6: Justification Before The Cross (3:31—4:25)
6: JUSTIFICATION BEFORE THE CROSS (3:31—4:25)
Paul now anticipates a question his Jewish readers might ask, and this question introduces chapter 4:
Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law. (3:31)
In chapter 10, Paul will show clearly that the Old Testament Jews were justified by faith, just as God’s people have always been. Here in chapter 4 he will illustrate this truth by the example of faithful Abraham. He introduces his discussion of Abraham by saying that his (Paul’s) message of salvation through faith actually establishes the law.
Just how does salvation through faith “establish” the law? It establishes the law because salvation through faith was the purpose of the law. As Paul explains in Galatians, the law was intended to be a “schoolmaster” to bring people to Christ (Gal. 3:24). John the Baptist, born just before Christ, was actually the last Old Testament prophet, and his message of repentance was the same as that of all the Old Testament prophets. John’s purpose, like that of the law and of all the other Old Testament prophets, was to prepare people for Christ. The law was a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. Paul says he isn’t trying to destroy the Old Testament, he isn’t ceasing to be Jewish. For the gospel he is proclaiming is the very purpose of the Old Testament law. When we relate to people from a Jewish background, we must live before them and present the gospel to them in the light of Paul’s perspective. We must try to show that the Old and New Testaments are not two separate revelations from God, but are in fact one. They may not readily accept our message, but this must be our approach.
Having concluded that Jews and Gentiles alike can be justified only by faith (3:28-30), Paul will strengthen this in chapter 4 by reminding us of Abraham, the father of the Jewish people. Salvation by faith alone is nothing new. It applies to those living on both sides of the cross. The Old and New Testaments are of one piece in proclaiming this message. As Paul said at the very beginning of Romans, the gospel was “promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures” (1:2). All people are sinners, and the purpose of the law is to make us all understand that we are sinners. Just like the label we have applied to Romans 1:18—3:20, the law is the “first half of the gospel.” When we finally understand that we haven’t kept the law and are therefore under God’s wrath, then we are ready to listen to the second half of the gospel, the good news of redemption through the blood of Christ.
Take note again of where we are in our study: Having shown us our need for salvation (1:18—3:20), Paul is now explaining the wonderful truth that we can be justified in God’s sight through faith alone (3:21—4:25). From 3:21-30 he has spoken of justification for those living this side of the cross; from 3:31—4:22 he will explain that those who lived before the cross were also eligible to be justified by faith. Then, in 4:23-25, he will draw together those who lived before Christ and those who have lived after Christ—just as he drew together the Jews and Gentiles in 3:9-20 and again in 3:29-30—and will show once again the unity in God’s plan of salvation on both sides of the cross.
Reformed theologians view the history of God’s dealings with mankind in terms of a succession of covenants. They speak first of all of the covenant of works, which was in operation from creation until the Fall of man. Adam and Eve could have had perfect fellowship with God on the basis of their own works, for there is nothing intrinsically wrong with man as man. There’s nothing wrong with humans being finite. There’s nothing wrong with their having physical bodies.
There’s nothing wrong with their being sexual creatures. I mention these three areas—man’s finiteness, his physical nature, and his sexuality—because many people find the basic problem of man in one of these three areas. But the Bible insists that there is nothing wrong with any of these three, because this is the way God has made us. And prior to the Fall, although they were limited, finite beings, although they had physical bodies, and although they were sexual creatures, Adam and Eve could come before God on the basis of their own works.
Then, of course, sin entered the world, at the time of the historical Fall of Adam and Eve. This was not just some sort of mythical notion of a Fall, but an actual, historical Fall when Adam and Eve deliberately disobeyed God and therefore sinned. As soon as they sinned, as soon they fell, they could no longer come before God on the basis of the covenant of works. But as soon as this happened, the covenant of grace came into effect. In fact, we read in Genesis that, within twenty-four hours after mankind’s first act of disobedience, God had promised that the Savior would someday come (Gen. 3:15).
Actually, it is not entirely correct to speak of the “covenant of works” and the “covenant of grace,” for in a sense both of these are covenants of works. The first is a covenant of works that humans, before the Fall, were able to keep. The second is not a covenant of grace in that God no longer requires works; rather, it is a covenant of works that Christ has kept on our behalf. For Christ, the gospel is a covenant of works; thankfully, however, for us it is a covenant of grace.
The covenant of grace extends from the Fall of mankind in Genesis, to the last human being who will ever be saved. It includes the people who lived before the cross as well as those of us who live after the cross. There are some differences in the way God dealt with people before the cross and how He deals with people since the cross, but all of this—before and after the cross—falls under the covenant of grace. There is a marvelous unity in God’s dealing with us humans throughout history. From the Fall of man to the last person saved, it is a covenant of grace to mankind, based upon a covenant of works perfectly kept by Christ. That’s the basis upon which the promise of salvation was first made to Adam and Eve (Gen. 3:15), and that’s the basis upon which it has been repeated in various ways to all humans who have ever lived or will ever live.
Our discussion at this point may seem rather cold and theological, but it ceases to be cold and theological when you realize your own part in it. If, after Adam and Eve fell, God had continued to deal with us humans only on the basis of our works, all of us would be lost. But God immediately made the promise. There is a covenant of grace. It has been in effect since Genesis 3:15: It is the same promise, the same covenant of grace, on both sides of the cross.
In chapter 4 Paul will show how this broader covenant of grace can be seen in God’s particular covenant with Abraham. God’s covenant with Abraham can be divided into two specific parts: the national portion, in which the promise is given to the Jews as Jews (in chapters 9—11 Paul will show that this covenant is still in effect); and the spiritual portion, which is available to all people on both sides of the cross.
People on both sides of the cross are saved on the same basis: Christ’s finished work on the cross. God told Abraham that the covenant blessing would come through his seed (Gen. 13:15; 22:18). Paul points out that this word “seed” is not plural but singular, and that it refers to Christ (Gal. 3:16). Christ Himself would bring about the blessing God promised to Abraham 2,000 years before Christ’s day.
On the Mount of Transfiguration, Moses and Elijah came and talked with Jesus, and only one subject of conversation was great enough for such a moment: As Luke tells us, Moses and Elijah were talking with Christ about His approaching death (Luke 9:30-31). Why was this the topic of their conversation? Because Moses and Elijah, who had lived many centuries before Christ, needed Him to die so that they could be saved.
Having established that those living before the cross could be saved only by what happened on the cross, one might wonder whether or not they understood this. The Bible does not answer this question for us concerning each person we read about in the Old Testament. Abraham, for one, probably had a good understanding of the basis of his salvation. But in the fourth chapter Paul will insist that, whether the people of Old Testament times knew a little or a lot about it, they did in fact have available to them the same means of justification as we have today.
How are we justified? Paul will say in 4:3 that Abraham was justified because he “believed God.” An evangelist will say that we are justified by believing on Christ as Savior, and that is exactly right. It is perfectly proper to say it this way. Yet there is something that must happen before a person believes on Christ as Savior: They must first “believe God” just as Abraham believed Him.
Notice I didn’t say that we must first “believe in God”; rather, I said we must “believe God.” Is this a distinction worth making? Various forms of the phrase “believe in God” occur throughout Scripture, even here in Romans. And of course the very first step in faith is believing in God in the sense of believing that He is there, that He exists. But then the next step is simply to “believe God.” We must believe Him in the sense of believing that He will keep His promises, starting with Genesis 3:15 and throughout Scripture.
Believing God is something more than just the neoorthodox “leap of faith” promoted by Kierkegaard and others. The only faith that is of value is the faith that believes God. This is very important to understand, because our whole twentieth-century emphasis is that faith has value as a thing in and of itself. The greater the distance you step out, according to this non-Christian view, the greater the value of your faith. To this modern notion of faith, the Bible says absolutely no! Whether we are thinking of the faith that we who live after the cross place in Christ as Savior, or the faith of those who could only look forward to Christ’s coming, the important thing is not the faith itself but the object of the faith: the God who is there.
So we come to Abraham, living approximately 2,000 years before Christ, during the time of Hammurabi. God made a covenant with him—the same covenant He had made with Adam and Eve as soon as they committed the first sin. God told Abraham that all nations of mankind were going to be blessed through his seed. People through out the Old Testament—on the other side of the cross from us—probably understood the significance of this covenant to varying degrees. But however little or however much they understood it, what was involved in each case was believing God. And in chapter 4, Paul tells us of the act of faith wherein Abraham demonstrated that he did in fact believe God.
What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? (4:1)
Paul has asserted that faith, rather than making the law void, actually fulfills it (3:31). How better could Paul illustrate this than to show that Abraham, the father of the Jews, understood this and was justified in this way!
For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. For what saith the Scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. (4:2-3)
As we have noted, people try in various ways to be justified on the basis of works. For instance, many Roman Catholics believe that they will be able to stand before God on the basis of their good works in this life, with any deficiency being made up either by their suffering in this life or by their suffering in purgatory. Let’s say, for the sake of illustration, that a person of this doctrinal persuasion suffers for one million years in purgatory. Even after that much suffering, that person would not be able to stand before God and say, “I’ve done it. I’ve merited the merit of Christ.” Even a million years of suffering would not fill up that person’s infinite chasm of guilt. Likewise, even if a Hindu were able to pass through a million reincarnations, he or she still could not stand before God and say, “I’ve done it.”
Whatever one’s religious beliefs, and whether one lives after the cross or before the cross, no one who has ever lived—not even faithful Abraham—has been able to stand before God and demand eternal salvation on the basis of his or her good deeds. Salvation comes only through the covenant of grace. There is no place for works and no room for pride or boasting. As humans, we don’t like this. It hurts our pride to have to come before God with nothing in our hands. But there is no other way to come, according to the Bible.
As we have seen, this issue of salvation by works versus salvation by grace involves the whole question of whether or not we live in a moral universe. How does God remain holy and yet justify someone who has sinned against Him? The answer is, our justification is based entirely on the finished work of Christ and not on anything that any of us can do. Therefore, God can accept us and yet remain completely holy. Because of what Christ did on the cross, we can live in a moral, orderly universe and yet not be condemned.
If, after Adam had sinned, he could still have brought some good work to justify himself before God, then we would have to conclude that God had lowered His standards, that He had accepted something less than perfection. And if God had lowered His standards, then our universe would have been in some sense a less moral, less orderly place. It is so very important, then, that Paul establishes that not even Abraham could be justified by works. This is a key part of the Christian answer to the intellectual questions of life. We understand where sin came from: There was a historical Fall, whereby “judgment came upon all men,” as Paul will later explain (5:18). But we also understand that, because of the finished work of Christ, we are not all condemned to eternal death.
Now, however, the question has to be asked, How did Abraham find justification before God? Paul answers that question in verse 3, where he quotes from Genesis 15:6.
For what saith the Scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. (4:3)
Abraham was justified, he was considered righteous in God’s sight, because he “believed God.” We will learn in verse 21 that Abraham’s belief in God was not just some sort of vague or general faith, but belief in a specific promise of God: “[Abraham] being fully persuaded that, what [God] had promised, he was able also to perform.” No faith in God is really valid unless it involves faith in a specific revelation or promise of God. God had made a specific promise to Abraham, and Abraham believed that God could and would keep that specific promise.
The verses leading up to 4:21 give clues as to the specific promise God made to Abraham, but to learn exactly what that promise was, we must read Genesis 15:1-6: “After these things the word of the Lord GOD came unto Abram in a vision saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward. And Abram said, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus? And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed; and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir. And, behold, the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.”
This is a specific promise. God promised Abraham that he and Sarah would have a child even though, because of their advanced age, this was humanly impossible. Chapter 11 of Hebrews, the great faith chapter, describes Abraham’s faith in God, and notes that his wife Sarah also believed God’s promise that they would have a son: “By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. . . . Through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable” (Heb. 11:8, 11-12).
The writer of Hebrews then describes how Abraham’s faith in God’s specific promise of a son was put to the ultimate test: “By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, that in Isaac shall thy seed be called: Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure” (Heb. 11:17-19).
Each time he was tested, Abraham believed God’s promise. Even before we picked up the story in Genesis 15, God had promised Abraham that he was going to have descendants as innumerable as the sand of the sea and the stars of the heavens (Gen. 12:2; 13:14-17). But if Abraham was ever going to have descendants so numerous, he first had to have one. It’s all very nice to talk about having a million descendants, but if you’re ever going to have a million descendants you’ve got to first have one. Abraham didn’t have one. And both he and his wife were too old for procreation. Yet God continued to say that Abraham was going to have a child, and the whole world was going to be blessed through his posterity. In this impossible situation, Abraham believed God; and this, the Bible tells us, was his act of faith.
Christian faith, like Abraham’s faith, is never a vague thing; it is always an acting upon the specific promises of God. Whenever I sense that someone is ready to accept Christ as Savior, I deal with that person on the basis of a specific promise of God. I do this very carefully because I think this is where it all hangs. You can choose various promises, but the one I like is John 3:36: “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.” This is the whole point. Do I or do I not believe that God can and will fulfill this promise to give me everlasting life? God has said, “If Francis Schaeffer [or your name] believes on Christ, he that believes on the Son has everlasting life.” God thunders it down through the centuries, or whispers it softly, however you wish to think of it: “If [your name] believes on the Son, he has everlasting life.” Either you believe this promise from God, or you don’t believe it. Either you “believe God” (Rom. 4:3), or you don’t believe Him.
This focus on a specific promise helps people understand that belief in Christ is not just some sort of generalized faith. It isn’t a vague thing. It isn’t an emotion. It isn’t a “leap of faith.” It is choosing to believe a specific promise of God. It may be the promise of John 3:36, or a promise such as, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28), or, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in” (Rev. 3:20). The important thing is that, in each case, the person responds in faith to a specific promise made by God Himself. Saving faith is not a blind leap; it is our response to the specific, dependable promises of God.
Abraham, living 2,000 years before Christ, responded in faith to a specific promise of God, and Paul repeats what the Old Testament already says, that this was “counted unto him for righteousness” (Gen. 15:6; Rom. 4:3). Now Paul shows us once again that, if we try in any way to include works in our salvation, the whole gospel message falls to the ground.
Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. (4:4)
If anyone, instead of coming to God under the covenant of grace, is somehow able to find salvation on the basis of works, this means that God must owe him something. As we shall see, however, all God “owes” us is the “wages” of our sins against Him, which is “death” (6:23). Our only hope of salvation is grace. The basis of salvation by grace is the finished work of Jesus Christ. The instrument is our faith. Nothing else is allowed.
But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. (4:5)
Whom does God justify? He justifies the ungodly. If God were to set a limit of, say, 80 percent, and declare that all who are at least 80 percent righteous can be saved, then He wouldn’t be justifying the ungodly—He would be justifying the godly on the basis of an 80 percent standard. But God never justifies the godly; there aren’t any, because God maintains a 100 percent standard. Those who are justified are always sinners. When Jesus said, “I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Matt. 9:13), He didn’t mean there are some who are righteous; He meant there are some who think they are righteous. A person can never find salvation until he knows that he is a sinner. We’re all sinners, but not all of us know we’re sinners. That’s why, when someone expresses a desire to be saved, I never let the person say, “I accept Christ as Savior” until first of all he or she has said, “I acknowledge that I deserve the wrath of God.” I think that a lot of people put up their hands in evangelistic meetings and say they’ve accepted Christ as their Savior, but they haven’t really because they don’t realize that they are among the ungodly. They don’t see that they are deservedly damned. If I don’t see that I am deservedly damned, then I can never accept Christ as my Savior. I may say the words, I may join the church, I may be baptized, but I’m not saved.
For a person to accept Christ as Savior, he must first of all know he is a sinner. He must know that he cannot earn his way into the presence of a holy God. He must understand he is justly under the wrath of God. Then, he must believe the God who has promised, “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.”
This whole issue of salvation involves our creature-Creator relationship with God. God made us to love Him, to believe Him, to have fellowship with Him. When did Eve sin? Eve sinned when she chose not to believe God. God had made a negative promise to Adam and Eve. He extended a warning to them: If they ate of the forbidden tree, they would “surely die” (Gen. 2:17). Eve became a sinner when she ceased to believe that negative promise. God said, “Thou shalt surely die.” Then Satan came and contradicted what God had said. Satan, who had already put himself at the center of the universe in wanting to be equal with God (Isa. 14:12-15), said to Eve, “No, in the day you eat, you will not die; you will become like God” (Gen. 3:4-5).
What was Eve’s sin? Very simply, Eve believed Satan and disbelieved God. God’s command not to eat of the tree was not just some arbitrary command. It was an important part of the creature-Creator relationship. Adam and Eve rejected that relationship, and thus we have the Fall. As you and I are confronted with God and His promises, we are in a sense in the place of Eve. God makes us a promise, and either we believe Him or we don’t believe Him. We either take our place as a creature before Him, and believe Him; or like Satan we try to put ourselves, instead of God, at the center of the universe.
Notice how Paul is developing his thought. He has concluded “. . . that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law” (3:28), and now he is presenting Abraham as an example of someone who was, in fact, justified in God’s sight without performing the deeds of the law. To understand this better, let’s look ahead again to the end of chapter 6: “The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (6:23). As we have noted, if God were to deal with us on the basis of wages, there would be only one thing He could ever pay us and that is death.
Think of it this way: Here is the paymaster’s window, and we come up to it one by one and say, “Pay me what you owe me,” and in justice the paymaster must pay each of us our proper wages. But now suppose that the paymaster is God. We each come up to the window and say to God, “Pay me what you owe me.” And God hands out identical pay envelopes to each of us. There is only one payment possible from a holy God to creatures who have deliberately sinned against Him, and that pay envelope is marked with one terrible word: death.
Many today who have no knowledge of the Bible experience this death as they search in vain for their purpose in life. The more logical such a person is, the more he sees this—that he can’t find anything in life, he can’t get hold of anything, the whole thing slips through his fingers. Well, the Bible tells us the reason for this. The reason simply is that since man sinned, since the historical Fall, the only thing man can earn in this life is death. But the good news, of course, is that true life, eternal life, is possible as a “gift of God . . . through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Even in Old Testament times God showed His people in various ways that salvation was by grace through faith and not by works. As soon as God had given Israel the Ten Commandments (Ex. 20:1-20), He commanded them to build an altar (Ex. 20:21-26), whereupon they would offer sacrifices to atone for their inability to keep the law. We see this combination of the law and the altar again in chapter 24: “And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD, and rose up early in the morning, and builded an altar” (Ex. 24:4). The text goes on to emphasize the need for the shedding of blood to atone for Israel’s inability to keep the law: “And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD hath made with you concerning all these words” (Ex. 24:8). The very covenant itself was sealed by the shedding of blood. There had to be the blood. Why? Because no one would be able to keep the law. Even back then, they understood.
Indeed, the very method and materials used to build the altar were symbolic of Israel’s inability to come to God on the basis of works. The altar was to be built using a minimal amount of human labor: “And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shall not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it” (Ex. 20:25). Before the Jews had any opportunity of thinking they could in any way earn salvation, God made it clear to them that they could really do nothing at all to that end, not even so much as taking a chisel and smoothing the stone of the altar.
These instructions about not hewing the stones for the altar came at the original giving of the law, a pivotal time in Israel’s history. The instructions were repeated at a second pivotal time, when they entered Canaan. As they again recorded the law, this time in plaster on Mount Ebal, once again they heard the special instructions regarding the altar: “And there shalt thou build an altar unto the LORD thy God, an altar of stones: thou shalt not lift up any iron tool upon them. Thou shalt build the altar of the LORD thy God of whole stones” (Deut. 27:5-6). Both when they first heard the law at Sinai, and when they heard it again in Canaan, Israel was made to understand that you can’t be saved by human effort.
The book of Romans, with its tremendous message of grace, is only reiterating what the Old Testament taught in various other ways. That’s why Paul can say so strongly that, rather than “making void” the law through his message of grace, he is in fact “establishing” it (3:31). That’s why he can say in Galatians that the law is a “schoolmaster to bring us to Christ” (Gal. 3:24). The message is the same, from the giving of the law, to the entering of the Promised Land, to the preaching of John the Baptist, to the teaching of Paul. When John called people to repent, he was calling them to honestly face the law and to realize that they hadn’t kept it, and therefore needed the “Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). The only way we can fail to see this continuity is to misunderstand the law. Indeed, as Paul will show in chapters 9—11, many Jews did misunderstand the law, seeking to establish their own righteousness and failing to understand that salvation is by faith.
Paul has shown that Abraham was saved by faith rather than works (4:1-5). He now anticipates another possible objection: Someone might say, “Salvation by faith alone is fine for Abraham, who lived 500 years before the law was given. But after the law was given, didn’t it all change?” Of course we have just seen that the law itself actually taught salvation by faith. But let’s forget that for a moment and put ourselves in the position of Paul’s typical Jewish reader—the ones he describes in chapters 9—11 as having misunderstood the law. “Didn’t it all change after the giving of the law?” they might now have asked. To answer that anticipated question, Paul introduces David, who lived some 500 years after the giving of the law!
Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. (4:6-7)
Paul is quoting from Psalm 32:1-2. If someone would say, “Well, justification by faith is okay for Abraham, but after the law there’s a difference,” the answer is, There’s no difference at all. It was the same on both sides of the law. Not only did Abraham understand that justification is through faith, but David, living 500 years after the giving of the law, understood it too.
Not only did Abraham and David, before and after the law, understand that salvation is by grace through faith, but Paul will show in the first few verses of chapter 10 what we have already learned from Exodus and Deuteronomy: Moses himself, the giver of the law, also understood that salvation is by grace through faith. Paul says, “For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them” (Rom. 10:5). If you’re going to be saved by the law, you must keep it. But then Paul quickly adds, “But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven?” (Rom. 10:6a). Here Paul is quoting the words of Moses in Deuteronomy 30:12, and he adds a parenthetical word of explanation: “(that is to bring Christ down from above)” (Rom. 10:6b). He then says the same thing in another way, paraphrasing Moses from Deuteronomy 30:13: “Or, who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead)” (Rom. 10:7). Paul then climaxes his argument by building on the words of Moses in Deuteronomy 30:14: “But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach” (10:8). Abraham understood. David understood. And Moses understood!
There is a tremendous unity throughout the Bible as it presents the covenant of grace. Certainly, there are differences in how this was expressed before and after the cross. Nonetheless, the basic message is the same. Salvation is always the same, before the cross and after the cross, before Moses and after Moses. No matter how many subdivisions you might visualize in trying to understand the Bible on either side of the cross, the unity is there, the unity of the covenant of grace. Salvation is always on the basis of the finished work of Christ, and the instrument is always faith. This was always the purpose of the law. “Therefore we are not nullifying the law; we are establishing the law.” That is Paul’s point.
Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works. (4:6)
God “imputes” righteousness to us, without the need of any works on our part. What does “impute” mean? Let me explain it by telling about something that happened in my family. When we lived in Champéry, Switzerland, one of my daughters, in an effort to be magnanimous, gathered up the village children and went to the grocery store, where we had an account. She bought lots of candy and with great care distributed it to all the children. Word of this got around, and each day more and more children went with her to the store to get candy. Then one day the storekeeper suddenly got worried. He thought this looked a little strange, to have half the village children in a little parade after our child, coming to his store to get candy. So, he called us and said, “Do you know what your daughter is doing?” And of course we were totally surprised by his report of her generous deeds!
So what was the storekeeper to do? He was stuck. He realized he probably shouldn’t have let her take all that candy. But what could he do? Well, he could have demanded that our daughter pay him. After all, she was the one who owed the money. Of course, this would have been impossible, because the amount she owed was way beyond her ability to pay.
So how was the situation resolved? Well, we said, “Put it on our account.” The total bill would have been a tremendous amount to our child, and she couldn’t have paid it. On our account, it didn’t make much difference.
Now actually we could have used the word “impute.” We could have said to the storekeeper, “Impute her debt to us.” That’s exactly where we stand before God, and that’s what imputation means. We have sinned, and because we are finite and have committed infinite sin against an infinite God, we could never adequately pay for our sin. But Christ can pay, does pay, and says, “All right, put this on My account.” This is imputation. When we accept Christ as our Savior, all of our sin is put on His account. Because He suffered infinitely on the cross, He can infinitely pay our infinite debt!
The Bible makes it clear that Abraham did understand and that David did understand how salvation was to be received. Let’s look at Genesis 22, where Abraham is tested when God tells him to offer up his son Isaac. We know the story. The angel stopped Abraham’s hand just as he was about to kill Isaac, and there appeared a ram, caught in a thicket, and Abraham offered the ram “in the stead of his son” (Gen. 22:13). Abraham realized that the Lord had provided the ram as a substitute for his son. Then we read in verse 14 that “Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD, it shall be seen.” Jehovah-jireh means “the Lord will provide.” A better translation of the latter part of the verse would be, “In the mount of the LORD, it shall be provided.”
Of course, when we think of the ram being the substitute for Isaac, we think of Christ’s substitutionary death in our place. (Remember that we noted, at Romans 1:18, that “substitution” is a concept unique to Christianity.) The most striking thing about the account of Abraham and Isaac is that the substitutionary sacrifice took place on Mount Moriah (Gen. 22:2). Mount Moriah was a long three days’ journey from Abraham’s home, and Abraham was an old man. Why did God require Abraham to make that strenuous three days’ journey to this mountain? Why didn’t He let this poor old man offer the sacrifice near his own home?
Remember, after Abraham had sacrificed the substitutionary ram, he said, “This is Jehovah-jireh and in this place the LORD will provide.” Did he perhaps know that there was something special about that particular piece of geography? As it turns out, this could have been the very place where Jesus—our substitutionary lamb—would later be crucified, for we learn in 2 Chronicles 3:1 that the temple was built on Mount Moriah. Abraham, living 2,000 years before Christ and 1,000 years before even the building of the temple, said, “It’s going to happen here!”
The Bible makes it even more clear that David understood the plan of salvation. Peter, preaching at Pentecost, quoted from David’s words in Psalm 16:8-11: “For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the LORD always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved: Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope: Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thy Holy One to see corruption. Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance” (Acts 2:25-28).
Peter then explained the significance of David’s words: “Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day” (Acts 2:29). In other words, when David spoke of “not seeing corruption,” he wasn’t talking about himself. Rather, “. . . being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; he seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption” (Acts 2:30-31). Peter is saying that David was a prophet, and that when he wrote Psalm 16 he knew it referred to Jesus Christ!
David understood! He understood the principle of faith, and he understood that the basis of that faith was the death and resurrection of the coming Messiah, Jesus Christ. It seems clear from Genesis 22 that Abraham understood. And to anyone who will accept the New Testament’s word as authority, it seems clear beyond all doubt that David understood.
The book of Hebrews makes an interesting statement relating to this matter of whether the people before Christ understood the plan of salvation. Having spoken of the disobedience and rebelliousness of the Israelites (Heb. 3:7-19), the writer of Hebrews warns his Jewish readers of the Diaspora not to follow their example (Heb. 4:1). Then he says, “For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them; but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it” (Heb. 4:2). The gospel was proclaimed “unto them,” long before the coming of Christ! And then, as now, many failed to respond in faith. The Old and New Testaments are a unity: The basis of salvation is the gospel, the finished work of Jesus Christ; and the instrument of salvation is faith.
Coming back to Romans 4, remember that Paul has asked, “Does the idea of salvation by grace through faith negate the law?” And he says, “God forbid!” The gospel, far from negating the law, actually “establishes” it (3:31). Then he has presented Abraham and David as people who lived under the law but also understood the gospel. In verse 8, he continues to quote David from Psalm 32.
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. (4:8)
In the Greek it is stronger: “Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will by no means impute sin.” This repeats the thought of verses 6 and 7, and again we must remind ourselves: Abraham, living roughly 500 years before the law, understood that he was justified by faith. David, living about 500 years after the law, had the same understanding. As far as salvation is concerned, the law changed nothing. The idea of salvation by grace does not nullify the law, for this was the purpose of the law—to show us that we need God’s grace. There is a unity to the covenant of grace. People who were lost in Old Testament times and people who are lost in New Testament times and people who are lost today are all saved on the same basis: The basis is grace, and the instrument is faith.
Cometh this declaration of blessedness then upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also? for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness. (4:9)
The word “declaration” should be familiar. We saw earlier that justification is a declarative act of God. It is a legal matter. God doesn’t somehow infuse us with righteousness. Rather, because of Christ’s death, God declares us to be righteous.
But the question at hand is this: You say that Abraham was justified by faith. Does that mean justification is only for the Jews? Abraham was saved by faith, but what about the Gentiles? Paul answers that question in verse 10.
How was it then reckoned? when he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. (4:10)
Was Abraham “reckoned” (declared) to be righteous before or after he was circumcised? It was at least seventeen years and perhaps as many as twenty-five years before he was circumcised. If being a Jew, for a male, means being circumcised, then Abraham hadn’t even become a Jew at the time of his justification by faith! There were no Jews at the time of Abraham’s justification by faith.
And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also. (4:11)
Abraham didn’t “receive the sign of circumcision” until many years after God had declared him to be justified. It wasn’t a matter of his believing and being justified one day and then being circumcised the next. It was a very long time between the two events, possibly up to twenty-five years. Circumcision was only a “sign” and a “seal” of the “righteousness” that Abraham already possessed long before being circumcised. And because he possessed this righteousness before being circumcised, he is to be considered “the father of all them that believe,” uncircumcised Gentiles as well as circumcised Jews. Abraham was a Gentile when he believed and became a Jew later with the sign of circumcision.
As Christians, Abraham is our spiritual father. Occasionally you find Christians expressing anti-Semitic feelings, but this is ridiculous from the biblical viewpoint, as well as being very sinful. According to the Bible, when we accept Christ as our Savior, we become spiritual Jews. For a Christian, to have an anti-Semitic feeling is therefore to have a feeling against oneself in a certain sense. Later in Romans, Paul will explain how Gentiles who believe in Christ become a part of spiritual Israel. As we have seen, there were two halves to the Abrahamic covenant. There were the promises to Israel as a nation past, present, and yet to come, and Paul will discuss these in chapters 9—11. But the Abrahamic covenant has a spiritual half as well, based on the work of Jesus Christ. When anyone accepts Christ as Savior, he or she is “grafted into” the spiritual half of the Abrahamic covenant (11:17-24).
Many Christians seem to think of Christianity as a Gentile religion and find it very unusual when a Jewish person becomes a Christian. But we must constantly remind ourselves that most of the first Christians were Jewish. Indeed, every author of New Testament books, with the possible exception of Luke, was Jewish. Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, was Jewish. The whole fabric of the early church was Jewish. And, as Paul is now reminding us in verse 11, when anyone, Jew or Gentile, becomes a Christian, Abraham becomes that person’s spiritual father. He carries this theme on into verse 12.
And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised. (4:12)
All who accept Christ as Savior can claim Abraham as their spiritual father. They can enjoy the blessings of the spiritual half of God’s covenant with Abraham. And who are these that enter into this place of blessedness? Who are these that enter into the gospel promises? As we noted in discussing chapter 3, it is all those who by their faith are linked to the saving work of Christ. We could think of the promises of God as a solid ring. If I stand beside this ring, I become a second solid ring, with no place for the two rings to be joined together. How am I, as this second, separate ring, to enter into the ring of God’s promises? The answer is that I need a third ring to link my ring with the ring of God’s promises, and this third ring is faith. In Hebrews 4:2 we read of people who failed to benefit from the gospel because they were not linked to it by faith. Here in Romans 4:12 we see the positive side: We are told of those who are linked to the gospel; it is those “who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham.” And what was Abraham’s faith? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness” (4:3). Saving faith is always the same: believing the God who is there. This is what Abraham did, and this is what each of us must do. There is no other way. God has made a promise, and we must believe Him.
Paul says this over and over again, so that it almost becomes repetitious. Way back in the first chapter, in our theme verses: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek” (1:16). Then throughout these first eight chapters of Romans, Paul expounds that theme over and over again. The gospel is universal, in that it is available to all, Jew and Gentile alike. But it is also highly exclusive, in that only those who believe God do have it. It’s as wide as the world but as narrow as those who truly believe God and enter into it through the finished work of Jesus Christ. Here in 4:12, Paul is simply restating this theme. The gospel is universal, “not of the circumcision only,” but it is also exclusive, being only for those “who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham.” Abraham is the father of all believers. See also Galatians 3:2 for a statement of the same relationship. And all this takes us back to the promise in Jeremiah 3:17 to both Jews and Gentiles. The covenant of grace is to all who believe Romans 4 and Galatians 3:7, 14, 29.
For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. (4:13)
There are two common ways of looking at this verse, both of which are helpful. Paul may be saying that the promise didn’t come through the Law of Moses, since the law was not given till about 500 years after Abraham. Or he may simply be saying that one is saved by faith rather than by works. Both of these ideas are undoubtedly involved. As we have seen, as soon as the Ten Commandments were given, the altar was given. The altar was given before the Israelites had a chance to sin. And it was to be an altar of whole stones, built with minimal human effort and no tool marks on the stones. From the beginning, it was made clear that no one could expect to become a child of God simply by keeping the law. In addition to the law, there had to be an altar.
. . . not . . . through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. (4:13)
“The righteousness of faith” is an important phrase. It doesn’t mean that faith makes you righteous. This would be contrary to the entire teaching of Paul, indeed the entire teaching of the Bible. Rather, righteousness comes as you are linked—as we saw in the illustration of the three rings—to the promises of God that have been fulfilled through Jesus Christ. By faith, you are entered into this righteousness. It is not an infused righteousness. Rather, it is always a declared thing. It is a legal matter between God and us. Legally, we stand guilty before God. But on the basis of the finished work of Jesus Christ, God declares us to be justified. This, and only this, is the “righteousness of faith.”
A little girl was asked, “Do you know what justification means?” And she answered, “Yes, when I accept Christ as my Savior, it’s just as though I had never sinned.” Justification; just as though I had never sinned. This is a beautiful truth. We are sinners. We deserve the justice of God. But when I believe God and believe on Christ as my Savior, on the basis of His finished work, it is just as though I had never sinned. My guilt is completely covered, it is quite finished. My guilt is gone.
We must be so careful never to let faith become a work. Faith has no value in and of itself. Faith is the act whereby you raise your empty hands, believe God’s promise, and accept the finished work of Jesus Christ on your behalf, whereupon God declares you justified. In legal terms, your sin has ended.
This, as we have seen, is why we can be forgiven of all our sins and yet still live in a moral universe, a universe where moral absolutes are still intact. This is the answer to the problem of a moral universe that no other religion can offer. When He forgives us, God doesn’t give up His justice. His perfectly holy character is still the moral absolute that holds our world together. But when we believe God, our guilt is placed upon Jesus Christ. His death covers it. While remaining “just,” He becomes our “justifier” (3:26). And He declares that the legal problem of our sin is resolved for all eternity.
As we will learn in the final chapter of this study, the Bible makes it very plain that Christians will never stand in judgment before God concerning the legal aspects of their sin, for that has been dealt with at the cross. Believers will go through a judgment, but it will not involve the possibility of being declared lost. When you accept Christ as your Savior you are declared justified on the basis of the finished work of Jesus Christ. The legal aspects of your guilt are finished forever. This should be the Christian’s joy. We should be happy people in the presence of a just and moral God, in a moral universe, knowing that the legal aspect, the guilt of our sin, is all in the past—and will remain in the past forever.
For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect. (4:14)
Paul is simply stating in another way what he said in verse 4: “Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.” If I can earn something toward my eternal salvation, God owes me something. But this is not the case. I can earn nothing toward salvation and therefore God owes me nothing.
Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression. (4:15)
Paul is not saying that you wouldn’t be saved if you kept the law perfectly. Adam did not need a Savior if he had stayed obedient. He did not need a Savior just because he had a body, because he was finite, because he was a sexual person. The need for a Savior arose only after he disobeyed.
If you kept the law perfectly, you would be saved! But nobody does keep the law perfectly. Therefore, “the law worketh wrath.” While the law brings about wrath, however, it also helps us understand that we need the Savior. It is a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. You will never lead anyone to the Savior until that person knows that he or she is a sinner. This is the mistake of much evangelistic work—the mistake of thinking that people will accept Christ as their Savior without knowing their need of the Savior. This just won’t happen. Somehow or other, on some level, the law must be preached. People must understand that, because they don’t keep the law, they need the Savior. Then they are ready to hear the gospel. That’s why Paul has tried to show, over and over in these chapters, that no one keeps all the law, whether that be the law of conscience or the Law of Moses.
Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression. (4:15)
Does this mean that, before the Law of Moses was given, no one was lost? That is certainly what it might seem to say. Paul actually answers this question in the next chapter: “For until the law, sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come” (5:13-14). We could paraphrase Paul in this way: “Yes, there is no judgment until there is the law; nevertheless, those between Adam and Moses had the seal of death upon them. Why? Because they were sinning against another law. They did not have the revelation of the Law of Moses, but they did have a law.”
Of course, we know from chapter 2 what that other law was. The people who lived before the giving of the law, just like people without the Bible throughout history, will be judged against what they do know about right and wrong. And as Paul declared in 2:1, none of these people without the Bible perfectly keeps their own moral code of conduct. It is true that, “Where no law is, there is no transgression.” It is also true that no one was judged on the specific basis of the Law of Moses before that law was given. But the overriding reality is that, from the time of Adam on, all humans have sinned against one law or another.
This is a very important part of the Christian position, because it would be unjust to judge people on the basis of a law they don’t have. In fact, however, people are going to be judged upon the basis of the law they do have. Never mind whether they have the Law of Moses or not. People without the Bible are going to be judged on the basis of the law they do have. “Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shown it unto them” (1:19). “Which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another” (2:15). When Adam fell, and all mankind with him, he did not fall from being a free, moral creature, able to choose between right and wrong. Even as a fallen creature, man is still man, and is therefore morally responsible before God.
Many people feel that all “sincere” people will be saved, whatever they may believe concerning God. But the Bible just doesn’t say this. A nonbeliever could be saved by works if he or she perfectly followed the law or perfectly followed his or her moral beliefs. But the Bible says (3:10-12), and personal experience confirms, that no one does this.
Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all. (4:16)
Abraham is the father of us all. He is the father of the circumcised who believe; the father of the uncircumcised who believe; the father of those who lived on the other side of the cross who believed; the father of those who live on this side of the cross who believe. Abraham is the father of us all.
(As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and call-eth those things which be not as though they were. (4:17)
When we read in the first chapter that “The just shall live by faith” (1:17), I said that the words life and death are going to become key words as we go on. From here through the end of chapter 8, the words life and death will be pitted one against the other constantly. Paul will finish his discussion of justification at the end of chapter 4, then will move on to sanctification (5:1—8:17), and from there on to glorification (8:18-39), and this theme of death and life will be like two nails upon which all these themes are woven.
God can and does quicken the dead. The promise that Abraham believed, resulting in his being declared righteous, was that God would bring back to life Sarah’s ability to have children. He believed this despite how hopeless it seemed from a human point of view.
Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. (4:18)
“Against hope” could better be translated “beyond all possible hope.” This is a marvelous expression. Faith in God is not a blind step into the dark. It always involves believing a specific promise of God. In Abraham’s case, this meant believing a promise that defied every logical human basis for hope. Humanly speaking, it was ridiculous for Abraham to think that he and Sarah could have a child when she was more than ninety years old. Yet he believed, beyond all possible hope, because he believed in God’s power to keep His promise. God had created the world from nothing, so he could certainly create a child from older parents!
As if to emphasize that Abraham’s faith was not just “faith in faith,” Paul spells out the specific promise of God that Abraham believed: “So shall they seed be.”
And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb. (4:19)
Actually, in the best Greek text, there is no negative after “considered.” Rather, it would read, “And being not weak in faith, he considered his own body now dead . . .” Abraham considered, or took into account, the fact that his own ability to father a child was dead. And he took into account that, as far as childbearing was concerned, Sarah’s body was also dead. In China, a woman who is past childbearing age is sometimes referred to as a “coffin.” This is certainly not a very gentle expression, but for a husband and wife in that situation it declares a stark truth. Sarah may have been very much alive in other ways, but as far as reproduction was concerned, she might as well have been dead.
Nonetheless, taking all of this into account, Abraham believed.
What did Abraham believe? He believed that God could “quicken the dead” (4:17). He didn’t believe this as a theory or a theological abstraction; he actually believed. Even after taking into account the deadness of his and Sarah’s childbearing potential, Abraham believed that God could fulfill His promise to give them a son. As Paul continues describing Abraham’s very specific faith in God’s very specific promise, the force is just like a hammer.
He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; and being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. (4:20-21)
Please don’t pass by these continued emphases on belief versus unbelief. Belief, for the Christian, is never a blind step of faith. Belief, for the Christian, is always believing God, believing He exists and believing His promises. So here we find that Abraham “staggered not at the promise of God.” Now, God’s specific promise to give Abraham a son was certainly something to stagger about. Far from staggering, however, Abraham “was strong in faith.” We could also translate this, “was made strong by faith.” His faith laid hold of God. His faith believed. This was his strength. “Giving glory to God; and being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.”
This faith of Abraham is surely the death of Kierkegaard’s shallow and contorted concept of faith. Abraham’s faith was a titanic step, but it didn’t involve stepping out in 50,000 fathoms of anything. It was stepping out onto the rock-solid promise of God. He believed God, and he believed God could do a specific thing. What he believed specifically was that God could quicken the dead, to bring forth life out of that which was a coffin, that which was truly dead. This is what Abraham believed.
The writer of Hebrews declares that “Without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him” (Heb. 11:6). He goes on to describe various examples of faith, including Abraham’s and Sarah’s faith regarding their having a child. Faith in God must always be a personal thing. There is no other way to come to God. And that is exactly what Abraham did. Abraham believed that God existed. He believed that God was personal, a real person. And he believed that God would keep the very personal promise He had made to Abraham.
And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. (4:22)
God imputed righteousness to Abraham because Abraham believed God’s promises. Paul is simply repeating the wonderful truth he stated in 4:3 as he quoted Genesis 15:6: Abraham’s faith was “counted” or “imputed” to him as righteousness. Because of his faith alone, not because of any good works he had done, Abraham was declared by God to be righteous.
Paul now begins drawing things together again, showing how these truths about salvation through faith apply not just to Abraham, but to all people—Jew and Gentile alike—for all time.
Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification. (4:23-25)
God imputed righteousness to Abraham because Abraham believed God’s promises. And He will impute this righteousness to us as well, if we believe His promises. Abraham was dead and Sarah was dead, as far as reproduction is concerned. God made a promise. Abraham believed that God could quicken the dead—and the child was born. There was life from death. Likewise, Jesus was dead, but we are called to believe that God did in fact raise Him from the dead.
As we noted earlier, in most evangelistic preaching the emphasis, rightly, is on “accepting Christ as our Savior.” In the context of his discussion of Abraham, however, Paul seems to emphasize the role of God the Father in salvation. He says that we must believe on “him who raised Jesus from the dead.” In so doing, we’re believing the same God that Abraham believed.
Several other passages in the New Testament similarly underscore the role of God the Father in salvation. Elsewhere in Romans, we read: “Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death, that as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father . . .” (6.4). And again: “But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you . . .” (8:11). And yet again: “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (10:9). Peter likewise urges his readers to “believe in God, who raised him up from the dead” (1 Pet. 1:21). Jesus Himself stressed the role of God the Father in salvation, and the importance of believing on Him: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life” (John 5:24). Throughout the New Testament, then, you find this emphasis on “believing on him that raised Jesus,” or “believing on him that sent me.”
Abraham believed God, and the child was born. We are now called on to believe the same God. And what has He done for us? He has raised Jesus from the dead. We are in a sense presented with the same call to faith that came to Abraham. The calls come at two different times in history, but the two are in essence the same call. Who is a Christian? At the rock-bottom level a Christian is simply a person who believes God. We’re back in Hebrews again. We must believe that God “is, and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.”
I am making such a strong point of the historical continuity of our faith with the faith of Abraham because of what I see as a lack of a sense of history in our time. I’ve already discussed the uselessness of presenting the gospel without sufficiently explaining the fact that people are lost. But I also fear that some people “accept Christ as their Savior” while not even believing in the historical reality of the biblical account. One young man who came to L’Abri was very disturbed because some friends at the Christian university he had attended in the United States had encouraged him to confirm his faith on the basis of what has come to be known as Pascal’s wager. The philosopher Blaise Pascal suggested that belief in God was a good bet, because if it isn’t true, you haven’t lost anything, and if it is true, you go to heaven. But if this is all you believe, you don’t go to heaven. Christian faith is not a wager or a magic formula or saying the right words. It isn’t like wearing a rabbit’s foot around your neck. Christian faith is believing the God who really exists.
Suppose that Abraham had had some serious mental reservations and had said, “Oh well, I don’t know if God will fulfill His promise or not, but just as an escape, I’ll say, ‘Yes, I believe.’ After all, what’s there to lose?” If Abraham had said that, he and Sarah would never have had a child. Abraham had to truly believe the reality of the fact that God existed and that He would keep His promise. Then, there came forth life from the dead.
It must be the same for us. What are we called upon to do? We’re called upon to “believe on him that raised Jesus our Lord from the dead” (4:24). The moment that we do believe on Him who raised Jesus from the dead, we are believing exactly what Abraham believed when he believed that God could bring forth life from death. And when we believe Him and believe on Christ as our Savior, we who are dead become alive. “For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith as it is written “The just shall live by faith” (1:17)!
This concept of living by faith is not just an idea, it isn’t just a word, it’s a reality. Before we believe God, we are truly dead. But when we believe God, and believe what He has done and therefore take Christ as our Savior, we who were dead are made alive. We were dead, just as dead as Sarah’s womb. As far as the possibility of reproduction was concerned, Sarah was completely dead. As far as the possibility of eternal life is concerned, we were completely dead, under the wrath of God, separated from God, without purpose. Sarah’s dead womb couldn’t produce anything, and the unsaved individual can’t really produce anything with significance. It’s just a turning of wheels that will pass away with the passing of time. But Abraham believed God, and out from that dead womb there came the child. Isaac’s birth was a real historical event. It wasn’t just a nice story. It occurred in space, in time, in the hard stuff of history—in a specific geographic place at a specific hour of a specific day. Abraham was justified because he believed the God who is there, and he believed the promises of the God who is there.
Jesus has come. Jesus has died. Jesus has risen. Throughout Scripture, God promised that this would happen. Will we believe God? Will we believe that He raised Jesus from the dead? It is an event that, like Isaac’s birth, was made of the hard stuff of real history. As soon as we believe this, we, who like Abraham and Sarah have been dead, will be made alive. Just as Sarah and Abraham could now produce a child, we now can begin to produce that which has meaning in life.
Salvation is not just making a wager with our eternal destiny, or repeating a magic phrase. Salvation begins with the fact that God exists, and that man has rebelled against Him. Then there comes a point when each of us must decide: Will we believe God, or will we continue to rebel against Him?
Paul has shown us exactly what justification by faith means for us today (3:21-30). Then he has shown that people in Old Testament times were saved in exactly the same way as we are saved today (3:31—4:22). Then he has turned it around and said, “This is how Abraham was justified, and we can be justified in exactly the same way” (4:23-25). We, like Abraham, can be justified by believing that God is there, and believing that He has raised Christ from the dead, just as He promised to do.
If we believe God, if we are no longer dead but are bringing forth life, we’re ready to go on into chapter 5, where Paul talks about how to begin living the Christian life. As Sarah’s womb brought forth a child, so, when we believe the same God and His promises and therefore pass from death to life, we can begin to bring forth (on the basis of the finished work of Jesus Christ) that which is living instead of that which is dead. Chapter 5 will tell us what this means.