Chapter 4
v.1 Let us go back before the Law. If we do not boast about our national distinctions which the Law made amongst men, we certainly boast about our descent from Abraham. Look at his life.
v.2 Do you think that Abraham really did anything whereby he could say, “By my own strength I have achieved righteousness.” If through the life of Abraham we can prove that he was justified by the power of human will, well let him boast … but I tell you this … he could never do it before God.
v.3 Why? Because the Scripture said that Abraham had faith in God and that was counted to him for righteousness. That is what the Scripture says, and the fact that it said this clearly, implies that it was not Abraham’s own works that commended him to God, but rather his faith in God’s ability.
v.4 Take a human illustration — a simple one. We work for a person and we get paid — but if we work for a person and they do not pay us, they are in our debt. God is not in our debt, is He? But this righteousness of God which is available by faith does not depend on the workings of mankind. Oh yes, it might be clearly demonstrated by works, without which it is non-existent, but it does not depend on the strength and will of mankind. But it does depend on believing on God. This is a staggering thing, that the man that is prepared to believe God, though he might previously have been classified as ungodly, his faith can be counted as righteousness. Would you like a demonstration of that?
v.6 We have in the Old Testament Scriptures such a demonstration! What about David? David had much to say about his experiences. He speaks of the blessedness that came upon him, a blessedness which he clearly saw as the result of God’s grace. He was declared righteous when really he had not done any great and noble works by his own power to deserve such blessedness. Not only so, and let us be respectful here of our patriarch David, these words were spoken of him at a time when having committed adultery and murder. At the time of the revelation of God’s attitude through the prophet Nathan, he had not confessed before God, yet immediately after his conviction, “Thou art the man”, God forgave him! On what basis — David’s works? Why, the very time factor did not allow for that!
v.7 At that poignant moment of history David saw that he could only be forgiven on one basis— the forgiveness of God. Now see how he describes righteousness. He says, God imputeth righteousness without works, saying, “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven.” That is the righteousness of faith. So a man is righteous, not because he is actually perfect or righteous; a man is righteous because God does not hold his crimes against him! If this be so, how then can anyone be justified by Law!
v.8 “Oh, blessed is the man to whom Yahweh will not impute sin.”
v.9 Is that sort of blessedness reserved for Jews only? Is circumcision the basis for that sort of blessedness? Well, let’s take Abraham again.
v.10 When it was said concerning him that he was counted as righteous, was he at that time circumcised? We know he wasn’t! He was circumcised later. What was then the purpose of circumcision in his case?
v.11 You know what it says. The purpose of circumcision then was that he might be the father of all them that had faith. The very act of circumcision in its immediate effects on him made it impossible for him to be, at that time, a father!
v.12 So he is obviously a father in a spiritual sense. If in a spiritual sense, then it is on the basis of faith. And he is a father, not only of Jesus, but also of all them that have faith to walk in the steps of that faith our father Abraham had which he had yet being uncircumcised. It was faith that was seen in action. That action is not the action of the works of law, but action in appreciation of what God had already done for him.
v.13 And what did God promise? That he should be the heir of the whole world. Was that through the Law? Of course it was not. Law was not in the world then. That promise of eternal life and the promise of eternal inheritance upon the earth for Abraham couldn’t have been through the Law. It was obviously through the righteousness of faith, because did not God define the most extensive boundaries of that promise, in the very chapter where it says that he was imputed righteous because of his faith? Of course he did. So we are talking in the context of Genesis 1
v.14 If it is by the Law, then faith is of no effect. As I have said before, Law and faith are not the same. The Law is not at all like faith — they are different. If God made a promise to Abraham that he would receive the world by faith, then it cannot be by Law. Conversely, if he made the promise that he would gain the world by Law, then it cannot be by faith. It must be by one or the other.
v.15 No, Abraham was to inherit the world by faith, and as far as the Law is concerned, I contrast that by saying that all the Law could give a person was wrath. Why? Because the Law highlighted transgression. With no Law, there were no restrictions, God had never spoken His mind. Man may say, “Well I have not committed any transgression.” He wouldn’t be able to identify them. But the Law identified sin. The Law did not make transgression, it just highlighted the fact that it was there.
v.16 No! We are not going to gain the world by Law. It is by Grace. If it is by Grace, then the promise is sure. I could not make anything sure by my deeds — I could not depend upon my own strength to get into the Kingdom. No, the promise is sure to all the seed of Abraham, and that seed is not being produced by Law. That seed is being produced by faith, according to the character of the faith of our father Abraham, who immediately upon circumcision could not produce children according to natural means.
No, Abraham was a man who believed that he would have a family when it was beyond the power of his human body to produce it. When God told him that he would be a father, so sure was God’s promise that He saw Abraham as already the father of a family of faithful children.
v.17 He said, “I have made thee a father.”
Abraham frankly believed Him. Not that he had a family, but he accepted the fact that so sure was the development of that seed, that he believed it even though they were not there. Not only this, but he had the additional handicap of his age, that he could not even hope to start a family, yet, he was prepared to believe against hope, that is, natural hope — and the fact that Abraham believed in a power beyond himself, was the thing that justified him in God’s sight and made him the father of many nations. It was not because he lightly dismissed the matter either, he did not say, “Oh well, perhaps I could.” No, he considered very carefully his own body and he came to the conclusion that it was dead. Did he therefore stagger at God’s promise? No. He was powerful in faith. He gave glory to God.
v.21 If he had been powerful in Law, he would have given glory to himself. No, he believed that God was able to do what he couldn’t do, and he was fully persuaded that what God promised, he was able to perform. There is not anything we promise that we can guarantee to perform, and therefore, it was the character of Abraham’s faith that brought about God’s imputing to him righteousness.
v.23 Now Abraham is the father of the faithful. Whatever the Scripture says concerning him, applies to his family. If only we could see ourselves as we ought to see ourselves as the spiritual seed of Abraham, we would see that what was imputed to him will be imputed to us if we have the same characteristic faith. Who can raised the dead but God? Is that humanly possible? Of course it’s not. But we believe that He raise up the Lord Jesus Christ—is not that belief in a human impossibility? Is not that a belief in a power beyond oneself? What could Jesus do about it at the time he was unconscious?
He was without strength. He was without emotion. He was without everything. But God operated upon him and brought back to life the human body inert and powerless in death. Yes, this is the basis whereby God might forgive our offences. It is only our belief in the positive power of God in condemning sin in the flesh, and then crowning that in physical resurrection, it is only our belief in the power of the Almighty to do what we cannot, that can ever really justify us.
The Solution