Abraham: The Father of our Faith?
An in depth analysis of Romans 4:3
Is it faith or the law?
NT 402SN
Prof. Bryan McIntosh
Baptist College of Florida
Report Due on the 28th of May, 2004.
As stated in Syllabus for Completion of Course
Submitted by
Brian A. Deida
Table of Contents
I. Introduction
II. Abraham: His faith credited to him as righteousness
A. The background of Abraham and his wife, Sarah
1. Her Infertility
2. The Promise
3. His Belief
III. Faith the Central theme
1. Circumcision
2. Works
IV. The law cannot save…but only faith
V. Conclusion
VI. Bibliography
Abraham: The Father of our Faith?
I. Introduction
Ask any Christian theologian and they will tell a person that Abraham is the father of the Christian faith. Why would this be so? How can a man who lived hundreds and hundreds of years before the arrival of Christ on this earth, may be credited with such a title. Since Christ, there has never been a more powerful, yet peaceful religion and people on the face of this earth. Of course, overlooking some very misguided people, the Christian faith is one of love, joy, and peace. People of the Christian faith have like no other faith done so much to spread liberty, honesty, and law. What other faith will willingly place themselves in danger in order to peacefully (not forcefully) spread their message.
Now getting back to the point. Abraham was a man who lived peacefully among his neighbors. He married a beautiful woman named Sarai (Genesis 21:11), whom later was found to be infertile. This was just the stage that God needed to orchestrate His will. God wanted a people that He would call His own. It is true that everyone and everything on this earth and in the Universe would not exist without Him, yet He still wanted a huge number of people—a particular people at that—to worship Him. God thus uses these two people in order for the Jewish nation to come about. In it are great and fascinating stories of man and his faith and lack thereof of it, in which God demonstrates not only His love, but His judgment and mercy. Here we see the foundation of the Christian faith made.
II. The Body
Key Passage:
Rom 4:1 What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, hath found according to the flesh?
Rom 4:2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not toward God.
Rom 4:3 For what saith the scripture? And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness.
Genesis 15:6, Abraham is shown to have faith in God for his future. The Bible plainly tells us that Abraham was married to a beautiful woman named Sarai (Genesis 12:14). Abraham loved Sarai, but there was one thing that bothered them both. Sarai was barren…or in modern terminology, not fertile. To be able to give a man an heir was something to be held of highly. Till this day, we hold highly a male in order to carry on the family name. Sought of like a legacy. In fact in other countries where to Gospel is not fully grasped…ex. China…they kill off or just abandon girls because they do not consider them as worthy. It’s a sad fact that is often not reported. But that is a sermon for another time.
The promise to Abraham and Sarah (Sarai, before God changed her name), was as found from the beginning of chapter 15. God visits Abraham in a vision and Abraham asks the Lord for children. God then promises that his children will come from his own bowels and that his seed shall be almost so many that they cannot be counted. So here we see
that Abraham has faith in God that He will do as He has promised. Here is the faith that God wants His people to have, and the first example of faith in God. It is that kind of faith the Paul in the book of Romans is writing about. In fact, the entire book of Romans is dealing with the issue of faith and how faith is the only ingredient required to be found righteous in God’s eyes. It is that faith that counts us in with the seed of Abraham.
Paul first uses the example of Abraham in Romans 4:1. Paul has just gone through the previous chapter trying to makes the point clear that there is not one righteous person on the face of this earth that is sinless. He is making it very clear that no man can follow the law of God perfectly. In chapter 4, we are shown Abraham and in verse 1, is our forefather. A forefather in which way…in the way that he cannot glory in himself for being found righteous in God’s sight by his works alone. We know all too well that even in Abraham and Sarah, that they were both at fault many times. One clear example is the lack of faith he had in God’s protection of his life in Egypt. He led the Egyptians believe that his wife Sarah was nothing more than just a sister to him. So Pharaoh believed it so, and took Sarah as his wife and God thus punished him severely for doing so. When Pharaoh learned of Abraham’s deceit, he rebuked him for doing so.
Another example of their lack of faith was in the way they tried to take a shortcut in accomplishing God’s promise to them. Sarah gave her maid over to Abraham in order to bear children for her. What a mess that became! Yet, because of God’s promise, He still blessed that child and still gave Sarah and Abraham their very own child from Sarah’s own womb. In this way, we are shown that just a mustard seed of faith is all that is needed for God to work His will in our lives.
In the book of Romans, the word faith is found forty-one times, within thirty-five verses all in the same book. When the Lord inspires a man to write a single important word down that many times, it is for a very good reason. Romans 1:5 tells us that we are believers through the obedience of faith. In verse 12, we are told that each other believers faith can be found as a great comfort to another believer. Verse 17, the righteous shall live by faith, chapter 3:22 the righteousness of God through faith unto all that believe, etc. “The just shall live by faith.” All throughout the book of Romans, Paul speaks about a person’s faith in the blood of Jesus Christ: Rom 3:25 “whom God set forth to be a propitiation, through faith, in his blood, to show his righteousness because of the passing over of the sins done aforetime, in the forbearance of God.” It is true that a Christian must be obedient in faith to be truly a Christian. If one does not bear the fruits thereof, then he most likely is not a Christian. It is the faith that a person has that will lead another to Christ: Romans 1:12.
Abraham was saved through his faith in God as his redeemer. It was not his works but his faith. I dare say, it was not just his faith alone, but with that faith, his obedience to faith that was counted unto him as righteousness. One goes with the other. Rom 3:28 “We reckon therefore that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.” “The emphasis is on Abraham’s and Sarah’s conviction that God would do what He had promised, even when all the “physical” evidence painted I the other
direction” (Moo 159-160*). There was no hope that he and Sarah would ever have children because was a hundred years old and Sarah was infertile. Douglas J. Moo states that Abraham did not ignore this fact, but took them fully into account. It did not let his faith weaken.
Rom 4:4 Now to him that worketh, the reward is not reckoned as of grace, but as of debt.
Rom 4:5 But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness.
Rom 4:6 Even as David also pronounceth blessing upon the man, unto whom God reckoneth righteousness apart from works,
Rom 4:7 saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, And whose sins are covered.
Rom 4:8 Blessed is the man to whom, the Lord will not reckon sin.
Rom 4:9 Is this blessing then pronounced upon the circumcision, or upon the uncircumcision also? for we say, To Abraham his faith was reckoned for righteousness.
Rom 4:10 How then was it reckoned? when he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision:
Rom 4:11 and he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while he was in uncircumcision; that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be in uncircumcision, that righteousness might be reckoned unto them;
Rom 4:12 and the father of circumcision to them who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham which he had in uncircumcision.
Rom 4:13 For not through the law was the promise to Abraham or to his seed that he should be heir of the world, but through the righteousness of faith.
Abraham’s faith leads us to one other thing. This thing is about circumcision. What good is circumcision if all a person needs is faith? Robert H. Mounce best explains it as “it was both a sign and a seal” (Mounce 125**). Like baptism, it was an outward sign of inward things. If a person was to pay close attention to what they are reading, he can see that Abraham was credited as righteous before circumcision. The seal
part comes in the way that it “authenticated the righteousness by faith that Abraham had while he was still uncircumcised” (Mounce 125**).
Faith also leads a person defenseless when it comes to works. Paul states numerous times that it is not by works. Paul in another letter restates himself in Ephesians 2:8-9. He tells us that our salvation is a free gift from God through faith so that no man can say he is saved by works lest he becomes haughty about it. The Jews at that time, and for a part today, believe that since they are circumcised it is a sure thing that they shall inherit the kingdom of heaven. Yet, many fail to see that Abraham was credited righteousness before his very own circumcision.
Now then, what about the law? Can a person be saved merely by following every commandment. Sure, if it were possible. But the most definite answer has already been clearly stated. There no way a man can follow God’s law without breaking it. He is too holy, and man is so unholy. As Romans 4:4 states, that to him that worketh, it is counted as debt to him. But he that has faith, it is reckoned onto him as righteousness.
That them of salvation by no other means but by faith is the core of the entire book. Abraham did not have the law written at his time. But he is shown to have the law written on his heart. The written law allowed a way for sin to enter the human race. It
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*Moo, Douglass J. The NIV Application Commentary, Romans. Zondervan. 2000.
**Mounce, Robert H. The New American Commentary, Romans. Broadman & Holman Publishers. 1995.
gave us the fruit of knowledge, and thus we know what is good, but also what is evil and how to do it. However, Jesus Christ is the answer to accomplishing the law. He is the only one who can live blameless before God, and faith in Him is what God sees and not
our sin. Faith in the blood shed at Calvary is what will cover our sins, if we in fact just believe.
Now back to the real reason of this report. How is Abraham credited as the father of our faith? Why is it that suddenly Abraham is thrown into the mix in Paul’s letter to the Romans? Ray Pritchard of Calvary Memorial Church in Oak Park, Illinois wrote in a series entitled “God’s Good News” that Paul needed to give an example to every Jew that they could easily relate with. Mr. Pritchard states three points:
1. To gain credibility. One of Paul’s main concerns was to answer Jewish objections to the doctrine of justification by faith apart from the works of the law. One of the best ways to do that was to bring up the example of Abraham because every Jew would easily relate to him. He was revered as the father of the Jewish nation and as the pattern of what a godly man should be. He was the man whom God had personally chosen to start the line of Israel. All agreed that Abraham was truly justified; the only question was how. The Jews would agree that whatever was true of him must also be true of them—"like father, like son."
2. To prove his doctrine was not a novelty. In the preceding verses Paul has already answered many of the Jewish objections. But a big one still remains. From the back of the hall a Jewish hand shoots up and says, "What you are saying about justification by faith may well be true. But even if it is, it’s an entirely new teaching. This isn’t what the rabbis taught us; it isn’t what the Old Testament taught us. We didn’t learn this from Abraham and David. This contradicts what our Scriptures teach us." If that objection were allowed to stand, no Jew would pay attention to Paul’s teaching. Therefore Paul reaches back into Jewish history, all the way back to the beginning to bring forward
Abraham: The Father of our Faith?
the case of the founder of the Jewish nation. If he was justified by faith apart from works, then Paul’s teaching could not be said to be a novelty.
3. To illustrate from history. All great teachers know that to win a hearing you have to put flesh on the bones of your teaching. You need illustrations from real life. That’s what Paul is doing here. By bringing up Abraham he shows in detail how justification by faith works out in the life of one particular man. (Prichard **)
Another man by the name of Robert W. Clanton states that: “There were no Jews or Israelites on the earth during Abraham’s time. Abraham is from one of the Gentile nations, from which the Jewish race and the Israelites will come. He may therefore be said to be a Gentile and yet father of the Jewish and Israelite race. (Clanton ***).”
In both Scripture and Tradition, we can see that Abraham was a man of true faith. He did no works but to live right before God’s eyes. He performed no miracles, yet He trusted God and His promise toward him.
Application:
Whether or not a person believes that Abraham is the father of the Christian faith is invalid. The main application that Paul was trying to get the Jews to see was that faith is the only way to be righteous. He uses Abraham to validate his doctrine. Paul does an impressive job doing so and thus gains the ears of the Jewish listeners. Abraham lived _________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Clanton, Robert W. Abraham Model of Christian Faith, Romans 3 and 4. www.truthorfables.com. 4/22/04. Pritchard, Ray. God’s Good News. www.sermoncentral.com. 4/22/04
hundreds of years before the children of Israel received the covenant laws concerning the Sabbath, the meat distinctions, and holy days. He was around before anyone said it was wrong to walk more than so many miles to attend synagogue for worship, before any Pharisee tried to place there own idea of righteousness on another person. God looked
upon Abraham’s faith and saw that it was good. That is all that He requires. If a person wants to be counted as one of the children of Israel, they must be counted in as the remnant as stated in Romans 9:27 and 11:5. Out of that remnant, is what God will call his children and yes they shall be almost too many to count.
For a person to deny that faith is the only way, is to deny the entire book of Romans. It is to deny that God never credited Abraham as righteous because of his faith, and it is to deny that Abraham ever existed. Without Abraham and the faith he showed in his life, there would not be a one of us here today. Yes, it is possible for a number of us to trace our lineage back to Abraham, but it is even more possible to instantly become one of the remnant that God really calls Israel. He told Elijah that He is saving a remnant of 7,000 men who have not bent a knee toward Baal. It is that same idea of a remnant that God is looking as His children.
There is no need to wait. There is no need to deny it. Are you willing to be counted in that number? Abraham was the first! Do not be the one that missed being last.
Bibliography
1. Myers, Rick. “American Standard Version and King James Version” e-Sword Version
6.5.0. http://www.e-sword.net
2. Moo, Douglass J. The NIV Application Commentary, Romans. Zondervan. 2000.
3. Mounce, Robert H. The New American Commentary, Romans. Broadman &
Holman Publishers. 1995.
4. Clanton, Robert W. Abraham Model of Christian Faith, Romans 3 and 4. www.truthorfables.com. 4/22/04
5. Pritchard, Ray. God’s Good News. www.sermoncentral.com. 4/22/04
6. The New American Standard Bible, Master Study Bible. The Lockman Foundation.
Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers., 1981.
7. The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Genesis. John H. Sailhamer. Grand Rapids:
Zondervan., 1990.
8. Stott, John R. W. The Message of Romans: God’s Good News for the World.
Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press., 1994.
