Romans 4
Exposition and Notes
4:1-8
This begins a section – the chapter – in which Paul defends justification by faith alone for all – Jew and Gentile alike.
Paul, in the first verse, draws the Jew’s attention to Abraham. “He was justified by God – let’s look at how that happened, since we (Jews) are descended from him.” And in the second verse, Paul says that if Abraham was justified works, he could boast before man. That would make him better than other people. One still can’t boast, though, before God, for just doing what you’re supposed to do.
Verse 3 is Paul’s defense for justification by faith alone. From this point on, he’ll argue from this verse (Gen. 15:6). It is important to note here that God didn’t look at Abraham’s faith and say, “That faith is righteousness.” That isn’t what’s being said here at all. Another way to translate this phrase is that it was counted to him for righteousness – or unto righteousness – or ¬unto justification.
In vv. 4, 5, Paul gives the analogy of how working for pay functions. If you’re working, wages are paid to you. Wages aren’t the result of grace (they’re not a gift) – your employer is obligated to pay you.
This is contrasted with the situation of the one who believes in the justifer of the ungodly. The justifier credits righteousness to the ungodly one, thereby justifying him. Again here, we see the language of crediting faith as/for/unto righteousness. That is shorthand for what Paul has already begun to explain in ch. 3, and will go on to explain further in vv. 6-8 and in ch. 5.
Oh, and remember in all this – to justify means to declare righteous. So we’ve got this situation where God is calling sinners righteous. How? He credits righteousness to them. We’re not talking transformation, but about a gift of a foreign righteousness to their account. God, in judging us, looks at Jesus’ obedience, and considers us as if we were obedient.
So in vv. 6-8, we see this doctrine defended from the Old Testament. First, note that righteousness is the thing credited, and that it is not our righteousness (v. 6). Second, note that it coincides with the non counting of sins in vv. 7, 8. God doesn’t look at the sins of believers; he merely looks at a righteousness that he credits to them.
4:9-17
Paul in this section is going to argue that this blessing of righteousness – resulting in justification – is for all believers – Jews and Gentiles alike.
We see this in vv. 9 and 10. Abraham had righteousness credited to him apart from the sign of circumcision – a sign that set apart the physical offspring of Abraham as the recipients of specific physical (and temporary) promises. See Genesis 15 and 17 for that.
The conclusion from this pre-circumcision justification is in vv. 11 and 12 – God did this so that everyone who believes – Jew and Gentile - in the same way Abraham did would be considered Abraham’s child – and therefore an heir of the gift that God gave Abraham – righteousness – and thus – justification.
Now the basis for this is in v. 13 – God gave Abraham and his offspring (Jesus – Gal. 3:16 – and from Rom. 4 – us, because we’re considered as united to Jesus) the promise of inheriting the world before there was any Law – any circumcision. Two observations – first, this demonstrates the principle that righteousness is credited by faith to all who believe. Second, it demonstrates that there is a reward for the righteous – and that is inheriting the world – and that is the promise/command given to Adam in Gen. 1:26, 27.
The basis for the certainty of the inheritance given to those justified by faith is in v. 14. That is – if God changed from what he’d done in justifying people through faith to the justifying people by Law, then he’d be breaking his promise. The promise as given to Abraham through faith. God could not be faithful and change the means by which people received the promise! And actually, it never was – it was always by righteousness. But one could not be righteous by trying to obey the Law – but only by a crediting of an alien righteousness through faith.
And the reason that the Law can’t bring the promise, v. 15 says, is that it brings wrath – it brings condemnation – the opposite of justification.
Verse 16 tells us then that the promise is guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring – who are counted his offspring by faith. The promise is given by grace through faith so it can be a promise and not conditional on obedience to the Law! This results in Abraham being the father of many nations – because many nations would be blessed through becoming his children through faith alone. They would be counted righteous – counted as Abraham’s children – and therefore the promise of inheriting the world would be guaranteed to them by the grace of God.
4:18-25
Verses 18-22 describe the faith that resulted in Abraham’s justification. Some things that you may want the group to get is that that biblical faith is about hope in things you can’t see – and is based on God’s word – ultimately his word concerning salvation, which is what Abraham had.
When we look back at Genesis 15, cited in this section, we see this sequence – promise, belief, justification. Now, that’s not a thing that happened in time, per se – it’s a logical sequence. It answers the question what caused what. The God’s promise of the gospel -> belief -> justification.
The reason that I’m calling the promise the gospel here is a few fold. First, we’ve already seen that it entails eternal life earlier in the chapter. Second, when we look at Galatians 3:16, we see that the ‘offspring’ is ultimately Jesus. We become children of Abraham by being considered as unified to him.
So righteousness was credited to Abraham through in the promise of eternal life accomplished by God in the gospel. And that righteousness credited to him secures it.
In verses 23-25 we see this whole description of Abraham’s faith applied to all believers. We are credited righteousness the same way Abraham was. God made a promise about salvation – and he accomplished it in Jesus (we see this in v. 25).
Verse 25 is difficult. I have a paper on the significance of the resurrection and justification - let me know if you want it. However, the short of it is that God killed Jesus in the place of every believer (‘our’ includes only believers), and because righteousness was accomplished in Jesus in our place, God raised him from the dead. That resurrection demonstrates the reality – and seals the reality – of the justification of everyone who believes. If God’s wrath wasn’t really taken care of in Jesus’ death, Jesus couldn’t have been raised. But his coming back to life demonstrates that the justification of every believer is a present reality.
Suggested Bible Study Discussion Questions
-Before you start this Bible study off, it may be a good idea to give your students a quick summary of 3:20-31, keying in on the inability of good works to save, and God’s righteousness given to all believers for declaring them righteous in Jesus’ death.
-Pray
-Have someone read vv. 1-8
-Ask to see if anyone has any questions.
-There’s a lot of talk about ‘crediting’ in this section. What’s going on with that?
-What does this have to do with the boasting in vv. 1, 2?
-What do we see God doing in this section?
-How should we respond?
-Have someone read vv. 9-17
-Ask to see if anyone has any questions.
-What are some recurring concepts in this section?
-Circumcision and the Law marked Israel off as the race through which God would make people from every nation righteous. What’s Paul saying about them here?
-What’s true of us from this section?
-Read vv. 18-25
-Ask to see if anyone has questions.
-What was Abraham’s faith like?
-What should our faith look like?
-What’s up with vv. 24-25?
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