Romans 4:1-3 – Abraham Righteous by Faith

A sinner is justified freely by God’s grace alone through faith in Christ Jesus. And so that excludes all boasting of the flesh, boasting of how righteous a person is by their supposed good works, their church going, their praying or singing or their charity or more importantly their nationality, whether Jew or Gentile.

All these are worthless in earning salvation.

This might be a good place to define what salvation actually is. It’s a term used so often but is also often misunderstood.

 

All mankind suffers the disease of sin.

We inherited this state from the first man, Adam and there’s absolutely nothing we can do, in ourselves, to change that state.

If we’re really honest with ourselves and we’re prepared to take an honest assessment of what we do and think each day we’ll know the truth of that statement.

Trying to work out that sin nature in our own works is futile and this is exactly what the book of Romans details. That’s what makes the book of Romans the most important book of the bible for you and me today. It’s why Martin Luther said in his preface to the Epistle to the Romans, “It is worthy not only that every Christian should know it (Romans) word for word, by heart, but also that he should occupy himself with it every day, as the daily bread of the soul”

 

The disease of sin has a consequence which is inescapable. The bible calls it wages or the thing that’s due to each of us because of sin.

Those wages for sin is death, eternal death, not just of the body but of the spirit and soul, the real us.

God must condemn the sinner to this eternal death because of His absolute and pure justice. He has no choice. The penalty must be paid.

But God, in His infinite wisdom and love, made a way to satisfy His perfect justice and save the sinner.

He took on humanity in the form of Jesus Christ who was totally man, like us, so able to pay the price for sin, but also totally God and therefore sinless and perfect, so equally unable to suffer eternal death for sin that He didn’t have.

 

Salvation is the act of being saved from sin and it’s penalty of death through trusting in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross and his bodily resurrection that paid those awful wages of sin for us, on our behalf, so we wouldn’t have to. His sinless blood pays for our sins, earns forgiveness, and gives us eternal life.

 

Salvation is the gift of God by grace but the only way we can receive that gift is through faith. Faith is hearing the Word of God, the Word I just outlined, and choosing to believe it. We trust that the Word relating to sin and it’s payment is true and in that moment that we believe we’re saved from sin and death. It’s that simple. It’s pure simplicity is the biggest stumblingblock for the the Jewish unbeliever and foolishness to the Gentile unbeliever.

Salvation’s not a product of:

– Prayer

– Popes

– Baptism

– Confession

– Good works

– Turning from sin

– Commandments

– Church membership

– Mass or the Lord’s Supper

 

From 1 Timothy 2:4 we know God’s purpose and His desire for mankind,

Who (God) will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. 

 

So we saw last episode that the nation of Israel did in fact have cause to boast, but the gospel of the grace of God removes those boasts.

The gospel of the grace of God destroys any religion that tries to reach God through a person’s works.

Salvation is not by our works and that’s what separates Christianity from every religion.

Even though good works are good, they simply can’t save anyone. Christianity is realizing that our works can never justify a person, only Christ’s work can and that’s what Paul’s explaining, and we saw the righteousness of this in Romans 3.

 

So, the boasting of the flesh is excluded, because by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight (Romans 3:20) yet Romans 3:31 says that the law is not made void through faith, in fact, the law is established.

How is the law established if doing the law doesn’t justifies us?

Isn’t it the law’s intent to get people to do it?

Well, as we saw in Romans 3, that’s not really the point of God giving the law.

It gives a standard of righteousness. It teaches right and wrong gives the knowledge of sin, but it was never intended that everybody would do the law. God new full well that would never happen.

 

People need something else, something spiritual. They need hope, an inner motivation.

That’s what grace does. It gives a blessed hope through Jesus Christ. But the law can’t change people.

So this is what we’ve learned so far in Romans.

Now we come to Romans chapter 4 and lets read through the first 3 verses first,

Romans 4:1-3,

What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? 

For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. 

For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.

 

Now,  we’ve already said that the words “What shall we say then” means we’re still in the context of Romans 3:31, but where did Abraham pop up from?

We were talking about sinners and how there’s none righteous and about God sending Jesus to die for sins.

We’re talking about salvation not being our works of our flesh.

And suddenly we have Abraham.

To add to that we have David down in verse 6, (Romans 4:6),

Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works,

 

If you look below this recording there’s a simple timeline graphic showing where Abraham, David and the law fit. You’ll also notice that James is included and you’ll see why soon as we look at James 2;14-24 in comparison to Romans 4:1-5.

 

As you see on the timeline Abraham’s way back in Genesis and then you have the beginning of Israel through Abrahams son Jacob who you remember had his name changed to Israel. Then the twelve tribes of Israel would come from his twelve son’s. Then we have  Moses and the law then David the second king of Israel.

Abraham and David had a very special place in Israel’s past.

The first verse in the New Testament, Matthew 1:1 tells us this. It says,

The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

 

These two are at the beginning of the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1:1. Jesus is the Son of David and he’s the son of Abraham.

See these two men had a special significance for the nation of Israel. Abraham and David are symbols of Israel’s privilege in their flesh and Paul’s about to explain Abraham and David.

So, Romans 4:1, leading straight on as part of the previous verse (Romans 3:31),

What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found?

 

Abraham was the father of the nation. Remember, they had three fathers in Israel, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And Abraham was the first. To him was given the promise that from him would come a nation, a nation, and they’d be a blessing to the world.

Then, later, he was to be the father of many nations as well, not just the one.

He was also the beginning of circumcision when God gave him the covenant of circumcision and subsequently in the flesh of every Jew thereafter, which separated Jew and Gentile, the nation of Israel from all other nations. You can see how this all fits in the timeline below.

 

Now there’s a lot of so-called Abrahamic faiths, the two main ones being, of course, Islam and Judaism.

In comparing them, one has Abraham’s son Isaac as their claim, that’s Israel and Judaism and the other has Abraham’s son Ishmael as their claim. That’s Islam. Of course, unlike Judaism and Christianity, Islam stops the Bible at Ishmael.

But Abraham is the father of both.

What about David? He didn’t start the nation of Israel but he was the king. When you think of Israel you think of Jerusalem and David.

There were three kings in Israel before the nation split into two. Saul, was the first one but he failed pretty quickly then David was next and then David’s son Solomon.

Solomon was wiser and smarter and wealthier than David. But it’s David who built that kingdom. He conquered the rest of the land, and did great things together with God and we’ll see more of this in the next episode.

David planned to build God a house, which God said, no, your son’s going to do that.

David wrote 75 of the Psalms and remember 1 Samuel 18:7,

And the women answered one another as they played, and said, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.

 

Then there’s the exploits like David, and Goliath.

David’s faith was in God, the God of Israel.

The King, the kingdom and the royal line in Israel is defined by David.

 

David was given a special covenant, because he was a friend of God. It was a covenant of mercy and a covenant that his house would never cease to be from the throne of Jerusalem. We’ll see next episode how this covenant of mercy is critical to us today.

So the Messiah, the Savior of Israel, would come from David. Even today Israel honors David as being unique to them.

So when you think of Abraham and David, these are people that define Israel’s covenant heritage, the nation and their coming Messiah, making them unique.

So when Paul says that you can’t boast in the flesh or the works of the law he brings up Abraham and David and he says, “Let’s see how they were justified before God and we’ll see it from your own scriptures, Israel.”

This’s what Paul’s doing in Romans four. He’s speaking to an audience that cares about Jewish history.

We often think that in Romans Paul’s only talking to Gentiles but he’s writing to those in Rome, Gentiles and Jews.

He’s making a case as to how he’s right to go to the Gentiles, even though God had a special, privileged people and he’s speaking here to those Jewish concerns.

He says here Abraham, our father.

Why? Because Abraham was the father of Israel and of course Paul himself was a jew, and we mustn’t think that when Paul writes Romans, he’s only writing to Gentiles. He’s not. He’s writing to Jews and Gentiles.

 

Remember in Romans 2:16 he says, behold, thou art called a Jew? See he’s got to deal with Jewish concerns before he can say the gospel’s given freely to all, and he has to prove that to Israel because up until Paul salvation was only possible through Israel.

Jesus was a Jewish Messiah. He was the son of David, the son of Abraham and the fulfillment of those covenants given to Israel.

 

So Paul says he was a minister of the circumcision, the Jew, and yet he explains Jesus Christ being the Savior of all the world, even though, as God’s chosen nation, Israel is fallen.

In Romans 11:11 Paul distinguishes between a temporary stumbling and a complete fall and that Israel’s rejection of the Messiah’s not final.

In Romans 11:25 and Ephesians 4:18 Paul’s describes Israel’s temporary blindness.

He’s saying salvation is without the law, without Israel and without their covenants.

That’s a huge shift for the Jewish people, the only people that God ever created as a nation and the only religion God ever established.

 

So what’s our father mean? The father of Israel! Abraham is the father of Israel.

Obviously, he’s also the father of many nations.

Remember, his name was Abram to begin with then God changed his name to Abraham, which meant father of many nations.

The original promise in Genesis 12 was that a nation will come from you, a nation that’ll be above the other nations, and they’ll bless the other nations.

But then God promised that many nations would come from Abraham. Just to emphasize that, yes, there will be a nation, a special nation. But you, Abraham, will also father many other nations.

He didn’t father every nation but he fathered Israel through Issac and then Jacob and then the Ishmaelites through Ishmael and the Edomites through Esau.

So God’s promise came from Abraham through his son Isaac, then through Isaac’s son Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel, and then to all of Jacob’s (Israel’s) sons.

So there were nations from Abraham that were not Israel.

Romans four goes on to talk about him being the father of us all, the father of all.

In what sense can he possibly be that? He’s not Adam.

Romans is going to talk about that. He’s the father of faith, the father of all who believe! That’s the only way he’s the father of all. It’s not in the flesh.

Galatians 3:7 says,

Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. 

 

He’s not everyone’s father in the flesh but he was Israel’s father in the flesh.

It’s important to know who we are because we’re not Israel. Israel in the flesh is fallen.

So he says, what shall we say then as pertaining to the flesh, hath Abraham found?

See, “pertaining to the flesh” is also how we know that the subjects continuing from chapter three (Romans 3), that we can’t boast in our flesh.

In Romans 4 Paul’s referring to people who held promises in their flesh through Abraham and David who did great things in their flesh and not just in their flesh.

Such as the promise to Abraham that he’ll have a son in his flesh even though he was very old. And his wife was too. Abraham believed God even though their was a hiccup with Hagar.

David, had a promise that his son would be the Messiah.

So it’s through his flesh once again. But they also believed. They had faith that God was able and would do what He promised.

David didn’t have to fight Goliath, but he did because his faith in the Lord led him to do it and many other great things.

 

Paul’s making the argument that you can’t boast in your flesh or what you do and he’s using Abraham and David as examples of ultimate boasting in the flesh in Israel in the great things they did. David was the greatest Jew in Israel’s history. Solomon had wealth and wisdom but he came second to David, his father.

Abraham left the country he came from to walk out in faith to a country God promised him, wandering around his whole life in that country and never receiving it. He also went to sacrifice his son on the altar when God told him to. He did everything God asked of him. Abraham and David did things, things instrumental to the foundation of Israel and their establishment as God’s special people.

 

So what did Abraham learn according to his flesh, this phrase Paul uses, “what hath our father found?”

Paul’s asking the question, according to Israel’s scriptures, what did Abraham, our father find or learn?

He’s saying read your own scriptures. Every good Hebrew Jew studies the Torah and this is what Paul’s urging them to do.

Another person did the same thing.

In Luke 24:25-27, after Jesus’s resurrection, He joined two of the disciples who were walking on the road to Emmaus and they were puzzled by all that had happened in the previous few days. Let’s read,

Then he (Jesus) said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: 

Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? 

And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

 

When Abraham was alive in Genesis he learned he had to circumcise his flesh and that the fruit of his loins, Isaac, had to be offered. He learned he had to leave his family and go to another country. He learned all this. But what else?

Paul points out a specific thing he learned.

He’s going to say that he learned that it wasn’t about his flesh.

He doesn’t really say, clearly because it’s obvious that what he learned pertaining to his flesh was that before God no flesh can glory.

 

Abraham left his country and his family and offered up his son Issac all based on his faith that what God had promised He was able to perform, (Romans 4:21).

We also see this in Hebrews 11:19,

Abraham…Accounting that God was able to raise him (Isaac) up, even from the dead;

 

God promised Abraham would have a son when his wife Sarah was barren and it was impossible for her to bear children. She was 90 and he was 100 years old into the bargain.

Abraham believed God, but thought well, maybe I’ll try to get this done on my own. And he took the handmaid, Hagar remember? And Hagar bore a son that way.

But God said, nope!

I’m going to do it through Sarah even though in the flesh she’s barren. That the child would be through her.

When God told Sarah she laughed at it but she still believed. So here we’ve got this picture of grace and faith. Abraham had to believe God and he said, if that’s what you say, that’s what will be. I’ve got no idea how You’re going to do it and even though all my mind tells me it’s impossible I believe You more that my own wisdom.

God specifically said the promised seed would not be through Ishmael, but through a sin born of Sarah whose name would be Isaac.

We see this in Genesis 17:17-19.

So the lesson he learned was that it wasn’t his flesh that was going to do it and it wasn’t Sarah’s flesh, for sure. God had to do something he had to intervene outside of the laws of nature.

 

 

In 1 Corinthians 1:29 we read,

That no flesh should glory in his presence. 

 

1 Corinthians 1:29 is Paul referencing Jeremiah 9:23-24 which reads,

Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: 

But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD. 

 

Jeremiah 9 is one of many Old Testament witnesses to Paul’s epistles that teach about what we’re to glory in. Not the things we’ve done, but knowing God and what He’s done and what He’s said He would do.

 

So Abraham learned back in Genesis that his flesh couldn’t glory before God, which verifies Romans 4:2.

For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. 

 

Abraham learned it wasn’t about his flesh and he couldn’t glory in his flesh before God.

But Romans 4:2 also raises the question that if that’s what Abraham learned, then how was Abraham justified?

We’ve already seen multiple times through our studies that God’s justice is perfect therefore demanding judgement and payment for sin. How was Abraham, who knew nothing about Jesus Christ and the cross, to be justified.

Well, what does the Scripture say?

In what may well be the most important verse in the bible relating to how we interact with God, Genesis 15:6, we learn this,

And he (Abraham) believed in the LORD; and he (The Lord) counted it to him (Abraham) for righteousness. 

 

Look at Romans 1:17 which says,

For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. 

Paul’s gospel of grace is for today, and he was set apart to preach it by Christ Who gave him the mystery of this dispensation of grace that had never before in history been revealed.

This gospel of grace is backed by Scripture.

Paul quotes Habakkuk 2:4—“the just shall live by faith”—like it sums up the whole Bible.

You’ll find hundreds of verses about blessings and curses for doing or not doing things, but Paul picks this one. He’s saying, “My gospel stands on Scripture.”

 

In 1 Corinthians 15:3, Paul says Christ died for our sins “according to the Scriptures.”

Some people think Paul’s gospel isn’t based on the Old Testament, but they’re missing the link.

The mystery was hidden before, not known, and the body of Christ wasn’t talked about. But now, through Paul, we understand grace, the need for a Saviour, and justification by faith. That’s what Paul’s showing.

Abraham knew nothing of this but God most certainly did. Abraham simply had to believe that God had a way just as He was able to miraculously birth a nation through a 100 year old man and a barren, 90 year old woman.

God had a way, know to Him before the foundation of the world. The same way you and are are justified today by faith in the shed blood of Christ on the cross so was Abraham justified. It was just that he didn’t know of it, be we, through Paul’s gospel, do! Abraham believed that God had a way but didn’t know the way, we believe God came and made the way and we know it but the way to justification is the same, through Jesus Christ!

This gospel isn’t plan B.

It’s not that Israel failed and God had to try something else. No. Grace was God’s plan from before the world began. Everything since creation was leading to this: salvation by grace through faith.

Israel thought their law and their nation were the end goal, but Paul says they missed something. Even Jesus in Matthew 23:23 and Luke 11:42 said they were doing outward things but missing the things of the heart.

 

Paul reveals the mystery in Ephesians 3:10, the manifold wisdom of God now made known. Manifold means many fold. Of divers kinds; many in number; numerous; multiplied. Such is God’s wisdom.

In Romans 4, he uses the law and the prophets to witness to what he teaches. He’s not saying they taught his gospel back then, but they give evidence that it’s true.

Romans 3:21 says, “But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested (or revealed and made known).”

That “but now” is Paul’s message. But now salvation is not through trying to keep the law, it’s by grace. But the law and prophets still witness to it.

All Scripture matters. 2 Timothy 3:16-17,

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. 

 

Romans 3:24 says we’re justified freely by grace through Christ’s redemption. Verse 25 says Christ died according to the Scriptures. Verse 26 says God’s righteousness is now declared, which wasn’t before, but the old Scriptures show God justifies by faith. Believing in Jesus and receiving grace freely is the new part.

 

Romans 4:24 wraps it up: if we believe on Him who raised Jesus from the dead, we’re justified. That’s Paul’s gospel. He uses Abraham and David to show it’s true. They didn’t know the gospel of grace. They received justification by faith but the way it would happen was kept secret. But now it’s revealed to us today by Christ Himself through Paul.

 

So Paul asks in Romans 4:1, what did Abraham learn about the flesh?

How Abraham was justified in this verse is the cause of so much controversy and contention and it’s due to a failure to rightly divide God’s Word. A failure to understand the timing of things or the context of which things are spoken of. That’s what it means to rightly divide the word. It’s simply seeing what the context is.

Then, when we see a change in the context of what God’s doing, and we see how man was told to respond to that context change, then we need to change accordingly.

We have to let that happen and respond to those changing timings of God. Not everything through history was the same.

As we’ve said time and again during our studies, God Himself, Who He is, never changes but the way he deals with mankind most definitely does change and that should be clear and obvious as we read scripture.

 

There are things that also stay the same. One is that we should always have faith towards God, which means taking God at His word. Another is that God’s always merciful towards man. But God also changes what he does through history and this’s what defines the context or the dispensations or or the different ages in God’s operations.

And so we need to divide those contexts rightly.

One of our catch cry verses is 2 Timothy 2:15,

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. 

 

If we miss that, then we’ll try and blend these contexts, these ages and try to make them fit all together and they just won’t fit and this is what’s caused centuries of theological disagreement with Romans 4:2 and James 2:17-18.

Romans 4:2 questions Abraham’s justification by works, which is what every Jew would have thought and that’s what James wrote in James two.

To see the issue clearly we need to compare these verses side by side.

Romans 4:2 clearly teaches that Abraham was not justified by works but by faith, whereas James 2:24 says,

Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.

Faith without works is dead.

 

That phrase, justified by works appears two times in the Bible, one in Romans 4:2, the other time in James 2:24  and they’re both talking about Abraham.

And so which is it? Both require faith but is he justified by faith without works or by faith and works?

These two passages have been the topic of a many, many books and centuries of dispute, not the least of which was the Reformation separation of Martin Luther and others.

 

Let’s take a look at Hebrews and, as we know, the Book of Hebrews is written to Hebrews.

Hebrews 11 talks about those in the past and their faith.

Hebrews 11:6 says,

But without faith it is impossible to please him (that’s God): for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. 

 

God rewards those that seek him.

Hebrews 11:8.

By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. 

 

So Abraham was told to go, and he believed, and he obeyed. The Lord told him to do something.

So Hebrews eleven is talking about the importance of faith. But it’s by faith they did what God said to do. By faith they did.

When God told Abraham to go he didn’t stay at home and say, “I believe you, God, I’m just not going to do anything about it.”

His faith would have been dead because how can you say you believe that God has a promised land for you over there if you don’t get up and go as God said to do.

That’s what faith Hebrews is talking about here. By faith he did.

Look at Hebrews 11:9-10,

By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: 

For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. 

 

Abraham, by faith, did. He walked, he went, he left, he sojourned. He built tents. He set up altars. By faith, he did it.

Hebrews is dealing with the Hebrew audience saying how can you do? The answer? Strengthen your faith.

 

Many Christians learn that lesson as well, but how do we increase our faith?

We understand God’s word.

Romans 10:17,

So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. 

 

Romans is just as much the Word of God as Hebrews or the book of James.

Look at James 2:14,

What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?

 

And that’s the default idea about Abraham’s justification, that he’s justified by his works, having left his home and his country and offering his son Isaac or doing what God told him to.

 

But in Romans 4 Paul labors on the fact that salvation is by faith without works.

One way Christians try to reconcile James and Romans is by saying that Paul talking about salvation while James was talking about service.

But is that correct?

James doesn’t mention the cross at all. He didn’t talk about salvation at the cross?

Noone understood what the cross fully did before the dispensation of grace was given to Paul. See our timeline graphic below.

Everyone before Christ talked about salvation without the cross.

Remember when Jesus told His disciples that He must die in Matthew 16:21–23, Mark 8:31–33, and Luke 9:22 and other places they didn’t believe Him?

In Matthew 16:21–23 Peter even rebukes Jesus, saying, “This shall never happen to you!” “Not on my watch”, says Peter.

Jesus responds with, “Get behind me, Satan!”

In acts two, Peter was blaming Israel for crucifying their Messiah.

He wasn’t offering it as this glorious thing that just happened, but Paul did.

Paul’s letters are where we find out about salvation through the cross of Christ Jesus freely by grace to all. He glories in the cross.

 

James 2:14 asks, “Can faith save?” He’s not asking for an answer—he’s making a point. He says if someone claims to believe but doesn’t do good works, that faith is dead.

Paul, on the other hand, says in Romans 3 that we’re justified by faith without works.

He proves it from Scripture and from the fact that Christ had to die because we couldn’t save ourselves. If we could have, God wouldn’t have sent His Son. So Paul’s gospel is about grace—God saving sinners by faith, not by works.

 

James isn’t wrong. He’s just not talking about what God’s doing today.

He’s saying the same thing that was known through the ages and even what Jesus said in His earthly ministry that salvation is by faith not only in God but also what He said to do and what He said to do is all over the old testament and the old testament section of the new testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and early Acts.

He’s saying if you claim faith but live wickedly, you’re a hypocrite and that’s true.

 

James gives an example: someone’s hungry and cold, and you say, “Be warmed and filled,” but don’t help them. That’s useless. He says faith without works is like that—dead. But that’s not eternal salvation. That’s just helping someone in need. Still, James is showing that real faith should act.

 

But Paul’s message is that today, now, God saves the worst sinners by grace, without works, and He’s righteous to do it.

That’s what Romans explains. Paul’s presenting the fact that under this dispensation of Grace that was revealed to Paul, God has not given mankind anything to do.

Before this dispensation of grace there was always something man had to do and after this dispensation is complete and the prophetic timeline starts ticking again there’ll be works that’ll need to be done in association with faith again!

 

Now, James never mentions the cross. His idea of faith isn’t the same as Paul’s. That’s controversial, but it’s true. God revealed things over time, so our faith is based on what He’s revealed to us today.

 

James says faith without works is dead. Then he asks, wasn’t Abraham justified by works? Paul says in Romans 4:2, if Abraham was justified by works, he could boast—but not before God. Paul’s point is, Abraham wasn’t justified by works. James says he was. Who’s right?

 

James is writing to Israel and we see that clearly in James 1:1 which states,

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.

 

This audience all believed Abraham was justified by works.

Paul, given revelation by Christ, says no.

 

James points to Genesis 22, when Abraham offered Isaac. He did what God said.

Hebrews 11 says he did it by faith. See the faith was the motivator for the works.

James says that fulfilled Genesis 15:6, where Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. But Paul says that belief came before the works, before God gave Abraham something to do and that the faith he had in what God said before the works was what justified him.

 

James 2:24 says,

Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. 

 

If God tells you to do something and you don’t, your faith is dead. Rahab, David, Moses, Noah—they all did what God said. Noah didn’t just believe; he built the ark. Solomon said, “Fear God and keep his commandments.” Revelation says the same.

So James is right—but something’s missing: the finished work of Christ, the ultimate work the fulfilment of the law and the reason for the works.

 

Paul teaches that salvation today is by grace through faith in Christ’s work. James teaches that faith must be shown by works. They’re both right—in their own context.

People twist Scripture trying to make them say the same thing. But if the Bible says something that doesn’t fit our view, maybe our view needs to change. Let God be true.

Both Paul and James talk about Abraham. Same man, but justified in different ways at different times. God spoke to Abraham more than once, and he responded each time.

We’re used to having the same teaching passed down for generations, but Abraham didn’t have that. God was revealing things step by step in his lifetime.

 

In Genesis 12:3, God promised to make Abraham a great nation and bless all families through him. That promise was unconditional, but Abraham still had to obey—Hebrews 11 says he went by faith. Then in Genesis 15, God told him his heir would come from his own body, not just someone in his house.

He took Abraham outside, showed him the stars, and said, “So shall thy seed be.” Abraham believed, and God counted it to him for righteousness (Genesis 15:6). No works, just faith.

 

Later, in Genesis 17, God gave Abraham a new covenant—circumcision. He wasn’t circumcised before, but now God said every male child must be. If not, they’d be cut off from the nation (Genesis 17:14). So Abraham had to obey. That’s a new instruction. Then in Genesis 22, God told him to offer Isaac, the son born from the promise. People say that’s harsh, but God didn’t let him go through with it. He provided a lamb instead.

 

Hebrews 11:17 explains Abraham’s thinking—he believed God would raise Isaac from the dead if needed. That’s faith. But he still acted. So yes, Abraham was justified by works in Genesis 22. But he was justified by faith alone in Genesis 15. Every time God spoke, Abraham responded in faith. Genesis 15 was faith alone. Genesis 22 was faith and works.

 

Paul uses Genesis 15 to show justification by faith without works. James uses Genesis 22 to show faith with works. Both are right—in their context. Paul points out that Israel’s system of boasting in works goes back to a man who was first justified by faith alone. That’s before circumcision, before offering Isaac. Paul will later ask, was Abraham circumcised or uncircumcised when he was justified? He was uncircumcised. We’ll see that in Romans 4:10.

 

So we don’t twist Scripture to make it fit our view. Let the Bible say what it says. Abraham’s story shows how God’s instructions changed, and how faith responded. That’s the key to understanding both Paul and James.

 

Genesis 15 shows Abraham was justified by faith before circumcision, before Israel even existed. He wasn’t a Jew yet—just a man who believed God. That means God doesn’t need Israel or the law to justify someone by faith without works. That’s Paul’s point. James sees Genesis 15 as fulfilled through Israel’s covenants, through works. But Paul says no—Abraham was justified by faith alone.

 

Jesus never explained His death during His earthly ministry. He said He’d die, but didn’t reveal why. That came later through Paul. James teaches what Jesus taught before the cross: “You’ll know them by their fruits.” So James says faith without works is dead. He’s talking to the twelve tribes about their covenant with God, which required obedience and holiness.

 

Paul reveals the mystery: Genesis 15 was fulfilled by Christ. Belief counted for righteousness only makes sense because of Jesus’ atoning death. Romans 3 says God is just and the justifier of those who believe in Jesus. That’s how Abraham was justified—by faith, not works. James doesn’t respond to this mystery. He talks about justification before men, not before God.

 

Works only make sense in a covenant system where both parties agree to keep their part. You and I are not under a covenant today, contrary to what many Christians think. Israel was and will be in the future, but in the future when they walk in their new covenant it will be entirely different because of Jeremiah 31:31 and Hebrews 8:8. Next time they’ll keep their side of the covenant because as Hebrews 8:10 and Jeremaiah 31:33-34 says,

I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.

 

Outside of a covenant, which we are today in the Body of Christ, it’s grace through faith alone.

Paul’s faith in Romans 3 is in Christ’s finished work: “justified freely by His grace through the redemption… through faith in His blood.” Christ died for our sins. That’s the work It’s His work, not ours. Romans 4:2–5 says Abraham’s works don’t count before God. If you work for righteousness, it’s debt, not grace. But God justifies the ungodly by faith alone. Abraham was justified before circumcision, before Israel, before the law. Paul uses that to preach salvation by grace.

Then, in the next episode, in Romans 4:3-8, Paul brings up David, Israel’s greatest king, who sinned, and was still justified without works.