# Romans 04 📖: Abraham Justified by Faith [[📚 Explore the Bible Books]] [[-Romans Overview]] | [[Romans 03]] | [[Romans 05]] > [!info] Table of Contents > [[#📜 Scripture Text (NET)]] > [[#📖 Verse-by-Verse Commentary]] > [[#🤔 Interesting Facts / Historical and Cultural Insights]] > [[#🧠 Chapter Summary]] > [[#✝️ Christ in This Chapter]] > [[#🔎 Key Observations / 🛟 Life Application]] > [[#💬 Discussion Questions]] > [[#✍️ Key Verses to Remember]] > [[#🔗 Related Passages]] > [[#🙏 Devotional Reflection]] > [[#📂 Internal Notes]] ## 📜 Scripture Text (NET) (The NET Bible: New English Translation. Biblical Studies Press, 2005) ### The Illustration of Justification **Principle**: Believing loyalty = righteousness over circumcision. [[#Verse 01.]] What then shall we say that Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh, has discovered regarding this matter?  [[#Verse 02.]] For if Abraham was declared righteous by works, he has something to boast about—but not before God.  [[#Verse 03.]] For what does the scripture say? “**_Abraham believed God, and it was credited_** **_to him as righteousness_**.”  [[Genesis 16#Verse 06.]] [[#Verse 04.]] Now to the one who works, his pay is not credited due to grace but due to obligation.  [[#Verse 05.]] But to the one who does not work, but believes in the one who declares the ungodly righteous, his faith is credited as righteousness. [[#Verse 06.]] So even David himself speaks regarding the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: [[#Verse 07.]] “**_Blessed_** **_are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered;_** [[#Verse 08.]] **_blessed is the one_** **_against whom the Lord will never count_** **_sin_**.” [[Psalm 32]] ### Abraham Justified Before Circumcision **Principle**: Trust justifies, not works. [[#Verse 09.]] Is this blessedness then for the circumcision or also for the uncircumcision? For we say, “_faith **was credited to** Abraham **as** **righteousness**_.” [[Genesis 15#Verse 06.]] [[#Verse 10.]] How then was it credited to him? Was he circumcised at the time, or not? No, he was not circumcised but uncircumcised!  [[#Verse 11.]] And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised, so that he would become the father of all those who believe but have never been circumcised, that they too could have righteousness credited to them.  [[#Verse 12.]] And he is also the father of the circumcised, who are not only circumcised, but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham possessed when he was still uncircumcised. ### The Promise Granted Through Faith **Principle**: Abraham believed and acted on his belief. That's what God is looking for. [[#Verse 13.]] For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would inherit the world was not fulfilled through the law, but through the righteousness that comes by faith.  [[#Verse 14.]] For if they become heirs by the law, faith is empty and the promise is nullified.  [[#Verse 15.]] For the law brings wrath, because where there is no law there is no transgression either. [[# Verse 15]] For the law brings wrath, because where there is no law there is no transgression either.  [[#Verse 16.]] For this reason it is by faith so that it may be by grace, with the result that the promise may be certain to all the descendants—not only to those who are under the law, but also to those who have the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all  [[#Verse 17.]] (as it is written, “**_I have made you the father of many nations_**”). He is our father in the presence of God whom he believed—the God who makes the dead alive and summons the things that do not yet exist as though they already do. [[Genesis 17#Verse 05.]] [[#Verse 18.]] Against hope Abraham believed in hope with the result that he became **_the father of many nations_** according to the pronouncement, “**_so will your descendants be_**.” [[Genesis 17#Verse 05.]] [[Exodus 15#Verse 05.]] [[#Verse 19.]] Without being weak in faith, he considered his own body as dead (because he was about 100 years old) and the deadness of Sarah’s womb.  [[#Verse 20.]] He did not waver in unbelief about the promise of God but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God. [[# Verse 20]] He did not waver in unbelief about the promise of God but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God.  [[#Verse 21.]] He was fully convinced that what God promised he was also able to do.  [[#Verse 22.]] So indeed it was credited to Abraham as righteousness. [[Genesis 15#Verse 06.]] [[#Verse 23.]] But the statement **_it was credited to him_** was not written only for Abraham’s sake,  [[Genesis 15#Verse 06.]] [[#Verse 24.]] but also for our sake, to whom it will be credited, those who believe in the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.  [[#Verse 25.]] He was given over because of our transgressions and was raised for the sake of our justification. ## 📖 Verse-by-Verse Commentary ###### Overall. - The key word of the chapter is the Greek verb *logizomai*, translated "counted," "credited," or "reckoned." It is an accounting term meaning to place something on someone's account. It appears eleven times in Romans 4. Paul's point is that righteousness before God is not a wage deposited in exchange for labor but a gift credited by grace to those who trust Him. ###### Verse 1-12. - Romans 4 opens with Paul putting his argument on trial. In 3:21-31 he declared that God's righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ, apart from the works of the law, and that this leaves no room for boasting. A Jewish listener would immediately ask, "What about Abraham?" Abraham was the father of the nation, the man of the covenant, and in Jewish tradition the model of faithful obedience. If anyone could boast before God, surely it was Abraham. So Paul takes the strongest possible test case and shows that even Abraham was made right with God by faith, not by works. ###### Verse 01. - The phrase "according to the flesh" is significant because by the end of the chapter Paul will redefine Abraham's fatherhood. He is not only the physical ancestor of Israel but the spiritual father of every believer (4:11-12, 16). - There is a textual and grammatical question in this verse about where the verb "found" (*heurēkenai*) belongs. Some scholars (notably Richard Hays) read it as, "What then shall we say? Have we found Abraham to be our forefather according to the flesh?" On that reading, Paul is asking whether Jews are Abraham's family merely by physical descent. Either way, the thrust is the same: Paul is going back to the root of Israel's story to ask how a person stands before God. ###### Verse 02. - Hypothetical: if Abraham was made right with God by his deeds, he would have something to boast about. This was not a straw man. Jewish writings of the period praised Abraham's obedience as the ground of his standing. Sirach 44:19-21 says he kept the law of the Most High and was found faithful when tested, and 1 Maccabees 2:52 connects his faithfulness in testing with being reckoned righteous. Many read Genesis 15:6 through the lens of Genesis 22, the binding of Isaac. - Paul answers: "but not before God." Abraham may have had a reputation worth admiring among people, but he had no ground for boasting in God's presence. This connects back to 3:27, where Paul said boasting is excluded by the principle of faith. Whatever Abraham's virtues, they were not the basis of his acceptance. ###### Verse 03. - The context of Genesis 15 matters. God had promised Abram offspring as numerous as the stars, though he was old and childless. Abram had nothing to offer but trust. He did not perform; he believed. And God credited righteousness to him. Notice the order: Genesis 15 comes before the covenant of circumcision (Genesis 17) and long before the offering of Isaac (Genesis 22). Abraham's faith was later proven in obedience (James 2:21-23), but his righteous standing was credited at the moment he believed the promise. - This is the first use of ==*logizomai*== in the chapter. Righteousness was not something Abraham produced; it was something God placed on his account. ###### Verse 04. - Illustrates with the workplace. When a person works, his wages are not given as a gift (*charis*, grace) but as what he is owed (*opheilēma*, a debt or obligation). An employer who pays a worker at the end of the week is not being gracious; he is being just. The worker has earned it. - The illustration exposes the logic of works-righteousness. If salvation were earned, God would be in our debt, and we could stand before Him with a claim. Grace and wages are two entirely different economies. They cannot be mixed. ###### Verse 05. - This is one of the most astonishing sentences in Scripture. To the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. - "Justifies the ungodly" (*asebēs*) would have sounded scandalous. The Old Testament condemns acquitting the guilty: "I will not acquit the wicked" (Exodus 23:7), and "He who justifies the wicked... is an abomination to the Lord" (Proverbs 17:15). How can God do what He forbids human judges to do? Paul has already answered in 3:25-26: through the atoning sacrifice of Christ, God is both just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. The penalty is not ignored; it is paid. - Paul also implies that Abraham himself was among the ungodly. Joshua 24:2 reminds Israel that Abraham's family served other gods beyond the Euphrates. Abraham was not a righteous man whom God rewarded but an idolater whom God called and credited with righteousness through faith. ###### Verse 06. - Legal situation. Paul treats this like a courtroom. This would have made sense to the Romans due to Rome being the seat of judicial power. - Under the law, a matter was established by two or three witnesses (Deuteronomy 19:15), so Paul adds David to Abraham. Between them they represent the patriarchs and the kingdom, the Law and the Writings. - David speaks of the blessedness (*makarismos*) of the person to whom God counts righteousness apart from works. The phrase "apart from works" echoes 3:21 and 3:28. David's testimony shows that justification by faith is not an exception made for Abraham but the consistent pattern of God's dealing with His people. ###### Verse 07. - Paul quotes Psalm 32:1 (Septuagint). David pronounces blessed those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Two images describe God's mercy. "Forgiven" (*aphiēmi*) carries the idea of release or sending away, a debt cancelled. "Covered" (*epikaluptō*) pictures sin hidden from God's sight, an echo of atonement language in the Old Testament. - The **background**. Psalm 32 is traditionally connected with David's sin with Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah (compare Psalm 51). Under the Mosaic law there was no sacrifice for such high-handed sins; adultery and murder carried the death penalty. David had no works to offer. His only hope was the free mercy of God. And he calls that man blessed. ###### Verse 08. - The emphatic negative in the Greek (*ou mē*) means "will by no means" count. The believer's acquittal is certain and final. ###### Verse 09. - Paul turns to the second part of the argument. Is this blessing only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? A Jewish objector could grant that Abraham and David were justified by faith and still insist that this blessing belonged only to the covenant people marked by circumcision. After all, David was a circumcised Israelite. ###### Verse 10. - Paul asks the decisive question: under what circumstances was it credited? Was Abraham circumcised or uncircumcised at the time? The answer is plain from Genesis: not after, but before. - Abraham was declared righteous in Genesis 15. He was circumcised in Genesis 17, when he was ninety-nine and Ishmael was thirteen (Genesis 17:24-25). Since Ishmael was born when Abraham was eighty-six (Genesis 16:16), and the events of Genesis 15 precede Ishmael's conception, at least fourteen years separate Abraham's justification from his circumcision. When God declared Abraham righteous, Abraham was, in effect, a Gentile. ###### Verse 11. - Paul now explains what circumcision actually was. Abraham received it as a sign (*sēmeion*) and a seal (*sphragis*) of the righteousness he already had by faith while uncircumcised. A sign points to a reality; a seal confirms and authenticates it, like a wax seal on a document certifying its genuineness. Circumcision did not create Abraham's righteousness; it marked and confirmed a righteousness he had already received. - God's purpose in this order was to make Abraham the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well. Gentile believers are not second-class members of God's family or latecomers who must first become Jews. They are Abraham's true children, following the same path he walked. This fulfills the promise that in Abraham all the families of the earth would be blessed (Genesis 12:3; compare Galatians 3:7-9, 29). ###### Verse 12. - Abraham is also the father of the circumcised, but Paul adds a careful qualification: of those who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith Abraham had while still uncircumcised. Physical descent and the covenant sign are not enough. What makes someone a true child of Abraham is sharing his faith. - The verb "walk" (*stoicheō*) means to walk in line or march in step, like soldiers in formation following the one ahead. Believers, Jew and Gentile alike, are pictured marching in Abraham's footprints. This echoes Paul's teaching in 2:28-29 that true Jewishness is a matter of the heart, and anticipates 9:6-8: not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel. **Bottom line of this passage**: The result is one family, one father, and one way of salvation. Abraham stands at the head of a single line of faith that includes everyone, circumcised or not, who trusts the God who justifies the ungodly. ###### Verse 13. ###### Verse 14. ###### Verse 15. ###### Verse 16. ###### Verse 17. ###### Verse 18. ###### Verse 19. ###### Verse 20. ###### Verse 21. ###### Verse 22. ###### Verse 23. ###### Verse 24. ###### Verse 25. ## 🤔 Interesting Facts / Historical and Cultural Insights - In this chapter, Paul puts his argument on trial. This would have been especially effective with those in Rome because this was the seat of Rome's judicial rule. 1. The Greek verb *logizomai* ("credit," "count") appears eleven times in Romans 4. It is an accounting word for placing something on someone's account. 2. Paul quotes Genesis 15:6 in 4:3. The same verse is quoted in Galatians 3:6 and James 2:23. 3. At least thirteen years separate Genesis 15, where Abraham is declared righteous, from Genesis 17, where he is circumcised, since Ishmael was born in between (Genesis 16:16; 17:24-25). 4. In 4:7-8 Paul quotes Psalm 32:1-2, a psalm of David. 5. Jewish writings of the period, such as Sirach 44:19-21 and 1 Maccabees 2:52, praised Abraham for being found faithful when tested. 6. Paul calls circumcision a "sign" and a "seal" (4:11). A seal authenticated a document or marked ownership. 7. Abraham was about one hundred years old and Sarah about ninety when God renewed the promise of a son (4:19; Genesis 17:17). 8. In 4:17 Paul quotes Genesis 17:5, "I have made you the father of many nations." The name Abraham sounds like "father of a multitude." 9. Paul describes God as the One who makes the dead alive and calls into being things that do not yet exist (4:17), language that echoes creation. 10. Paul and James both use Abraham and Genesis 15:6. Paul stresses how Abraham was declared righteous, and James stresses how genuine faith proves itself in works (James 2:21-23). ## 🧠 Chapter Summary Verses 1-12- Placing his argument of the first 3 chapters on trial. ## ✝️ Christ in This Chapter Christ is the One handed over because of our transgressions and raised for our justification (4:25). The faith credited to Abraham as righteousness is credited to all who believe in God who raised Jesus from the dead (4:24; Galatians 3:6-9). ## 🔎 Key Observations / 🛟 Life Application Verses 1-12 - The passage moves in two movements. In verses 1-8, Paul sets faith against works. In verses 9-12, Paul sets faith against circumcision. He asks a question of timing: was Abraham declared righteous before or after he was circumcised? The answer (before, by at least fourteen years) means Abraham is not merely the father of the Jews but the father of all who believe, whether circumcised or not. - This passage is foundational for the doctrine of justification by faith alone. It also shows how Paul reads the Old Testament: the gospel is not a new idea invented to replace Judaism but the fulfillment of what God was doing from the beginning. The way of salvation has always been faith in the promise of God. #### Today, I can apply this chapter by: - ✅ Don’t try to count my righteousness. Depend on Christ. ## 💬 Discussion Questions 1. Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness (4:3). What is the difference between earning a wage and receiving a gift (4:4-5)? 2. Abraham was declared righteous before he was circumcised (4:10-11). Why does that timing matter for Gentile believers? 3. Abraham faced the fact that his body was as good as dead, yet he did not waver (4:19-21). What promise of God do you need to hold on to right now? ## ✍️ Key Verses to Remember - 📖 verse 3: Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. - 📖 verse 5: God justifies the ungodly, and faith is credited as righteousness to the one who trusts Him. - 📖 verses 7-8: Blessed are those whose sins are forgiven and whose sins the Lord will not count against them. - 📖 verses 20-21: Abraham grew strong in faith, fully convinced God could do what He promised. - 📖 verse 25: Jesus was given over because of our transgressions and raised for our justification. ## 🔗 Related Passages - 🔗 [[Genesis 12#Verse 01.|Genesis 12:1-3]] - God calls Abram and promises that all the families of the earth will be blessed through him. - 🔗 [[Genesis 15#Verse 01.|Genesis 15:1-6]] - God promises Abram offspring like the stars, and Abram's faith is counted as righteousness. - 🔗 [[Genesis 17#Verse 09.|Genesis 17:9-14]] - God gives circumcision as the sign of the covenant, years after Abram was declared righteous. - 🔗 [[Genesis 22#Verse 01.|Genesis 22:1-18]] - Abraham's faith is tested and proven in the offering of Isaac. - 🔗 [[Joshua 24#Verse 02.|Joshua 24:2]] - Abraham's family served other gods, showing God called an ungodly man. - 🔗 [[Psalm 32#Verse 01.|Psalm 32:1-2]] - David's psalm of the joy of forgiveness, quoted in Romans 4:7-8. - 🔗 [[Habakkuk 02#Verse 04.|Habakkuk 2:4]] - The righteous will live by faith. - 🔗 [[John 08#Verse 39.|John 8:39, 56]] - Jesus says Abraham's true children do what Abraham did, and that Abraham rejoiced to see His day. - 🔗 [[Romans 02#Verse 28.|Romans 2:28-29]] - True circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit. - 🔗 [[Romans 03#Verse 21.|Romans 3:21-31]] - Righteousness through faith apart from the law, the argument Romans 4 proves. - 🔗 [[Romans 09#Verse 06.|Romans 9:6-8]] - Not all who are descended from Israel are Israel; the children of the promise are counted as offspring. - 🔗 [[2 Corinthians 05#Verse 21.|2 Corinthians 5:21]] - God made Christ to be sin for us so that we might become His righteousness. - 🔗 [[Galatians 03#Verse 06.|Galatians 3:6-9]] - Those who believe are the children of Abraham and are blessed along with him. - 🔗 [[Galatians 03#Verse 29.|Galatians 3:29]] - If you belong to Christ, you are Abraham's offspring and heirs of the promise. - 🔗 [[Ephesians 02#Verse 08.|Ephesians 2:8-9]] - Saved by grace through faith, not by works, so no one can boast. - 🔗 [[Philippians 03#Verse 09.|Philippians 3:9]] - Paul's righteousness comes not from the law but through faith in Christ. - 🔗 [[Hebrews 11#Verse 08.|Hebrews 11:8-12, 17-19]] - Abraham's faith in obeying God's call and offering Isaac. - 🔗 [[James 02#Verse 21.|James 2:21-24]] - Abraham's faith was shown genuine by his works, fulfilling Genesis 15:6. ## 🙏 Devotional Reflection 📝 SOAP: [[Romans 4 - SOAP|Trusting God is What It’s All About]] ## 📂 Internal Notes [[SeriesOverview- The Mission (Romans)]]