Romans 4:1

What then do we say? Can it be said or thought that Abraham, who is said in scripture to be righteous, or accepted by God as righteous, obtained that testimony by the merit of his own innocence or performances? (This affirmative interrogation is in effect a negation, and so the meaning is,) This cannot with any reason be affirmed by any.

[a] What shall we say then—] The understanding of the apostle’s discourse in this chapter depends much on a right understanding of this verse, which contains the question to which the satisfaction is rendered in the following words. And in this verse four things must be observed: 1st, that the τί οὖν ἐροῦμεν, what say we then? is a form of introducing a question, and though not here, (in the ordinary printed copies,) yet in other places hath a note of interrogation immediately following it, as ch. vi. 1, and vii. 7. This being supposed, the second thing is, that the remainder of the verse is the very question thus introduced, that Abraham, &c., that is, do we say that Abraham found according to the flesh? And this interrogation being not here formally answered, must itself be taken for an answer to itself; and as interrogations are the strongest negations, so will this, and must thus be made up by addition of these or the like words, No certainly he did not. Then for the third difficulty, viz. what is here the meaning of εὑρηκίναι, hath found, that will soon be answered, 1. that to find, agreeably to the Hebrew בְּצֶה, signifies to gain, obtain, acquire, as to find life, Matt. xvi. 25: 2dly, that there must be some substantive understood, somewhat which he may be said to have found, and that is either indefinitely ὁ εὗρ, that which he did find or obtain, or else more distinctly δικαιοσύνην, righteousness or justification, which had before been named favour, approbation with God. So we have εὗρες χάριν, thou hast found favour, Luke i. 30; and it seems to be a proverbial form, and will then be the same with being justified, ver. 2. And so the illative particle for concludes, Do we say he hath found? (or, Certainly he hath not found;) FOR if he were justified, that is, if he had thus found—, which notes finding and being justified to be all one: 3dly, then it must be examined what is meant by κατὰ σάρκα, according to the flesh. And first, it appears to connect with the εὑρηκίναι, for so it lies, εὑρηκίναι κατὰ σάρκα, found according to the flesh, and is not joined with Abraham our father, as in reason it would have been, (and not εὑρηκίναι interposed,) if the meaning of it had been, our father according to the flesh: which being supposed, it will likewise follow that κατὰ σάρκα, according to the flesh, must signify the same with ἐξ ἔργων, by works, ver. 2, in like manner as found and justified import the same. And this again is evident by the laws of reasoning. For this second verse being by the for in the front evidenced to be the proof of what was set down in the first, and this proof being in form of an hypothetical syllogism—thus, If Abraham were by works justified before God, then he hath matter of boasting before God: But Abraham hath not any matter of boasting before God: Therefore he was not justified by works—it must follow necessarily that this conclusion, Abraham was not justified by works, was the same with that which was set down in other words, ver. 1, or, if not of the same latitude and extent with it, was comprehended, as a part, under it: which it cannot be, unless κατὰ σάρκα, according to the flesh, and ἐξ ἔργων, by works, be either of the same force directly, or the latter contained in the former: any greater (though never so small) difference that should be admitted being of necessity to affix four terms to the apostle’s syllogism, and so to evacuate all force in his argument. From hence it follows, that the way of discerning what is meant by ἐξ ἔργων, by works, will be the most

Romans 4:2

For if he were so justified by any thing in himself, any innocence or performance of his, he might then be said to have somewhat to glory of, his justifi-

Romans 4:3

And this appears by that way of God’s dealing with him which is in the scripture clearly enough set down; and that the very same by which we teach and profess that all men are now dealt with by God; that is, a way that belongs to the Gentiles though sinners, (if they will forsake their heathen ways, and now receive and obey Christ,) as well as to the Jews; viz. that Abraham believed God, followed his call, and believed his promise; and thereupon, though he had formerly been guilty of many sins, and though his obedience being due to God’s commands could not challenge any such reward from God, yet did God freely justify him, that is, upon his forsaking his country and the idolatries thereof, and after, upon his depending upon God’s promises made to him, (and so walking cheerfully in his duty towards God,) pardon his past sins, receive him into special favour, strike a covenant of rich mercies with him.

Romans 4:4

By this it is clear that it was not his innocence or blamelessness, by which he is said to be just in the sight of God, or any meritorious act that was thus rewarded in him (see note [b] ch. iii.): for if it were, then would it not be said, that God did account or reckon his faith unto him for righteousness, that is, freely out of mere mercy justify him, (as ver. 3. it was, and ver. 5. is again said, these two phrases, “it was reputed to him for righteousness,” there, and here, “it is reputed to him according to grace or favour,” being directly of the same importance,) but

Romans 4:5

But his way of justification was by believing pardon for sinners upon reformation, and thereupon reforming and giving himself up to do whatsoever God now would have him do; and so it was not any original innocence of his (which might challenge the reward as due), but only God’s acceptation of his faith, which was an act of God’s mere mercy, and that may be vouchsafed to idolatrous Gentiles upon their repentance as well as to him, and their receiving of the faith, and leaving their former courses of sin on Christ’s command, as he did his country upon God’s, be accepted to the justification.

Romans 4:6

Agreeable to which is that description of blessedness in David, Psalm xxxii, That he is blessed whom the Lord out of his free grace and pardon of sin accepteth and accounteth as righteous, and not on any merit of their own performances; that is, that blessedness consists in having this evangelical way of justifying sinners (or those who have been sinners, and now repent and return) vouchsafed to any man, not that of never having lived in sin, (for want of which the Jews will not admit the Gentiles to any hope of justification,) but the other, I say, of mercy and forgiveness upon reformation and forsaking their former evil ways, as appears by the words of the Psalm,

Romans 4:7

Blessed are they, not who never sinned at all, that were never in a wicked or wrong course, (as of the Gentiles it is acknowledged that they were,) but who having been ill, have reformed, and found place of repentance and of mercy upon reformation, merely by the forgiveness and pardon of God.

Romans 4:8

Blessed is the man whose sin (though he have been guilty, as it is acknowledged the Gentiles have) is not charged on him by God, but freely pardoned and forgiven unto him upon his reformation.

Romans 4:9

This, then, being the nature of the evangelical course of God’s gracious way of dealing with sinners, giving them place for repentance, and upon the sincerity of that, justifying and accepting them, whatso-

Romans 4:10

And of this the account is easy, if we but observe the time when Abraham’s justification is spoken of, viz. when those words were said of him, Abraham believed, and it was counted to him for righteousness; for we find that was (Gen. xv. 6.) before he was circumcised, ch. xvii. 24, and therefore it could not be a privilege annexed to circumcision, but is a grace and favour of God, whereof the uncircumcised Gentiles are no less capable than the Jews, who are within the covenant of circumcision: (which is an evidence that receiving of Christ now, and believing and obeying of him, as then Abraham obeyed, will be accepted by God without circumcision.)

Romans 4:11

And being justified after this evangelical manner upon his faith, without and before circumcision, he received the sacrament of circumcision for a seal, on his part, of his performing those commands of God given to him, his walking before him sincerely, Gen. xvii. 1, (upon which the covenant is made to him, and thus sealed, vv. 2. 4. 10,) and on God’s part, for a testification of that faith of his, and obsignation of that precedent justification; and so by consequence he is the father in a spiritual sense, that is, an exemplar, or copy (which they that transcribe are called his sons) of every uncircumcised believer, who therefore succeeds him, as a son to a father, in that privilege of being justified before God:

Romans 4:12

And in like manner a spiritual father conveying down mercies and the inheritance to the Jews, that were circumcised, and do now convert to Christ, and so besides circumcision, which they drew from him, do also transcribe his diviner copy, follow his example of faith and obedience, which were remarkable in him before he was circumcised, leave their sins, as he did his country, and believe all God’s promises, and adhere to him against all temptations to the contrary.

Romans 4:14

For if that inheritance were made over to them upon observation of the Mosaical law, upon the Jews’ being circumcised, &c., then, as faith, or this evangelical way of justifying sinners, is vanished on one side, and what is said of Abraham’s being justified by faith is concluded to be false, so the promise itself, which was shewed to be the thing by which Abraham was justified, and to belong to all Abraham’s seed, not to the Jews only, ver. 12, is vanished also.

15, 16. This again appears by another argument; for it is evident of the law of Moses, that all which that doth is to bring sin and punishment into the world, as the law of circumcision given to the Jews made it a sin, and punishable in a Jew, if he were not circumcised on the eighth day, but gave him no right of merit, no title to heaven, or to any other reward, in case he did observe that or the like ordinances, were circumcised, &c., (for these were before the command of circumcision made over to Abraham and his seed by the promise of God.) And so for other more substantial duties, the law by commanding them doth but enhance the contrary sin, which if it were not for the commandment could not be so high a degree of crime or contempt of known law, but doth not give a man right to any reward for observing it. From whence it necessarily follows, that it, that is, the promise of reward, ver. 13, justification, &c. must have been made in respect to faith, or to believers, (and not founded upon any merit of any legal performances, on God’s giving or our observing that law of circumcision, &c.,) and by that means indeed it becomes an act of promise, and that promise merely of grace, not depending on Judaical performances, and so it belongs to all the seed, (that is, to all

Romans 4:17

(As it is written of him, that he should be the father of more nations than one, nay (as the word many often signifies) of all, that is, of the Gentile believers also,) in like manner as God, in whom he believed, is the Father of the Gentiles as well as Jewish believers, and accordingly justified Abraham without Mosaical obedience, and so will justify Gentile Christians, begetting them by the gospel to a new life; and then upon this change, this reformation, though sinners and Gentiles by birth, yet accounting them children, receiving and embracing them in Christ. And there is nothing strange in all this, when we remember who it is that hath made this promise, even that God who is able to do all things, even to raise the dead to life again, and so to quicken the Gentiles that are dead in sins, (as he quickened the womb of Sarah, and enabled old Abraham to beget a son,) and give them grace to forsake their former deadness and barrenness, and incapacity of God’s favour, viz. their heathen sins, and to deal with those despised heathen as he doth with the Jews themselves, that have received most of his favour, and pretend a peculiar title to it: (see Luke xv. 24.)

Romans 4:18

And this is exemplified to us in that which, we see, befell Abraham, who having no natural grounds of hope, (either in respect of Sarah or himself,) did yet (upon God’s promise, Gen. xv.) hope and believe that he should have a son, and so be a stock from whence (that is, literally, from his body) many nations should spring, a most numerous progeny, even as many as the stars of heaven for multitude. (And then why may not the Gentiles upon coming in to the faith of Christ, and reforming their Gentile lives, be as capable of God’s promises, made to all true penitents, whatsoever impossibility seem to be in it, in respect of their former sins and desperateness of their condition?)

Romans 4:20

Neither interposed he any question, demur, or doubt, through any suspicious fearful passion in himself, but, without all dispute to the contrary, depended fully on God for the performance; and how difficult soever, yet he looked upon God in his glorious attributes, perfectly able to do whatsoever he promised, and most faithful, and sure never to fail in the performance, collecting nothing else from the difficulty of the matter, but that it was the fitter for an almighty Power, and a God that cannot lie, having promised, to magnify his power in performing it.

Romans 4:21

Having for it all this one hold, on which he depended most confidently, that as God was able, so he would certainly make good and perform what he had freely promised to him. (And then, now that the gospel is by Christ sent to the Gentiles, and mercy offered them upon reformation, why should the wickedness of their former lives (any more than Sarah’s barren womb and Abraham’s old age) keep God from performing his promise to them, of accepting and justifying penitent Gentiles, whose reformation tends so much to God’s glory, though they be not circumcised?)

Romans 4:22

Which steadfast faith of his was a sign of the opinion he had of God’s power and fidelity, and was most graciously accepted by God, and rewarded in him with the performance of the promise; and not only so, but also (and over and above it) was reputed to him as an eminent piece of virtue. And so it will be now in the Gentiles, if upon our preaching to them they now believe and repent.

23, 24. For this is recorded of him for our instruction, to teach us how God will reward us if we believe on him, without doubt or dispute, in other things of the like or greater difficulty; such is the raising Christ from the dead, which was wrought by God for us and all mankind, Gentiles as well as Jews, and our belief of it is now absolutely required of us, to fit us to receive and obey him that is thus wonderfully testified to us to be the Messias of the world; and that receiving and obeying of him will now be sufficient to the justifying of us, without the observations of the Mosaical law, as Abraham’s faith was to him before he was circumcised.

Romans 4:25

For to this end was both the death and resurrection of Christ designed: he died as our surety, to obtain us release and pardon, to make expiation for our sins past, to deliver us from the punishments due to sin; and rose again from the dead, to open the gates of a celestial life to us, to ensure us of a like glorious resurrection, which could never have been had if Christ had not been raised, 1 Cor. xv. 16, 17. 20. And in order to our receiving this joyful benefit of his resurrection other special advantages there are of his rising; partly, to convince the unbelieving world by that supreme act of power, and so to bring them to the faith that before stood out against it; partly, that he might take us off from the sins of our former lives, bring us to new life, by the example of his rising, and by the mission of the Spirit to us whereby he was raised, and so to help us to actual justification, which is not had by the death of Christ, but upon our coming in to the faith, and performance of the condition required of us—sincere obedience to the commands of Christ.

So that as the faith of Abraham, which was here said to be reputed to him for righteousness, was the obeying of God in his commands, of walking before him, &c., the believing God’s promise, and without all dubitancy relying on his all-sufficient power to do that most impossible thing in nature, and his veracity and fidelity, that he would certainly do it, having promised it, (which contains under it also by analogy a belief of all other his divine attributes and affirmations and promises, and a practice agreeable to this belief, going on constantly upon those grounds, in despite of all resistances and temptations to the contrary;) so the faith that shall be reputed to our justification, is the believing on God in the same latitude that he did; walking uprightly before him; acknowledging his power, his veracity, and all other his attributes; believing whatsoever he hath affirmed or promised or revealed unto us concerning himself, particularly his receiving of the greatest sinners, the most idolatrous heathens, upon their receiving the faith of Christ, and betaking themselves to a new Christian life; and as an emblem and token and assurance of that, that great fundamental work, the basis of all Christianity, his raising Jesus from the dead, whom by that means he hath set forth to us to be our Lord, to be obeyed in all his commands, delivered to

Romans 4:28

The sum or result therefore of this discourse is, that by this evangelical way the favour of God is to be had for those that never had to do with the Judaical law, (see note [g] Matt. v.) circumcision &c.: (see ver. 21, and note [b]).

Romans 4:29

For otherwise it would follow that God had care or consideration of no other part of the world but only of the Jews; which certainly is not true; for he is the God of the Gentiles also, hath a peculiar care and consideration of them that come not from Abraham’s loins, as long as they imitate Abraham’s faith, or on condition they do so;

Romans 4:30

And after the same manner receives all into his favour, the believing Jews, and the believing, though uncircumcised Gentiles, by this one evangelical way of pardon and free remission of sin to all that shall perform new obedience and fidelity to Christ: (see note [b]).

Romans 4:31

Which evangelical way of receiving men into the favour of God is so far from evacuating the law, or making it useless, that it is rather a perfecting of it, a requiring that purity of the heart which was the inward notation of the legal ordinance of circumcision, (and so in all other things a bringing in the substance where the law had only the shadow, the sufferings of Christ and his intercession, instead of the sacrifices and propitiatory (ver. 25.) under the law).

CHAP. IV.