R*o
发帖数: 3781 | 1 Study By: Greg Herrick
A. Introduction
James Montgomery Boice comments on a Bible tract prepared by some atheists:
“Quite a few years ago a society for the spread of atheism prepared a tract
containing half a dozen sketches of Old Testament characters combined with
a lurid description of their misdeeds. No efforts were spared in describing
their sin. One figure was Abraham. The leaflet pointed out that he was willi
ng to sacrifice his wife's honor to save his own life. Yet he was called “t
he friend of God.” The atheists asked what kind of God this is who would ha
ve a friend like Abraham. Another figure was Jacob. He was described as a ch
eat and a liar. Yet God called himself “the God of Jacob.” Moses was portr
ayed as a murderer and a fugitive from justice, which he was. David was show
n to be an adulterer who compounded the crime of adultery with the murder of
the woman's husband. Yet David was called a man after God's own heart.” Th
e atheists asked what kind of God he must be who could be pleased with David
.
Remarkably this tract had hit on something which even God acknowledges. God
calls himself just and holy. Yet for centuries he had been refusing to conde
mn and instead had actually been justifying men and women such as these. We
might say that for these long centuries there had been a blot on God's name.
As Paul says, he had indeed been passing over former sins. Is God unjust? N
o. In the death of Christ God's name and purposes are vindicated. It is now
seen that on the basis of that death, God had justified and continues to jus
tify the ungodly.”40
Boice has rightly noted that justification involves God's declaration of acq
uittal of the ungodly on the basis of Christ's death. At the core of justifi
cation is a new legal standing, wherein the righteousness of Christ is imput
ed to the sinner's account and she/he has been permanently forgiven. This is
, in miniature form, the theme of Romans 4:1-12. | R*o
发帖数: 3781 | 2 B. Translation of Passage in NET
4:1 What then shall we say that Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh
, has discovered regarding this matter?
4:2 For if Abraham was declared righteous by the works of the law, he has so
mething to boast about (but not before God).
4:3 For what does the scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was cred
ited to him as righteousness.”
4:4 Now to the one who works, his pay is not credited due to grace but due t
o obligation.
4:5 But to the one who does not work, but believes in the one who declares t
he ungodly righteous, his faith is credited as righteousness.
4:6 So even David himself speaks regarding the blessedness of the man to who
m God credits righteousness apart from works:
4:7 “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are
covered;
4:8 blessed is the one against whom the Lord does not count sin.”
4:9 Is this blessedness then for the circumcision or also for the uncircumci
sion? For we say, “faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness.”
4:10 How then was it credited to him? Was he circumcised at the time, or not
? No, he was not circumcised but uncircumcised!
4:11 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 bec
ome the father of all those who believe but have never been circumcised, tha
t they too could have righteousness credited to them.
4:12 And he is also the father of the circumcised, who are not only circumci
sed, but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham
possessed when he was still uncircumcised. | R*o
发帖数: 3781 | 3 D. Simple Point Outline
Idea: Justification Is Apart from Works and Circumcision
I. Justification Is Apart from Works (4:1-8)
A. The Citation of Genesis 15:6 (4:1-3)
B. The Nature of “Crediting” (4:4-5)
C. The Citation of Psalm 31:1-2a LXX (4:6-8)
II. Justification Is Apart from Circumcision (4:9-12)
A. Abraham’s Circumcumcision after Genesis 15:6 (4:9-10)
B. Abraham, the Father of Gentile Believers (4:11)
C. Abraham, the Father of Jewish Believers (4:12) | R*o
发帖数: 3781 | 4 E. Exposition Proper
Paul has just argued in 3:21-31 that justification is by faith and is availa
ble to all men. And, since it is apart from any works of the law, all boasti
ng is excluded (cf. esp. 3:27-28). In 4:1-12 he will buttress this argument
with proof from the OT and the experience of Abraham and David.
4:1 Paul now turns to the example of Abraham. He asks the question: “What d
id Abraham find with regard to the manner in which God justifies a person? W
as it by faith or by works? Abraham found that it was by faith, not by works
.
The use of the perfect tense verb has discovered (euJrhkevnai, heurekenai) p
oints to the declaration of righteousness in Genesis 15:6 and the fact that
such a declaration formed the lasting foundation of Abraham’s relationship
with YHWH.
When Paul says our (hJmwn, hemon) father Abraham he is not just referring to
the Jews, but is including the Gentiles as well—everyone in the church at
Rome.
4:2 Paul says, “let’s see what Abraham found, because if he found that he
was justified by works (ejx e[rgwn ejdikaiwvqh, ex ergon edikaiothe), then h
e has a boast, but not before God.” If Abraham earned a legal declaration o
f righteousness—which itself involves acquittal from any and all sins, as w
ell as the positive imputation of Christ's righteousness—on the basis of hi
s own (meritorious) works, he can boast, but even then, not before God.
But Paul's argument here seems to put him in conflict with James in 2:24: “
You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.” The ob
vious answer to this apparent dilemma is that Paul refers to the initial leg
al justification of a person while James refers to the final vindication of
the same person who has claimed throughout his/her life to have faith. Thus
the two are using the term "justify" in different, though related senses. In
short, there is no real contradiction. | R*o
发帖数: 3781 | 5 4:3 Picking up on the question of whether Abraham was justified by works (wh
ich some Jews held), Paul says: this is not what the scripture teaches. It t
eaches in Genesis 15:6 that Abraham believed God and it was credited to him
as righteousness (ejpivsteusen deV jAbraaVm tw'/ qew'/ kaiV ejlogivsqh aujtw
'/ eij" dikaiosuvnhn, episteusen de Abraam to theo elogisthe auto eis dikaio
sune). In other words, Abraham was declared righteous by believing God conce
rning the promise for many descendants (i.e., as numerous as the stars). He
was not declared righteous on the basis of any works he had performed.
What Paul is saying here flies directly in the face of much of what his cont
emporaries believed about Abraham. Abraham was held in high esteem in Paul's
day, and not necessarily needing God’s grace—that is, grace which was res
erved for sinners. He was regarded as the father of the Jewish nation and on
e who obeyed God implicitly in absolutely everything (Ant 1. 225; Jub. 17:18
). Indeed, it was because of his obedience that he received the promise of p
osterity, not because of his faith apart from works (cf. Gen 26:4-5).
In the Jewish intertestamental book of Sirach, the following is said of Abra
ham:
19Abraham was the great father of a multitude of nations, and no one has bee
n found like him in glory.20 He kept the law of the Most High, and entered i
nto a covenant with him; he certified the covenant in his flesh, and when he
was tested he proved faithful.21 Therefore the Lord assured him with an oat
h that the nations would be blessed through his offspring; that he would mak
e him as numerous as the dust of the earth, and exalt his offspring like the
stars, and give them an inheritance from sea to sea and from the Euphrates
to the ends of the earth (44:19-21; NRSV).
But Paul understands the OT traditions about Abraham to say something quite
different regarding the particular question of his salvation and justificati
on. The words it was credited (ejlogivsqh, elogisthe) translate only one ver
b in the Greek text. The verb is functioning as a divine passive, meaning th
at God was the one who did the crediting, not Abraham. Abraham did not earn
righteousness by works, rather Gdo credited righteousness to his account by
faith. The Greek term elogisthe is used eleven times in 4:1-25 and may also
be translated: “to impute,” “to reckon” or “to calculate.”
Now the fact that elogisthe is used eleven times in 4:1-25 (nine in 4:1-12)
suggests that the rest of this section is a developed commentary on the mean
ing and application of the term as understood from Genesis 15:6. Paul also c
ites Ps 32:1-2 (in 4:7-8) which is related to Genesis 15:6 verbally through
the use of the same term, i.e., logisetai. Some scholars, therefore, suggest
that Paul’s exegesis is a fine example of Jewish midrash. But while it is
quite likely that Paul is following similar Jewish exegetical practices (i.e
., joining passages together on the basis of similar catchwords), his use of
Genesis 15:6 and Ps 32:1-2 is much more in keeping with their canonical con
texts and, therefore, distinct from much of the way texts were handled by th
e rabbis in their endless discussions. Further, to label Paul’s handling of
these OT texts as midrash is really not helpful in the final analysis since
the term “midrash” is ambiguous; some relate it to an interpretive method
, some to a psychology or mindset involved in the interpretive process, and
some to the end product of such methods.
4:4 In vv. 4-5 Paul will take a moment to explain further what he means by t
he phrase it was credited in 4:3. Then he will confirm his understanding of
the term (elogisthe) by citing David’s words on the matter.
The point of v. 4 is that righteousness is not credited like the earnings a
person receives when he/she works a job. In this case, the earnings are lega
lly due to the worker as an obligation (ojfeivlhma, opheilema). This means t
hat they are not freely given according to grace (cavri", charis), but rathe
r they are earned through hard effort. Indeed, if they were credited accordi
ng to works, the term “credited” would mean nothing and neither would the
term “grace.”
4:5 In v. 5 Paul is not espousing laziness (cf. 1 Thess 4:11-12), but instea
d argues that righteousness is not credited to the person who trusts in his
law-works to save himself, but [is credited to the person who] believes in t
he one who declares the ungodly righteous (pisteuvonti deV ejpiV toVn dikaio
u'nta toVn ajsebh', pisteuonti de epi ton dikaiounta ton asebe). This person
’s faith is credited as righteousness (logivzetai hJ pivsti" aujtou' eij" d
ikaiosuvnhn, logizetai he pistis autou eis dikaiosunen). That is, it is thro
ugh this kind of faith that God declares the person righteous and views them
with the righteousness of Christ himself.
4:6-8 The truth about God justifying the ungodly apart from works—a state o
f blessing (makarismov", makarismos) according to David—is found even in Da
vid’s own writings, namely, Psalm 32:1-2a in the MT and Ps 31:1-2a in LXX.
The quotation functions at two very important levels: (1) it is another witn
ess from scripture, but this time outside the Pentateuch (the five books of
Moses); (2) the term logisetai in Ps 31:2a (in 4:8) connects the Psalm to el
ogisthe in Genesis 15:6 (cited in 4:3) and underscores the forensic or legal
aspects of justification in terms of acquittal. Indeed, these verses serve
to accentuate the close relationship in Paul’s mind between justification a
nd forgiveness for lawless deeds (aiJ ajnomivai, hai anomiai) and sins (aiJ
aJmartivai, hai hamartiai). This justification, about which Paul speaks, the
n, is available to those in 1:18-32 and those in 2:1-3:8; it means that God
has declared them righteous and will never credit their sin to them so as to
overturn his verdict of acquittal.
Now this idea of God justifying the ungodly seems at first glance to oppose
explicit statements to the contrary in the OT—the very source from which Pa
ul is trying to prove his doctrine. It would have also been quite repugnant
to many strands of first century Judaism. Exodus 23:7 (NET) says: “Keep you
r distance from a false charge—do not kill the innocent and the righteous,
for I do not justify the wicked.” Proverbs 17:15 (NET) says: “Justifying t
he wicked and condemning the righteous—both of them are an abomination to t
he LORD” (cf. Isa 5:23). The primary difference, however, between Paul's ar
gument and these OT citations is the issue of justice. Justice has been sati
sfied in the case of the gospel (i.e., through the death of Christ), but it
has not been met in the case of the OT examples cited. | R*o
发帖数: 3781 | 6 4:9-10 There are those who argue that v. 9 begins a new paragraph, but this
is unlikely since the themes of “blessing,” “crediting,” and “faith” a
re simply worked out in a little greater detail.
Now a Jew might respond to Paul’s argument by claiming that justification i
s possible, but only for the Jew as the texts cited from the OT were given t
o and applied to Jews only. After all, Abraham is their father, and David wa
s their king; indeed most of David's enemies were Gentiles!
The argument of vv. 9-10 is that since Abraham was justified before he was c
ircumcised (29 years by rabbinic calculations), circumcision and being a bio
logical descendant of Abraham (or any manner of inclusion in the nation of I
srael) is not the issue as far as receiving the blessing of justification is
concerned. What is at issue is expressed in vv. 11-12.
4:11 Abraham received (e[laben, elaben)—he did not “earn”—the sign of ci
rcumcision (shmei'on…peritomh'", semeion…peritomes), that is, the sign whi
ch is circumcision. In contrast to rabbinic thinking, Paul argues that circu
mcision functioned as a sign which pointed toward the superior reality of a
righteousness received through faith. It functioned as a seal (sfragi'da, sp
hragida), that is, it was an external confirmation of the righteous standing
Abraham had already received by faith (th'" pivstew", tes pisteos) almost t
hirty years earlier. Abraham did not receive circumcision as a result of his
obedience to the Torah, nor is genuine membership in the people of God base
d on works, religious rites, or inclusion in the nation of Israel.
Abraham was declared righteous by faith before he was circumcised. The resul
t is that he can be, and indeed is, the spiritual father of every Gentile wh
o believes but has never been circumcised. Note also that Paul mentions the
fact that Abraham was the spiritual father of the Gentiles (v. 11) before he
mentions that the Patriarch was the spiritual father of those of the circum
cision. That Abraham was the spiritual father of the Gentiles, before he was
the spiritual father of the Jews, would have fallen on hard times among Pau
l’s Jewish contemporaries, but it opens up the reality of the universality
of God’s offer of righteousness to all men (cf. Acts 13:34, 47).
4:12 Abraham is not only the father of Gentile believers (in a spiritual sen
se), but also the father of the Jewish nation (physical and spiritual). In t
his final verse Paul has only one group in mind—Jews who believe. His argum
ent is that Abraham is not the spiritual father of any Jew who is circumcise
d, and yet has no faith. Rather, he is the spiritual father of every Jew who
has faith—the kind of faith, that is, that Abraham had while he was still
uncircumcised.
This final comment about “the faith our father Abraham possessed when he wa
s still uncircumcised” emphasizes a faith that has no desire to rest on the
rite of circumcision or any other foundation (e.g., works) other than God’
s grace and mercy.
F. Homiletical Idea and Outline
Idea: Accept God’s Gift of Righteousness by Faith Alone
I. By Trusting in God and not Your Works (4:1-8)
A. God Doesn’t Justify People by Works (4:1-3)
B. God Justifies the Ungodly by Faith (4:4-8)
II. By Trusting in God and not Religious Rites (4:9-12) | R*o
发帖数: 3781 | 7 G. Contribution of Passage to Systematic Theology
Romans 4:1-12 teaches us several things. First, the use of Genesis 15:6 to d
emonstrate an essential NT doctrine, i.e., justification by faith apart from
works demonstrates the essential, salvific unity between the testaments. Wh
ile the content of the revelation is in many respects different in the NT, t
he object of faith, namely, God, and the primacy of faith over works, has no
t changed. In Romans 4:1-12, the presupposition is that the essential prophe
tic continuity of scripture is affected through promise—the promise to Abra
ham. Thus the OT can be read with profit by any Christian—a fact Paul appea
ls to later in Romans 15:4.
Second, and in keeping with the overarching theme of promise, is that justif
ication is by grace through faith involving no merit of our own. This passag
e affirms that we are unable to save ourselves and that grace is our only ho
pe. This being the case, the observance of religious rites, such as circumci
sion—or baptism, for that matter—is of no value in securing a relationship
with God.
Third, this passage, through the use of Abrahamic traditions, affirms the of
fer of salvation beyond the confines of Israel. Those who become Christians
by faith participate in the Abrahamic promise and are children of Abraham.
Fourth, this passage teaches that an essential element of justification invo
lves the forgiveness of sins.
H. Contribution of Passage to Discipleship and Church Mission
This passage is another reminder in Romans that the gospel is for all men, n
ot just the Jews, nor solely for those who are religious or upright. It is f
or all men and it is the responsibility of the church to proclaim it to all
men. It is by this gospel alone that men enter into a permanent relationship
with God in which they can know the complete and eternal forgiveness of sin
s.
“The wonder of forgiveness has become a banality. It can be the death of ou
r faith if we forget that it is literally a miracle”—Helmut Thielicke
“What I envy most about you Christians is your forgiveness; I have nobody t
o forgive me”—Marghanita Laski, secular humanist and novelist, before her
death in 1988.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
40 James Montgomery Boice, Awakening to God, Foundations for Christian Faith
, vol. 3 (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1979), 76-77. |
|
