Synopsis on Romans (Part 3 - Chapter 4:1-8)

As I sit here on the night before church, being faced with insomnia, I figure I might as well go ahead and get back into my series on Romans. Since it is a bit to absorb, I will only address the first 8 verses of chapter 4.

At the conclusion of chapter 2, the hypothetical Jewish objector asks if what Paul says is true, how then how can one boast that they have worked and reach the level of justification. Paul's answer is that they can not and that is because of "law of faith" (or the "righteousness that is based on faith" in Philippians 3:9, or the "obedience of faith" in Romans 1:5).

In response then, the hypothetical objector would bring up the topic of Abraham and the things he had found. Abraham received the promises from God because of his works, specifically the sacrificing of Isaac (see Genesis 22) and we justified because of his works (see also James 2:21-23). If these works allowed Abraham to be righteous in God's eyes, then he has ever reason to boast about obtaining justification by his own striving. However, Paul's response is simple. "Not before God." Paul goes on to explain the rationale in the 4:3-9.

Paul first quotes from Genesis 15:6, where Abraham believed God. The result was that this trust in God was accounted to Abraham as righteousness. The natural meaning of this phrase isn't to say that Abraham was accounted something he did not have (IE to impute Christ's righteousness to Abraham), but rather to say that Abraham's faith came from a righteous principle that Abraham had. What Paul proves here is that justification is, at least in some part by faith. This is the beginning of his response and not proof in and of itself. Paul's quotation says nothing of works, nor does it exclude works.

To move on further, Paul uses the analogy of a person who works for an employer. When a person works, they receive a wage. But then that wage is not due to any favor (or grace) from the employer. It is simply what is due.

Many people interpret Paul here to be referring to any person that tries to work their way to salvation, but this is not Paul's point whatsoever. He is explaining the promises Abraham received. Abraham obeyed God, which showed he was righteous. Therefore, if that is the case, a person who is righteous should indeed be declared righteous.

Paul is also not referring to the idea of merit. We should be careful to make too much of the metaphor to pull out of it a theology about merit. The wage (justification from works) is not due because of "merit" in Paul's eyes, but rather because it is the truth. To do otherwise would be to lie, so in that sense works are due a wage.

One important thing to note here. When I speak of a person being righteous, it does not mean they are perfectly righteous. Just as being a sinner doesn't mean a person only sins, it's opposite, righteousness, does not mean a person does only what is right. It simply means they practice what is right and by implication do not practice what is wrong. It does NOT mean perfection.

But Paul now give the example of the person who does not have works. He has shifted away from someone who has been obedient like Abraham. He is now talking about someone who has in fact been disobedient. If one were to evaluate their works, no one, including God, would consider them a righteous person. However, while they do not have works, they do "trust in God to justify the ungodly." As they are, they are ungodly and unrighteous. They deserve nothing from God. However, what does God do? He credits righteousness without having any works in their lives to base that upon. This is an act of grace from God. They don't have to have works to become accepted by God, but they are freely and graciously accepted by God immediately. Their trust in God leads to justification and is the application of Genesis 15:6 which he had just quoted.

What Paul has given here is the case of the obedient Christian on one hand and the ungodly man who has recognized his sins and trusts in God. Implicit with this second person is a contrition over their sins and repentance. They are, in a sense, a new convert. They do not have to work first to get God to accept them. By sincere repentance and trust in God, God will accept them immediately.

What is the reason for that? Paul doesn't explicitly give it here, but let me attempt to give a theological explanation. When a man repents and trusts in God to wash him clean of his sins, God in turn grants this request by making them a new creation (or by making them born again, regeneration, etc.). The result is that they have a principle of righteousness in their hearts now imparted to them by God through the Holy Spirit. So while they have no works to base justification upon, God credits their trust in Him to righteousness because He has given them a righteous principle from which they will then live by. The result is that they will have the works of a righteous man, like Abraham.

Paul does not stop with a simple statement that the ungodly may obtain justification. He does on to quote from a Psalm of David. The Psalm he quotes from is Psalm 32, which is a psalm of repentance. Implicit here to Paul and the Jewish readers is that it refers to a person who been disobedient to God, and could and would be called ungodly. However, in this psalm of repentance, David rights that he confessed his guilt and God forgave him (32:5). Furthermore, this is related to the topic Paul is talking about because in 32:11 David writes "he who trusts in the Lord, lovingkindness with surround them." Taking all this into consideration, Paul is right to judge that David is speaking of the blessing to those who God credits righteousness apart from works, because the psalm of repentance implies a man whose works do not show him to be righteous.

Paul quotes from the first one and half verses of Psalm 32. Two benefits are spoken of here. Forgiveness and sin not being imputed/credited. If sin is not credited to someone, it would imply that righteousness would be credited to them. Secondly, since they are forgiven, God is no longer angry with them.

A couple important things to note though. First off, if justification means forgiveness itself (defining justification as God in a trial setting absolves us of any guilt from what we have done), then Paul makes not sense here. He is needlessly redundant when he talks about the blessing of those who are credited with righteousness, since that phrase is used synonymously with justification in Paul's writing. Rather, it is better to understand that Paul is showing that the person who is justified without works is indeed forgiven by God. Paul quotes from 32:2 to show that forgiveness and justification are indeed linked, but the terms do not mean the same thing.

So what Paul has gone on to show by this quotation that there are indeed people who have no works, and that God forgives them and justifies them before they can do any works as a righteous person, if they only trust in Him (and implicitly repent like the Psalmist did). If that is the case, then this goes to show why Abraham or no other man can boast before God about their justification. Before they did any righteous works in according with justification, God saw them as righteous when they had lived wickedly. God first justified, so they did not earn their way up to that state. They merely obeyed afterwards, in line with God's judgment of them as being righteous. God worked first, then man responded.

I'll pick up the rest of chapter 4 in my next post.