Romans 4:16

If, then, the promise of the inheritance was serious, there was only one way to its fulfilment that the inheritance should be given by the way of faith and not of law. This consequence is expounded in Romans 4:16, which develops the last words of Romans 4:13: by the righteousness of faith, as Romans 4:15 had developed the first: not by the law.

Therefore: because of that condemning effect which attaches to the law. The verb and subject to be understood in this elliptical proposition might be: the promise was made. But the words following: that it might be by grace, do not allow this; the subject in question is evidently the fulfilment. What we must supply, therefore, is: the promise will be fulfilled, or: the heritage will be given. The inheritance, from the moment of its being granted to faith only, remains a gift of pure grace; and while remaining a gift of grace, it is possible for it not to be withdrawn, as it must have been if its acquisition had been attached to the fulfilment of the law. It is very important not to efface the notion of aim contained in the words εἰς τὸ εἶναι (that the promise might be), by translating, as Oltramare does, so that. There was positive intention on God's part, when He made the gift of inheritance depend solely on faith. For He knew well that this was the only way to render the promise sure (the opposite of being made void, Romans 4:14). And sure for whom? For all the seed of Abraham, in the true and full sense of the word; it was the fulfilment of those terms of the promise: “to thee and to thy seed. ” After what precedes, this term can only designate the patriarch's spiritual family all believers, Jew or Gentile. Faith being the sole condition of promise, ought also to be the sole characteristic of those in whom it will be realized. These words: sure for all the seed, are developed in what follows. The apostle embraces each of the two classes of believers contained in this general term: “sure,” says he, “ not only to that which is of the law,” believers of Jewish origin who would lose the inheritance if it was attached to the law, “ but also to that which is of faith,” Christians of Gentile origin to whom the promise would cease to be accessible the instant it was made to depend on any other character than that of faith. It is plain that the expression used here has a wholly different meaning from the apparently similar form employed in Romans 4:12. There are two classes of persons here, and not two attributes of the same persons. The second τῷ is a pronoun as well as the first. It may be objected, indeed, that in designating the first of these two classes Paul does not mention the characteristic of faith, and that consequently he is still speaking of Jews simply, not believing Jews. But after all that had gone before, the notion of faith was naturally implied in that of Abraham's seed. And to understand the apostle's words, we must beware of connecting the μόνον, only, exclusively with the words ἐκ τοῦ νόμοῦ, of the law: “those who are of the law only,” that is to say, who are simply Jews, and not believers. The μόνον refers to the whole phrase: τῷ ἐκ τοῦ νόμου, only that which is of the law, as is shown in the following context by the position of the καί, also, before the second τῷ : “ not only that which is of the law, but also that which ”...that is to say: not only believers who were formerly under the law, but also Gentile believers. The attribute of faith is expressly mentioned in the case of the last, because it appears in them free from all legal environment, and as their sole title to form part of Abraham's descendants.

The last words: who is the father of us all, sum up all that has been developed in the previous context. Believing Jews and Gentiles, we all participate by faith not only in justification, but also in the future possession of the world; for the true seed to whom this promise was made was that of faith, not that according to the law. Abraham is therefore the sole stem from which proceed those two branches which form in him one and the same spiritual organism.

But after all a Jew might still present himself, saying: “Very true; but that this divine plan might be realized, it was necessary that there should be an Israel; and that there might be an Israel, there must needs come into the world an Isaac. Now this son is born to Abraham in the way of natural, physical generation; and what has this mode of filiation in common with the way of faith?” Here in an instant is the domain of the flesh reconquered by the adversary; and to the question of Romans 4:1: “What has Abraham found by the flesh?” it only remains to answer: His son Isaac, consequently the chosen people, and consequently everything. A mind so familiarized as Paul's was with the secret thoughts of the Israelitish heart, could not neglect this important side of the question. He enters into this new subject as boldly as into the two preceding, and sapping the last root of Jewish prejudice by Scripture, he demonstrates that the birth of Isaac, no less than the promise of the inheritance and the grace of justification, was the effect of faith. Thus it is thoroughly proved that Abraham found nothing by the flesh; quod erat demonstrandum (Romans 4:1). This is the subject of the third passage, Romans 4:17-21.