(Genesis 15:6 Romans 4:3 James 2:23.)
CHAPTER 3
6. Quemadmodum Abraham credidit Deo, et imputatum est illi in justitiam. (Genesis 15:6 Romans 4:3 James 2:23.)
7. Know ye therefore, that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.
7. Cognoscite ergo, quod qui ex fide sunt, ii sunt filii Abrahae. 8. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.
8. Scriptura autem, quia praevidebat, quod ex fide justificet Deus Gentes, ante evangelizavit Abrahae: In to benedicentur omnes Gentes. (Genesis 22:18.)
9. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. 9. Itaque qui ex fide sunt, benedicuntur cure fideli Abraham. Having appealed to facts and experience, he now gives quotations from Scripture. And first, he brings forward the example of Abraham. Arguments drawn from examples are not always so conclusive, but this is one of the most powerful, because neither in the subject nor in the person is there any ground of exception. There is no variety of roads to righteousness, and so Abraham is called ``the father of all them that believe,'' (Romans 4:11,) because he is a pattern adapted to all; nay, in his person has been laid down to us the universal rule for obtaining righteousness.
6. Even as Abraham. We must here supply some such phrase as but rather; for, having put a question, he resolved instantly to cut off every ground of hesitation. At least the phrase ``even as,'' ({καθὼς},) refers only to the verse immediately preceding, to the ``ministration of the Spirit and of miracles by the hearing of faith;'' as if he had said, that, in the grace bestowed on them, a similarity might be found to the case of Abraham.
Believed God. By this quotation he proves both here, and in the 4th chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, that men are justified by faith, because the faith of Abraham was accounted to him, for righteousness. (Romans 4:3.) We must here inquire briefly, first, what Paul intends by faith; secondly, what is righteousness; and thirdly, why faith is represented to be a cause of justification. Faith does not mean any kind of conviction which men may have of the truth of God; for though Cain had a hundred times exercised faith in God when denouncing punishment against him, this had nothing to do with obtaining righteousness. Abraham was justified by believing, because, when he received from God a promise of fatherly kindness, he embraced it as certain. Faith therefore has a relation and respect to such a divine promise as may enable men to place their trust and confidence in God.
As to the word righteousness, we must attend to the phraseology of Moses. When he says, that ``he believed in the Lord, and he counted it to him for righteousness,'' (Genesis 15:6,) he intimates that that person is righteous who is reckoned as such in the sight of God. Now, since men have not righteousness dwelling within them-