Commentary - Romans 4:1-8

Bird's-eye view

Having established the universal sinfulness of man and the glorious doctrine of justification by faith in the preceding chapters, Paul now turns to the Old Testament to prove his case. This is a master stroke. He is not introducing some new religion, but is demonstrating that the gospel he preaches is the same faith held by the great patriarchs of Israel. He calls two star witnesses to the stand: Abraham, the father of the nation, and David, their greatest king. By showing that both Abraham and David were justified by faith apart from works, Paul demolishes the foundation of any system of works righteousness and shows that God has only ever had one way of saving sinners, and that is by grace through faith.

The central theme of this section is imputation. This is an accounting term, a word of the marketplace. It means to credit something to someone's account. Paul will show that righteousness was credited to Abraham's account on the basis of his belief, not his behavior. And he will show from David that the blessed man is the one to whom God does not credit sin. This is the glorious double exchange of the gospel: our sin is credited to Christ, and His perfect righteousness is credited to us.

Outline

Context In Romans

Romans 4 is not a detour, but the necessary foundation for Paul's argument. In Romans 3:21, he stated that the righteousness of God has been manifested "apart from the law," yet is "witnessed by the Law and the Prophets." Now he must prove that statement. If he can demonstrate from the lives of Abraham and David, the two most revered figures in Jewish history, that justification has always been by faith, then his argument stands. This chapter serves as the scriptural bedrock for the doctrine of sola fide, justification by faith alone. It connects the new covenant realities in Christ to the ancient promises of God, showing a beautiful continuity throughout all of salvation history.

Romans 4:1

What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found?

Paul begins with a rhetorical question, anticipating the immediate objection from his Jewish readers. He has just made the audacious claim that justification is by faith, apart from works of the law. The natural response would be, "What about Abraham?" To the Jew, Abraham was the paragon of faithfulness and obedience. He left his home, he was circumcised, he was willing to offer up Isaac. Surely his righteousness was earned. Paul puts the question directly: what did Abraham find, or discover, or gain? By calling him "our forefather according to the flesh," Paul acknowledges his unique place in Jewish history while subtly preparing to introduce a different kind of fatherhood, a fatherhood of faith that extends to the Gentiles.

Romans 4:2

For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God!

Paul addresses the premise head on. Let us suppose, for the sake of argument, that Abraham was justified by his works. If that were the case, the logical consequence is that he would have grounds for boasting. He could stand up and say, "Look what I have done. Look at my resume of obedience." And by human standards, it was an impressive resume. But Paul immediately shuts the door on this line of thinking with a crucial qualifier: "but not before God!" Before men, Abraham's works might be impressive. But in the courtroom of a perfectly holy God, they are as nothing. God's standard is perfection, and no man, not even Abraham, can meet that standard. Therefore, any system of justification by works will always result in human boasting, which is antithetical to the worship of God. The gospel, however, excludes boasting entirely (Rom 3:27) because it is all of God.

Romans 4:3

For what does the Scripture say? “ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS COUNTED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.”

This is the anchor of Paul's entire argument. He does not appeal to tradition or reason, but asks the final, authoritative question: "What does the Scripture say?" The answer comes directly from Genesis 15:6. The event described there happened long before Abraham was circumcised (Genesis 17) and centuries before the Law was given at Sinai. So what was it that put Abraham in right standing with God? It was not his works. It was his belief. He believed the promise of God, a promise that was, from a human perspective, utterly impossible. And God's response was to credit this faith to his account as righteousness. The word "counted" here is the Greek word logizomai, an accounting term. It means to reckon, to impute, to credit to someone's ledger. Righteousness was not something Abraham possessed; it was something God credited to him as a gift, received by the empty hand of faith.

Romans 4:4-5

Now to the one who works, his wage is not counted according to grace, but according to what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes upon Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness,

Paul now draws a sharp and non negotiable distinction between two operating principles: works and grace. They are mutually exclusive. The one who works operates under the principle of debt. If you work a forty hour week, your employer does not give you a gift at the end of it; he pays you a wage that is due. It is an obligation. This is how works righteousness functions. It attempts to put God in our debt.

But the gospel operates on a completely different principle. It is for "the one who does not work." This is profoundly offensive to our pride. It means you come with empty hands. You bring nothing to the table. And what does this non working person do? He "believes upon Him who justifies the ungodly." Notice who God justifies. Not the righteous, not the religious, not the people who are trying really hard. He justifies the ungodly. This is the scandal and the glory of the gospel. God declares wicked sinners to be righteous, not because of what they have done, but because they have trusted in Him. And on the basis of that trust, that faith, He credits righteousness to their account.

Romans 4:6-8

just as David also speaks of the blessing on the man to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: “BLESSED ARE THOSE WHOSE LAWLESS DEEDS HAVE BEEN FORGIVEN, AND WHOSE SINS HAVE BEEN COVERED. BLESSED IS THE MAN WHOSE SIN THE LORD WILL NOT TAKE INTO ACCOUNT.”

As if the testimony of Abraham were not enough, Paul calls his second witness: King David. This shows that the principle of imputed righteousness was not some obscure detail from Abraham's life but a central tenet of Old Testament faith. Paul quotes from Psalm 32, a psalm David wrote after his terrible sin with Bathsheba. If anyone knew he could not be justified by works, it was David. He was an adulterer and a murderer.

And what does David say constitutes the blessed life? It is not a life of sinless perfection. The blessed man is the one whose "lawless deeds have been forgiven" and whose "sins have been covered." The blessing lies in the removal of sin. And then, in verse 8, he puts it in the accounting language Paul has been using. The blessed man is the one "whose sin the Lord will not take into account." The Lord will not impute his sin to him. So we have two sides of the same glorious coin. With Abraham, we see righteousness imputed. With David, we see sin not imputed. This is the great exchange. Our sin is not counted against us because it was counted against Christ on the cross. His righteousness is counted for us, because we are united to Him by faith.

Application

The truth of this passage is the foundation of all Christian assurance and the death of all spiritual pride. Your standing before God does not depend on your performance this week. It does not rise and fall with your good days and bad days. If you are a believer, your standing is based entirely on a transaction that took place two thousand years ago, a reality that was credited to your account the moment you believed.

God justifies the ungodly. This means that you do not have to clean yourself up before you come to Christ. You come to Him as you are, a sinner, and you believe upon Him. He is the one who does the justifying. He is the one who provides the righteousness. This frees us from the miserable treadmill of trying to earn God's favor. We are not wage earners; we are beggars who have been made sons. The blessed life is not found in trying harder, but in trusting more fully in the one whose lawless deeds were forgiven, and whose sin will never be counted against them, for Jesus' sake.