Romans 4:1-8 – Justified by faith

In these verses Paul turned to two Old Testament figures to substantiate his argument that we are saved by faith and not by works. One was a well-known patriarch and the other, a well-known king.  He talked about Abraham’s life primarily but he referred to David’s life too.

Paul’s usage of two key words need to be clarified: justification and faith. Justification is a legal term where a person is pronounced righteous or just. In this context, Paul showed that God had imputed righteousness on the unrighteous. Then the word faith means: putting one’s trust in God. Here we see that justification by faith is not an entirely new thing. Even the Old Testament attested to it. While Paul addressed the Jews primarily, his intention was also to tell the Gentile believers to recognize that the root and rich spiritual heritage of their faith, was a continuation from the Old Testament. So from the lives of Abraham and David, it is evident that justification by faith is God’s only way to salvation for both the Old and New Testament believers, whether Jews or Gentiles. 

In verses 1-8, he began by showing that Abraham was not justified by works. He started by asking what did Abraham discover. The way the answer was crafted here answered his own question. Paul must have sensed among his readers the belief that Abraham was justified by works. Their conclusion could have been derived from the fact that Abraham obeyed God. However, the idea that self-effort can justify was unthinkable to Paul, so he invalidated that thought by a quick retort, “… but not before God.” Here Paul quickly quoted the Scripture saying, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”

In verses 4-5, he then dealt with the significance of the term “credit.” Illustrating from the working world, Paul showed that the wage a person received was due to the work he had performed. Paul tells us that money can be credited into a person’s account in two ways: as wage he earns or as a favor, an unearned gift. Using that argument, Paul launched off to show the contrast of crediting in two different contexts: in business and in justification. In business, a wage is credited as a worker’s right or due for the work he performed. In justification, the unrighteous receives righteousness, a gift and a favor. The unrighteous are given the gift of righteousness by faith.

In verse 6, Paul moves from Abraham to David. Quoting the first two verses of Psalm 32 that David had written, Paul showed another angle of this whole issue of “crediting.” He used different definitions of sin to bring out the rich truth. Iniquity is over stepping a known boundary; transgression is lawlessness; and sin is falling short of God’s known standard Here we see that God chose to pardon and cover sin. He chose not to put it into our account.

Paul showed us in these verses, three angles of what God had credited into a believer’s life. He first credits to a believer faith as righteousness (verses 3 & 5); then He credits to a believer righteousness apart from works (verse 6); and finally, instead of crediting sin and transgression against believers, He chose to cover it.

Here’s what Martin Luther said, “Faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace, so sure, so certain that a man would stake his life on it a thousand times. This confidence in God’s grace and knowledge of it makes men glad, bold and happy in dealing with God and all his creatures.” Are we like that? Let’s demonstrate it!