In dealing with the Jew, and even in dealing with the question of
righteousness, there was, besides the law, another consideration of great
weight both with the Jews themselves and in the dealings of God. What of
Abraham, called of God to be the parent-stock, the father of the faithful?
The apostle, therefore, after having set forth the relation in which faith
stood towards the law by the introduction of the righteousness of God,
takes up the question of the ground on which Abraham was placed as
well-pleasing to God in righteousness. For the Jew might have admitted his
personal failure under the law, and pleaded the enjoyment of privilege
under Abraham. If we consider him then thus according to the flesh (that
is, in connection with the privileges that descended from him as
inheritance for his children) and take our place under him in the line of
succession to enjoy those privileges, on what principle does this set us?
On the same principle of faith. He would have had something to boast of if
he was justified by works; but before God it was not so. For the scriptures
say, "Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.
Now to him that worketh is the reward not counted of grace, but of debt.
But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him who justifieth the
ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." For thereby, in fact, he
glorifies God in the way that God desires to be glorified, and according to
the revelation He has made of Himself in Christ.
Thus the testimony borne by Abraham's case is to justification by faith.
David also supports this testimony and speaks of the blessedness of the man
to whom righteousness is imputed without works. He whose iniquities are
pardoned, whose sins are covered, to whom the Lord does not impute sin-he
is the man whom David calls blessed. But this supposed man to be a sinner
and not righteous in himself. It was a question of what God was in grace to
such a one, and not of what he was to God, or rather when he was a sinner.
His blessedness was that God did not impute to him the sins he had
committed, not that he was righteous in himself before God. Righteousness
for man was found in the grace of God. Here it is identified with
non-imputation of sins to man, guilty through committing them. No sin is
imputed.
Was then this righteousness for the circumcision only? Now our thesis is,
that God counted Abraham to be righteous by faith. But was he circumcised
when this took place? Not so; he was uncircumcised. Righteousness then is
by faith, and for the uncircumcised through faith-a testimony that was
overwhelming to a Jew, because Abraham was the beau ideal to which all his
ideas of excellence and of privilege referred. Circumcision was only a seal
to the righteousness by faith which Abraham possessed in uncircumcision,
that he might be the father of all believers who were in the same state of
uncircumcision, that righteousness might be imputed to them also; and the
father of circumcision-that is, the first model of a people truly set apart
for God-not only with regard to the circumcised, but to all those who
should walk in the steps of his faith when uncircumcised. For, after all,
the promise that he should be heir of the world was not made to Abraham nor
to his seed in connection with the law, but with righteousness by faith.
For if they who are on the principle of law are heirs, the faith by which
Abraham received it is vain, and the promise made of none effect; [see note #17]
for, on the contrary, the law produces wrath-and that is a very different
thing from bringing into the enjoyment of a promise-for where there is no
law there is no transgression. Observe, he does not say there is no sin;
but where there is no commandment, there is none to violate. Now, the law
being given to a sinner, wrath is necessarily the consequence of its
imposition.
This is the negative side of the subject. The apostle shews that with
regard to the Jews themselves, the inheritance could not be on the
principle of law without setting Abraham aside, for to him the inheritance
had been given by promise, and this implied that it was by faith: for we
believe in a promise, we do not ourselves fulfil a promise that has been
made to us. Accordingly the righteousness of Abraham was-according to
scripture-through this same faith. It was imputed to him for righteousness.
This principle admitted the Gentiles; but here it is established with
regard to the Jews themselves or rather with regard to the ways of God, in
such a manner as to exclude the law as a means of obtaining the inheritance
of God. The consequence with regard to Gentiles believing the gospel is
stated in verse 16, "Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace,
to the end that the promise might be sure to all the seed" of Abraham to
whom the promise was made; not to that only which was under the law, but to
all that had the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all before God,
as it is written, "I have made thee a father of many nations."
Thus we have the great principle established. It is by faith, before and
without law [see note #18];
and the promise is made to man in uncircumcision, and he is justified by
believing it.
Another element is now introduced. Humanly speaking, the fulfilment of the
promise was impossible, for in that respect both Abraham and Sarah were as
dead, and the promise must be believed in against all hope, resting on the
almighty power of Him who raises the dead, and calls things that are not as
though they were. This was Abraham's faith. He believed the promise that he
should be the father of many nations, because God had spoken, counting on
the power of God, thus glorifying Him, without calling in question anything
that He had said by looking at circumstances; therefore this also was
counted to him for righteousness. He glorified God according to what God
was. Now, this was not written for his sake alone the same faith shall be
imputed to us also for righteousness-faith in God as having raised up Jesus
from the dead. It is not here faith in Jesus, but in Him who came in power
into the domain of death, where Jesus lay because of our sins, and brought
Him forth by His power, the mighty activity of the love of God who brought
Him-who had already borne all the punishment of our sins-out from under all
their consequences; so that, by believing God who has done this, we embrace
the whole extent of His work, the grace and the power displayed in it; and
we thus know God. Our God is the God who has done this. He has Himself
raised up Jesus from among the dead, who was delivered for our offences and
raised again for our justification. Our sins were already upon Him. The
active intervention of God delivered Him who lay in death because He had
borne them. It is not only a resurrection of the dead, but from among the
dead-the intervention of God to bring forth in righteousness the One who
had glorified Him. By believing in such a God we understand that it is
Himself who, in raising Christ from among the dead, has delivered us
Himself from all that our sins had subjected us to; because He has brought
back in delivering power Him who underwent it for our sakes.
