Abraham – Justified By Faith – He Was Justified By His Faith (Part 2)

Romans 4:3-5

3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” 4 Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. 5 But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness,

Just as Abraham trusted God’s word to give him a land he had never seen, he trusted God’s power to raise Isaac from the dead, if necessary, by a divine miracle he had never seen. It was in response to Abraham’s faith in God that it was reckoned to him as righteousness.

Was reckoned is from logizomai, which carried the economic and legal meaning of crediting something to another’s account. The same word in Rom. 4:22, is rendered “it was imputed.” The word occurs frequently in the Scriptures. In the Old Testament, the verb chaashab, which is translated by the word logizomai, means literally, “to think, to intend,” or “purpose; to imagine, invent,” or “devise; to reckon,” or “account; to esteem; to impute,” that is, to impute to a man what belongs to himself, or what “ought” to be imputed to him. It occurs only in the following places: Psa. 32:2; 35:4; Isa. 10:7; Job 19:11; 33:10; Gen. 16:6; 38:15; 1 Sam. 1:13; Ps. 52:4; Jer. 18:18; Zech. 7:10; Job 6:26; 19:16; Isa. 13:17; 1 Kings 10:21; Num. 18:27, 30; Ps. 88:4; Isa. 40:17; Lam. 4:2; Isa. 40:15; Gen. 31:16. I have examined all the passages, and as the result of my examination have come to the conclusion that there is not one in which the word is used in the sense of reckoning or imputing to a man what does not strictly belong to him; or of charging on him what ought not to be charged on him as a matter of personal right. The word is never used to denote imputing in the sense of transferring, or of charging that on one which does not properly or legally belong to him. The same is the case in the New Testament. The word occurs about forty times and is used in a similar signification. No doctrine of transferring, or of setting over to a man what does not legally belong to him, be it sin or holiness, can be derived, therefore, from this word. Whatever is meant by it here, it evidently is declared that it is the result of the act of believing, both by Moses and by Paul.

The idea behind the word then is that God, acting legally and properly in His capacity as ruler and master of the universe, the supreme authority of all men, declares a thing to be true that was not true before this declaration.  This declaration or imputation, this reckoning occurs by means of the instrumentality of faith as illustrated in the case of Abraham.

The only thing God received from Abraham was his imperfect faith, and that the result of God’s prevenient action in His heart and mind by means of the Word of God, and by His divine grace and mercy, He reckoned it to Abraham’s spiritual account as righteousness. That gracious reckoning or imputation reflects the heart of God’s redemptive revelation and is the focus of both the Old and New Testaments. God has never provided any means of justification except through this very mechanism of faith in His revealed Word.

Even though Abraham’s repeated disobedience was sinful and brought harm to himself and others, God even used that disobedience to glorify Himself. Those acts of disobedience testify that, contrary to rabbinical teaching, Abraham was sovereignly chosen by God for His own divine reasons and purposes, not because of Abraham’s faithfulness or righteousness. Abraham was chosen by God’s sovereign, elective grace, not because of his works or even because he would believe. His faith was acceptable to God only because God graciously reckoned, or counted, it as righteousness. It was not the greatness of Abraham’s faith that saved him but the greatness of the gracious Lord in whom he placed his faith.

Faith is never the basis or the reason for justification, but only the channel or mechanism through which God works His redeeming grace. Faith is simply a convicted heart reaching out to receive God’s free and unmerited gift of salvation as a result of God’s enabling power exercised sovereignly in that life.

In reference to this justification or imputation of Righteousness we need to make several observations:

(1) First, that it is evidently not intended that the act of believing, on the part of Abraham, was the meritorious ground of acceptance; for then that believing would have been a work. Faith was as much his own act, as any act of obedience to the Law.  Abraham was accepted because he believed, but his belief was only the mechanism that God used to bring that righteousness to Abraham’s account.  This is an important distinction for us to make.  We must look further to see why Abraham believed, and to see what the cause of His faith truly was.  We are forced to the conclusion that Abraham’s faith was the result of the regeneration of God – a work done by God before Abraham believed that gave Abraham the capacity to believe that was not present prior to that work being accomplished in his heart and mind.  The only alternative to this is to believe that Abraham had this capacity naturally and that he was merely exercising a quality innate to man’s being – and this makes believing a work done independently of God.  This is unacceptable to the Scriptures and to us as we seek to shape our beliefs according to its revelation.

(2) The design of the apostle was to show that by the Law, or by works, man could not be justified; (Rom. 3:28; 4:2).  If God commands belief, and all men naturally have the ability to do so, then believing is no different than the ability to abstain from murdering or the ability to offer sacrifice and is the same as any other work of righteous that the Law commands.

(3) Faith was not what the Law required. It demanded complete and perfect obedience, not belief, even complete and perfect belief. If a man was justified by faith, it was in some other way than by the Law.  This is very clear to us from the Word of god.  The most we can say is that it is the duty of man to believe what God has said, i.e. that believing might be considered to be a part of the Law – and that is not at all clear.  Justification that comes by any other means than by perfect fulfillment of the righteous mandates of God’s revelation is justification by a means other than Law as far as men are concerned.  This is precisely what Paul is saying here.  Justification by faith is justification by means other than Law.

(4) As the Law did not demand this; and as faith was something different from the demand of the Law; so if a man were justified by faith, it was on a principle altogether different from justification by works, which were a function of Law. It was not by personal merit, which only comes by the fulfillment of the Law. It was not by complying with the Law. It was in a mode entirely different.

(5) In being justified by faith, it is meant, therefore, that we are treated as righteous; that we are forgiven; that we are admitted to the favor of God, and treated as his friends.

(6) In this act, faith, is a mere instrument, an antecedent, a “sine qua non,” what God has been pleased to appoint as a condition on which men may be treated as righteous. It expresses a state of mind which is demonstrative of love to God; of affection for his cause and character; of reconciliation and friendship; and is therefore that state to which he has been graciously pleased to promise pardon and acceptance.

(7) Since this is not a matter of law; since the Law could not be said to demand it; as it is on a different principle; and as the acceptance of faith, or of a believer, cannot be a matter of merit or claim, so justification is of grace, or mere favor. It is in no sense a matter of merit on our part, and thus stands distinguished entirely from justification by works, or by conformity to the Law. From beginning to end, it is, so far as we are concerned, a matter of grace. The merit by which all this is obtained, is the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, through whom this plan is proposed, and by whose atonement alone God can consistently pardon and treat as righteous those who are in themselves ungodly; see Rom. 4:5.

(8)  In this place we have also evidence that faith is always substantially of the same character. In the case of Abraham it was confidence in God and his promises. All faith has the same nature, whether it be confidence in the Messiah, or in any of the divine promises or truths. As this confidence evinces the same state of mind, so it was as consistent to justify Abraham by it, as it is to justify him who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ under the gospel; see Heb. 11.