Romans chapter 4

by Keith Simons. Free online Bible course and commentary from the Useful Bible Study Centre.

A lesson from the life of Abraham

(Romans 4:1-2)

God brings people into a right relationship with himself when they have faith (trust) in Christ. Paul has said that the evidence for this is in the law and the prophets (3:21). By ‘the law and the prophets’, Paul meant the Old Testament (the books of the Bible that already existed before the time of the first Christians). The ‘law’ means the first 5 books. The ‘prophets’ means the other books which prophets (holy men of God) wrote.

So now Paul brings us a lesson from the part of the Bible called ‘the law’ (the first 5 books). It is from Genesis 15:6, which Paul repeats in verse 3. This particular passage does not contain any rules or commands; but it does give an important principle for our lives. Before Paul explains that principle, he first reminds us about the importance of Abraham. Abraham is one of the greatest men in the Bible. From his family came God’s special nation, called Israel or the Jewish people. God made wonderful promises to Abraham. God even promised to show his kindness to people of every nation by means of Abraham (Genesis 12:2-3).

The Bible calls Abraham a friend of God (2 Chronicles 20:7; James 2:23). It is clear that he had a right relationship with God. We ask how he received that relationship. We, today, can only receive a right relationship with God by the same method. Many people would guess that Abraham had earned it by his good deeds. That idea, however, is wrong. Our good actions may impress other people (Job 35:5-8), but God’s standards are much higher than ours (Romans 3:23; Isaiah 55:8-9). The truth is that Abraham did not earn his relationship with God; it was God’s free gift to him. Abraham received it when he believed God; in other words, he trusted God to carry out his promises.

How Abraham received a right relationship with God

(Romans 4:3)

The life of Abraham interests us greatly. For several centuries, everyone or almost everyone had served false gods, and many people were very evil. However, then Abraham discovered how to have a relationship with the real God; and he taught it to other people. Even today, our beliefs as Christians depend on what Abraham discovered.

Righteousness means goodness. In Romans 3:9-20, Paul has explained that people are not good; in many ways, everyone offends against God’s law. Now, however, Paul tells us from Genesis 15:6 that Abraham had righteousness. Abraham certainly did not learn to be good from the society in which he lived. Clearly, he received that quality in some other way. We want, of course, to understand how.

God made a series of promises to Abraham; and Abraham obeyed God. We might think that Abraham was righteous (good) because of that. However, something happened before Abraham obeyed; he believed God. Abraham obeyed only because he believed. So, God declared Abraham righteous because Abraham believed.

We do not mean that Abraham merely believed in God. (To believe in God means to believe that he exists). Of course that is essential in order to receive anything from God (Hebrews 11:6). However, even the devil believes in God (James 2:19). Abraham believed that God would carry out his promises. He trusted God to do these things even when they seemed impossible (4:19-21). That attitude is called faith. That faith was the reason why God considered Abraham righteous. Therefore Abraham’s righteousness did not come from Abraham himself, but from God. It was God’s gift to Abraham when Abraham acted in faith.

How to receive God’s kindness

(Romans 4:4)

God’s kindness does not depend on our goodness. That is because kindness is an act of love. It is not an act of love to pay someone the wages that he has earned. However when God forgives us, that is an act of love.

Of course we do not deserve for God to forgive us. We need him to forgive us because we have done wrong things (3:23) and not right things. What we deserve for our wrong behaviour is the punishment of death (6:23).

So when we ask God to forgive us, we are asking him to show great kindness to us. We are not trying to convince him that we deserve it. Rather, we accept that we do not deserve it. We are not trying to pay him by some good deed that we have done. Instead, we recognise that we can never pay him to forgive us. Therefore, we do not ask God to forgive us because of our goodness, but because of his goodness.

We must not think that we can force God to accept us. That is a very proud attitude. However, there is something that we can and must do. We must believe God. He has promised to forgive those people who turn to him (Isaiah 1:18; Isaiah 55:6-7). He has promised to help and to give rest to those people who come to him (Matthew 11:28-29). He has promised to accept everyone who receives him into their life (John 1:12; Revelation 3:20).

When we believe God’s promises, that is called faith. Faith is God’s gift to us (Ephesians 2:8), so that we can receive the benefit of his promises. So, when we believe God, God forgives us. He gives us a right relationship with himself.

Whom does God help?

(Romans 4:5)

There is a common idea that only good people deserve God’s help. Some people try to do good things only because they want God to help them. They think that, by those good deeds, they can earn a right relationship with God. Perhaps they also believe that evil people can never receive any kindness from God.

That is not what the Bible teaches. The Bible says that everyone has done wrong and evil things (3:23). However, God wants to forgive people (Exodus 34:6-7); he even wants to forgive the most wicked people (Ezekiel 18:21-23; Ezekiel 18:27).

So, God wants to forgive us, but not as a reward for our good deeds. Rather God forgives because of his great love. Christ died for us, although we do not deserve his love (5:6-8). He suffered the punishment that we deserve because of our evil deeds (6:23).

God forgives those people who turn to him in faith. They have faith (trust) that Christ died to give them a right relationship with God. Faith means belief and trust in God. When we trust God, we are allowing him to change our lives (2 Corinthians 5:17). God wants to make us into his family; we can become his children (John 1:12; Romans 8:14-17).

However, there are some people who will not allow God to make this wonderful change in their lives. They include both some evil people, and some people who consider themselves good. There are some people who refuse to turn from their evil deeds (Ezekiel 3:19; Revelation 21:8). Also, there are some people who do not want to be humble in front of God (Luke 18:9-14). People can become so proud of their good deeds that they do not even want to accept God’s kindness. They do not want God to forgive them unless they can earn it by their own efforts; and that, of course, is impossible.

How to be truly happy and content

(Romans 4:6)

People try hard to be truly happy and truly content in their lives. They make every effort to achieve a sense of satisfaction. However, that seems to be a mere emotion that cannot last. In this life, people’s hard work cannot bring any permanent reward, because, of course, we all must die (Ecclesiastes 2:10-11).

We can see, therefore, that real happiness and true satisfaction can only come from God. We can see also that our best efforts cannot achieve these things for us. We can only know real happiness and true satisfaction if God gives us these things as a free gift.

Wicked people can never be truly content (Isaiah 48:22). Therefore the gift that we need from God is a right relationship with him. We are all guilty of wrong and evil deeds (3:23); so we need him to forgive us.

That is the most astonishing change in a person’s life (2 Corinthians 5:17). Jesus described it as a new birth (John 3:3-7). We receive it by faith (trust) in Jesus, who died for us (4:24-25).

Long before the life and death of Jesus, God’s people already knew about that. Abraham had faith (trust) in God; that was how he received his right relationship with God (Romans 4:3 and Genesis 15:6). Similarly, David described the happy state of those people whom God forgives (Romans 4:7-8 and Psalm 32:1-2). They both understood that this relationship with God does not depend on a person’s own efforts. It is a gift of God which we receive by faith (trust in God).

The wonderful news that God can forgive us

(Romans 4:7-8)

David’s words, from Psalm 32:1-2, surprise us. Of course, a person who has never done any evil thing should be truly happy. A perfect person should be truly content. We can never achieve such a standard (3:23). However, many people still hope that they are good enough for God to accept them.

Paul is arguing that God does not accept us because of our good works. However, God can accept us because of his own goodness when we have faith (belief and trust) in him. That is why Paul reminds us of David’s statement in Psalm 32.

David speaks about people who, like him and like us all, are not perfect. He speaks about people who are guilty of many wrong and evil deeds. He declares that we can still be truly content and happy in a right relationship with God. That is not possible because of our own goodness; but it is possible because God forgives. That was David’s experience (Psalms 32 and 51), and it can be our experience too.

We deserve, of course, that God should declare us guilty. However, Christ accepted our punishment when he died for us. That is how God can accept us. By our evil deeds, we have made ourselves God’s enemies. However, God wants to forgive us so that we can become his friends (5:8).

God does that when we turn to him in faith. He gives to us his righteousness (goodness) - Romans 4:22-24. That is the only way that we can know the true happiness of a right relationship with God.

Can people from every nation have a right relationship with God?

(Romans 4:9-10)

The church at Rome included both Jews and people who were not Jews. They needed to understand clearly whether they all could have a right relationship with God.

This was a problem because, unlike other nations, the Jews have a national relationship with God. The Jews are the people from the family of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They have that relationship because of God’s promises to Abraham. The male members of their families receive circumcision, as Abraham did. Circumcision is a minor operation that cuts a small piece of skin from the male sex part.

Abraham had a right relationship with God because of his faith (belief and trust) in God (Romans 4:3; Genesis 15:6). The question for Rome’s Christians was whether only the Jews could have that kind of faith, and that kind of relationship. So, they were asking whether Abraham’s relationship with God depended on his circumcision.

Paul replied that the answer to their question is very clear from the Book of Genesis. In Genesis chapter 15 we read about Abraham’s faith and his right relationship with God. However, we do not read about his circumcision until chapter 17.

Therefore, Abraham’s relationship with God did not depend on his circumcision. Circumcision was simply a mark of what God had already done in his life. God established that relationship with Abraham when Abraham had not accepted circumcision. So, God will do the same for people from every nation who have faith in him. They all can know a right relationship with him; for them, circumcision of the body is not necessary.

Our ‘father’ Abraham

(Romans 4:11-12)

When people described a great man as their ‘father’, they were not simply describing a family relationship. They wanted everyone else to understand that they respected that man greatly. They tried to follow his noble attitudes and his honourable behaviour; they tried to imitate and to learn from that man’s life.

Many people considered Abraham to be their ‘father’ (John 8:39). So, Paul asked whether they really were like Abraham. If so, they would consider the same things important that Abraham did.

Nothing was more important for Abraham than his relationship with God. Abraham received that relationship when he believed God (Romans 4:3; Genesis 15:6). So, people who consider Abraham to be their ‘father’ should do the same. They should believe and trust God.

The Jews were the people who actually came from the family of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They accepted circumcision (a minor operation on the male sex part) as a mark of their nation’s relationship with God. However, that mark does not show whether, like Abraham, someone has a personal relationship with God. A person can only receive such a relationship by faith (belief and trust in God), as Abraham did.

Abraham received that relationship by faith even before he accepted circumcision. So therefore, other people can also receive a relationship with God by faith, even when they have not accepted circumcision. In their faith, they are behaving like Abraham did. So, although they are not members of Abraham’s physical family, they are right to call him their ‘father’.

The people who benefit from God’s promises to Abraham

(Romans 4:13-14)

God made a series of promises to Abraham for the benefit of the future members of his family.

The Jews are the people who come from the family of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. We can see that many of God’s promises to Abraham are about them. God promises to give them their own country (Genesis 12:7), and that their people would be many (Genesis 15:5).

However, God also intended that the whole world would benefit from his promises to Abraham (Genesis 12:3). God said that he would make Abraham the father of many nations (Genesis 17:6), and not just one nation. That refers to people from all the different nations, who, like Abraham, have faith (belief and trust in God) - Romans 4:16-17. Because they too believe God’s promises, they also can consider Abraham to be their father (4:11-12).

God promises that the world will be theirs (Matthew 5:5; 1 Corinthians 3:21-23; Revelation chapters 20 to 22). They do not claim that promise by a legal right, but by faith as Abraham did (Hebrews 11:8-16). Evil seems so powerful in this world, but they live here as the people of God. God’s people eagerly wait for Christ’s rule on earth to begin (Matthew 6:10). God gives them the strength to be strong during their present troubles (Ephesians 6:10-18).

If God’s people had already received everything as their legal right, they would not need faith. However, without faith, it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). Therefore, our relationship with God depends on faith. It is by faith that we receive the benefit of God’s promises.

The judgement of the law

(Romans 4:15)

We often speak about a relationship with God. However, it is very important for us to know what kind of relationship we have with him. There are just two possible answers. Either we have a relationship of faith with him, or a relationship of law. In other words, if we have any relationship whatever with him, it depends either on law or on faith.

Faith means active belief and trust in God. In other words, someone with faith believes and trusts God. When we have faith, God’s promises are for us (Hebrews chapter 11). We receive the benefit of those promises.

God gave his law to Moses, and it is good, holy, and right (7:12). It teaches how a person must live in order to please God. However, if we try to follow its rules without faith, then the law will only bring God’s anger against us. That is because, to obey the law truly, we must obey every command completely (James 2:10-11). When we do not obey any part of it, we are guilty. None of us can live by God’s standards (3:23).

In ancient Israel, most of the people did not have a personal relationship of faith in God. However, their nation had a relationship with him because of the promises that God gave to Abraham. God separated Israel from the other nations by the laws that God gave to Moses. So, God’s law taught Israel’s people how they should live in their land (Numbers chapter 34). They received that land and they lived in it. However, many of them would not obey God’s commands. They lived like the people in the nations round them. They chose false gods and they behaved in an evil manner. God warned them many times but in the end he had to act against them (2 Kings 17:7-20; 2 Kings 21:10-15). In his anger, he permitted their enemies to force them to leave their land; few of them ever returned. God’s law had not changed and his promises to their nation had not changed. They suffered when God wanted them to know his kindness.

However, later members of their families did have faith in God. They believed God’s promise that they would return to their own land (Jeremiah 29:10-11). You can read about their return in the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah.

How to receive the benefit of God’s promises

(Romans 4:16)

If we tried to obtain the benefit of God’s promises by our own efforts, then we could never succeed. Instead, we would only bring God’s anger against us for our many evil deeds (4:15; 3:23). God’s law tells us his standards for our lives; but none of us lives by his standards.

Instead, we must receive the benefit of God’s promises by faith (belief and trust in God). In other words, we must believe and trust God. God’s kindness is not something that we can earn by our own efforts. It is God’s free gift to the person who believes and trusts him. Our faith is necessary because by it we express our agreement with God’s promises (2 Corinthians 1:20). By faith, we show that we want God to do these wonderful things in our lives. Faith is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8); God gives faith to us so that we can trust him.

People from every nation can receive the benefit of God’s promises by faith. That includes the Jews, the nation to whom God originally gave his law. It also includes the people from other nations who become Christians. They too have the same kind of faith that Abraham had.

In verse 17, Paul refers to Genesis 17:5. Abraham was formerly called Abram. God gave him his new name to show that he would be the ‘father’ of many nations. Here ‘father’ means that they would behave like him. In particular, they (the people from many nations) would have the same kind of faith that Abraham did. Therefore, they would know a right relationship with God, as Abraham did.

Abraham’s beliefs

(Romans 4:17)

Paul has written much about the importance of Abraham’s faith (belief and trust in God). However, Abraham came from a nation where people served false gods. In addition, he probably never read any part of our Bible. He could only believe those things that God had taught him directly. It seems important, therefore, for us to ask what Abraham actually believed.

Paul mentions here two particular beliefs that Abraham had. Hebrews chapter 11 also contains references to those two beliefs (Hebrews 11:3 and 11:19). They are simple beliefs, but they have the power to change people’s lives completely. God changed Abraham’s life by these beliefs, and by that means he changed the future of the world.

(1) Abraham believed that God brings life to dead people. He considered that God had done that in his own life (4:19). He continued to believe it when God told him to offer his son, Isaac (Genesis 22:1-18); and God did not disappoint his faith (Hebrews 11:17-19).

(2) Abraham also believed that God creates. In other words, God causes to exist those things that do not exist. God did that when he created the world (Hebrews 11:3). He will do it again when he creates the new world (2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 21:1). Abraham understood about God’s promise to do that, and he eagerly desired it (Hebrews 11:13-16).

So, Abraham believed that God can do impossible things. In other words, God does things that are impossible for us (Genesis 18:14; Jeremiah 32:17; Luke 1:37). Nothing is too difficult for God to do. Therefore, Abraham realised that he could trust God’s promises to him. Even when those promises seemed impossible, God would certainly carry them out.

Abraham’s hope

(Romans 4:18-19)

Abraham had hope even when there seemed to be no reason for hope. God had promised him a son, and from that son’s family would come a great nation. They would be so many that, like the stars in the sky, it would be impossible to count them (Genesis 15:4-5). However, Abraham was an old man, and God had not yet carried out his promise to him.

Even when Abraham was 99 years old, that son had still not been born. His wife, Sarah, was much too old to have children. She even laughed when God repeated his promise to Abraham (Genesis 18:10-15).

We can believe our circumstances, or we can believe God. Abraham chose to believe God; that is called faith. However, Abraham did not pretend something that was not true. He considered himself so old that he was almost dead. He recognised that Sarah’s body was no longer able to give birth. However, Abraham did not believe that these circumstances - or any other circumstances - could make God’s promises impossible. Instead, he believed that God would use those circumstances for his own (God’s) honour.

So Abraham waited for God to carry out his promise. When Abraham was 100 years old, his wife Sarah gave birth to their son, Isaac (Genesis 21:1-5). The birth of Isaac brought great joy to Abraham; but it was just the beginning of God’s promises to him. Most of the things that God promised to Abraham would not happen during Abraham’s life (Hebrews 11:13). Abraham was aware of that fact (Genesis 15:13-16), but he still continued to believe and to trust God.

Abraham remained firm in his trust in God

(Romans 4:20-22)

Paul is still writing about Abraham. However, we think that he has a lesson for us, his readers. It may not be an easy lesson that we must learn.

So often, we give more attention to our circumstances than to the promises of God. We allow doubts to enter our mind; and those doubts make our trust in God even weaker. God has promised something; but we ask whether that thing is likely to happen. God’s word may be clear; but we ask whether it could have any other possible meaning. We even dare to make excuses for God; but the simple reality is that we do not believe him.

Abraham too could have chosen not to believe God. Every natural circumstance seemed to prove that God’s word to him was wrong. However, Abraham knew that God’s promises are certain. Therefore, Abraham remained firm in his belief and trust in God (Hebrews 10:36-39). Abraham had firmly decided to trust God in every circumstance, whatever happened.

The result of that decision was that Abraham’s trust in God became even stronger. The effect of it was to give honour to God. God received honour from Abraham’s life because Abraham remained constantly loyal to God.

We can see from that how powerful faith (belief and trust in God) is. Sin (wrong and evil words, thoughts and deeds) separates people from God (Isaiah 59:2); but faith brings them back to God. When we have faith in God, God can give us a right relationship with himself. He does it because of the death of Christ (4:24-25), when we believe and trust in him.

How we can have a right relationship with God

(Romans 4:23-25)

Abraham had faith; in other words, he believed and trusted God. For that reason, God gave Abraham a right relationship with himself.

In Romans chapter 4, Paul explains that lesson with words from Genesis 15:6, and he repeats those words several times. Now he adds that he is not simply teaching us about Abraham. If we want a right relationship with God, we must receive it in the same way. We must believe and trust God.

Abraham believed that God gives life to dead people (4:17). In the same way, we believe that God caused Jesus to live again after his death. So we too recognise the power of God to do things that we consider impossible.

Because of Jesus’ death, we now know how God can give us a right relationship with himself. We all are guilty of many wrong and evil deeds (3:23). However, Jesus suffered our punishment at his death (5:6-9) so that God can forgive us (4:7-8).

Then God raised Jesus from death, and gave him the place of greatest honour in heaven. That proves that God has accepted Jesus’ death for us. It proves that God really has forgiven the wrong and evil deeds of his people (Acts 2:32-36; Hebrews 1:3). Jesus’ death gives us a right relationship with God; the fact that he rose again to life proves it.

God will not accept us in any other way. We cannot earn a right relationship with him; we cannot make ourselves good. However, God offers to change our lives completely (John 3:3-6; 2 Corinthians 5:17); and he offers it as a free gift.

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