Romans 4 - Introduction

c. 4. This condition of faith is already seen in Abraham, typical of righteousness under the covenant of promise.
(1) Abraham was admittedly a righteous man: but how did he become so? (3) The scripture connects his righteousness with his faith. (6) So David makes forgiveness an act of GOD’s grace. (9) Nor is this grace confined to the Covenant people; for in Abraham’s case the covenant was not the precedent but the confirmation of his righteousness, (11b) so that he is father (according to the promise) of all that believe though uncovenanted and of the covenanted only so far as they share his faith. (13) For the promise was given not under law but under a state of righteousness due to faith. (14) If the law is a condition of inheritance of Abraham, then Abraham’s faith has no effect, and the promise made to him is annulled—for the effect of the law is wrath; where law is not, neither is there transgression. (16) And the reason for this dependence upon faith is clear: it is that righteousness may be absolutely GOD’s gift, and therefore free, in fulfilment of the promise, to all the true seed of Abraham, that is to those who derive from him not by the link of the law but by that of faith, by virtue of which he, as the promise said, is father of all of us who believe, both Jews and Gentiles, (17b) all standing before the same GOD in whom Abraham believed, the GOD who quickens the dead and ascribes being to that which is not: (18) the particular act of faith required absolute trust in Him who gave the promise in spite of supreme difficulties, trust both in the truth and in the power of GOD. (22) This trust was reckoned for righteousness. (23) The incident has reference to us: righteousness will be reckoned to us too for our trust in GOD: for us too He has shown His truth and power by raising Jesus our Lord from death, delivered up for our transgressions and raised for our justification.

The case of Abraham is taken to illustrate the preceding argument: the Jews would quote it as a clear case of justification under the old covenant, and therefore presumably under law; it would follow that the promise made to Abraham was limited to his descendants who were under the covenant of law. S. Paul points out, to the contrary, that here all depended on faith, and on an act of faith parallel to that which the Gospel demands. It follows that the principle of δικαιοσύνη ἐκ πίστεως held under the old dispensation as under the new; and that in this respect as in others the Gospel is not a breach with the old, but a revival of its fundamental principles in a form in which they reach their perfect exemplification; cf. Romans 3:21. The case of Abraham was a current thesis of the Rabbinic schools; cf. Lightfoot, Gal., p. 158 ff.