4:1
“What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh?”
Let’s look at this verse, as all the others, one word at a time. “Then” is “therefore” in this text. Based on all Paul has told us about sin, righteousness, judgment – by the way, the three things Jesus said the Holy Spirit would major in when He came – based on all these things, what shall we do with Abraham? How does Abraham fit into the picture? What did he discover 4,000 years ago? What has he already found that we need to know?
Abraham lived before the law. Six hundred years before. He knew nothing of all the rules and regulations, though he did understand sacrifice, as it had been around since Adam. He didn’t know fully of a Savior that would come, of Calvary, of resurrection, of so many theological points that we deem necessary. A very simple man in the things of God, however educated and trained he might have been in the ways of the world.
So this man lived so long ago, so removed from Moses, that he becomes a perfect example of salvation by faith alone apart from the works of the law (3:28).
He found something that Paul believes is necessary for us to find, and for the Jews of his day to find. You see, they had other ideas about Abraham, and Paul has to set them straight.
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Before we go into that, we need to look at two different wordings of this first verse. Not overly important but once again symptomatic of the surface problem of textual criticism.
In short, there are different Greek texts from which the New Testament comes. Two of the major ones that our English translations come from are the 19th century Westcott-Hort or Nestle-Aland, and the “Received Text” that goes back to the 1500’s and Erasmus. Both of these of course depend on Greek manuscripts of much earlier dates. The manuscripts each of them depended on gives us the variations in the text.
Nothing in these variations is serious. The truth God wants us to have is clear in both manuscripts. Conservative Christians tend toward the Received Text which gave us the KJV.
As I put these two texts together, the Nestle-Aland and Textus Receptus, I get two different readings of Romans 4:1.
Here is the Nestle-Aland, which gives rise to the more modern translations: I am translating the English words as they appear in the text. “What therefore shall we say has found Abraham the father of us according to flesh?”
And in the Textus Receptus from which comes the KJV:
“What therefore shall we say Abraham the father of us has found according to flesh?”
Do you see the difference? Is Paul saying simply that Abraham is the physical ancestor of the Jews and that he found something? Or that Abraham has discovered a principle about reliance on human works for salvation? The KJV favors the latter.
I notice that Macarthur straddles the fence here and says it could mean either.
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Other researchers lean toward the evidence from the greater number of manuscripts that show Paul is simply saying that Abraham is their natural ancestor. This man that we claim this physical connection to, what did he find? What does he add to the argument I have brought forth?
What argument? That no man can be justified by the law. That salvation is by faith, and not by works. Does Abraham say or do anything about this? You trust this man, your “father” as it were. You hold him up, as well you should. A friend of God. Father of the faithful. A good man. A holy man.
We must know: was he saved by faith or by works?
You who know your Bibles will be thinking, if I don’t mention it aloud, about the book of James. James declares that Abraham was justified by works. Paul, justified by faith. Conflict.
Not really. James is talking about justification before men. Proof before men that a man is saved. That is the place of works. Faith without works is dead faith and not saving faith.
This is not at all what Paul is discussing. Paul is talking about the entrance into justification and salvation. How do you get in the door? Being good? Trying hard? No.
No, because
4:2
“For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.”
A man who does good deeds can cry all day long that he is doing more than most Christians, but that boast, that complaint, will not open Heaven’s doors to him! I mean, can you imagine it. You get to Heaven, and instead of falling at His feet in worship and praise you start out with, Hey God, I made it! I did it! I’ll bet you’re glad I worked so hard so I could
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get here. Is that how you envision your entry into the Presence of God one day? Wow, I worked so hard, I deserve to be here. Where’s all the rewards I piled up? I mean it wasn’t easy trying to be a Christian while people were hating me. All those family responsibilities and then I got sick. But I knew I was racking up points with you and now I deserve a long rest and a mansion, and… where is it?
I don’t think so.
How many commercials have you seen lately that tell you to go ahead and buy our wonderful product because you deserve it? We deserve eternal punishment because we have offended an eternal God. No, we get there by grace through faith or we don’t get there at all.
But wait: As I said earlier, the Jewish leaders, and with some good reason, believed that Abraham was an example of salvation by works. He was a righteous man. A good man. The most righteous of his day. Look at Genesis 26 and God’s words to Abraham’s son Isaac:
“I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven… in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.” Why? Read on, “because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.”
You and Abraham are going to be blessed because of Abraham’s obedience. Works. Statements demanding Abraham’s approval by works are in Jewish apocryphal books, Ecclesiasticus, The Prayer of Manasseh, The Book of Jubilees.
So here comes Paul saying, no, it wasn’t by works at all. It all started by faith. Abraham did many works, but it was not those works that justified Him in Heaven. Paul has a secret here that they had not seen before, but that Abraham himself found: you can’t do God’s works unless God has given you God’s faith through grace. This is a new revelation to most, and frankly I would not have seen it if Paul through the Spirit had not brought
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it out. You who are looking every day at your favorite TV preacher for some new revelation, need to just get your noses back in the Bible and let God speak to you, wonderful truth after wonderful truth.
Yes, Isaac, God is going to bless you because of Daddy’s works but those works came because of something else, that came first, God’s grace upon his soul. Paul’s proof?
Genesis 15:6. Note here as in so many places in the New Testament that these Jewish men appealed to their Scriptures for the truth they needed to prove. The Spirit wrote the Old Testament words just as surely as He is inspiring these apostles, and to get it all today, all we need to do is read the Book and pray. Showing up at a good Bible church every time the doors are open will be helpful too!
4:3
“For what does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.’”
Here Paul introduces the grand doctrine of imputation. Receiving something into your system that is not really yours but becomes yours. He’ll develop this theme. First, a little of the background of the Genesis quote and the man Abraham.
The city of Ur, in Chaldea was a center of pagan idolatry that in Abraham’s time, 2000 years before Jesus, boasted about 300,000 people. It was on the Euphrates, like being on the Mississippi here. It was also a little more than a hundred miles from the Persian Gulf, like the Gulf of Mexico. Lots of commerce. Lots of education. And yes, they could read and write in Abraham’s day.
Their religion was the moon god. Joshua 24:2 tells us that his father Terah was an idolater. This was all Abraham knew until that day when God called him. He is one of several men in the Bible that just seem to show up
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out of nowhere. Elijah is another one. Melchizedek another. He was a chosen vessel.
Why Abraham? Why you? Why me? The great unanswerable question surfaces again. But Abraham was a good man, you say.
Is idolatry a good thing? He no doubt followed his father for a while, being very religious but very lost as all pagans will be one day. Why Abraham?
We don’t know. And as Abraham begins his pilgrimage out of Ur on his way to Canaan, we wonder more and more about God’s choice. Fifteen years of waiting in Haran before moving on to Canaan? Running to Egypt during the famine? Trying to pass his wife off as his sister? Oh, she was half-sister, but it was a clearly dishonest decision to conceal their marriage. It was fear. And committing adultery with the servant girl Hagar, to help God keep his promise? It was Sarah’s idea, but just as in Eden, the man did not have to listen to the woman. He still does not have to. But if he does, he is to be blamed as much as is she.
A very imperfect man. Like all of God’s people. But called. Chosen. Forgiven. Justified. Made righteous. That will be Paul’s point. Here is the perfect example in the Old Testament of what it means to be saved by grace through faith.
Galatians 3:6-7, also from Paul: “Therefore be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham.” Abraham is the “father of all who believe,” Romans 4;11 will soon teach us.
After God made assurances to Abraham that he was indeed chosen to inherit the land and be a multitude of people, one night Abraham had some questions about it all.
“Lord, you say you’re going to give me all these things, but we don’t even have a child. If I were to die today, I’d be leaving everything to my faithful servant, Eliezer. How can I be the father of multitudes of people without a child?”
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It was a sincere prayer and received a sincere answer, and very specific. “Eliezer will not be your heir. You will have a child from your own body. A real, literal son.” Then he walked Abraham outside, and continued, “and from that son, so many children that you can’t number them, just like you can’t number the stars.”
Then something happened. A few minutes before, Abraham was not a believer. But in that moment, God’s word hit pay dirt, a prepared human heart. Prepared, we believe, by grace. Even the faith is not from ourselves. Even the faith is the gift of God. Suddenly the cobwebs were swept away, and in a moment of clarity, Abraham knew that he knew that he knew that this God was not only real, but telling the truth. He could trust Him. And he did.
When man enters that kind of relationship with God, eternity happens. Sin is taken away. All blockage to the things of God is broken down. In one’s eyes, heaven becomes a reality that can never again be ignored. Abraham knew. And God knew him. In the Spirit, it is the same outcome of Adam physically knowing his wife Eve and producing a child.
Fake Christians will be told in that day, “I never knew you.” Jesus knows everything, intellectually. He is omniscient as His Father. But there are many people He does not “know” in this intimate way.
It can be said of you, John or Susie believed God, and God counted that faith as righteousness, right standing in Heaven. A marvelous mystery, but real.
Let’s look at some Greek again. The word “counted” or “accounted” or “imputed” or “credited” or “reckoned.” Trace it back farther and you find it comes from logos, something said, a thought, reasoning, a computation. Or think of an inventory. Here’s an accountant making sure all the products are in place and the numbers all add up.
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Let me tell you, the numbers don’t add up when we start looking at our account. I want to go to Heaven. What’s the price? Perfection. No sin. Perfect righteousness. I’m empty Lord. And God doesn’t fill anyone who doesn’t recognize his emptiness. I have zero qualifications to please You, Holy Lord. What can I do to be saved?
Problem solved. Jesus has enough righteousness and to spare. He will add to your account a measure of His righteousness, and suddenly, your account is not empty anymore. How did that happen? A mistake in the bookkeeping? Someone’s messing with the books? How did all those numbers suddenly go up in my account?
That we can answer in one word: Grace.
We simply believe in response to His Word working in us, and while we are believing, mysteriously and wonderfully grace adds to our account from His account. It’s like charging a dead battery. We were dead in trespasses and sins. The battery of our soul was dead. We plugged into Heaven’s power, and that power surged through us and made us alive.
Here’s another way to understand grace vs works. Imagine an employer/employee relationship…
4:4
“Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt.”
So you get a job. You and your prospective employer sign a contract. It says in black and white, if you will do this job for so many hours, I will give you as your earned right, a set wage every paycheck.
And when you get that paycheck every one or two weeks, you don’t say to yourself, “What a nice man this is to give me a donation like this every once in a while. He is so generous.”
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That’s not a donation. In the eyes of that employer, your boss, you earned that money, and by right and by law, he owes it to you. Woe is he if he does not pay you what he owes.
That’s how works work in the Spirit realm. In all religions except Jesus’ brand, you are told up front, Do this, this, and this, and you will find favor with God and His people. You will be accepted among us and in Heaven if you perform this list.
We need to be careful, by the way, how we preach our salvation message to the lost. If we are not careful, the lost are going to think that faith is a work. We say, “You don’t have to do anything except believe…” Oops!
Whatever exception there is to “nothing” becomes a work.
But wasn’t Abraham saved by faith? Aren’t we all saved by trusting God? Then faith is a work. No fair to tell people that there is no work if faith is a work. People who talk that way have forgotten the thing that comes before faith: grace.
Ephesians 2:8 kicks in again here: “For by grace are you saved through (by means of) faith. God saves you. Write it down somewhere. We are saved by God. Why do you believe? Grace. Why do you continue on and do works for God? Grace. Why do you love God at all? Grace.
C. S. Lewis tells of his struggle toward salvation, and believing. He says that he and his brother were taking a trip to the zoo one day. He says that when he got on the bus to the zoo, he was an unbeliever. When he got off, he was a believer. Something he could not explain settled into him and made him realize that what God was saying was true. That’s grace.
You don’t figure it out. Your brain cannot explain salvation. Books won’t bring you to Christ. God will. Grace will.
When the Bible tells you, when Jesus told the people of His day, you must believe, you must repent, you must be born again, He wasn’t offering a
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plan of salvation as we love to do. He was stating a fact. He that believes not shall be damned. Unless you are born again you cannot see the Kingdom.
So I should go out and try to be born? Good luck with that. Try hard to believe? But my carnal mind cannot do it. What should we tell men to do to be saved when they ask? We tell them to seek God with all their heart. We let them know that even this seeking is not to be construed as a work which will earn them a hearing with God.
We let them know that as they seek, God will find a way to reveal Himself to them, in His Word, by the hearing of the Gospel. He will draw them to Himself. And each step of that drawing, whether faith or repentance, must be viewed as God saving them, not them saving themselves.
The very fact that they are seeking God, tell them, is proof that God is working in them to do His good will. Nothing can be seen as, their earning their way to heaven. As Paul goes hurriedly on to say:
