Expository Papers on the Romans

Our Lord, when on earth, constantly quoted from the Old Testament; and in the desert, when tempted of Satan, always answered him with, “It is written;” so here it is— “What saith the Scripture?”—an important word for us in these days. It is not “What does this or that man think?” or, What is your opinion or mine? but, “What does God say?” that is the question. Let the Scripture decide everything. This verse is quoted from Genesis 15:6, and is an unanswerable proof to a Jew, taken from his own Scriptures, that Abraham was justified by faith. “For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God” (vs. 2). Now let the Scripture decide the question. “Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.” This would be unanswerable, for he was counted righteous, not for any works that he had done, but because he believed God.
It is the same with us as it is brought out further on in the chapter. Verses 4 and 5 seem to be a sort of practical comment upon this truth; and they bring out in a most clear and full way the fact that we are justified, not upon the ground of our works at all, but by faith. And this is very necessary, for it is the natural thought of our hearts that we must do something in order to merit the favor of God, and to be saved. How universal is the answer, when one asks another as to their hope of salvation, “We must do the best we can.” Another says, “We must keep the law;” and another, “Believe in Christ and keep the law.” The law truly is of works: “Do this and thou shalt live.” But the law and the gospel are two distinct things, and are as opposite as the east to the west; and mixing up the two must lead to endless confusion. You cannot be saved half by the works of the law and half by faith in Christ; either you must be saved by Christ, or you must be lost, “for as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse” (Gal. 3:10).
To show how the law and the gospel are confused in the minds of people, a person who was told that if he was to be saved it was not by working for it, said, “Now I can prove to you from Scripture that we must do something to be saved” –he would not have it that a person could be saved without any works of his own—so taking a large Bible down from the shelf, he turned over the leaves, and found Ezekiel 18:27, and read exultingly, “When the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive.” “There!” he said, “is not that works?” He did not see that the whole of the passage was not the gospel at all, but the law, and God’s dealings with Israel under law; also, that Galatians 3:10 says, “As many as are of the works of the law are under the curse;” so, that if a person is on the ground of law-keeping at all before God, he is under the curse, because he is totally unable to keep it. It is astonishing how the mind of man tenaciously sticks to the idea that there must be something to do to be saved. “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” one said to the Lord when on earth. The jailor at Philippi again, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” But let us look at verse 4 of our chapter: “Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. Grace means unmerited love and favor. If a person works or does anything for salvation, he makes God his debtor—he has done this and that, and he thinks that God owes him salvation for it; but this is not the ground of grace at all. In natural things it is the same principle. If a man works hard all the week, he claims his wages as his right; it is no act of favor of his master to give him what he has earned. So with salvation. If we had done the smallest thing to deserve it, it would not be of grace; for grace is favor bestowed upon one who does not deserve it. No; it must be one thing or the other—saved wholly on the principle of works, and thus earning salvation; or wholly on the principle of grace, as we read in Romans 11:6, which is the same principle: “And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.” But the Scripture is as plain as possible on the point, and this fifth verse of our chapter is perhaps one of the strongest on the subject, “But to him that worketh not.” No one could get over this plain statement of Scripture; and this verse not only clears the ground by telling us it is “to him that worketh not,” but unfolds to us in few words—but how full and weighty—the whole plan of justification.
We constantly find this in Scripture, that in one short verse we have contained a whole volume of precious truth; and so it is here. It is, “To him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted unto him for righteousness.” Here God is the object of faith, as in Abraham’s case “Abraham believed God.”
First, “It is to him that worketh not, but believeth” (working and believing are here contrasted). And who are we to believe in? The God “that justifies the ungodly.” Who but God could do that? A human judge could not do it: he might let the guilty one off; or be merciful to him; but it is not in the power of any human judge to justify a guilty criminal: for to justify him he must clear him from every charge that could be brought against him, which if he was guilty he could not do. But, blessed be His name, God can, and that in a way perfectly consistent with His own perfect righteousness. He justifies the ungodly.
We have seen on what ground He does it in the third chapter how He can say to an ungodly sinner, on the ground of the death of Christ, “I have nothing against you.” We have to go back to this blessed truth over and over again, even as Christians, for we are often apt to be disappointed because we do not find some good in us; but we are justified, not upon the ground of being good, but upon the ground of being ungodly. So now, if a soul sees he is utterly ungodly, and owns he can do nothing at all to merit salvation, and believes in the God who justifies him as an ungodly one, on the ground of Christ’s death, his faith is counted for righteousness, even as “Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.”
There is a passage in the epistle of James (chap. 2:14-26), which to some might appear to contradict this “not of works” doctrine: “What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?.... Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? And the Scripture was fulfilled which said, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness.” This might seem to be a contradiction to Romans 4, but in reality it is not so; it only brings out the perfection of the Word of God. In Romans 4 the question is justification before God (vs. 2); in James it is rather before men. And as God alone can read the heart, when it is a question of our fellow-men, we can only judge of what is within by outward actions. If we see this, verse 14 of James 2 becomes clear.; the stress is upon the word “say.” It is not said, “What shall it profit if a man has faith;” but “if a man say he has faith.” It is outward profession. What is the use of a man saying he believes, if his outward actions deny it; it shows there is no reality in it. Thus the act of Abraham offering up Isaac on the altar showed he ‘believed God who was able to raise him up from the dead, and thus’ he could offer up the one in whom the promises of God were to be fulfilled (See Heb. 11:17-19). Also the action of Rahab the harlot, in hiding the spies, proved that she believed that the Lord had given them the land, and that Jericho was to be destroyed.
Thus before God we are justified by faith; before men by works. The works before men show that we possess the faith that justifies us before God; just as you see smoke coming out of a chimney, you say, “There must be a fire inside, for I see the smoke.” So you see the, good works, and you say, “That person must be a child of God, because of such and such things that he does;” as in 1 Thessalonians 1:3 the apostle saw their “work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope,” and therefore he knew their election of God. As to the ground of our justification before God, it is as clear as possible that it is, as we have been seeing in Romans 4, “to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.”
And now—what David says is cited as another example to prove the same thing; for Abraham and David were the two that a Jew would recognize as indisputable authority. “David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, saying” (quoting Psa. 32), “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin” (vss. 6-8). Here it is not a question of works, or of having any righteousness of our own; on the contrary, it supposes a man to be a sinner, and to have no righteousness of his own, and God forgives him on the ground of pure grace, and although the sin is there, does not impute it. Blessed is that man! We see a beautiful illustration of this in Numbers 23:21. Israel was indeed a sinful people, murmuring and rebellious; as Moses said, “Ye have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you” (Deut. 9:24). Sin was unmistakably there, and yet when the enemy sought to curse them, what was Balaam forced to say? “He [God] hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath He seen perverseness in Israel.” The iniquity was there; but God, said, “I do not behold it.” The perverseness was apparent; but God said, “I do not see it.” We know on what ground God could say that of Israel, and does say it of us—the blood, of the Lamb.
We are all sinners by nature, “and in many things we offend all,” but God does not impute sin to those who believe in Jesus. This is the only thing that can give us confidence in the presence of God, the knowledge that whatever sin there may be, God will not impute it to us, if we are true believers on His Son. This is indeed blessedness that David describes. But, to renew the thread, of our subject, “cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also? for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness” (vs. 9). Is this blessedness spoken of (that is, justification by faith) only for the Jew, or is it for the Gentile as well? for the point we are considering is, that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness. Circumcision was the characteristic sign of being a Jew, the token of God’s covenant with His earthly people Israel (Genesis 17:10). But when was Abraham reckoned righteous? Before he was circumcised at all, thus showing that the righteousness by faith was not to be confined to God’s earthly people Israel alone, but to all who believe, although they are not circumcised (vss. 10, 11). This would be an unanswerable argument to a Jew, who gloried in circumcision as the distinguishing mark of God’s earthly people; that when Abraham was reckoned righteous, he was uncircumcised. 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 to them also” (vs. 11).
Abraham was reckoned righteous by faith before he was circumcised, so that circumcision has nothing to do with it; therefore he is the father of all them that believe; that is, he is the first example; the head of the family, so to speak, of those that are justified upon the same principle; by faith—as in Galatians 3:7, “They which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham:” He is also “the father of circumcision” to those “who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised.” Here circumcision, is the true spiritual circumcision, not “that which is outward in the flesh,” but real separation to God; and Abraham was the first pattern of this. That is the meaning of the expression, “Father of circumcision,” in verse 12.
F. K.
Expository Papers on the Romans
God’s promise to Abraham that he should be heir of the world was not through the law (vs. 13), for we see in Galatians 3:17 that the law was given four hundred and thirty years after, but through the righteousness of faith. This truth is fully unfolded in Galatians 3, showing that the law, which was given after the promise, could not make the promise void. The law was introduced afterward, and “was added because of transgressions” (Gal. 2:19). Because “the law worketh wrath” (vs. 15), all that the law could do was to work wrath, because it said to a man that had a sinful nature, “Thou shalt not lust.” He lusted by nature; but when the law said, “Thou shalt not lust” (covet), it made it a positive act of disobedience, and thus a transgression; “for where no law is, there is no transgression.” It is not said, “There is no sin;” but, “There is no transgression;” for sin is ever sin in God’s sight, whether a person knows it or not; but where God gives an express command, such as, “Thou shalt not lust,” then disobedience to that command becomes a transgression; and where the transgression is proved, there is nothing but the wrath of God against it. But now in verse 16 we have the blessed fact, “Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace.” Faith and grace go side by side, “By grace are ye saved through faith” (Eph. 2:8); but you cannot mix up the law with either, it was added as a thing by the way to bring out what man was, that sin might be made exceeding sinful. It is of faith that it might be by grace, in order that the promise might be sure to all the seed; that is, not only to those who are naturally descended from Abraham, but those who have Abraham’s faith.
The next verses unfold more in detail the character of Abraham’s faith, and also of ours, which is very instructive and practical; for many souls are exercised about their faith, wondering whether they have believed rightly. In verse 17, we have not only that Abraham believed God, but that he believed the God of resurrection; “Before Him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.” In verse 3, we find the simple expression of Abraham’s faith, “Abraham believed God.” It is not said that he believed in God, but that “he believed God;” that is, believed what God told him. Beautiful and simple expression of what faith is. Many think of faith as a sort of inward feeling or experience, and so, because they do not have these experiences, often wonder whether they have the right faith. But faith is not feeling or experience, but dependence upon what another has said or done. In natural things it is simple enough. If someone that you can trust tells you something, you believe him; you do not question whether you have believed rightly, or whether your faith in what he has said is strong enough, you simply take him at his word. For instance, if you are going to London, you ask one of the railway officials which is the London carriage, and you take your seat, perfectly satisfied that you are right, because you believe the man that told you. You have no feeling that you are in the right train; but because you trust to what the official told you, you are perfectly happy and confident that you are right. That is faith in a man Faith in God is the same, only in the one case it is believing what a man says, and in the other it is believing what God says: and this is what true faith always does. There is such a thing as mere head belief; that is, the natural intellect acknowledging the truth of God, as we find an instance in John 2:23: “Many believed in His name, when they saw the miracles which He did. But Jesus did not commit Himself unto them.” There was simple outward recognition of the truth, but no saving faith. Again, in the case of Simon, in Acts 8:12: “When they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. Then Simon himself believed also.” His was only an intellectual assent to the truth, without any saving faith at all; for “he had neither part nor lot in the matter” (vs. 21).
But some might ask, “How am I to know that mine is not mere intellectual assent, but real saving faith?” I think this verse (Rom. 4:3) gives us an example of what true faith is— “Abraham believed God.” One may intellectually believe what man says, and a person may be taught about Christ, and believe about Him, just in the same way that he believes there was such a person as Henry VIII, or any other matter of history. When one is really in earnest as to his soul’s salvation, and believes what God says about Christ, that is not head belief, but faith in God. Intellectual faith believes what man says; saving faith believes what God says. In 1 Thessalonians 2:13, they received the Word of God not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the Word of God, and consequently they were saved. Abraham’s case is a beautiful and simple illustration of what faith is; he believed God. Let us turn to the account in Genesis 15 Abraham was about an hundred years old, and Sarah, his wife, ninety, and they had no child; and God said, “Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and He said unto him, “So shall thy seed be” (vs. 5). Suppose Abraham had looked at himself, or had attempted to reason for a moment, where would he have been? But no; in Romans 4:19 we read, “And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb.” He did not look at himself at all. How many have said, “But I don’t feel saved; surely if I was saved I should feel differently to what I do.” Suppose Abraham had said, when God said, “So shall thy seed be,” “But I don’t feel as though this was true:” how could he have felt it? He did not think of himself at all, he did not wait to feel it; but, contrary to nature and reason and human possibility, he simply took God at His word, he believed what God had said, and that is faith. “He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief.” Unbelief always staggers at what God says, and so does human reason, because it cannot understand it. But “Abraham staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith,” and the result was, he gave glory to God. For it does glorify God to take Him simply at His word, and trust Him implicitly without reasoning or doubting. Some say it is presumption to say we are saved. So it would be, if God did not say so; but if God says we are saved, it is not giving glory to God to doubt it, but the contrary. Surely it is greater presumption to doubt what God says, than to take Him simply at His word; and He says, “All that believe are justified from all things.” Abraham was “strong in faith.” What constitutes being strong in faith? Simply taking God at His word, as Abraham did, and thus he gave glory to God; and he was “fully persuaded that, what He had promised, He was able also to perform. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; but for us also.” That is, not only was Abraham reckoned righteous because he believed God, but we shall also be reckoned righteous if we believe God in the same way; only, although we believe the same God that Abraham did, the character of our faith is a little different. Abraham believed in a promise, “that what He had promised, He was able also to perform;” we are reckoned righteous “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.” We do not believe, like Abraham, in what God is going to do, but in what He has done, in raising up Jesus our Lord from the dead; but the object of our faith is the same as Abraham’s; that is, God. These three last verses of this chapter are most important, for they give us the ground of our justification, and of peace with God; for the first verse of chapter 5 is linked on to them: the division of the chapters breaks the connection. And notice here, it is not said our faith will be counted for righteousness, if we believe in Christ, true as that is; but on the God that raised up Christ; and this is most important, for many have peace as long as they think of Jesus come to seek the lost, and of His love and peace, as seen, for instance, in the gospels, who, nevertheless, when they hear of God and His holiness and the judgment-throne, have misgivings as to whether it is all right; but if this truth is realized that we find in these verses, there must be peace.
F. K.