants of Abraham who were to receive this inheritance were the fruit of faith (18–22). Application of Abraham’s example to Christians (23–25).

Romans 4:1. What then shall we say? Has Abraham, our forefather, gained anything according to the flesh? At the end of chapter III the Apostle said that justification through faith not only does not contradict the law but, on the contrary, represents the fulfillment of the foundational idea contained in the law. But this position needed to be proved with facts, and so the Apostle finds in the law — that is, in the Pentateuch — a fact that could best confirm his view. The author of Genesis in particular (Gen 15:6) says of Abraham that he believed God, and this was counted to him as righteousness. From this the Apostle draws the conclusion that justification by faith was recognized as the only possible means even in the Old Testament. To supplement this testimony of Moses the Apostle then cites a passage from the psalms of David, where also justification is not made dependent on works. To this the Apostle adds proof that in Abraham’s own life works had no significance as a means of justification before God: he was justified by God even before he performed his great exploit — (the deed) before he underwent circumcision. Abraham was for the Jews the representative of righteousness, and his example was best suited to resolve the question of how to attain righteousness. If he, this most illustrious patriarch, was justified through faith alone, then the Apostle is right in affirming that salvation is given only through faith; but if Abraham had to add some works to this faith, then all of Paul’s teaching was overturned. What then did Abraham, our forefather, achieve (gain) by works (according to the flesh)? — Some ancient and modern interpreters relate the phrase “according to the flesh” to the words “our forefather,” but this is incorrect: first, because this addition would be superfluous; second, because it would not apply to the recipients of the letter, the majority of whom were not Jews; and third, because the Apostle himself considered Abraham the father of Christians not in the flesh but in faith (see Gal 3:7).

Romans 4:2. For if Abraham was justified by works, he has grounds to boast — but not before God. No answer to the question posed is given, but it is implied: Abraham did not gain justification for himself by works. To this the Apostle adds that if Abraham had been justified by works, he would have grounds for the boasting whose elimination the Apostle spoke of in chapter III, verse 27. But nowhere does he boast before God of this — Scripture does not speak of his works when it speaks of his justification. Consequently, every thought of the possibility of restoring self-justification by works falls away. Let the people, his descendants, marvel at his exploits, but it was not these exploits that gave him justification before God!

Romans 4:3. For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. What then gave him new life, what placed him in a new relationship with God? Faith. Abraham believed God that he, a decrepit and childless old man, would have numerous offspring, and God counted this faith to him as righteousness. — How is this counting to be understood? Did Abraham thereby truly become righteous in the full sense — justified and sanctified? Of course not. While the sacrifice of Christ had not yet been offered, there could not yet be full forgiveness of sins and genuine justification (Heb 9:15). In the Old Testament only a potential justification was possible, and the faith of Abraham could contain only the seed of a future justification. But still, this faith was counted (imputed) to Abraham and to other people of the Old Testament who possessed it — a believing person felt that God approved of him for this faith, and this gave him a certain degree of moral peace.

Romans 4:4. Now to one who works, wages are not counted as a gift but as what is owed. Romans 4:5. But to one who does not work but trusts in the one who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, From what is said in the Pentateuch the Apostle immediately draws a conclusion. God’s counting of Abraham’s faith as righteousness was evidently an act of divine mercy, because, as stated in the commentary on verse 3, God did not yet see genuine righteousness in Abraham — it did not exist in the Old Testament. On the contrary, if Abraham had earned the right to justification by his works, God would have been obliged to justify him (as a matter of obligation). Yet nowhere in the Old Testament is there any mention of such an obligation that God would have toward righteous people. From this the Apostle draws the following general conclusion: there are two ways of acquiring righteousness — one’s own works or faith. For works the reward is given as an obligation; for faith — by mercy, without actual full righteousness being present. This faith must consist in the conviction that God can make even a sinner (the ungodly) righteous, can cleanse him from sinful defilement from which the person himself cannot cleanse himself. But from this it is clear why the Lord counted Abraham’s faith as righteousness. Abraham evidently exerted every effort to cleanse himself of sins but could not achieve this, and therefore awaited this cleansing from God in faith. In this way he through faith already had a foretaste of the future justification that would be granted to humanity through Christ, and this future righteousness — not yet actually existing at that time — was counted to him.

Romans 4:6. So also David speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: Romans 4:7. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Romans 4:8. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count sin. To supplement the testimony of Moses regarding Abraham, the Apostle adds a relevant passage from the psalms of David. Psalm 31 David composed probably after he was granted forgiveness by God for the grave sins into which he had been drawn by lust. From this arose the expressions: “lawless deeds are forgiven, sins are covered, will not count sin.” Here, then, the negative side of justification is indicated — namely, the removal of evil through justification — whereas in relation to Abraham, only the positive side of justification had been discussed, namely the good that is received in justification. The Apostle cites David’s confession, of course, for the purpose of showing that even this eminent righteous man of the Old Testament placed all the strength of his hope not on his own deeds but on the mercy of God. David too recognized that a person can feel blessed only when God, apart from a person’s works, forgives him his transgressions — a person cannot make amends for his guilt through his own exploits.

Romans 4:9. Is this blessing then for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. Romans 4:10. When was it counted? Was it before or after his circumcision? It was not after, but before his circumcision. But defenders of works could, in connection with the Apostle’s appeal to the example of Abraham who was justified by faith, have said: “Let it be so! But Abraham was deemed worthy of justification through faith only because he was circumcised, and circumcision in any case is a work, an achievement of the person.” The Apostle, having posed this question (in view of the quotation from Psalm Ps 31, he here replaces the word “justification” with the word “blessing”), immediately answers it plainly and clearly: Abraham was justified by God through faith far earlier than the institution of circumcision — specifically, after his justification approximately 14 years passed before the institution of circumcision (cf. chapters XV and XVII of Genesis). At that time Abraham was not distinguished by anything external from the Gentiles.

Romans 4:11. He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while still uncircumcised, so that he could become the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well, Romans 4:12. and the father of the circumcised — not only of those who are circumcised, but also of those who walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had while he was still uncircumcised. The Apostle develops his thought still further. Circumcision itself was, so to speak, a seal or consequence of Abraham’s already accomplished justification. — “So that he could become...” (v. 11) — more accurately from the Greek: “so that” (είς τό). The Apostle means to say that although Abraham himself, when receiving the divine promise in faith, did not think of and did not have as his goal becoming the spiritual father of believing Gentiles, nevertheless such was God’s intention in this case. By accepting Abraham’s faith as justifying, God had in view primarily the Gentiles, and the theocracy was for Him only a means (cf. Gen 12:3). In speaking of the Gentiles as Abraham’s spiritual children by faith, the Apostle places them in the foreground — he speaks of believers from the Jews in verse 12. This was already entirely at odds with Jewish notions! But even with this the Apostle does not stop. In verse 13 he says that the Jews can call Abraham their father only if they not only accept circumcision but also conduct themselves as Abraham did — specifically, imitating his faith. And what faith? The faith he had while still uncircumcised, while still standing in the position of an ordinary person, on the same level as the Gentiles! From this the Jews could quite rightly conclude that it was not the believing Gentiles who should pass through the Jewish gate, but the believing Jews through the gate of the Gentiles... We see, then, from both these verses that the most important event in the history of the economy of salvation was precisely the first appearance of Abraham as the father of all believing humanity. The Kingdom of God was born at precisely this moment. Abraham was called precisely so that all nations might be saved. From this moment, strictly speaking, the history of salvation begins. Abraham did not merely believe in God the Creator and Rewarder — such believers had existed before (Heb 11) — but believed in God’s promises, in God as the First Cause of the work of redemption... In that case physical descent from Abraham loses its significance for the attainment of salvation — faith alone becomes the life-giving principle in the history of humanity: faith in God, who grants justification as a free gift.

Romans 4:13. For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. From what was said above it had become clear that Abraham, in receiving justification, was, so to speak, the representative of all humanity and not of the Jewish people alone. With this Paul’s opponents might have agreed. But they might also have pointed out to Paul that Abraham, after receiving justification, received yet further advantages. Most importantly, he was promised — together with all his offspring — that he would be the possessor of the whole world. And this offspring was evidently none other than that which descended through Isaac — that is, the Jewish people. Thus it appeared that salvation was once again made dependent on one people and the law by which Israel was guided. The Apostle, in response to this objection, says that possession of the world was promised to Abraham and his offspring by no means on the strength of their keeping the law: the law was more of an obstacle than a convenient means for receiving the inheritance of the world. “For not through the law” — that is, let the Jews not imagine that the promised inheritance was to be obtained through the law and that it was therefore secured to the people who had been given this law. Paul further explains that the law, rather, took away this promised inheritance. “To be heir of the world.” In the book of Genesis God promises Abraham and his offspring only the land of Canaan, and not the whole world. But Jewish theology, in its interpretation, replaced the word land with the words world and humanity. The Jewish people dreamed of the happy times of the Messiah, when the Jewish nation would seize power over the entire world. The Apostle does not see fit to refute this self-delusion of his compatriots in its substance and does not touch on the content of God’s promises, but speaks only of the conditions that God established for attaining this inheritance. This condition can only be faith — righteousness received through faith — and not the law (now the Apostle uses the word law instead of the word circumcision, because circumcision was the main point of the law, and the one who accepted circumcision took upon himself the obligation to observe the whole law).

Romans 4:14. For if those who live by the law are the heirs, faith is nullified and the promise is void; Romans 4:15. for the law brings wrath, because where there is no law there is no transgression either. The proof of the thought expressed in verse 13 the Apostle now borrows not from history, as in vv. 10–12, but from logic. If inheriting, he says, had been made dependent on living by the law, there would have been no room at all for faith, since faith and works of the law mutually exclude each other (cf. vv. 4 and following), and by this very fact the promise would have been turned into a kind of mockery of human beings, since a person cannot find favor in the eyes of God through the fulfillment of works of the law (Rom 3:20). More than that: the law subjects a person to the wrath of God and punishment — what talk then can there be of reward? On the contrary, where there is no law — specifically in Christianity (Rom 3:21) — there is no transgression of God’s will and no place for God’s wrath; there, therefore, there is no obstacle to the fulfillment of the divine promise. The Apostle of course looks at Christianity here from an ideal point of view; he sees it as it can and should be...

Romans 4:16. That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring — not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all Here the Apostle expresses still more forcefully the thought of verse 13: the promises are made dependent solely on faith, so that the mercy of God might be the beginning and end in this matter. When God’s mercy rather than formal justice assigns rewards, it will then be possible for all descendants of Abraham — not only those who have the Mosaic law (Jews) but also those who possess only faith (Gentiles) — to receive these rewards (the inheritance).

Romans 4:17. [as it is written: “I have made you the father of many nations”] — in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. Having cited the passage from the book of Genesis (Gen 17:5) where Abraham is indeed called the father of many nations (εθνών — pagan nations, or according to the Hebrew text goim), the Apostle adds that Abraham is our father before God or in the presence of God. By these words he further assures all Christians of the certainty of their filial relationship to Abraham. The Gentiles and Jews do not understand this, of course, but we Christians know it well — that this is in fact so. The Apostle also gives some indications of the resemblance between the faith of Christians and the faith of Abraham. The most important point of Christian belief is faith in the resurrection of Christ and the resurrection of the dead. And Abraham likewise had such faith. He believed that God can resurrect everything that is dead and can call (more precisely from the Greek: summon, invite) that which does not yet exist as though it already exists. This further demonstrates our spiritual kinship with Abraham.

Romans 4:18. He believed, hoping against hope, that he would become the father of many nations, as he had been told: “So shall your offspring be. But against all these arguments of the Apostle, the Jews could still point to what Abraham gained in the flesh (v. 1) — a son, Isaac, and through him a numerous offspring, the people of Israel. The Apostle now addresses this anticipated objection and proves that Abraham received his son also through his faith. “Hoping against hope.” Circumstances were not at all such as to allow Abraham to hope for the fulfillment of God’s promise about the birth of a son to him: he and his wife were already so old that, by the natural order, they could have no children. “Through which he became” — more accurately from the Greek (είς το γενέσθαι): “so that he might become...” Abraham, believing, had as his aim and expectation that God’s promise would certainly come to fulfillment.

Romans 4:19. He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. “Did not consider” — more accurately from the Greek (ού κατενόησεν) — did not pay attention to the fact that... The Apostle Peter, as long as he kept his eyes on the Lord while walking on the water, did not sink, because he believed in Him; but when he looked with doubt at the waves, he began to sink. Abraham remained in faith — he did not look at what might have shaken his trust in God’s promise.

Romans 4:20. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, Romans 4:21. fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. Romans 4:22. That is why his faith was counted to him as righteousness. “As he gave glory to God” — that is, he recognized His righteousness, His infinite power, and did not attempt to explain what was said to him by God in some other, simpler sense (John Chrysostom). — “That is why his faith was counted to him as righteousness.” With these words the Apostle firmly summarizes everything said in verses 1–21. “That is why” — this expression highlights what was said about the trust that Abraham showed toward God’s promise. The Apostle speaks here about Abraham’s justification but naturally has in mind the inheritance of the world and the offspring as well. Abraham received all of this through faith.

Romans 4:23. The words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, Now the Apostle draws from everything that has been said a conclusion with respect to Christians. The Scripture, in speaking of Abraham’s justification through faith, also had us Christians in mind, in order to establish the position that we too are justified equally through faith — through faith in the risen Christ.

Romans 4:24. but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus Christ our Lord, The event from Abraham’s life mentioned above — his justification by faith — has significance for us too, serving as, so to speak, a prefiguration of our justification. “It will be counted to us also.” The Apostle is not speaking of a future counting or justification: it is already an accomplished fact, as can be seen from chapter III (Rom 3 and following verses). It is therefore more accurate to translate this expression as: “it ought to be counted to us as well.” — “Who believe” — that is, if we believe or when we believe. — “Who raised from the dead Jesus Christ, our Lord.” Between Abraham’s faith that he would have a son, Isaac, and our faith in the resurrection of Christ there is, of course, a resemblance: in both cases what is at issue is the raising to life of what is dead and lifeless. But there is also a difference here. Abraham believed in God, whereas we, believing in God, believe moreover in Jesus as our Lord. The birth of Isaac in the chain of events of the history of salvation was, so to speak, the starting point, while the resurrection of Christ is the completion of history, its crowning. Christ is for us the head of the Church, which he was not for Abraham.

Romans 4:25. who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. To show why Christ became our Lord, the Apostle points to His death and resurrection as events that had such important and saving significance for us. — “Delivered up for our trespasses” — these words represent the rendering of the words of the prophet Isaiah (Isa 53:12). — “And was raised” — from the Greek (ηγέρθη) more precisely: was raised up. — “For our justification” — that is, so that believers might have full grounds to consider themselves justified. If Christ had not been raised, then justification would not have been complete either! (1 Cor 15:17). However, it would be more accurate to translate this expression as follows: “on account of (διά) our justification.” The meaning of this passage then becomes as follows. Christ, as it were, stood as surety for us, the debtors before Divine Justice. Since we ourselves could not pay our debts, He, like any surety, was subjected to imprisonment. But when the debt is paid (in the present case not by the debtors but by the surety), the surety is released. So also Christ was raised, freed from the bonds of death, as a sign that He had brought a fully satisfactory redemption for the sins of all humanity. In this way the Apostle here supplements what he said in Rom 3:25. Christ grants us justification not only through His death but also through His resurrection. * * * Notes From this one cannot draw the conclusion that if there had been no law, the Jews would not have been subject to the wrath of God. In chapter 1 the Apostle proves precisely the opposite. Here he only points out the inevitability of transgressions of the law and, consequently, the inevitability of punishment for those under the law — the Jews.