Romans – A Treatise
Chapter Four
APART FROM LAW
Scripture Reading: verses 16-18
THEREFORE IT IS OF FAITH, THAT IT MIGHT BE BY GRACE; TO THE END THE PROMISE MIGHT BE SURE TO ALL THE SEED; NOT TO THAT ONLY WHICH IS OF THE LAW, BUT TO THAT ALSO WHICH IS OF THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM; WHO IS THE FATHER OF US ALL. (AS IT IS WRITTEN, I HAVE MADE THEE A FATHER OF MANY NATIONS,) BEFORE HIM WHOM HE BELIEVED, EVEN GOD, WHO QUICKENETH THE DEAD, AND CALLETH THOSE THINGS WHICH BE NOT AS THOUGH THEY WERE. WHO AGAINST HOPE BELIEVED IN HOPE, THAT HE MIGHT BECOME THE FATHER OF MANY NATIONS; ACCORDING TO THAT WHICH WAS SPOKEN, SO SHALL THY SEED BE.
We are still beholding a courtroom scene. God Himself is on the bench as Judge, Paul is the attorney handling the case, inspired of course by the Holy Spirit of God. The prisoner in the dock is mankind, Jew and Gentile. They have both been proved guilty and are silent in God's presence. Now as attorney for the defense, Paul is calling various witnesses to the stand. Keep in mind that he has already called Abraham, explaining for the court his initial call of God, pointing out that Abraham was not justified on the principle of works, but on faith. Surely this is a point in favor of the defense since God is seeking to find a way to clear the guilty criminal from all guilt. The next witness brought to the stand is David the king, and it is shown that his happiness did not consist in good works, of which he had many, but in the fact that God had forgiven his iniquities and covered his sins. So he also is not justified before God on the principle of works, but because he believed God when God told him He had forgiven him.
Abraham is again called to the stand and we now listen to the witness concerning him. Paul, the defense attorney, is reminding the court of the immutability of God’s promise, and this promise was made to Abraham before either law or circumcision was inaugu-rated. In other words, God’s immutable promise could not possibly depend on the Law administered through Moses because Abraham was dead and buried long before Moses came on the scene – before the Law was given. Yet, he was justified. Thus, God’s promise of the inheritance could not have been given to Abraham on the principle of keeping the Law, because the Law had not yet been administered. Does it then make sense that everything was on the principle of faith? Further, the defense attorney has pointed out that circumcision was not yet given so inheritance could not come on the basis of any outward token of religious standing before God.
He is pursuing this argument as he says:
Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all.
The courts of the universe must uphold the truth of the fact that God’s promise through Abraham was not limited to the children of Israel. The promise was that he might become the father of many nations, not of one nation. Therefore the scope of the promise to Abraham must reach beyond the limits of Israel. Based on the unalterable Word of God in promise, it is here demonstrated that the inheritance cannot come on the principle of law, otherwise only Israel would have a right to inherit it. That is the reason why it is stated in verse 15, “Where no law is, there is no transgression.” If God were going to justify people on the principle of law, only Israel would be eligible for such justification. Moreover neither would the Gentiles be condemned because they were not under the administration of law. They could not be accused of transgressing a law which had never been given to them.
Verse 17 now comes in as a clinching argument, not only against justification on the principle of works through the Law, but against anything that man can do to justify himself. The real value of the faith of Abraham was that he laid hold on “God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.” The promise made to Abraham was grasped by the patriarch as an unmerited favor of God. He did not expect to earn it. Indeed he could see no possibility of doing anything of his making to merit God’s favor in giving such an inheritance. At the time the promise was made to Abraham he was an old man and, naturally speaking, he was declining toward the grave. Had God called him when he was a young lad, and set before him the prospect of an inheritance which would accrue to him when he came of age and which he would enjoy until he died, then this argument could not have been presented. However, the fact is God called Abraham and made this promise when he was a hundred years old and his wife barren. He was in the senility of old age when God told him of the seed that would spring from them. Naturally speaking, there was no such hope for them. “Against hope he believed in hope.” They could not work for it because no effort of the flesh could produce it. Yet Abraham believed it. Why? Because he believed God could raise the dead. This is the great secret of justification by faith.
Having examined the evidence that Paul is presenting, let us take another look at the prisoner in the dock and see how all of this reasoning affects him. The prisoner, mankind, Jew and Gentile, has been unequivocally condemned. He has been proven guilty; he has no hope. So as far as productivity is concerned, he is in the same predicament as Abraham was when he was a hundred years old and his wife barren. Now God promises an inheritance. The Word of God concerning that sinner in the dock is expressed to us in the Ephesian Epistle where, speaking of sinners, Paul says, “has made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light,” and this has been done by the redemption that is in the Lord Jesus Christ. That is God’s promise to the sinner who stands condemned in this courtroom. Logically speaking, he should be condemned and banished from God's presence, but God’s offers him mercy – He will save him by divine grace, and give him an inheritance among those that are sanctified. The sinner can no more work for that than Abraham could work for Isaac. He is a condemned prisoner; the sentence of death is upon him. What will he do? Against hope he will believe in hope. How? By taking God at His Word and receiving the free gift by grace.
There is no use for him to determine that he will keep the Law, because the Law is already broken and he is condemned; nor will keeping the Law nullify his guilt. He must then accept salvation purely by grace, on the principle of faith, just as Abraham believed God who raises the dead, and it was counted to him for righteousness. So Paul, attorney for the defense, has scored another great legal point in the clearance of the sinner in the presence of God.
