Romans 4:20–24

"Abraham believed God." Here was divine faith. It was not a question of feeling. Indeed, if Abraham had been influenced by his feelings, he would have been a doubter instead of a believer. For what had he to build upon in himself? "His own body now dead." A poor ground surely on which to build his faith in the promise of an innumerable seed. But, we are told, "He considered not his own body now dead." What, then, did he consider? He considered the word of the living God, and on that he rested. Now this is faith. And note what the apostle says: "He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief" (for unbelief is always a staggerer).

"He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief". He did not doubt or limit the grace of God, and say, "This is too good to be true".

Had Abraham been weak in faith he would have considered all the circumstances, which were against it. He would have felt that the promise was too great and so would have staggered at it. He did neither. He took God at His word with the simplicity of a little child... And this, note it, is what here is called strong faith. Strong faith, then, is not so much the faith that performs miracles. It is the faith that simply trusts God to do what He has said, even though all appearances, reason and precedent are against it.

If οὐ is an addition, the meaning would be that Abraham, instead of ignoring the obstacles, took full account of them all (Gen. 17:17), yet as regards the promise of God had no hesitation through unbelief, but on the contrary was inwardly strengthened in faith. If the ordinary reading is right, the meaning is that, far from being weak in faith, he paid no attention to the facts before his eyes whether in himself or in his wife, nor staggered at the promise of God through unbelief, but found strength in faith, giving glory to Him and satisfied that He was able also to perform the promise.

Only unbelief, and limiting God to what man can do, would have made Abraham hesitate. Instead, he "was strong in faith, giving glory to God." What blessed simplicity! What blessed reality! Yet it is the only proper attitude for any creature, let us note it well. To "give glory to God" is the very reason for our existence. If we do not practise "the obedience of faith," we are robbing God of His glory: we neither take our own proper place, nor give Him His.

God never calls it lowliness and meekness to doubt the truth of His word, or the effectiveness of Christ's work. On the contrary, He counts it pride and presumption... Abraham was commended, not because he questioned God's truth, but because he trusted it... And what was the effect? Did it puff him up? Just the opposite. Because he was "strong in faith" he gave "glory to God." The very fact that there was no power in himself only magnified God's grace.

From Genesis we know that he was also weak in faith and that he acted in unbelief. But this is graciously passed by. God, so to speak, had forgotten his unbelief and remembered it no more.

In Abraham's case he believed that God would raise up life out of death. We are not asked to believe that God will do it, but that He has done it, by raising up Jesus our Lord from the dead. How much simpler to believe that He has done it, when He has done it, than to believe that He will do it, when as yet He has not done it.

Scripture says of Abraham that he was "fully convinced that God was able to do what He had promised." And again: "Let each one be fully convinced in his own mind." The moment the soul has laid hold of Jesus it is set free from itself. It ought to be fully convinced that everything it needs is found in the object set before it — Jesus Himself.

Abraham was called to believe in the power of God that can raise the dead. The believer today is called to believe in the power of God that has raised the dead. God displayed that mighty power when He raised Jesus our Lord... Now we have the power of God that will bring those He has justified into the glorious inheritance.

"Abraham believed God." Here was divine faith. It was not a question of feeling. Indeed, if Abraham had been influenced by his feelings, he would have been a doubter instead of a believer. For what had he to build on in himself? "His own body now dead." A poor ground surely on which to build his faith in the promise of countless descendants. But we are told, "He considered not his own body now dead." What, then, did he consider? He considered the word of the living God, and on that he rested.

God never calls it humility or gentleness to doubt the truth of His word, or the effectiveness of Christ's work. On the contrary, He counts it pride and presumption... Abraham was commended, not because he questioned God's truth, but because he trusted it... And what was the effect? Did it puff him up? Just the opposite. Because he was "strong in faith" he gave "glory to God." The very fact that there was no power in himself only magnified God's grace.

Isaac was a son given to Abraham by God's promise in his old age. Could he ever have expected that God would one day call him to give that son back, by offering him up as a burnt offering?... As at Isaac's birth he was "fully convinced that God was able to do what He had promised," so now he could go forth, "accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead."

Abraham believed God's promise about his descendants — "So shall your offspring be." So he trusted God as the God who can give life to the dead. We are to believe God's testimony about the death and resurrection of His Son, having faith in Him as the One who raises the dead... God counted righteousness to Abraham. He counts righteousness to us on the same principle — the principle of faith.

Notice how God said, "I have made you the father of many nations," even before Abraham had a child at all. The thing is so sure with God that He, with whom future things are as though present, could speak of it as a fact. Abraham believed God "in hope." That is, the promise was still future. His eye was not on himself, or upon Sarah, but upon God. So we read that he believed, he did not consider, he did not waver, he was fully persuaded. The power of nature could not make the promise good. Still he believed God, and counted on God's own power to keep it.

Does it mean a set quantity of righteousness moved over into a man's account? Or does it mean holding a man to be righteous — reckoning or accounting him such? I say that in Scripture it always means the second... There is no question at all of a quantity of righteousness existing and then put to their account. The point is that righteousness itself is reckoned to them. This is clearer still, because all the apostle's reasoning rests on one sentence: "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness"... that is, God accounted him righteous because of his faith. This passage governs the rest — every other use of the phrase comes from it.

Faith counted as righteousness means one thing for Abraham, for David, and for us who believe today. It means that God accounts us as righteous before Him in view of our faith. We must not imagine that all the virtue resides in our faith. It does not. But faith establishes contact with the work of Christ, in which all the virtue does reside. In that sense faith justifies.

In this explanation it is something of our own — "our faith" — that God accepts. In the word it is not so. God has accepted Christ, and the work He has accomplished, and it is believing that... God raised Christ from the dead for our justification. That is a very different thing from accepting our faith.

What characterizes faith in Abraham, then, is his laying hold upon God as the One who gives life to the dead. Believing in Him as the God of resurrection, he believed He was able to perform what He promised. The character of God was the guarantee of His word.

God imputes righteousness to him. As Judge He declares that the man is not only no longer in his sins, but is in righteousness. He sets him before His face in righteousness. Because righteousness is imputed in this way, he is never to be charged with his sins. God never will charge them to him, nor will He listen to anyone who would presume to do it. Abraham is from now on before the face of God in unchangeable righteousness.

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."

Our apostle now tells us that the record of God's imputing faith to Abraham for righteousness was not written for him merely. It was written for him surely, but it was written for his seed as well — for "all who believe" — for those who have his faith. So the apostle goes on to say, "but for us also."

Are we to be satisfied with just admiring Abram and praising his faith? Are we to read his history as something that does not concern us? No... The gospel of the grace of God was no afterthought in God's mind. When Moses, by the Holy Spirit, wrote that chapter of the patriarch's life, God was looking on to the death and resurrection of His Son.

There are eleven passages in Scripture which speak of imputing righteousness or for righteousness. In nine of them faith is imputed for righteousness. So here it does not mean that the value of the thing done is imputed, or our faith would be the merit... A person may be reckoned to be in a state he is not in fact in. Even so, imputed righteousness does not mean a quantity of righteousness lying ready outside him and put to his account. It means the state in God's sight of the person so accounted righteous. Righteousness imputed to a man is the same as the man being accounted righteous.

There is however one important difference. In Abraham's case he believed that God would raise up life out of death. We are not asked to believe that God will do it, but that He has done it, by raising up Jesus our Lord from the dead. How much simpler to believe that He has done it, when He has done it, than to believe that He will do it, when as yet He has not done it.

If we were in prison, and the authorities gave us the promise of setting us free at a certain time, we could no doubt enjoy that promise with assurance. But how different our condition would be once we were free!

"Now it was not written for his sake alone... but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if" — if what? If we feel, realise, or experience something in ourselves? No, but "if we believe on Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead."

Abraham believed God. This is faith in its groundwork. God is believed. Next, in its object, not only did he believe in the resurrection, but in the God who raised. So with us; we do not merely believe in Jesus, who rose from the dead, but in the God who raised Him.

Apply that principle as widely as Scripture will let you. You come to a promise — a statement of the believer's blessing, of present grace and of future glory — and you can say, "It was written for my sake." It reminds one of Ruth, who gathered leftover grain in the fields of Boaz, never guessing that the handfuls of golden grain had been "let fall on purpose" for her.

Should we be satisfied with only admiring Abram and praising his faith, while we read his history as something that does not concern us? No. The gospel of the grace of God was no afterthought in God's mind. Moses wrote that chapter of Abraham's life by the Holy Spirit. Even then God was looking on to the death and resurrection of His Son, and to the coming of the Holy Spirit. After that, the gospel could be preached.

The same principles apply exactly. There is, however, one important difference. In Abraham's case he believed that God would raise up life out of death. We are not asked to believe that God will do it, but that He has done it, by raising up Jesus our Lord from the dead. How much simpler it is to believe that He has done it, now that He has done it. That is far easier than believing He will do it, while He has not yet done it.

The gospel is not promise, but accomplishment. It is so complete that if the work were not already done in the cross, in the death and resurrection of Him who hung there, it never can be done — not even by Him.

The same faith shall be counted to us also for righteousness: faith in God as the One who raised up Jesus from the dead. Faith here is not faith in Jesus, but in Him who came in power into the realm of death. Jesus lay there because of our sins, and God brought Him out by His power. This was the mighty activity of the love of God. Jesus had already borne all the punishment of our sins, and God brought Him out from under all their consequences. So by believing God who has done this, we take in the whole extent of His work, with the grace and power shown in it. We come to know God. Our God is the God who has done this.

I know the love of God in giving Christ. I know that all my sins are gone, and that God Himself is my Saviour. He is not here in the character of Judge. This is not faith in Christ before God. It is faith in God Himself, who has raised Christ from the dead. So it takes in everything between myself and God.

If we want settled peace, we must believe in God as the One who raised up Jesus from the dead. In doing so He proved Himself friendly to us. He also proved His infinite satisfaction in the work of the cross. Jesus was delivered up for our offences. He could not be where He now is if a single one of those offences remained unatoned for.

A person can be reckoned to be in a state that he is not in fact in. Even so, imputed righteousness does not mean a stock of righteousness lying outside him and credited to him. It means the state, in God's sight, of the person who is accounted righteous. To impute righteousness to a man is the same as to account that man righteous.

If righteousness is imputed, it needs no argument to prove that the one to whom it is imputed had no hand in it. It comes by faith, and not by works.