In Romans 4:13-14, Paul writes:
"It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. For if those who depend on the law are heirs, faith means nothing and the promise is worthless, because the law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression."
Paul is trying to clarify for his Roman readers the proper role that Torah plays in God's divine economy. For Paul, Torah's role has been supplanted by Christ. Torah could never put flesh to death. As Leithart writes: "(Torah) enables communion with Yahweh and promotes peace among nations under the conditions of flesh." (Delivered, 104) Ultimately, the promise given to Abram about nations being blessed can't be fulfilled by Torah. It can't break the curse of Babel which has divided the nations. Many Jews in Paul's day, intimidated by Rome, wanted to lean harder into differentiating themselves from the Gentile nations. Paul's reaction to this is similar to Jesus': flesh has overwhelmed the law and kept the promise from being fulfilled. Torah had become an obstacle.
Furthermore, the justice Torah aimed at all along has now been accomplished in Christ. Paul doesn't really talk about Christ until the end of Romans 4. For the most part, he talks about Abraham. Paul introduces Abraham here to reorient his readers: the promise to Abraham, and God's Torah, though flowing in the same direction, hit a road block because Torah got caught in the weeds of sinful flesh. Jesus has broken through so that blessing can flow to Israel and to the nations. Jesus fulfills the promise to Abraham.
Early in the chapter, Paul references Genesis 15:6 where we're told that Abraham believed God's promise. Because he believed God, he was credited with righteousness. (Rom. 4:9) Paul's main point is that Abraham was credited with righteousness and given promises before he was ever circumcised. This order is significant for Paul. Because circumcision comes later, the promise must stay primary. Circumcision, or on any of the Torah rituals that came after the promise can't become the boundary-markers for who is in the people of God. Abraham's righteousness precedes Torah.
We need to look into the idea of being "credited" with righteousness. Many people have a credit card. Credit cards are certainly different than what is being described here. Money is expected to be paid back. It's hard to image how this could be the case with righteousness. But they are similar in one sense. Even if all my money runs out and my bank account is zero, I still have a credited account. Furthermore, (leaving aside for a moment the question of whether it would be wise or not) my bank might give me opportunities to increase that line of credit at a future point. This is our question: Is Abraham's righteousness for that moment in time, or is it something being held over for later? It all depends on what righteousness is. What is this righteousness?
If Abraham's credited righteousness is forgiveness of sins, it would be something given to him in the moment. But any look back at Genesis 12-25 would suggest that forgiveness of sins is not primarily what Abraham is worried about. Of course he is a sinner, but his primary worry is how God's promise will go forward if he and Sarah cannot have children. He is worried, but he believes. He believes, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that God can do it. What is the evidence? As we've recounted in the "Circumcision" post, the evidence to the contrary is Abraham and Sarah's advanced age, and apart from her age, Sarah's barrenness. Despite this evidence, Abraham believes. Paul writes: "(Abraham) did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why "it was credited to him as righteousness." (Rom. 4:20-22). This 'righteousness' still could certainly still include forgiveness of sins, but primarily it has to do with God's promise of descendants.
But Paul goes on to say this:
"The words "it was credited to him" were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness - for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification." (Rom. 4:23-25)
We see now what Paul has been building up toward. "Righteousness" for both Abraham and for us has to do with believing God can bring life from the dead. And of course, this is Abraham's predicament. Paul writes: "Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead - since he was about a hundred years old - and that Sarah's womb was also dead." (Rom. 4:19). His body, Sarah's womb - both are dead with regard to what they needed for God's promise. They need to hope for life from the dead.
That Abraham's righteousness is 'credited' to him may not mean that it was given to him in the moment, but it served as more of a promissory note when what he hopes for finally comes. In a sense that is Isaac because Isaac is the promised child. As Leithart writes, "Isaac's birth is a type of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead womb of the earth, from the dead womb of humanity and the dead womb of Sarah-Israel." (Delivered, 344). But of course this is not only what Abraham hopes for. The promise can't go forth without Isaac. But Isaac is not where it ends. The promise is that Abram will be the father of many nations. And when Jesus rises, he fulfills Israel's blessing to the nations. He brings justice by creating a new just people. This is ultimately what Abraham looks to. Believing ultimately that God would bring life from the dead curses - this is Abraham's righteousness. It is ours as well.
We can find more reinforcement for this in what Paul says in Romans 4:6:
"However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness."
If 'ungodly' refers to Abraham, we are puzzled, because the Abraham narrative is not primarily about his sin. But if the 'ungodly' refers to Gentile nations, it makes more sense. God makes promises to Abraham about Gentile nations. Abraham believes the promises. Peter Leithart writes:
"It is plausible, if not unquestionable, that Abraham's faith in the "justification of the ungodly" is not confidence in his own standing before God but confidence in the promise that Yahweh would issue a verdict at some point in the future to deliver ungodly Gentiles from the curses of Eden and Babel...The specific promise in Genesis 15 is that Abraham's seed will be like the stars, and that is extended to Genesis 17:5 with the promise that Paul quotes in Romans 4:17: that Abraham would be the "father of many nations." This is what Abraham believed when he trusted "him who justifies the ungodly," and that means that "justification of the ungodly" is equivalent to "God extending the Abrahamic promise to the nations." (Delivered, 342)
Abraham is a model for us in this way. Abraham is credited with righteousness not because he believed God would credit him with righteousness, but because Abraham believed in a promise about future resurrection. The content of the righteous, justified person's faith is resurrection. Jesus' resurrection justifies because it is a verdict that Jesus is in the right and because it delivers Jesus from the powers of sin, death, and the devil. (Leithart calls it a 'deliverdict') And as Paul writes in verse 25, this has ramifications for us too: "(Jesus) was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification." Justification then is a good verdict about our sinful flesh being put to death, and also the hopeful expectation that we have been delivered into resurrected life in the Spirit. Justified people believe that dead things will come to life because Jesus came back to life. As we trust that God has issued the delivering verdict in Jesus, that same delivering verdict comes to us.
Abram trusted that a son would rise from his and Sarah's 'dead' bodies and that this would lead to the "justification of the ungodly," the fulfillment of God's promise to bring blessing to the nations through him. From our vantage point, we trust that Jesus' resurrection brings blessing to Israel, and from Israel to the nations, as one new people live in constant fellowship with their risen Lord. Our vantage points are different. Abram looked forward to Jesus, while we look back. Abram had very dim hints of what was to come while we have four separate gospel accounts of Jesus' life. A lot is different. Yet we still look out at this world, and we look within ourselves, and we wonder how on earth God will set everything right. Despite the perceived obstacles, we trust God. And in this regard, we have so much to learn from Abraham's faith, because he did the same thing.
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