Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans John Calvin
Chapter
Romans 4:1-3
Romans 4:1-3
1. What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found?
1. Quid ergo dicemus, invenisse Abraham patrem nostrum secundum carnem?
2. For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God.
2. Si enim Abraham ex operibus justificatus est. habet quo glorietur, sed non apud Deum.
3. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. 129
3. Quid enim Scripture dicit' Credidit Abraham Deo, et imputa tum est illi in justitiam.
1. What then, etc. This is a confirmation by example; and it is a very strong one, since all things are alike with regard to the subject and the person; for he was the father of the faithful, to whom we ought all to be conformed; and there is also but one way and not many ways by which righteousness may be obtained by all. In many other things one example would not be sufficient to make a common rule; but as in the person of Abraham there was exhibited a mirror and pattern of righteousness, which belongs in common to the whole Church, rightly does Paul apply what has been written of him alone to the whole body of the Church, and at the same time he gives a check to the Jews, who had nothing more plausible to glory in than that they were the children of Abraham; and they could not have dared to claim to themselves more holiness than what they ascribed to the holy patriarch. Since it is then evident that he was justified freely, his posterity, who claimed a righteousness of their own by the law, ought to have been made silent even through shame.
According to the flesh, etc. Between this clause and the word father there is put in Paul's text the verb {ἑυρηκέναι}, in this order — "What shall we say
129This chapter, as Turrettin observes, divides itself into three parts. The first from 1 to 12 inclusive, the second from 13 to 17 inclusive, in which it is proved that the promises made to Abraham did not depend on the law; and the third from 18 to the end, in which the faith of Abraham is commended, and the Christian faith briefly referred to. But Pareus makes a different division: 1, Four proofs of justification by faith, from 1 to 16; 2, The dispensation of Abraham, from 17 to 22; 3, The application of the subject, from 23 to 25. — Ed.