Romans 4 explained: Abraham Trusted, and It Counted

Trust, not wages (vv. 1-8)

Paul turns to Abraham, ancestor of the Jewish people, and quotes Genesis: Abraham trusted God, and God counted that trust as making him right with God. A wage is owed, but this was a gift, and Paul backs it up with Psalm 32, where David calls people happy whose wrongs God chooses not to hold against them.

Before circumcision (vv. 9-12)

Circumcision, the cutting of the foreskin that marked Jewish men as part of God's covenant (his binding agreement with Abraham's family), only came years later in Genesis 17. So Paul argues it was a seal confirming a standing Abraham already had, which makes him father of both non-Jewish and Jewish people who share his trust.

The promise and the law (vv. 13-17)

Paul says the promise that Abraham's family would inherit the world rested on trust, not on keeping the law given through Moses, or else the promise would be empty. His line that the law "brings wrath" is usually read as meaning a law brings judgment on those who break it, and he takes "father of many nations" to show Abraham's family was meant to include many peoples.

Hoping when it looked hopeless (vv. 18-22)

Abraham was about a hundred and Sarah was past having children, yet he trusted God's promise of a son, a God who in Paul's words brings life out of death. Genesis also records moments of doubt and laughter, but Paul focuses on the trust that won out.

Written for later readers (vv. 23-25)

Paul says the line about trust being counted was recorded for his readers too, who trust the God who raised Jesus. Verse 25 likely echoes Isaiah 53, and Christians read it as saying Jesus died because of human wrongs and was raised so people could be declared right with God.

Key verse: Romans 4:3

Where Christians differ

Christians differ over whether Paul is mainly explaining how a guilty individual is accepted by God apart from good deeds, or mainly arguing that non-Jewish people belong in God's family without taking on Jewish law, and over how faith and good works relate in being made right with God.

Something to think about

Is there something in your life you received as a gift rather than earned, and does knowing that change how you hold it?