Romans 4:3

what saith the scripture? See on Romans 1:17.

Abraham believed, &c. Lit. But Abraham believed, &c. The particle is, perhaps, significant; emphasizing the verb. The Gr. is verbatim from LXX. of Genesis 15:6, save that "but" is "and" in LXX. See by all means Genesis 15:5-6, as a leading illustration of what faith is in St Paul's sense; personal trust in God; acceptance of His word absolutely, because it is His. (See further on Romans 4:22 below.)

it was counted The same Gr. verb is rendered in this chapter "reckoned," Romans 4:4; Romans 4:9-10; "counted," Romans 4:5; "imputed," Romans 4:11; Romans 4:22-24: see too Romans 4:6; Romans 4:8. (In 2 Timothy 4:16 it is "laid to charge.") Its plain meaning is (like that of the Lat. imputare) to put down on an account(whether as debt or credit the context decides). The reason whyof the "imputation" does not lie in the word itself, which may equally be used where merit and grace, wages and gift, are in question.

for righteousness i.e. "as if it were righteousness" (in respect of results) Same construction as Romans 2:26, a passage which illustrates this. There the (supposed) Gentile who keeps the law, is treated as if he were circumcised, though he is not. Here Abraham, because he believes, is treated as having personal (justifying) righteousness, though he has it not. In other words, he is justified on a ground which is not his own works. It is specially needful to notice (what this particular passage brings out) that faith is in no sense regarded as, in itself, righteousness. (See below, on Romans 4:25.) The statement is that, "by grace," the same result, viz. acceptance before God, follows faith that would follow the possession of merit. Faith is the condition, but not the ground, of this acceptance. The ground is the Propitiation.

[In Psalms 106:31 we have the very words used of Phinehas which are here used of Abraham. But comparing the Psalm with Numbers 25:11-13 we see the difference of application. In Phinehas, an act of holy zeal was honoured by a special temporal favour, the permanence of the priesthood in his family. It was no question of acceptance in respect of salvation;a matter which lies on a totally different level from that of temporal rewards. On that lower level, the act of Phinehas wasone of merit, and was "reckoned" as such to him and his house. In Abraham's case we have two notes of difference from that of Phinehas: (1) faith in God, not an act of zeal, is the occasion; (2) the "imputation" is mentioned absolutely and with peculiar solemnity, unconnected with any temporal results. And thus it is taken by St Paul here, as his whole reasoning shews, as a Divine intimation of the true conditions of the acceptance of man by God "without works."]

On James 2:14, &c., see Appendix C.