Romans Chapter 4 Vs. 1

 

Abraham Justified by Faith

What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? Rom 4:1

What shall we... Questions 27-28. Next, Rom. 4:9. Paul here (Rom. 4:1-3), after proving in Rom. 3:21-31 that both Jews and Gentiles could only be saved by grace through faith, shows by examples how Abraham and David were justified. Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation, was a heathen, an uncircumcised Gentile, before God pardoned him by grace through faith. He could not have been justified by obedience to the law, which was not until 430 years later (Gal. 3:17). Paul points out that Abraham was pardoned the same way the gospel saves Jews and Gentiles. Why should the Jews condemn Christianity and oppose Gentiles when they were included in the Abrahamic covenant (Gen. 12:1-3; 17:4)? Paul also proves that this blessing did not come through circumcision, for Abraham had it many years before he was circumcised (Rom. 4:9-12; Gen. 12:1-3; 15:6; 17:1-14). If Abraham was blessed before and without circumcision, then Gentiles also could be.

our father, as... Jews claimed Abraham as their father (Rom. 9:5; Luke 1:73; John 8:39; Acts 7:2).

Paul here, is using a question to drive a point home. He is saying in essence, if anyone could boast of making himself acceptable to God in the flesh it would have been Abraham. Not even Abraham was justified by the outward show of his faith in God by circumcising the males. It was not the circumcising of the males that made him acceptable to God, but his great faith.

Paul uses the model of Abraham to prove justification by faith alone because the Jews held him up as the supreme example of a righteous man and because it clearly showed that Judaism with its works righteousness had deviated from the faith of the Jews’ patriarchal ancestors. In a spiritual sense, Abraham was the forerunner of the primarily Gentile church in Rome as well.

Provided righteousness illustrated

The Apostle Paul had presented his case that God declares people righteous on the principle of faith instead of works. If his position is true, he should be able to illustrate it from the past. This he did with Abraham, the patriarch of Israel (cf. John 8:39), and David as well.

By Faith Not Works

Paul introduced his illustration of Abraham with the first of six occurrences of the question, What then shall we say? (Rom. 6:1; 7:7; 8:31; 9:14, 9:30) He referred to Abraham as our forefather. (“Forefather” is used only here in the NT.) Undoubtedly this was to distinguish Abraham’s physical ancestry from his spiritual fatherhood, mentioned later in Rom. 4:11-12, 4:16. What had this patriarch discovered in this matter? What lesson could Paul’s readers learn from the biblical record of Abraham’s experience?