In Romans 4 Paul now examines the response of Abraham to God with respect to Abraham’s righteous standing before God. In chapter 3 the Jewish misconception that the law was given to Israel to provide the Jew with the means by which he could attain a righteous standing before God was dismissed by Paul through “the law of faith.” (3:27, ESV) Paul has “already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin.” (3:9, ESV) And “all” here does not mean “all the Jews and all the Greeks, but no one else.” Rather, the term “Jews and Greeks,” like “Jews and Gentiles” or “the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1, meaning “everything” – the whole universe: all space, time, matter, and energy, etc.), is comprehensive. It means every person that exists. And this is obviously confirmed in 3:10-20. So, “the whole world” is now “accountable to God” (3:19, ESV) and “no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law.” (3:20, NIV) Indeed, the purpose of the law was to make us “conscious of our sin.” (3:20, NIV). And since there is now “no distinction” (3:22, CSB, ESB) or “no difference between Jew and Gentile” (NIV), and “the righteousness of God has been revealed” and comes “through faith in Jesus to all who believe” (3:21, 22, CSB), there is no boasting. I like the way J. B. Phillips translates 3:27-28.
“What happens now to human pride of achievement? There is no more room for it. Why, because failure to keep the Law has killed it? Not at all, but because the whole matter is now on a different plane—believing instead of achieving. We see now that a man is justified before God by the fact of his faith in God’s appointed Saviour and not by what he has managed to achieve under the Law.”
And in verses 29-30 Phillips continues to express Paul’s rationale regarding the one God and his universal salvific disposition given the “different plane” of faith.
“And God is God of both Jews and Gentiles, let us be quite clear about that! The same God is ready to justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised by faith also.”
So now Paul wants to discuss the righteousness or justification of Abraham. Paul is going to argue that not even their father Abraham was justified by works of the law. Paul reasons,
“If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” (4:2-3, NIV)
The privilege of the possession and obedience to the law was never God’s intention for attaining righteousness in his sight. Again, Paul has already established that “no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.” (3:20) The law serves other purposes than that of providing a righteous standing before God precisely because that would make righteousness dependent upon the impossibility of fulfilling the law. Obedience to the law as the means to righteousness would also limit the possibility of such righteousness before God only to those who were given the law as their own possession, that is, Israel, the elect or the chosen people of God. And this is how the Jew thought about the law. Since God chose them as his people and they were given the law, that precluded the Gentiles from a similar relationship to God and gaining righteous standing with God. But Paul asks, “What does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” (4:3, ESV) As if that wasn’t enough to make his case, Paul continues with the analogy of wages and a gift (4:4-5) and the testimony of David to the same idea of credited forgiveness of sin (4:6-8). Then Paul raises the question as to whether the circumcised, that is, the Jew, can claim the blessing for themselves alone. Paul reasons as follows in 4:9-12.
“Is this blessedness only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness. Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? It was not after, but before! And he received circumcision as a sign, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them. And he is then also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also follow in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.” (NIV)
And pressing his argument forward, Paul cites Abraham’s belief that God would fulfill his promise to make him the father of many nations through an heir from his own body (4:18-22). He then draws the argument to its conclusions.
“It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith…Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all…
The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.” (4:13,16,23-25, NIV)
Now, more directly applicable to our critique of Calvinism, note the critical distinction being confirmed by Paul. It is that he can speak of the faith he attributes to Abraham as Abraham’s faith – “Abraham believed God.” Paul does not equate the faith that Abraham exercised with a “work” or human effort. Believing is not a “work” as if it were a kind of righteousness that comes through human effort or “works of the law.” Rather, faith is an act of submission and dependence upon God for righteousness. And since that righteousness comes through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, faith is an act of submission and dependence upon the work on the cross on our behalf for our salvation. To think of our righteousness in terms of our obedience to the law given to Israel would amount to an act of independence from God’s way of being counted righteous, that is, through faith. One is human surrender, the other human effort. One is God-centered, the other human-centered. The fact that sinners are capable of believing does not make faith a “work.” In other words, faith is not understood by Paul as affected by one’s “total inability” thus requiring an unconditional election to salvation. Neither is faith something that God’s gives his elect after he has regenerated them. That is not Paul’s thinking at all. The way he explains faith throughout Romans is incoherent with these Calvinist doctrines. The Calvinist’s rationale about faith is not granted by God to the elect subsequent to their regeneration then it must be considered a meritorious “work” that the sinner could boast in as a contribution to their salvation, thus robbing God of all the glory in salvation, is simply unbiblical. It is nowhere to be found in Paul’s understanding of faith. It is a doctrinal extrapolation rooted in an unbiblical theistic determinism. To read this perspective into the text would be to distort the very point Paul is making – that faith is the response of sinners to God’s saving work in Jesus Christ and that God accepts for right standing with him. Furthermore, it makes no sense for righteousness to be “credited” to someone by God on the basis of faith when God himself predetermines and effects that faith in them.
What exactly then is faith? It is one’s own acknowledgment of one’s creaturely dependence upon God and the forfeiting of self-centered, performance oriented, human efforts to produce right standing with him. Faith is at the heart of the God / man relationship. Faith is God’s design for the proper functioning of that relationship. Faith is antithetical to human law-keeping with respect to salvation and as such should not be defined as if it were of the category of human effort thereby requiring that God effect faith as a gift to his elect. This is a serious distortion of the nature of faith as trust and surrender to the work of God himself “in Christ” which provides any sinner the righteousness necessary to avoid God’s wrath and establish reconciliation and communion with him. Paul is not establishing a predetermined human response of faith, rather he presents faith as non-determined and freely exercised by the sinner in the context of the content of the gospel proclamation as “good news.” All one can do with the “good news” of their salvation (i.e., the gospel message) is believe it. And this “good news” is the catalyst for faith. It stimulates faith in the hearer. And as “good news” to each hearer, it carries with it the potential for faith. By designing salvation to be by faith, God has removed all occasion for human merit and boasting, not because he predetermines and effectually produces faith in a limited number of elect, but because he desires the salvation of all sinners, and faith is precisely the means by which anyone can be saved. Faith is the personal surrender of human merit and boasting and the acknowledgement of one’s helplessness and reliance upon God for righteousness “in Christ.” Only a non-determined faith response from the sinner himself fits this bill of an acceptable means of gaining righteousness before God because on the basis of faith God bestows that righteousness that he has provided “in Christ.” It remains a genuinely human response without the associations of exclusive limitation, national privilege, or human activity and boasting that a “righteousness” by the law produced. This response of faith in God was God’s design for salvation from the beginning as the history of Abraham indicates and Romans 4 teaches us. Paul also drives home the point of universal salvation by quoting David in Psalm 32:1-2 regarding those who are blessed because their sins are forgiven.
In Rom. 4:9 Paul continues his argument by asking, “Is this blessedness only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised?” (4:9, NIV) He answers his own question in 9-12. The logic is clear.
“We have been saying that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness. Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? It was not after, but before! And he received circumcision as a sign, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them. And he is then also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also follow in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.”
Paul is making it clear that this “blessedness” is not only for the Jew but also for the Gentile. That is to say that it is for all people. Paul argues that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness before he was circumcised. Therefore, faith supersedes the exclusivity of circumcision (i.e., the law) with respect to righteousness before God. Faith extends salvation to the Gentiles who believe. “So then, he is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them.” And faith is even required by the Jew despite his special realtionship with God as his chosen people. Paul continues, “And he is also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.” (4:11-12, NIV) What’s Paul’s point? Faith is what matters! Speaking of “the promise” (i.e., initially to the patriarchs and Israel but now the salvation as fulfilled in Jesus), Paul says, “Therefore, the promise comes by faith” and “not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham.” (4:16, NIV) And the words ““it was credited to him” were written for him alone, but also for us…for us who believe…” (4:23,24, NIV)
We should note here that it would be a distortion of the plain sense of these texts to take Paul’s meaning here as the Calvinist’s soteriology requires, that is, that Paul is simply informing us about what the predestined elect will experience – that they are the ones who will exhibit faith because it is granted only to them by God. On Calvinism, Abraham is a pattern of all the elect with respect to something they all have in common – they evidence the faith granted to them by God. But this view certainly finds no place in the Old Testament Abrahamic account or in Paul’s exposition on justification by faith here in Romans 4, or in chapter 3. Faith here cannot be coherently taken as predetermined and restricted. For that would be counter to all that Paul is telling us about faith and the law. If according to the Calvinist, faith is predetermined by God (indeed, that everything is predetermined by God), where then would any distinction between obedience to the law and the nature of faith lie?
Here are some final thoughts and questions that are raised if Calvinism’s understanding of the nature of faith were true.
First, God would be responsible for those seeking righteousness through the law and those who believe in Jesus. God would be causing both and therefore acting in contradiction to his own word as he inspired Paul to write in Romans.
Secondly, what is all this Calvinist talk about everything in the world being predetermined? How is this doctrine even compatible with the majority of what the scriptures testify to and teach us? How can it be logically, morally, and biblically defended. How can we make sense of Scripture as it must be read on Calvinism, that is, that God is the free sole agent and their are no other free agents. Any other meaningful human agency is eliminated.
Thirdly, on Calvinism, God could have just as well effected obedience to the law and made that the way of righteousness, just like the Calvinist claims God effects faith in the hearts and minds of his elect.
Fourthly, what would a “faith” that is divinely predetermined and caused be like anyway? How could it be understood? It seems that, by definition, faith must be of the nature of free response to God or any other applicable circumstance otherwise it is not faith. A divinely predetermined and caused “faith” would contradict the very nature of faith as Paul has been expounding it for us.
Finally, if faith were predetermined for a limited number of elect people, that would be such an important element of the very nature of faith and salvation that we would think Paul would expound on that aspect of faith and the implications for salvation or at least mention it. But he does not.
The point is that salvation by faith is designed to reflect the dependence of a free creature upon it Creator as was originally meant for mankind at creation. Creaturely dependence upon God is the definition of faith. 1 Adam rebelled against God by an act of disobedience indicating his desire for creaturely independence from God. The relationship of faith dependence on God was spurned. Note that faith and unbelief were not determined by God then and need not be determined for sinners after the fall. The sinner’s response of faith is indicative of that person’s willing dependence upon God once again. The object of saving faith at this point in the divine revelation is Jesus. Faith in Jesus brings about salvation from sin. The locus of faith for redemption is found “in Christ.” Therefore, according to Paul, salvation is intended to be universal and is therefore to be found in Christ by faith alone.
“Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring – not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.”” (4:17, NIV)
And,
“The words, “It is credited to him” were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness – for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.” (4:23-25, NIV)
1 James D. G. Dunn, Romans 1-8, Word Biblical Commentary, vol. 38, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1988), 55.
The Truth of the Gospel 