Romans 4:13-22

As we move into this section, we have to keep in mind the general context of Romans. In Romans 3, Paul showed that there is salvation for both the Jews and the Gentiles through faith. The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith for it is written that the just shall live by faith. And to head off any disagreement from the Jews, Paul is trying in chapter 4 to show that what he is saying was already established in the Old Testament. Whatever differences may exist between the old covenant and the new, the fundamental fact in both is that righteousness comes by faith. Abraham is the obvious example of that, for he was a man of faith and because of his faith he found peace with God.

And I'll be honest, I'm not entirely sure how this section fits into the overall argument of Romans. In part, at least, Paul is trying to show in a concrete manner what Abraham's faith was like. But I think as we look at this passage as a whole, we also get a clear picture of the difference between faith and the law and why this whole debate matters so much.

The pivotal verse here is verse 14. “For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect.” As so often in Paul's writing, we have a sense of inevitable contrast. One commentator wrote that Paul always saw in black and white. But that isn't quite true. Paul could see and appreciate fine shades of gray when they were present—we see that in some of ethical discussions at the end of Romans. Paul only saw black and white when there was black and white to be seen, and this matter really does require this kind of black and white thinking.

I suspect some Jews might have responded to Paul's argument thus far: “All right, perhaps the Gentiles can really be justified by faith and maybe they really can become God's people without having to be circumcised. BUT, we Jews have a special claim to justification because we are Jews; because we are circumcised; because we are part of the Jewish covenant and follow the Jewish law.” And Paul's response, in somewhat more elaborate form, is “No way, Jose.”

God made many promises to Abraham—that he would have a multitude of descendants, that he would be the father of many nations; that in him or through him all nations of the world would be blessed—Paul summarizes it by saying that Abraham and his descendants would be the heir of the world, that they would, like the meek, inherit the earth. But these promises were not given to Abraham because he was circumcised—since circumcision followed upon them as a seal—still less because he followed the Mosaic law which wouldn't be given for hundreds of years. And while Abraham was a moral man (most of the time) that was not the basis of these promises.

Instead, there were two bases. Verse 16: “It is of faith, that it might be by grace.” Grace is God's part—God graciously extended all these things to Abraham (not merely for Abraham's sake but for ours who are blessed through the descendants of Abraham) and Abraham, in faith, accepted. 

But if the foundation of Abraham's blessing was faith and grace, than no one can make a claim upon those blessings except on the terms of faith and grace. Now, the blessing on Abraham came with secondary benefits and some of those could pass on to his descendants by natural course. Abraham was a wealthy man and he bestowed wealth on Isaac merely because he was his son, just as he bestowed a portion of his wealth on the sons of Keturah merely because they were his sons. But that is a secondary, incidental matter.

If a man spent his lifetime studying and researching and became the greatest scientist in the world, then he could leave his son his medals and his laboratory and his research notes. But he could not leave his son the fact of being a great scientist. His son could achieve that only in the same way his father had--by study and research. Abraham left to his children many things, but he could not leave them his righteousness; that could only be found by them in the same way it had been found by Abraham--through faith. The son of a scientist might have a head start in becoming a scientist, due to having a background of knowledge and early training—just as the Jews had the advantage of knowing God's word and God's works as passed down from Abraham and the other patriarchs. But that doesn't affect the central point.

If the Jews could find salvation through the law—through the Jewish covenant and the Mosaic law—then that would complete negate the promises to Abraham, because the basis of those promises were faith and grace. And on the other hand, anyone who finds favor with God through faith is the true son of Abraham, because they are following in Abraham's footsteps. But it is more than that. In Galatians 3:16, Paul argues that ultimately the focus of all Abraham's promises was on Christ--it was Christ, the descendant of Abraham, who brought the blessings for all nations which was promised to Abraham. It is Christ who ultimately will inherit and posses the earth as Abraham was promised. Therefore, those who through faith have union with Christ are the true recipients of Abraham's promises.

The Jews had certain advantages but they had no more special claim on salvation than anybody else. All people, Jew or Gentile, would find salvation in exactly the same way Abraham did--by faith.

Any attempt to find salvation through the law was futile because it cut contrary to its very foundation. The foundation of Judaism was Abraham's faith and a dependence on the law actually destroyed that foundation. But even if we ignored Abraham and his faith for the moment, a dependence on the law would still be futile. Verse 15 says: “The law worketh wrath.” That points us back to the first section of Romans where Paul spoke of this whole idea of the wrath of God. 

God's wrath always come upon sin which is the violation of the law. The law shows what is right and wrong and brings a punishment upon those who do wrong. We cannot find salvation from the wrath of God through the law because it is the law which reveals the wrath of God. If we had the law without having the promises of grace, then we would be lost. The law at best is only a diagnosis which is useless without a cure.

Paul ends verse 15 by saying, “Where no law is, there is no transgression.” That is straightforward enough: you can't break a law if there is no law to break. It's not entirely clear why Paul adds it here. But I can't help thinking his point may be this. The Jews boasted of having the law. Though the Gentiles also had a law, it was the Jews who had God's law in its highest and clearest form. And the Jews were proud of that fact and, to a certain extent, rightly so. But merely having the law itself would not save them. And on its own, it was almost worse than nothing. Without the promises of grace, without the possibility of salvation, it would almost be better to be an imbecile or an animal and have no knowledge of the law. The law shows us what is wrong, but it would almost be better not to know what's wrong if we did not also have the means to put things right.

Because that is all the law can do; it can only show what is right and wrong; it cannot right any of the wrongs. A law has no creative or corrective power. We see this in the political world today. We have more laws on the books than you can shake a stick at but that does not prevent a rising crime rate or an overall breakdown of society. And while there are some social or political satire you could insert here, the bottom line is that a law cannot and will not accomplish anything on its own and no one in their right mind expects it to. Laws do have a purpose, but on their own they cannot do much of anything. Much as a paper and a pencil can be used to write or draw or create music, but, without a human agency, they will simply lie together on a desk for all eternity without actually doing anything.

And while the law does help to guide human behavior, it cannot go very far with this. Human effort and will power, guided by the law, may turn a bad citizen into a good one. But it cannot turn a sinner into a saint--just as discipline and training may turn a bad dog into a good one, but it cannot turn a dog into a man. And there is nothing in the law to deal with sins of the past. The law can only reveal and offer advice. It cannot offer pardon or reconciliation. That is why the law worketh wrath. In fact, that's the whole point of the law—to reveal and condemn the reality of sin and point to the need of a propitiation. The whole point of the law is the point to the need for the righteousness of God which is revealed through faith. As. C. S. Lewis put it, “The road to the promised land leads past Sinai.” Without a knowledge of the law, we would not know our own sin and therefore would not know that we stood in need of salvation. And if the law's purpose was to point towards faith, then moving from faith to the law is a little silly.

But there is one point we have to make clear. We have to understand a certain context when speak of Abraham's faith being counted unto him for righteousness. Romans 4:3: “For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.” Do you notice what is important there? It is not just that Abraham had faith or that Abraham believed. It is that he believed God. Faith, like the law, does not have a creative power. You cannot close your eyes and think positive faith-thoughts and expect something to happen. What made Abraham's faith important and powerful was the fact that it was in God; the power was in God; not in Abraham's faith.

The book Bible Knowledge tells the story of a parishioner who was talking to his preacher about his spiritual struggles. And he commented: “It is so hard to have faith.” And the preachers promptly responded: “In whom?” There are certainly some people in whom it would be very difficult to put any faith in it at all. Many people, if they make a promise, leave you with more doubt than faith regarding the keeping of said promise. But when God makes a promise, we know that He will keep it. I do not mean that there is not still difficulties and struggles in faith. Abraham had his share of difficulties and struggles. Blaiklock put it that we should say that Abraham was a man faith, not because he had no doubts, but because he overcame his doubts. (Romans, 27) His faith is the final fact about him because it was the victor; it came out on top, despite the doubts and confusion and questions with which it had initially to contend.

Verse 17 is one of the most important verses concerning this idea of salvation by faith, though the somewhat odd verse divisions and intricate language make the force of the verse easy to miss. The point is that Abraham had faith. But who did he have faith in? “God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.” That was who Abraham had faith in—in the God who brings the dead back to life; the God who can call to things which don't even exist. There is some question as to whether that phrase “calleth those things which be not as though they were” refers to God's prophetic power—the fact that God can know and talk about things that haven't happened yet as if they had already happened—or God's creative power—the fact that God can actually bring things into existence. In a sense, and particularly here, they are the same thing. God was able to say to Abraham: “I have made thee a father of many nations” with complete confidence and accuracy even though Abraham, at that point, hadn't even fathered Isaac—because God was the one who was going miraculously to intervene to bring about Abraham's multitude of descendants.

Abraham's faith was not in just anybody. It was in God; in the God who does the hard stuff; the God who specializes in the difficult and the impossible; the God of creation and resurrection; the God who is the blazing source of all life and joy in all realities; the God who created everything which exists with a few words; the God who says “Let there be” and there is. Dante, speaking of God's will, wrote: “So 'tis willed/Where will and power are one.”

That was why Abraham was able to have faith; able to have faith that an old man and a barren woman wandering around in a land full of ferocious heathens would be the father of a great nation who would possess that land and lead to a blessing for all the world. His faith is summarized in verse 21: “And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.” He believed that God could do it and that God would do it. This is something of a religious cliché but it really does capture the attitude of Abraham: “God said it, and I believe it, and that's good enough for me.”

In Hebrews 11:19, the writer speaks of Abraham's faith in offering up Isaac as a sacrifice, saying that he was: “Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.” That was what Abraham's faith was like because that was what the God in whom Abraham had faith was like. Abraham was willing to sacrifice Isaac solely because he had faith that somehow, even in that dark and hopeless moment, God was still able to fulfill his promise, even if that meant bring Isaac back from the death, because He is the God who quickeneth the dead and calleth those things which be not as though they were.

And that is why this whole question about faith and the law is so important. Hearing God's word, God's law is like looking in a mirror. It shows you yourself and what is right and wrong about yourself. But then it is up to you to fix what you see. If you look in the mirror and see that your hair is uncombed, it is up to you to comb it; the mirror won't do that for you. If you trying to fix everything about your appearance by looking in a mirror, then everything is up to you and the extend to which you can actually improve your appearance is dependent on your own ability. And if you are trying to be a better person merely by following a code of morality, Biblical or non-Biblical, then the extent to which you can succeed is dependent on your own ability. The issue comes down then to sheer willpower and determination. Determination is a powerful quality and some people possesses a strong degree of it, while others have less. But in the end, it is always a finite quantity. Therefore, while human do have a certain ability for self improvement (though even that is the gift of God), it is only a very limited, very small, very finite amount. Trying to find righteousness through the law is all built upon this very narrow foundation.

But salvation through grace is built upon the power of God. If you are looking to God to set things right, then the extent to which they can be set right is dependent on God's power. And God's power is the power which quickeneth the dead and calleth the things that are not as if they were. Salvation by the law has a finite power source. Salvation by faith has an infinite power source.

Verse 18 says that Abraham “against hope believed in hope.” That seems to mean: “Abraham held unto his hope when everything seemed hopeless; Abraham still looked up in hope when everything was conspiring to pull him down; Abraham's hope was not simple or obvious, but defiant, a standard of hope set up in defiance to the circling armies of doubt.” And that would be a logical attitude if, and only if, he had a ground of hope which stronger than everything which stood against it—which is exactly what he had. Because his hope was in God.

Nobody looking at the elderly and childless Abraham and Sarah and thought they would be the progenitors of a nation as numerous as the stars and sands. Nobody looking at Saul of Tarsus as a young probably thought he would be an apostle of Christianity. Nobody looking at the dead corpse of Lazarus thought he would live again. And if anybody could have been there at the moment of creation, they probably wouldn't have thought that anything ever could be conjured into existence.

Human will power and ingenuity and determination can do some truly amazing things. But the only one who can do things like that is God. And it is this God whose righteousness is revealed through faith. That is why this whole debate matters so much. That is why salvation is through faith—not because there is anything meritorious and efficacious about faith itself, but because faith brings us to God, and it is God who has the power to do what needs to be done. That is why Abraham found everything he did find—because he trusted in God to do something which only God could do.

Matthew Henry describes Abraham's faith like this: “Abraham saw the storms of doubts, and fears, and temptations likely to rise against the promise, upon which many a one would have shrunk back, and lain by for fairer days... But Abraham, having taken God for his pilot, and the promise for his card and compass, resolves to weather his point, and like a bold adventurer sets up all his sails, breaks through all the difficulties, regards neither winds nor clouds, but trusts to the strength of his bottom and the wisdom and faithfulness of his pilot, and bravely makes to the harbour, and comes home an unspeakable gainer.” (Commentary, Romans 4:21)

And just as this was true of the birth of Isaac and the coming of the promised posterity, it was true of his relationship to God. He had faith in God and for that reason God was able to do for him something that he never could have done for himself. “And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.”