Romans 4:2. For if Abraham was justified by works. It is assumed that he was justified, but the Jews held the opinion that he was justified by works. Notice that even in their view, justification was a matter where God's verdict was concerned.

Ground of glorying (not the same word as in chap. Romans 3:27); comp. Galatians 6:4, where the same phrase occurs.

But not toward God. The best paraphrase of this concisely expressed passage is: ‘If Abraham, as the Jews suppose, was justified by works, he has reason to glory toward God (for he could claim justification from God as “of debt”), but he has no ground of glorying toward God (and hence was not justified by works), for the Scripture says he was justified by faith (Romans 4:3).' Some commentators, however, following the Greek fathers, take the clause: ‘but not toward God,' as implying that his justification by faith gives him a ground of glorying toward God, but the supposed justification by works would give him only a pound of glorying toward men, God having nothing to do with it except to acknowledge it as justly earned. The objections to this view are that Romans 4:3 would then contain a refutation introduced by ‘but' not ‘for;' that it is not like Paul to admit any ground of glorying toward men, much less toward God, in connection with the matter of justification.

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Old Testament