Глава IV

Abraham was justified through faith alone (1–12). The promised inheritance of peace to Abraham and his seed was given independently of keeping the law (13–17). The very descendants of Abraham who were to receive this inheritance were the fruit of faith (18–22). Application of this example of Abraham to Christians (23–25). Rom.4:1. What, say, did Abraham, our father, acquire in the flesh? At the end of Chapter III, the Apostle said that justification through faith is not in conflict with the law, but, on the contrary, represents the implementation of the basic idea lying in the law. But this position had to be proven with facts, and so the Apostle finds in the law, that is, in the Pentateuch, a fact that could best confirm his view. The writer of history (Genesis 15:6) says about Abraham that he believed God, and this was counted to him as righteousness. From here the Apostle draws the conclusion that justification by faith was recognized as the only possible one even in the Old Testament. To supplement this testimony of Moses, the Apostle then cites a passage from the Psalms of David, where also justification is not made dependent on works. To this the Apostle adds proof that in the life of Abraham, works did not have the meaning of a justifying means before God: he was justified by God even before he accomplished his great feat - (deed) before he performed circumcision on himself. Abraham was the representative of righteousness to the Jews, and his example could best serve to resolve the question of how to achieve righteousness. If he, this most famous patriarch, was justified through faith alone, then the Apostle was right when he asserted that salvation is given only through faith; if Abraham had to add some works to this faith, then the entire teaching of Paul was destroyed. What did Abraham, our forefather, achieve (acquire) by works (according to the flesh)? – Some of the ancient and new interpreters refer the expression “according to the flesh” to the word “our father,” but this is incorrect, because, firstly, this addition would be unnecessary, secondly, it would not be suitable for the readers of the epistle, who for the most part were not Jews, and thirdly, the Apostle himself considered Abraham the father of Christians not according to the flesh, but according to faith (see Gal. 3:7). Rom.4:2. If Abraham was justified by works, he has praise, but not before God. There is no answer to the question posed, but it is assumed by itself: Abraham did not acquire justification for himself by works. To this the Apostle adds that if Abraham had been justified by works, then he would have the opportunity to boast, the destruction of which the Apostle spoke about in Chapter III. 27 Art. But nowhere does he boast of this before God - Scripture does not speak about his deeds when talking about his justification. Consequently, any thought about the possibility of restoring self-justification by works disappears. Let people, his descendants, admire his exploits, but it was not these exploits that gave him justification before God! Rom.4:3. For what does Scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. What gave him new life, what put him in a new relationship with God? Faith. Abraham believed God that he, a decrepit, childless old man, would have numerous offspring, and God credited this faith to him as righteousness. – How to understand this imputation? Did Abraham thereby become truly righteous, fully justified and sanctified? Of course not. When the sacrifice of Christ had not yet been offered, there could not yet be complete forgiveness of sins and real justification (Heb. 9:15). In the Old Testament there may have been only potential justification, and Abraham's faith may have contained only the seed of future justification. But still, this faith was counted (imputed) to Abraham and other people of the Old Testament who had it - a believer felt that God approved of him for this faith, and this gave him a certain degree of moral peace. Rom.4:4. Reward to the one who does it is imputed not according to mercy, but according to duty. Rom.4:5. But to him who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. From what was said in the Pentateuch, the Apostle immediately draws a conclusion. God's imputation of Abraham's faith into righteousness was obviously a matter of God's mercy, because, as stated in the explanation of v. 3, God had not yet seen real righteousness in Abraham - it did not exist in the Old Testament. On the contrary, if Abraham had acquired the right to justification by his works, then God would have to justify him (by debt). Meanwhile, nowhere in the Old Testament is there any talk about such a duty as God would have towards righteous people. From here the Apostle draws the following general conclusion: there are two ways to acquire righteousness - one’s own works or faith. For works, the reward is given according to duty, for faith - according to mercy, without complete righteousness. This faith must consist in the conviction that God can make a sinner (ungodly) righteous, can cleanse him of sinful defilement, from which a person himself cannot cleanse himself. But from here it is clear why the Lord credited Abraham with his faith in righteousness. Abraham, obviously, himself made every effort to cleanse himself from sins, but could not achieve this and therefore with faith he expected this cleansing from God. Thus, by faith he already anticipated the future justification that would be granted to humanity through Christ, and this future righteousness was imputed to him, which in reality did not yet exist. Rom.4:6. So David calls blessed the person to whom God imputes righteousness regardless of works: Rom.4:7. Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Rom.4:8. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute sin. To supplement Moses' testimony about Abraham, the Apostle adds a suitable passage from the psalms of David. David probably composed Psalm 31 after he was worthy to receive forgiveness from God for the grave sins he had committed, into which he was carried away by lust. This is where the expressions came from: “iniquities are forgiven, sins are covered, sin is not imputed.” Here, therefore, the negative side of justification is indicated, which consists in the destruction of evil through justification, while in relation to Abraham we were talking only about the positive side of justification - about the good that comes from justification. The Apostle cites David’s confession, of course, for the purpose of showing that this outstanding righteous man of the Old Testament placed all the power of his trust not in his own works, but in the mercy of God. And David realized that a person can feel blessed only when God, regardless of a person’s deeds, forgives him for his sins - a person himself cannot atone for his guilt with his deeds. Rom.4:9. Does this blessedness apply to circumcision or to uncircumcision? We say that Abraham's faith was counted as righteousness. Rom.4:10. When did you get imputed? after circumcision or before circumcision? Not after circumcision, but before circumcision. But the defenders of works could, regarding the Apostle’s reference to the example of Abraham, justified by faith, say: “So be it! But Abraham was awarded justification through faith only because he was circumcised, and circumcision, in any case, is a work, a feat of man.” The Apostle, having posed this question (he replaces the word “justification” with the word “bliss” in view of the quoted saying from Ps 32), now simply and clearly solves it this way: Abraham was justified by God through faith much earlier than the establishment of circumcision - it was after justification that about 14 years passed before the establishment of circumcision (cf. Chapters XV and XVII of Genesis). At that time, Abraham was no different from the pagans in any way. Rom.4:11. And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness through the faith which he had while uncircumcised, so that he became the father of all who believed while uncircumcised, so that righteousness might be imputed to them also, Rom.4:12. and the father of the circumcised, who not only received circumcision, but also walk in the footsteps of the faith of our father Abraham, which he had while uncircumcised. The Apostle develops his thought even further. Circumcision itself was, so to speak, a seal or consequence of the justification of Abraham that had already been accomplished. - “So he became...” (v. 11) more correctly from the Greek: so that (είς τό). The Apostle wants to say that although Abraham himself, of course, accepting the divine promise with faith, did not think, did not have the goal of becoming the spiritual father of the believing pagans, yet such was God’s intention in the present case. God, accepting Abraham's faith as justifying, had in mind the pagans themselves, and theocracy was only a means for him (cf. Gen. 12:3). Speaking about the pagans, as the spiritual children of Abraham by faith, the Apostle puts them in the foreground - he speaks about the Jewish believers in the 12th art. This was completely at odds with Jewish concepts! But the Apostle does not limit himself to this. In the 13th Art. he says that the Jews can only call Abraham their father in this case, when they not only accept circumcision, but also act as Abraham did - namely, imitate his faith. And what faith? The one he had not yet being circumcised, still standing in the position of an ordinary person, on a level with the pagans! From here the Jews could conclude quite correctly that it is not the Gentile believers who must pass through the gates of the Jews, but the Jews who believe through the gates of the Gentiles... We see, therefore, from both of these verses that the most important event in the history of the economy of salvation was precisely the first appearance of Abraham as the father of all believing humanity. The Kingdom of God was born at this very moment. Abraham was called precisely so that all nations would be saved. From this moment, in fact, the story of salvation begins. Abraham not only believed in God the Creator and Giver - there were such believers before (Heb. 11), but he believed in the promises of God, in God the First Author of the work of redemption... In this case, bodily descent from Abraham lost its significance for achieving salvation - faith alone became the animating principle in the history of mankind, faith in God, who imparts justification freely. Rom.4:13. For the promise was not given to Abraham, or to his seed, by law, to be the heir of the world, but by the righteousness of faith. From the above, it became clear that Abraham, receiving justification, was, so to speak, a representative of all humanity, and not just the Jewish people. Paul's opponents could agree with this. But they could have pointed out to Paul that Abraham received other benefits after receiving justification. He, most importantly, was promised - with all his offspring - that he would be the ruler of the whole world. And this offspring, obviously, was no other than that which came through Isaac, that is, the Jewish people. Thus, it turned out that salvation was again made dependent on one people and the law by which Israel was governed. The Apostle, in response to this objection, says that the possession of the world was promised to Abraham and his descendants not at all because they would keep the law: the law rather served as an obstacle than as a convenient means for obtaining the inheritance of the world. “For not by the law”—that is, let not the Jews imagine that the promised inheritance was to be obtained through the law, and that it was therefore reserved to the people to whom the law was given. Paul further explains that the law rather took away this promised inheritance. "To be the heir of the world". In the book. In Genesis, God promises Abraham and his descendants only the land of Canaan, and not the whole world. But Jewish theology replaced the word earth in its interpretation with the words world, humanity. The Jewish people dreamed of the happy times of the Messiah, when the Jewish nation would seize power over the whole world. The Apostle does not find it necessary to refute such conceit of his like-minded people on the merits; he does not touch upon the content of the promises of God, but speaks only about the conditions that were established by God for the achievement of this inheritance. This condition can only be faith, righteousness received through faith, and not the law (now the Apostle uses the word law instead of the word circumcision, because circumcision was the main point of the law, and the one who accepted circumcision assumed the obligation to keep the whole law). Rom.4:14. If those who are established in the law are heirs, then faith is vain, the promise is ineffectual; Rom.4:15. for the law produces wrath, because where there is no law, there is no crime. Proof of what was stated in Art. 13. The Apostle now borrows his thoughts not from history, as in v. 10–12, but from logic. If inheritance, he says, were made dependent on life according to the law, then there would be no room left for faith, since faith and the works of the law are mutually exclusive (cf. v. 4 et seq.), and through this very promise turned into some kind of mockery of people, since a person cannot find favor in the eyes of God through the fulfillment of the works of the law (Rom. 3:20). Not only that. The law exposes a person to the wrath of God and punishment 20 - what kind of reward can there be in this case? On the contrary, where there is no law - namely in Christianity (Rom. 3:21, 26) - there is no transgression of the will of God and there is no place for the wrath of God, there, therefore, there is no obstacle to the fulfillment of the divine promise. Of course, the Apostle here looks at Christianity from an ideal point of view, he sees it as it could and should be... Rom.4:16. Therefore it is by faith, that it may be by grace, that the promise may be certain to all, not only according to the law, but also according to the faith of the descendants of Abraham, who is the father of us all Here the Apostle expresses even more strongly the thought of verse 13: the promises are made dependent on faith alone, so that the mercy of God is the beginning and the end in this matter. Then, when the mercy of God will assign rewards, and not formal justice, and it will be possible to receive these rewards (inheritance) to all the descendants of Abraham - not only those who have the Law of Moses (Jews), but also those who have only faith (Gentiles). Rom.4:17. [as it is written: I have made you a father of many nations] before God, whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they are. Citing a passage from the book of Genesis (Gen. 17:5), where Abraham is actually called the father of many nations (εθνών pagan nations, according to the Hebrew text eoit), the Apostle adds that Abraham is our father before God or in the face of God. With these words, he further assures all Christians of the certainty of their filial relationship to Abraham. Pagans and Jews, of course, do not understand this, but we Christians are well aware of this, that this is actually so. At the same time, the Apostle gives some indications of the similarities between the faith of Christians and the faith of Abraham. The most important point of Christian doctrine is the belief in the resurrection of Christ and the resurrection of the dead. And Abraham also had similar faith. He believed that God can resurrect everything that is dead and can call (more correctly from Greek: call, call) things that do not yet exist, as already existing. This further proves our spiritual kinship with Abraham. Rom.4:18. He, beyond hope, believed with hope, through which he became the father of many nations, according to what was said: “So numerous will your seed be.” But against all these considerations of the Apostle, the Jews could still point out that Abraham acquired according to the flesh (v. 1) a son, Isaac, and through him numerous descendants - the people of Israel. The apostle now examines this supposed objection and proves that Abraham received a son through his faith. "Beyond Hope". The circumstances were not at all such that Abraham could hope for the fulfillment of God’s promise of the birth of a son: he and his wife were already so old that, according to the natural order, they could not have children. “Through what happened” is more correct from the Greek. (είς το γενέσθαι): “that he might become...” Abraham, believing, had the goal in mind that the promise of God would undoubtedly come to fruition. Rom.4:19. And, not fainting in faith, he did not think that his body, almost a hundred years old, was already dead, and Sarah’s womb was dead; “I didn’t think so” – he’s right. from Greek (ού κατενόησεν) - did not pay attention to the fact that... The Apostle Peter, while he looked only at the Lord, walking on the sea, did not drown, because he believed in Him, and when he looked with doubt at the waves, he began to drown. Abraham remained in faith - he did not look at what could shake his trust in God's promise. Rom.4:20. did not shake the promise of God through unbelief, but remained steadfast in faith, giving glory to God Rom.4:21. and being fully confident that He is able to fulfill His promise. Rom.4:22. Therefore it was counted to him as righteousness. “Having given glory to God,” that is, he understood His truth, His infinite power and did not try to explain what was said to him from God somehow in his own way, in a simpler meaning (I. Chrysostom). - “That is why it was counted to him as righteousness.” In these words the Apostle powerfully summarizes everything that was said in verses 1-21. “Therefore” - this expression brings out what is said about the trust that Abraham found in relation to the promise of God. The Apostle speaks here of the justification of Abraham, but he means, of course, both the inheritance of the world and his descendants. Abraham received all this through faith. Rom.4:23. However, it is not written in relation to him alone that what was imputed to him, Now the Apostle draws a conclusion from all that has been said in relation to Christians. Scripture, speaking about the justification of Abraham through faith, also had in mind us, Christians, in order to confirm the position that we are also justified by faith - by faith in the Risen Christ Rom.4:24. but also in relation to us; will be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised Jesus Christ our Lord from the dead, The above event from the life of Abraham - his justification by faith - is also significant for us, serving, so to speak, as a prototype of our justification. “It will be imputed to us too.” The Apostle is not talking about future imputation or justification: it is already an accomplished fact, as can be seen from Chapter III. (Rom. 3 et seq.). Therefore, it is more correct to translate this expression as follows: “we should also be imputed.” – “To believers” – that is, if we believe or when we believe. - “Who raised Jesus Christ our Lord from the dead.” There is, of course, a similarity between Abraham’s faith that he would have a son, Isaac, and our faith in the resurrection of Christ: both there and here the matter of the resurrection of the dead and the mortified is involved. But there is also a difference. Abraham believed in God, and we, believing in God, also believe in Jesus as our Lord. The birth of Isaac in the chain of events in the history of salvation was, so to speak, the starting point, and the resurrection of Christ was the completion of history, its crowning point. Christ is for us the head of the church, which he was not for Abraham. Rom.4:25. Who was delivered for our sins and rose again for our justification. To show why Christ became our Lord, the Apostle points to His death and resurrection as events that had such an important saving significance for us. – “Delivered for our sins” – these words represent the transmission of the words of the prophet Isaiah (Is. 53:12) – “and rose again” – from the Greek. (ηγέρθη) more precisely: was resurrected. - “For our justification,” that is, so that believers can rightfully consider themselves justified. If Christ had not been resurrected, then justification would not have been perfect! (1 Cor 15:17). However, it would be more accurate to translate this expression exactly like this: “for (διά) our justification.” The meaning of this place then turns out to be this. Christ, as it were, vouched for us, debtors to Divine Truth. Since we ourselves could not pay off our debts, He, like any guarantor, was subjected to imprisonment. But when the debt is paid (in the present case, not by the debtors, but by the guarantor), he is released. So Christ was resurrected, freed from the bonds of death as a sign that He had brought a completely satisfactory atonement for the sins of all mankind. Thus, the Apostle here complements what he said in Romans 3:25. Christ gives us justification not only by His death, but also by His resurrection. One cannot deduce from this the idea that if there had been no law, the Jews would not have been subjected to the wrath of God. In the 1st chapter. The Apostle proves precisely the opposite of this. Here he only points out the inevitability of violations of the law and, consequently, the inevitability of punishment for Jews under the law. You might be interested in: