Romans 4:1–25: Abraham Believed God (two sessions)

Says “If Abraham was indeed justified by works, he had something to boast about, but not before God” (4:2). καύχημα (kauchēma) is the ground for boasting. Scripture answers: “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness” (4:3), from Gen 15:6. Paul follows Swete's LXX, with the passive ἐλογίσθη (elogisthē, “was credited”) and εἰς δικαιοσύνην (eis dikaiosynēn, “as righteousness”), but has δέ (de) for καί (kai) and the later name Abraham. The Hebrew is וַיַּחְשְׁבֶהָ לּוֹ צְדָקָה (vayyakhsheveha lo tsedaqah, “and he counted it to him as righteousness,” literal), with צְדָקָה (tsedaqah) without a preposition.

Implies 4:1 turns to Abraham as the test case for 3:27–31: boasting excluded, and one God justifying circumcised and uncircumcised by faith.

Text notes: the place of εὑρηκέναι (heurēkenai, “has discovered”) varies, and WH omits it; RP and TR read πατέρα (patera, “father”) for προπάτορα (propatora, “forefather”).

Says “Now the wages of the worker are not credited as a gift, but as an obligation” (4:4). “However, to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness” (4:5). The words are μισθός (misthos, “wages”), ὀφείλημα (opheilēma, “obligation”), λογίζομαι (logizomai, “credit, count”), and ἀσεβής (asebēs, “ungodly”).

Implies God justifies τὸν ἀσεβῆ (ton asebē, “the ungodly”), so the verdict does not rest on godliness found in the person.

Says “And David speaks likewise of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works” (4:6), and quotes Ps 32:1–2: “Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him” (4:8). Paul's words match Swete's LXX (Ps 31:1–2), without the psalm's title. μακαρισμός (makarismos) is the declaration of blessedness. Ps 32:2 has the Qal imperfect of the verb used in Gen 15:6, חָשַׁב (khashav, “count, reckon”). SBLGNT prints οὗ (hou) in 4:8; RP and TR read ᾧ (hō).

Implies Paul joins Ps 32 to Gen 15:6 through the shared verb (חָשַׁב, khashav; λογίζομαι, logizomai). Uncertain Whether he consciously uses the later rabbinic rule of linking texts by a shared word (gezerah shavah).

Says “In what context was it credited? Was it after his circumcision, or before? It was not after, but before” (4:10). “And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised” (4:11). He is “the father of all who believe but are not circumcised” (4:11) and “also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised, but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised” (4:12).

Says In Genesis the crediting (15:6) comes before the circumcision (17:24). Gen 17:11 calls circumcision a sign of the covenant, לְאוֹת בְּרִית (le'ot berit, “for a sign of the covenant,” literal). σημεῖον (sēmeion, “sign”) matches Swete's LXX; σφραγίς (sphragis, “seal”) is Paul's word, absent from Gen 17.

Implies The order of Genesis settles the question: Gen 15:6 comes before Ishmael's birth, when Abraham was eighty-six (Gen 16:16), and the circumcision when he was ninety-nine (17:1, 24). Text notes: NA28, RP, and TR add καί (kai) before αὐτοῖς (autois) in 4:11, and the order of the last words of 4:12 varies without change of sense.

Uncertain How 4:1 is construed. The commentary leans to the construal the BSB follows: Abraham is the subject of εὑρηκέναι (heurēkenai), and κατὰ σάρκα (kata sarka, “according to the flesh”) goes with τὸν προπάτορα ἡμῶν (ton propatora hēmōn, “our forefather”), because the phrase follows it directly and Paul uses κατὰ σάρκα of descent (1:3; 9:3, 5). Two alternatives are named: κατὰ σάρκα with εὑρηκέναι, “found by the flesh” (literal), that is, by his own effort; and a break after ἐροῦμεν (eroumen, “shall we say”), “Have we found Abraham to be our forefather according to the flesh?” (literal; Wright).

Background: Jewish writers praised Abraham as tested and found faithful, and 1 Macc 2:52 (non-canonical; cited for historical context only) joins Gen 15:6 to the testing of Gen 22. Uncertain Whether Paul answers 1 Macc 2:52 or Sir 44:20 (non-canonical) in particular. Implies The crediting of righteousness rests on God who justifies the ungodly (4:4–5), not on Abraham's tested faithfulness.

Implies In 4:3–8 λογίζομαι (logizomai) is God's forensic crediting of righteousness apart from works. Implies Faith is the instrument, not the ground, and is not itself the righteousness credited. In 4:4–5 believing is set against working as the way a gift is received, not offered as a substitute work. The righteousness is God's free gift through the redemption in Christ (3:24–26); it comes through the obedience of the one man (5:18–19); in Christ believers “become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor 5:21); and it is “from God,” not “my own” (Phil 3:9).

Implies Read together with those passages, the righteousness credited in 4:3–8 is Christ's righteousness imputed to the believer. The case is set out in the approved Romans 1 imputation note (note.exegetical.Rom.1.17.imputation; Romans 1 study, s1.int.6) and is not restated here.

Uncertain The force of εἰς δικαιοσύνην (eis dikaiosynēn). The commentary leans to “as righteousness” (the LXX idiom; compare 2:26); the alternative is “with a view to righteousness” (literal), faith leading to it.

Other readings, by reference: Gundry argues that Paul speaks of faith itself reckoned as righteousness, not of Christ's righteousness imputed. Wright also denies that Paul teaches the imputation of Christ's righteousness and reads the verdict as God's declaration that the believer belongs to his people.

Implies The wage picture excludes working of any kind as the ground of the verdict, not only the practices that marked Israel off: the contrast is between working and believing, wage and gift (4:4–5).

Reported views (by reference, not the team's): Sanders described the Judaism of the period as covenantal nomism. Dunn reads “works of the law” chiefly as Israel's distinguishing practices and takes the wage picture of 4:4 as illustration only, and Wright reads Romans 4 chiefly as about who belongs to Abraham's family. Westerholm and Gathercole read 4:4–5 as setting God's grace against human doing in general.

For the fuller debate on “works of the law,” use the Romans 3 study (s1.int.5); do not reopen it here.

Implies Crediting righteousness (4:6) and not counting sin (4:7–8) are two sides of one verdict. The same verb, λογίζομαι (logizomai), stands in Gen 15:6 and Ps 32:2, and David, a forgiven sinner, is blessed apart from works.

Implies Abraham, from the Law, and David, from the Psalms, show that God credits righteousness apart from works; Romans 4 is the Scripture proof of 3:21–31, where the righteousness of God was revealed “as attested by the Law and the Prophets” (3:21).

Implies The sign and seal confirmed a righteousness already credited by faith; they did not cause it (4:10–11). Later Jewish teaching made circumcision the completion of Abraham's righteousness (m. Ned. 3:11), and Paul's order of events tells against that. Uncertain Whether Paul's “seal” draws on a Jewish usage for circumcision already current in his day.

Uncertain The genitive σημεῖον … περιτομῆς (sēmeion … peritomēs). The commentary leans to “the sign, namely circumcision” (literal): Abbott-Smith lists Rom 4:11 as an epexegetic genitive, and Gen 17:11 calls circumcision the sign. The alternative is “the sign belonging to circumcision” (literal).

Uncertain The use of 4:11 in debates on baptism. Paedobaptist readings take baptism, like circumcision, as a sign and seal of the covenant of grace given also to believers' children, comparing Col 2:11–12 (Westminster Confession 28). Credobaptist readings note that Abraham's seal followed his faith and that Col 2:11–12 ties baptism to faith, so baptism follows profession of faith (Second London Baptist Confession 29). The team takes no lean.

Uncertain Whether 4:12 describes one group or two. The commentary leans to one group, circumcised Jews who also walk in Abraham's faith, taking the second τοῖς (tois) as loose style; the alternative is two groups.

Grounding: Says To the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness (4:5). Implies The verdict does not rest on godliness found in the person; faith is the instrument, not the ground. Keep the discussion on these points.

Grounding: Says “Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him” (4:8). Implies Not counting sin and crediting righteousness belong to one verdict. Leave aside the open question of gezerah shavah.

Grounding: Says Abraham is the father of all who believe but are not circumcised, and of the circumcised who walk in his faith (4:11–12). Implies He is father of believing Gentiles and believing Jews alike, by faith and not by circumcision, as the one God justifies both by faith (3:29–30). Do not build on the baptism question or the one-group/two-groups question in 4:12.