02.07. Chapter 4A
CHAPTER 4A Abraham and David, in Whom the Jews Specially Gloried, Accounted Righteous by Faith, not by Law or Works. Romans 4:1-8.
Righteousness is also Apart from Ordinances (as Circumcision). Romans 4:9-12.
Abraham’s "Heirship of the World," not at All by Law but by Promise; and So, Only, Believers Are All Made Certain of its Blessings. Romans 4:13-17. The Way and Walk of faith Wondrously Exemplified in Abraham the Father of All Believers. Romans 4:18-22. The Connection of Our Justification with Christ’s Resurrection. Romans 4:23-25.
Paul now answers Jewish objectors to the doctrine of justification by simple faith; and he uses as examples those two great men of faith whose names were constantly on Jewish tongues,--Abraham and David. The question about Abraham, What has Abraham our fleshly forefather found? is practically the same as in Chapter Three, "What advantage, then, hath the Jew?" We do well, while standing absolutely with Paul, to understand with sympathy the state of mind of the Jew, who had the Old Testament Scriptures, and a national history of marvelous Divine instruction and providence, and also remarkable religious prominence everywhere, in Paul’s day. "To Israel pertained the fathers" (Romans 9:5); Paul here in Romans 4:1, places himself, therefore, among the Israelites, and says, "Abraham our forefather according to the flesh." [82]
[82] The doctrine of Abraham as being the "father of all that believe," has yet to be announced,--as is done later in this same chapter.
Romans 4:2-3 : Now argues Paul, if Abraham had been declared righteous before God on the works principle, he would indeed have had something to boast of! But the Scripture record showed there was nothing of which he could boast before God. For concerning Abraham more definitely and directly than of any other human being, God’s word was specific: Abraham believed God, and it [his faith] was reckoned [83] to him as righteousness.
[83] (1)"It was reckoned unto him as righteousness"; here the word "reckoned" is logidzomai, a great word with Paul, used 41 times in the New Testament, 35 of which are in Paul’s epistles, 11 of these here in Romans 4:1-25. Where it is used as in Romans 4:3, here, of God, it is always a court word, God acting as Judge and accounting or holding as righteous those who, as Abraham, believe in Him; or the contrary, as is implied in Romans 4:8; "Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not reckon sin,"--implying that there are those to whom He will reckon sin and its guilt. In Romans 4:5, we see what is reckoned by God as righteousness: "his faith is reckoned as righteousness," This does not mean that faith is a meritorious act, as indeed it could not be,--being simply extending credence to One who cannot lie! Therefore, without being itself righteousness, it is reckoned as righteousness; the ground of such reckoning being of course the work of Christ on the cross. (Compare on this (Compare on this word the note on Romans 5:11) To discover that the greatest saints have no other standing than the weakest saints, is a lesson that is difficult for all of us! So now for the Jew to find that great Abraham has nothing in the flesh, but must be justified by simple faith, like any sinner, is a great shock. There was no honor, no "merit," in Abraham’s believing the faithful God, who cannot lie. The honor was God’s. When Abraham believed God, he did the one thing that a man can do without doing anything! God made the statement, the promise; and God undertook to fulfill it. Abraham believed in his heart that God told the truth. There was no effort here. Abraham’s faith was not an act, but an attitude. His heart was turned completely away from himself to God and His promise. This left God free to fulfill that promise. Faith was neither a meritorious act by Abraham, nor a change of character or nature, in Abraham: he simply believed God would accomplish what He had promised: "In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed" (Genesis 12:3).
Romans 4:4-5 : Now to him that worketh the reward is not reckoned as a matter of grace, but, on the contrary, as a matter of debt. But to one not working, but believing upon the God that justifieth the ungodly,--his faith is reckoned for righteousness.
Here Paul writes two verses which every believer should commit to memory: for they state what no mind of fallen man ever imagines; for do not people naturally believe that the way to be saved is to "be good"? To him that worketh--To a man that works for wages, the wages are due as a debt. That is a simple enough principle. But do not seek to apply it to salvation! No one ever got righteousness by work or worth! Righteousness is not by doing right, strange and impossible as that may seem. But to him that worketh not--to him who "casts his deadly doing down"; who, seeing his guilt, and his entire inability to put it away, ceases wholly from all efforts to obtain God’s favor by his own doings, or self-denyings,--even by his prayers: but believeth on the God that declareth righteous the ungodly--not the godly or the good! But, you say, God cannot do that! God cannot declare a man godly if he is really ungodly. Now God did not say "godly," but He said righteous,--"declareth righteous those ungodly who believe." God can do that! For God can reckon to an ungodly man who dares cease trying to change himself, and relies on God just as he is, a sinner,--God can and does reckon to such a one the glorious benefit of Christ’s death and resurrection on behalf of sinners. And of such a believing sinner, God declares his faith is counted as righteousness.
It cannot be too much emphasized that the words, "the ungodly," in Romans 4:5, wholly shut out any other class from justification. If we say, God, indeed, has in some special cases justified notoriously, openly, evidently ungodly ones; while His general habit is, to justify the godly (which is what human reason demands), then we at once deny all Scripture. For God says, "There is no distinction; for all sinned; there is none righteous,--not one." And if you claim that God justifies the godly, we ask, on what ground? If you say on the ground of their godliness, you have left out the blood of Christ,--on which ground alone God can deal with sinners; and you have really denied this so-called "godly" man to be a sinner before God at all, since he is to be justified on another ground than is the openly ungodly sinner,--the shed blood of Christ. Do you not see that all this distinction between sinners is an abomination before a holy God? What does it matter whether you are a nobleman or a knave, if God has said He declares sinners righteous by Christ’s blood? What matter whether you are an honorable woman or a harlot, if God says you are a sinner (and He does!) and that the only ground of being declared righteous is the blood of His Son? The burning question is, have you and I been so really convinced of the fact of our sinnerhood and guilt, and of our utter helplessness, and lost state, as to be able to believe on a God who can and does "declare righteous the UNgodly--those who believe, as ungodly, on Him? A child, without Christ, is "ungodly," in this sense. "Ye were by nature children of wrath," is an awful word, but a true word,--going back to our mother’s womb, who, "in sin conceived us!" We were born into a lost, guilty race,--we were born part of that race! And it was written of all of us, concerning Adam’s sin: "Through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners."
We are all ungodly! And when we place our faith in the God who is in the business of declaring righteous the ungodly--who trust Him as they are,--on the sole ground of the shed blood of Christ,--then we are justified,--accounted righteous, by God.
No, it is not the regenerate, the born again man, who is declared righteous,--it is the ungodly. It is not the penitent man or the praying man, as such, but the ungodly. It is not the professing Christian who has "escaped the defilements of the world" (2 Peter 2) through certain spiritual experiences (it may be of a high order), but the ungodly, who believes, as such, on the God who declares righteous the ungodly who believe on Him--AS SUCH! And of course it is not the "church-member,"--Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Roman Catholic, or Plymouth Brother, as such,--but, the ungodly. This is not, either, putting a premium on ungodliness, but telling the truth! If you have not relied on God as an ungodly one, you have yet to be declared righteous; for He is the God who declares righteous the ungodly who believe on Him. [84]
[84] (1)We beg the reader’s permission to relate below an experience of our own, as illustrating "To him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that declares righteous the ungodly": Years ago in the city of St. Louis, I was holding noon meetings in the Century Theater. One day I spoke on this verse,-- Romans 4:5. After the audience had gone, I was addressed by a fine-looking man of middle age, who had been waiting alone in a box-seat for me. He immediately said, "I am Captain G--," (a man very widely known in the city). And, when I sat down to talk with him, he began: "You are speaking to the most ungodly man in St. Louis." I said, "Thank God!" "What!" he cried. "Do you mean you are glad that I am bad?" "No," I said; "but I am certainly glad to find a sinner that knows he is a sinner." "Oh, you do not know the half! I have been absolutely ungodly for years and years and years, right here in St. Louis. I own two Mississippi steamers. Everybody knows me. I am just the most ungodly man in town"’ I could hardly get him quiet enough to ask him: "Did you hear me preach on ungodly people’ today?" "Mr. Newell," he said, "I have been coming to these noon meetings for six weeks. I do not think I have missed a meeting. But I cannot tell you a word of what you said today. I did not sleep last night. I have hardly had any sleep for three weeks. I have gone to one man after another to find what to do. And I do what they say. I have read the Bible. I have prayed. I have given money away. But I am the most ungodly wretch in this town. Now what do you tell me to do? I waited here today to ask you that. I have tried everything; but I am so ungodly!" "Now," I said, "we will turn to the verse I preached on." I gave the Bible into his hands, asking him to read aloud: "To him that worketh not." "But," he cried, "how can this be for me? I am the most ungodly man in St. Louis!" "Wait," I said, "I beg you go on reading." So he read, "To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly." "There!" he fairly shouted, "that’s what I am,--ungodly." "Then, this verse is about you," I assured him. "But please tell me what to do, Mr. Newell. I know I am ungodly: what shall I do?" "Read the verse again, please." He read: "To him that worketh not,"--and I stopped him. "There," I said, "the verse says not to do, and you want me to tell you something to do: I cannot do that." "But there must be something to do; if not, I shall be lost forever." "Now listen with all your soul," I said. "There was something to do, but it has been done!" Then I told him how God had so loved him, all ungodly as he was, that He sent Christ to die for the ungodly. And that God’s judgment had fallen on Christ, who has been forsaken of God for his, Captain G----’s, sins there on the cross. Then, I said, "God raised up Christ; and sent us preachers to beseech men, all ungodly as they are, to believe on this God who declares righteous the ungodly, on the ground of Christ’s shed blood." He suddenly leaped to his feet and stretched his hand out to me. "Mr. Newell," he said, "I will accept that proposition!" and off he went, without another word. Next noonday, at the opening of the meeting, I saw him beckoning to me from the wings of the stage. I went to him, "May I say a word to these people?" he asked. I saw his shining face, and gladly brought him in. I said to the great audience, "Friends, this is Captain G----, whom most, it not all of you, know. He wants to say a word to you." "I want to tell you all of the greatest proposition I ever found," he cried: "I am a business man, and know a good proposition. But I found one yesterday that so filled me with joy, that I could not sleep a wink all night. I found out that God for Jesus Christ’s sake declares righteous any ungodly man that trusts Him. I trusted Him yesterday; and you all know what an ungodly man I was. I thank you all for listening to me; but I felt I could not help but tell you of this wonderful proposition; that God should count me righteous. I have been such a great sinner." This beloved man lived many years in St. Louis, an ornament to his confession. So we have seen in verses four and five the working method and the believing method contrasted. What a place heaven would be if men were allowed to pay their way! They would boast all through eternity, one about this, another about that. But the works method and the grace method are mutually exclusive. Each shuts out the other. Men must cease even seeking; they must cease all works--weeping, confessing, repenting, even earnest praying, and simply believe God laid their sins, their very own sins, all of them, on Christ at the cross. There comes a moment when a man ceases from his own works, hearing that Christ finished the work, paid the ransom, at the cross. Then he rests! Such a soul believes,--knowing himself to be a sinner, and ungodly,--but he believes on God, just as he is, and knows he is welcome!
Note that Scripture does not say that God justifies the praying man, or the Bible reader, or the church member, but the ungodly. Have you yourself believed on the God that accounts righteous the ungodly? Have you ever really seen yourself in the ungodly class, a mere sinner, and as such trusted God, on only one ground, the blood of Christ?
Romans 4:6-7 : Now David also, in the Spirit, sets his seal to this blessed doctrine with great joy: saying twice in the beautiful Hebrew of Psalms 32:1-11 : Oh, the blessednesses of the man! Of what man?
First, of the man whose iniquities are forgiven--Forgiveness is more than mere remitting of penalty. Even a hard-hearted judge might remit a man’s fine if it were paid by someone else, but forgiveness involves the heart of the forgiver. God’s forgiveness is the going forth of God’s infinite tenderness toward the object of His mercy. It is God folding the sinner, as the returning prodigal was folded, to His bosom. Such a one is blessed indeed!
Then, whose sins are covered--"Covered" is the Old Testament word, (Heb. kaphar); for those sacrifices could never "take away" sins, but only "cover" from sight. "In those sacrifices there is a remembrance made [not a removal] of sins year by year" (Hebrews 10:11; Hebrews 10:3). There was a type of Christ’s coming work, but the sins were yet there before God till Christ took them away on the cross. If then, one like David could pronounce blessed the man whose sins were "covered," out of God’s sight in His mercy (though not yet removed), much more should we rejoice to know that Christ has been manifested "to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself"! (Hebrews 9:26).
Romans 4:8 : The third element David here describes, in "righteousness without works," is the inflexible purpose of God never to bring up again the sin of the "blessed" man: Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not reckon sin. (Again the Hebrew repeats "Oh, the blessednesses!"-- Psalms 32:2). Many believers indeed, like David and Peter, have sinned deeply. But, as Nathan said to David on the very occasion of the announcement of both the King’s sin and its being "put away," celebrated in this Psalms 32:1-11 : "Jehovah hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die." So have many been forgiven. High offences were David’s indeed: adultery, hypocrisy and murder. But they were not "reckoned" against David. True, the king was chastened: "The sword shall never depart from thy house." At Nathan’s parable David’s indignation (how righteously indignant we can become at our own sins when we see them in others!) called for a four-fold payment by the rich man who took the poor man’s lamb (2 Samuel 12:5; 2 Samuel 12:6). And God allowed four sons of David’s to be smitten: the child of Uriah’s wife, then his first-born, Amnon; then fair Absalom; and, last, goodly Adonijah. Nevertheless, God had not "reckoned" the guilt against him! No wonder he pronounces blessed the man to whom God reckons righteousness apart from works! [85]
[85] This world hates the God of David, because it hates grace. The world rather likes David’s taking Uriah’s wife (for that is the world’s manner of life!). But for Jehovah not to reckon this sin as damning guilt, and freely to forgive David,--and that so fully as to give "her that had been the wife of Uriah" another son, and bestow His special love on him (Solomon) to the extent of giving him a personal name, Jedidiah "for Jehovah’s sake" (2 Samuel 12:24; 2 Samuel 12:25) and placing this woman Bathsheba in the official genealogy of Christ (Matthew 1:6); and, above all, for God to call David a man "after His own heart,"--all this rouses the ire of a vile, self-righteous, neighbor-judging, blind, grace-ignorant, impenitent world,--a world that has neither repented, nor means to repent, of the very sins, into which David fell, and of which he repented most deeply. God’s record of David is "a man that will do all my purposes" (Acts 13:22, margin). How about it, critic of David’s God? Have you repented? Do you desire to do all God’s purposes? If not,--well, you will shortly meet the God of whom your false mouth has prated!
Next we have the fact that even Divine ordinances like circumcision have nothing to do with righteousness,--any more than have good works; that even Abraham’s circumcision was merely a seal of the righteousness of a faith he before had.
Romans 4:9-10 : Paul had to have Jews in mind, just as we today have to have "professing Christians" in mind. The Jew relied upon and boasted in the outward mark of circumcision (which God, in Genesis 17:1-27, prescribed to Abraham and his fleshly seed), entirely forgetting that God, fourteen or fifteen years before circumcision (Genesis 15:6), had accounted Abraham righteous wholly apart from circumcision. [86] Circumcision was an outward sign or symbol, both to Abraham and to the world about him: to Abraham, that God was his God; to the world, that Abraham was separated from the world unto God. Just so baptism today is an outward sign that we are Christ’s in faith and identification, and that we no longer belong to the world: but how deadly is the delusion that baptism in itself amounts to anything before God! [87]
[86] "Paul has turned the Jew’s boast upside down. It is not the Gentile who 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 to faith. He never promised a perpetual nationality except to circumcised men who believe"--Stifler.
[87] "The sacraments and ceremonies of the Church, useful when viewed in their proper light, become ruinous when perverted into grounds of confidence. What answers well as a sign, is a miserable substitute for the thing signified. Circumcision will not serve for righteousness, nor baptism for regeneration"--Hodge.
After the same manner with the Jews, the vast majority of those calling themselves Christians place reliance, alas, today, on some ordinance (or, as it is called, "sacrament"), saying, "Christ told us to repent and be baptized, did He not? Christ commanded us to take the Lord’s supper." But remember that God justifies NOT those observing ordinances, but the ungodly who believe. If you are still regarding baptism, or the Lord’s supper, or "the mass," or "christening," or "confirmation," as having anything whatever to do with God’s declaring you righteous, you do not understand being declared righteous as an ungodly one. And in the gospel, since the cross, you are not told first to cease being ungodly, and then believe; but, as ungodly, to believe!
Neither baptism nor the Lord’s supper (upon both of which, in distorted form, thousands have rested, as "sacraments" commending them unto God), has power to give any standing whatever before a righteous God: that belongs only to the shed blood of the Redeemer of guilty and hopeless ones such as are we all!
Note that here, first, human works are set aside as a ground of righteousness; and then Divine ordinances also are just as fully set aside. Circumcision had been commanded to the Jew. The Jew trusted in it, and became utterly blind to the fact that even Abraham, "the father of circumcision," had been declared righteous on another principle,--by simple faith, years before his circumcision! Uncircumcised, then, a common sinner (a "Gentile"--if there had been at that time "Jews"), Abraham just believed God: gave Him the honor of being a God of truth. And be it so that God saw that one day He would make Abraham as righteous in glory as He in that past day reckoned him in grace; yet it remains that God reckoned him what he was not, as yet, in experience; and that Abraham stood before God thus righteous the moment he believed! And not what Abraham would become, but what Christ would do on the cross for him was the ground of God’s reckoning!
Each year I live I become more impressed with the solitary grandeur of this great friend of God. Behold him! Late come from the very home of idolatry, he walks among the Hittites as a "Prince of God"--their name for him (Genesis 23:6). Behold him, to whom "the God of glory" had appeared in his old place, Ur of the Chaldees; and to which blessed God he is so drawn by the cords of trust and love, that his whole life is as God’s friend--walking with Him, ever learning of Him more and more; taking a mark of absolute separation to Him; ever building altars to Him, and calling on His name. Behold him, called to part with Isaac, his only son, readily giving him up to God!
Romans 4:11-12 : It was in order to become the father of ALL them that believe that Abraham received the sign of circumcision: that is, he would have been the father of uncircumcised believers apart from his own circumcision (for he himself believed while uncircumcised); but God desired a circumcised separate nation, and so would have Abraham also the father of circumcision to those who not only had circumcision, but also (rare thing among the Jews!) should walk in the steps of that faith of their father Abraham which he had--while yet uncircumcised. [88] How few Jewish teachers or preachers can challenge Gentiles with the freedom and truth of the apostle Paul; "I beseech you, brethren, become as I, for I also am as ye" (Galatians 4:12). The Galatians were raw Gentiles, "without law." Paul cries, "I am as ye are: I have no reliance on circumcision; if ye Gentiles receive circumcision, Christ will profit you nothing!"
[88] These "steps of faith" of the uncircumcised Abraham would embrace all Abraham’s story from his "call" in Genesis 12:1-20 to his circumcision in Genesis 17:1-27,--when he was 99 years old: (1) The revelation of the God of glory to Abraham, while yet in Ur of the Chaldees, and his evident turning from idols to Him. (2) Obedience to the command to get out of his country, from his kindred, and from his father’s house (Genesis 12:1-4); tarrying indeed at Haran on his way until his father died (Acts 7:4; Genesis 11:31). (3) The altar-worship of Jehovah in Canaan (Genesis 12:7; Genesis 12:8). (4) Choosing his portion with God: Lot’s separation from Abraham (Genesis 13:1-18), and Abraham’s arrival at Hebron ("fellowship"). (5) The victory over the kings (Genesis 14:1-24), (6) Accepting through Melchizedek the new revelation of "God Most High, Possessor of Heaven and Earth," and the rejection of riches from men (Genesis 14:1-24). (7) Believing God’s bare word concerning his seed, and being thus "accounted righteous" (Genesis 15:1-21). "Notice that in the seventh of these steps, there is the peculiar element of counting on God, as God, to do the impossible. On the God who calleth the things not being, as being! No doubt, there were further walkings and testings until the offering of Isaac in Genesis 22:1-24, after which we find no more testings: Abraham’s faith had become perfected. So James writes (see above), "The Scripture was fulfilled that saith, Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him for righteousness." This word "fulfilled" is deeply significant. There was and always is, the prophetic, as well as the declarative element in justification, (that is, in God’s accounting a sinner righteous). It is "the God who calleth the things that are not as though they were," (Romans 4:17) who acts in justification. The moment He declares sinners righteous, they are so, having immediately the standing of being in Christ before Him. But they will also be manifested, by and by, and be glorified with Christ. "Glorified" they are already in God’s mind (8:30). What James insists on is that there will be a living walk, fulfilling the Divine declaration that the man is righteous. This living walk also is before Him whom we believe, even God (Romans 4:17). It has no reference whatever to men. The explanation by some that Abraham was "justified by faith before God and by works before men" is trivial! Both in Genesis 15:6, when God accounted him righteous, and in Genesis 22:15-18, Abraham was alone with his God. When James says, "By works was faith made perfect," he is expanding the statement, "Faith wrought with his works." Paul has almost the same Phrase: "In Christ Jesus, neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith working through love" (Galatians 5:6). Of course saving faith is a living, acting thing, as against mere opinion or profession; and this again is what James is insisting on. Works are the result of a true faith; but they are not, like faith itself, a condition of salvation. What "works" did the dying thief perform? You say. None: he cast himself on Christ as he was. Good. So must you and I: only that! The blessing of righteousness, then, comes not only without works, but also without ordinances, whether Jewish or Christian. And we see that only those Jews are really accounted circumcised in God’s sight, who have heart-belief, as mere sinners, in the Redeemer. Faith, like true circumcision, is "that of the heart" (Romans 2:29; Romans 10:10). According to this, there are very few real Jews on earth; yea, and relatively few true Christians, also; if righteousness be wholly by faith, apart from works, and apart from ordinances.
Romans 4:13-17 : Here the further question of Abraham’s "inheriting the world" is considered, and this again is only through the righteousness of faith: this expression not meaning that faith is a righteous, meritorious thing, but that, as explained before faith, not law, is the Divine mode of blessing.
Romans 4:13 : For not through law was the promise to Abraham or to his seed that he should be heir of the world, but, on the contrary, through righteousness of faith. "Heir of the world": Behold, then a new order of all things! Adam had failed, and his fleshly seed were fallen. Abraham has succeeded, to become the father of spiritual seed,--"of all them that believe": it will be a believing seed, not a natural seed. This man and that seed shall enter into the inheritance Adam forfeited for headship! What can "heir of the world" [89] mean? Nay, what shall it not mean? "The meek shall inherit the earth." And who are they? Not Adam’s but Abraham’s seed. Bishop Moule beautifully says: "Then and there, perhaps side by side with his Divine Friend manifested in human form, Abraham is told to count the stars under the glorious canopy, the Syrian night of stars’; and he hears the promise, ’So shall thy seed be.’ It was then and there, that as a man uncovenanted, unworthy, but called upon to take what God gave, he received the promise that he should be heir of the world.’ In his seed,’--that childless senior was to be a King of Men, Monarch of continents and oceans. All nations,’ all the kindreds of the earth’ were to be blessed in him, as their patriarchal Chief, their Head, in covenant with God."
[89] Dean Alford with his usual clearness says: "The inheritance of the world then is not the possession of Canaan merely, either literally, or as a type of a better possession,--but that ultimate lordship over the whole world which Abraham, as the father of the faithful in all peoples, and Christ, as the Seed of Promise, shall possess: the former figuratively indeed and only implicitly,--the latter personally and actually."
How hardly do we banish the thought of human "merit" in God’s great saints! ("Merit" is a Romish term: away with it!) Faith is the ground of God’s blessing. Abraham was a blessed man, indeed, but he became heir of the world on another principle entirely--simple faith. [90]
[90] 2.Now Paul completely shuts out the legalists from heirship with Abraham’s seed. Because, as Weiss says, "If those persons were the possessors of the promise, who on the basis of a law had entered upon this inheritance of their father Abraham, (on the ground that it had been offered to them as a reward for the fulfillment of this law), then faith, which according to its essence is a confidence in the attainment of salvation, would be rendered void, and the promise, which has full assurance of that which is promised, would be made of no effect. For the law, in view of the sinful condition that prevails, can be completely fulfilled by none, and necessarily produces wrath. But the bestowal of that which is promised pre supposes the continuation of the graciousness of Him who made the promise; and this graciousness becomes equally impossible, as does the believing confidence--if law must be fulfilled to secure it!" When law comes in, it conditions everything upon obedience to it. It had to be "disannulled" when a better hope was brought in! (Hebrews 7:18; Hebrews 7:19)
Romans 4:14 : For if they which are of law be heirs, faith is made empty, and the promise is annulled--Here Paul enlarges, that for God to bless the merit-folks, [91] would make God’s promise-method impossible, and so our faith in His promises, empty and void. [92] Faith and law are contradictory principles, the apostle shows: absolutely diverse means of blessing.
[91] The reason God hates your trust in your "good works" is, that you offer them to Him instead of resting on the all-glorious work of His Son for you at the cross. Reflect: 1. What it cost God to give Christ. 2. What it cost Christ to put away sin,--your sin, at the cross. 3. What honor God has given Him "because of the suffering of death." 4. What plans for the future God has arranged through Christ’s having made peace by the blood of His cross, to reconcile "things upon the earth and things in the heavens, unto Himself." Now, by that uneasiness of conscience on account of which you keep doing "dead works," you neglect all God is, has done, and desires, for you; and substitute your own uncertain, fearful, trifling notions of "works that shall please God." You would make God come to your terms, instead of gladly accepting His great salvation and resting in the finished work of Christ. It is ominously bold presumption, when God is calling all to behold His Lamb, to be found asking God to behold your goodness, your works!
[92] Greek, katargeo, from kata, "down from"; and ergon, "work"; literally, therefore, to put out of work, or out of business, to render ineffective; a word often used by Paul, and most important in his exposition. Its uses in Romans are seen in Chapters Romans 3:3, Romans 3:31; Romans 4:14; Romans 6:6; Romans 7:2, Romans 7:6. It occurs in his epistles 26 times, and elsewhere only once, but that once is illuminative: "Cut it down: why doth it also cumber (katargei) the ground?" (Luke 13:7). The ground was unchanged, but rendered wholly unproductive through the shade of, and the use of all the moisture by, the fig tree. This is the exact meaning: a result otherwise to be expected is by some hindering power annulled. Remember this word!
Romans 4:15 : Law, Paul explains, given to sinners, simply brings forth God’s wrath,--for sinners in the nature of the case will transgress. Law gives no life, and has no power over the flesh. So Paul calls law a "ministration of death and condemnation" (2 Corinthians 3:7; 2 Corinthians 3:9). Alford well says, "From its very nature, law excludes promise,--which is an act of grace, and faith, which is an attribute of confidence." Where law is not, neither is there transgression. This brings out several things: First, that it takes law to bring forth transgression of it,--though sin may be present. There can be no transgression of a law which exists not. The absence of law is the absence of transgression. The entrance of law (in the case of a fallen being) is the entrance of transgression. Second that there may be Divine dispensations where law is not the principle of relationship with God. Third, that to come into a spiritual place where there will be "no transgression," men must be removed completely from under the principle of law. (This will appear in Chapters Six and Seven. God indeed has an entirely different manner of life for those in Christ than being under the principle of law!) Fourth, that only the place of freedom from law is the place of the inheritance.
Romans 4:16 : Here we see anew God’s great kindness. He desired that all the seed of Abraham, whether Jewish or Gentile believers, might have security,--that the promise might be sure to all the seed. Now if you introduce man’s works (for man always says, "I must do my part"), you introduce an element of insecurity and uncertainty. For no man, trying to "do his part," is ever certain that he has done, or will do, his "part." Salvation is of God, not of man. It is of faith, and so, of grace; and thus, of God. For faith is unmixed with the vain promises and hopes of man to accomplish "his part"; but looks to what God has done, in sending His Son, to do a finished work on the cross; and to the fact that God has raised up Christ; and that Christ is our unfailing High Priest in heaven.
Abraham is declared to be "the father of us all,"--of all who believe. Believers will come from all nations of the earth, and Abraham is called "the heir of the world"; which he will be openly seen to be in the millennial kingdom that is shortly coming: "Ye shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, in the kingdom of God" (Luke 13:28).
Romans 4:17 : (as it is written, I made thee father of many nations) in the sight, of Him whom he believed, even God [the God], who makes alive the dead, and calls things not existing, as existing. The words "Abraham, who is the father of us all" in Romans 4:16, are to be connected with "before Him whom he believed" in Romans 4:17, the intervening words being a parenthesis. There is a great household of faith! Whether believers realize it or not, they are sharing Abraham’s inheritance. The mighty promises of God to Abraham and to His Seed, Christ (Galatians 3:16), should be studied deeply and often by all Christians. "For if ye are Christ’s then are ye Abraham’s seed, heirs according to promise" (Galatians 3:29). God lodged the promises in Abraham: Christ fulfilled the conditions (of redemption), and we share the benefits! Abraham got us by promise; Christ bought us by blood. Abraham is the "father of all them that believe," whether his earthly seed, Israel; or his heavenly seed, the Church; or any who shall ever believe. As to our regeneration, of course, God is the Father of all believers. But as to our relation in the household of faith, Abraham is our father: Abraham believed for us all. That is, he believed a promise that included us all.
Believers may indeed be said to have a three-fold fatherhood: (1) that of Abraham, of the whole household of faith; (2) that of the teacher of the gospel who was used to win them to Christ ("For though ye have ten thousand tutors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I begat you through the gospel"-- 1 Corinthians 4:15); (3) that of God, who is our actual Father, who begat us by the Holy Spirit through His Word. The first two fatherhoods, of course, are fatherhoods of relationship, so to speak; the last only is of life and reality. Yet the first two fatherhoods are also real, and should be recognized, --especially that of Abraham.