Is Justification by Faith Taught in the Old Testament? Part I: Abraham was Justified by Faith

Is Justification by Faith Taught in the Old Testament?

Justification is the act of God declaring a sinner righteous before Him.

But first why is this question important:

This question is important if one believes in the continuity between the Old and the New Testament.

This question is also important if one believes that Christianity has its root in the Jewish Scripture.

Moreover if you love the truth that God has justified sinners by faith, you will appreciate that this was always God’s intention.

This is also helpful for Jewish evangelism and apologetics to the Jews.

It is useful for doctrinal apologetics of Christianity.

I have found Paul in Romans 4 to be quite insightful of his argument from the Old Testament in which he argues and defends the thesis that the doctrine of justification by faith has Old Testament roots.

For this post we will look at Abraham in Genesis.  Specifically we will look at Paul’s argument concerning Abraham and you will notice in Romans 4 that Paul’s argument was faithful to the context of Genesis.

 

Our focus will be on Romans 4:1-5.  Romans 4:1-5 is situated in a section from Romans 4:1-8.

Situating the context: Here in verses 1-8 we see Abraham and David cited as proof that we are saved apart from works. Structuring this section we see Verses 1 ask about Abraham concerning righteousness of faith, works and boasting; verses 2-5 reveals the answer that it is not justification by works (Schreiner, 212).  Note that verses 4 expands on verse 2 and verse 5 expand on verse 3 (Schreiner, 212).  The testimony of David is given from verses 6-8 (Schreiner, 212).

Abraham believes justification is by faith and not works (1-5)

Passage: What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found? 2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” 4 Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. 5 But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness,

Proof

1. The question in verse 1: Can Abraham brag about his works?
   1. The question echoes Roman 3:27-28 about whether there is room for bragging if one is justified by faith even with Abraham. The answer of course is no.
   2. “has found?”àThis awkward use of the verb probably is due to the Greek Septuagint’s expression of “found mercy” in Genesis 18:3 (Moo, 259).
   3. Verse 2 discussion further reveal the nature of the question is whether or not Abraham could boast concerning his works for salvation.
2. Why is Abraham mentioned in proving that justification is by faith apart from works?
   1. Abraham is introduced because he was the father of the Jewish people.
   2. The Jews highly respected Abraham (Schreiner, 209).
   3. Abraham was given the promise of worldwide salvation which fits Paul’s theme of Jews and Gentiles salvation.
   4. There’s a polemical aspect to Paul’s use of the reference to Abraham but its more than that since Paul’s discussion of Gentiles being saved must also fit what God has to say about Gentiles in Genesis 12-15 involving Abraham (Moo, 257).
3. The answer: No room for bragging concerning being justified (v.2-3)
   1. Hypothetical scenario of when Abraham could boast: “if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about” (2a)
      1. There’s two words for boast but this word for boast emphasizes the cause or reason for boasting rather than boasting itself (Schreiner, 214).
      2. Compare to all of us, Abraham has more works and could hypothetically boast if justification is by works.
   2. But Abraham cannot boast of being justified by works
      1. It is not possible to boast before a perfectly righteous God: “but not before God.” (2b)
         1. Greek has two “but…” and here it is the strong contrastive form which makes this a strong denial that Abraham was justified by works or have something to brag about.
      2. It goes against the Jewish Scripture that Abraham himself is justified by faith: “For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” (3)
         2. “For” here is a causal conjunction giving reason why Abraham has nothing to boast about to God as mentioned in verse 2.
         3. Paul quotes Genesis 15:6 here almost exactly from the Septuagint (Schriener, 214).
         4. Given that this is a translation of Genesis 15:6, we must note that the word believe first appear in Genesis 15:6 and it was connected with righteousness (Moo, 261).
         5. What does believe mean? In the context of Genesis 15, this belief of Abraham involves trusting God with His promise that God will produce for Abraham natural descendants according to verses 4-5 (Moo, 261).
         6. “credited to him”
            1. What does the word mean?
               1. It is an important word here in Romans 4 since it appears multiple times.
               2. The word in the Greek has the idea of giving to someone’s account that isn’t necessarily inherit to the individual (Moo, 262).
               3. In the Hebrew of Genesis 15:6 the same verb is also used in 2 Samuel 19:19 by Shimei asking David not to count his wrongdoing against David (Moo, 262).
            2. The verb is in passive voice to show what is done to the subject
4. Reasoning further explained: “Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. 5 But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness,” (v.4-5)
   1. Verses 4-5 states two theological consequences from Genesis 15:6 with verse 4 stating that works has no part of justification and justification is freely given (Moo, 263).
   2. If it is by works then it is not by grace, rather since all works is given by its due.
   3. But we don’t have enough good works though.
   4. Also this goes against Genesis 15:6 concerning the principle that belief is what credits Abraham as righteous which is why verse 5 repeats some of the words of Genesis 15:6.
   5. Verse 5
      1. Notice that believing is in contrast with working and here believing is associated with “not working” (Schreiner, 215).
      2. What are the differences between working and believing?
         1. Here working has the idea of doing something to receive a wage and is the result of one’s own capability while believing rests on the ability of another, which in this case is God (Schreiner, 215).
         2. Working also involves doing while believing involves receiving (Schreiner, 215).