What shall we say then that Abraham our father according to flesh has found?
Paul has just shut down every ground of human boasting, so the challenge comes back at him: what about Abraham, the man Israel traced itself to, and what did he gain? Older translations ask "what has Abraham found?", and the writers quoted below follow that wording.
Paul does not answer the Jewish objection with argument. He answers it with the Old Testament, taking one case from before the law was given and one from after.
In Romans 3 the Apostle set out to convince the Jew of his sinfulness. He showed that the Jew, just as much as the Gentile, stood under the judgment of God. He settled that argument by quoting what the law had said. Now the point is to prove that justification is by faith, with the deeds of the law shut out, and again he appeals to the Old Testament. Long ago the faith of the Gospel already showed itself ahead of time. That was true before the law was given, as with Abraham, and after it was given, as with David.
The phrase names exactly what the Jewish reader prized: physical descent from Abraham. That is why choosing Abraham as the test case carries such force.
The Apostle turns to the history of Abraham to show the righteous condition in which God sees the believer. Every Jew would boast in Abraham as the man he descended from by natural birth. So if we can prove that Abraham was justified by faith, that would stop the Jew short. Such an argument would carry great weight with him. Now Scripture does state that Abraham was justified. How then was he justified? Was it by works? If so, says the Apostle, he has something to boast about — but not before God.
That answer left Jewish pride with nothing to stand on.
For a Jew this was powerful evidence that the flesh counted for nothing in the salvation of a man's soul. It was also very humbling to his pride, because he boasted of his descent from this great man.
The question assumes Abraham gained something real. The whole issue is how it came to him.
To meet this case, the apostle now takes up the question of Abraham's blessing. God had blessed Abraham. That blessing came to him before the revelation of Jesus Christ. So how did he get it? Abraham's natural descendants were circumcised and kept the Law. Had it not always been God's way, then, to justify and bless His people on the ground of their own righteousness? Abraham had certainly found something. He had found favour and blessing.
What Abraham found was God Himself, speaking to him in promise.
The beginning and the perfection of Abraham's justification was that he believed God. God spoke to Abraham. He spoke to him about Himself, as the Giver of blessing — as the God of grace, who meets the ungodly with pure and absolute promise... God's righteousness was Abraham's righteousness... Receiving the word of grace, he received God, whose word it was.
The next verse limits where any boast could stand. That limit also marks the difference between Paul here and James 2.
If works had justified him, he would have had something to glory in — but not before God. Weigh those last two words. They show that the point of this passage is what counts before God, not what counts before men. Here lies an essential difference between this chapter and James 2, where the word is, "Show me your faith" (verse 18). Paul shows that the works of the law must be shut out; James insists that the works of faith must be brought in.
Abraham is not a special exception. He is the model for every believer who comes after him.
We may call this the typical case — the case that every other case must match. It is the case of the man who is called "the father of all who believe." So Abraham's justification is the pattern for the justification of Abraham's children. The principle on which he was justified is the principle on which all believers are justified.
- Found, not earned — Abraham did find something real, but it came as blessing from God, not as wages.
- Flesh counts nothing — descent from Abraham by birth gained a man nothing, and that truth humbled those who boasted in it.
- Scripture settles it — Paul quotes Abraham from before the law and David from under it. The case closes from Israel's own books.
- Two audiences — works may count before men, but no one boasts before God. Paul shuts out works of law; James calls for works of faith.
- The pattern holds — Abraham is the father of all who believe. The way he was justified is the way every believer is justified.
For if Abraham has been justified on the principle of works, he has whereof to boast but not before God;
Paul now tests his argument on the one man no Jewish reader could ignore. If anyone ever earned a standing before God, it was Abraham — so what did Abraham find?
Abraham is the strongest test case available. Israel took its pride in him, and God gave him the promises of blessing first.
Romans 4 then takes up two test cases to confirm the conclusion of Romans 3:28. The first of these is Abraham. This matters most of all to Jews. He is the father of Israel, and they made him their chief boast. God gave him all the promises of blessing first — to the nation Israel above all, but also to the Gentiles.
Someone might give up on the law and fall back on his descent from Abraham instead. Even that line of privilege, it turns out, is entered on the principle of faith.
A Jew might admit that he had failed under the law, and then claim the privilege he enjoyed as a child of Abraham. Suppose we look at Abraham in that natural way — as the man whose privileges came down to his children as an inheritance. Suppose we take our place under him in that line to enjoy them. What principle does this put us on? The same principle of faith.
The verse starts with an if, and its last words cancel what comes before. Everything hangs on where the boasting happens.
Had he been justified by works he would have had something to glory in, but not before God. Note those two words, for they show plainly what this passage is about: what counts before God, not what counts before men.
Works can win a man a name in the world. They cannot survive God's inspection.
Abraham, then, in one sense, has something to glory in: not before God, but before the world. In God's presence he is dust and ashes. In that light his human glory turns out to be corruption, and he admits it. But before the world he is God's witness — a justified heir of grace, on the way to glory.
Paul does not just assert this. He points back to Genesis, where Abraham's acceptance rests on his faith and not on his character.
If justified by works, certainly the credit would be his; but this is never found before God. And Scripture agrees. It says nothing about his goodness before his call or his acceptance. It speaks plainly of one thing he did: he believed God's word, and that faith was counted to him as righteousness (Gen. 15:6). No Jew who bowed to the divine authority of the books of Moses could dispute this.
The great man of faith gets no special category. He came in the same way as a nobody.
Abraham was a great man, and God was pleased to link His name with him. Yet whatever blessing was his, he was justified on the same principle as any other poor sinner. Scripture is definite enough on that point. He had no more to glory in than anyone else. He was as empty of works of righteousness as the rest of mankind.
This is not one method among several. It cuts against the way the world's religions work.
The religions of the world move on the principle of works, but justification before God is not on the principle of works. This is the whole argument of this chapter. At the start it says Abraham might have had something to boast of if he had been justified on the principle of works. But he was justified on the principle of faith. So all Abraham's boast was in God and His abounding goodness.
Readers often set this verse against the letter of James. The two are not rival verdicts. They are different courtrooms.
In James the whole point is what is valid before man, as James 2:18 shows. A man has the right to ask us to show our faith by our works, and so to justify ourselves and our faith before him. In Romans the whole point is what is valid before God. The very words "before God" occur in Romans 4:2. Our faith is quite plain to His all-seeing eye. He does not have to wait for the works that grow out of faith to be sure that the faith is really there.
- Boast — Works can earn a man credit. The verse grants that much, then names the one audience where it counts for nothing: God.
- Before God — In that light Abraham is dust and ashes, and his human glory shows up as corruption.
- Before Men — To the world he still stands as God's witness, a justified heir. James asks for that display. Paul asks what God sees.
- Proof — Genesis records no goodness in Abraham before his call. It records his faith in God's word, and no reader of Moses could dispute it.
- Level — However great he was, Abraham came in on the same principle as any other poor sinner. So his whole boast lands on God.
for what does the scripture say? And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.
What settles a dispute about how a person is made right with God? Paul goes back to Abraham, and to one sentence written about him in Genesis.
Abraham was as great as a man could be. Paul's answer still puts him level with everyone else.
Is faith, then, a new principle for being right with God? Was any child of Adam ever justified by works? Could human nature ever have boasted in God's presence? The apostle goes back to Abraham. How was he justified? If it had been by works, he could well have boasted. But that cannot be, for no one will boast in His presence. What then does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness." However great a man Abraham was, however much God chose to link His name with his, and whatever blessing he had, he was justified on the same principle as any other poor sinner.
What did Abraham believe? A promise his own age made impossible.
Abraham believed the Lord's word, though he was then an old man, and his wife an old woman. In the eyes of man this promise was impossible; but Abraham believed God, and God counted, or reckoned, this faith to him as righteousness. So the record goes in Genesis 15:5 and 6. Nothing could be more clear and more simple. It was by simple faith in a simple statement. Abraham did not look at the impossibility of the promise. He looked at the almighty power of the One who made it. … Remember that this happened 430 years before the law was given. Abraham had never heard of the law when God reckoned him righteous. It was all by grace. It was all by faith.
The key word here comes from accounting. Older translations read "counted to him for righteousness", and that small word "for" can mislead.
Read that chapter carefully and you will notice the words counted, imputed and reckoned several times. All three have the same force. They translate the same word, and the word reckoned comes closest to its meaning. "Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness." That is, God reckoned Abraham righteous, or held him to be righteous, because of his faith. The little word "for" can mislead. It may suggest that faith is a substitute for righteousness, something that can be turned into righteousness. "Reckoned to him as righteousness" gives the sense more closely.
If God were measuring the worth of what a man does, faith itself would be the achievement.
Eleven passages in Scripture speak of imputing righteousness, or of imputing something for righteousness. In nine of them faith is imputed for righteousness. So here it is not the value of what was done that God imputes. Otherwise our faith would be the merit… Righteousness imputed to a man means the same thing as the man being accounted righteous.
Then where does faith itself come from?
A person may be fully and securely blessed, but only by grace, and so by faith. Faith gives the glory to God, and faith itself is His gift.
What about the day Abraham obeyed and offered Isaac? The dates in his own story settle it.
"For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness." Now this comes in Abraham's history many years before he "offered up" Isaac. The first is in Genesis 15:6, the second in Genesis 22. How completely distinct, then, is justification before God from justification before men.
Abraham and the believer today trust the same God, but not at the same point in the story.
Abraham accepted that when he could do nothing God would do everything, and that is just what he proved. Notice, God is able. We are utterly unable — God is completely able. This is where faith rests. There is this difference between Abraham and ourselves. He believed what God would do. We believe what God has done, for "we believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification."
- Counted — counted, imputed and reckoned all translate one word. God held Abraham to be righteous. His faith was not swapped for righteousness.
- Counted, not earned — in nine passages faith is counted for righteousness. If God weighed the worth of the act, faith itself would be the merit.
- Counted to a sinner — Abraham's greatness gained him nothing here. He was justified on the same principle as any other poor sinner. That shuts out all boasting.
- Counted before the law — the promise was impossible in human eyes. Abraham looked away from it to the power of the One who made it, 430 years before the law came.
- Counted still — Genesis 15 comes years before Abraham offered Isaac, so justification before God stands apart from justification before men. What Abraham trusted God to do, we believe God has done.