Romans Commentary

Ver. 18. — Who against hope believed in hope , that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be.

Against hope, or beyond hope. — The thing was utterly beyond all that could be expected according to natural principles. In hope, or upon hope; that is, he believed the thing that was an object of hope. He believed the promise. Belief respects anything that is testified, whether desirable or otherwise. But the thing testified to Abraham was an object of hope, therefore he is said beyond hope to believe in hope. That he might become. — This is explained by some as importing that Abraham believed that he should become, etc.; that is, his becoming the father of many nations was the object of his belief. Others explain it, that he believed the promise in order that he might become; that is, his faith was the means through which the promise was to be made good to him. Both of these are true, but the last appears to be most agreeable to the expression, and is the more important sense. He was made such a father through faith. Had he not believed the promise, he would not have been made such a father. According to that which was spoken. — This shows that Abraham’s expectation rested solely on the Divine promise. He had no ground to hope for so numerous a posterity, or any posterity at all, except on the warrant of the promise of God. This he received in its true and obvious meaning, and did not, like many, explain away, modify, or fritter it down into something less wonderful. He hoped for the very thing which the words of the promise intimated, and to the very utmost extent of the meaning of these words, So shall thy seed be.

Ver. 19. — And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb.

Not weak in faith. — This is a usual way of expressing the opposite, implying that his faith was peculiarly strong Faith is the substance of things hoped for, inasmuch as we believe that we shall in due time be put in possession of them. It is the evidence of things not seen, as thereby we are persuaded of the truth of all the unseen things declared in Scripture.

Faith thus makes future things present, and unseen things evident. He considered not his own body. — This is an example which ought ever to direct our faith. There are always obstacles and difficulties in the way of faith. We should give them no more weight than if they did not exist, reflecting that it is God who has to remove them. Nothing can be a difficulty in the way of the fulfillment of God’s own word. This ought to encourage us, not only with respect to ourselves, but with respect to the cause of God in the world. The government rests on the shoulders of Emmanuel. His own body now dead, etc. — Had Abraham looked on any natural means, he would have staggered; but he looked only to the power of Him who promised.

Ver. 20. — He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God.

He staggered not. — This well expresses the meaning, the word signifying to doubt or hesitate. Dr. Macknight’s translation is bad, — ’He did not dispute.’ He might have hesitated or doubted, though he did not dispute. At the promise, or with respect to the promise, Abraham was not staggered by the difficulties or seeming impossibilities that stood in the way, but believed the promise of God, and trusted that it would be fulfilled. He would not listen to the suggestions of carnal reasonings; they were all set aside; he rested entirely on the fidelity of the promise. And all are bound to imitate this; for the Apostle says that the history of Abraham’s faith stands on record in Scripture, not for his sake only, but for us also, that we, after his example, may be encouraged to believe in Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. But was strong in faith. — In the foregoing verse, Abraham is said not to have been weak in faith; here it is affirmed that he was strong in faith. This imports that there are degrees in faith, — a doctrine which some deny, but a doctrine which Scripture, in many places, most clearly establishes. Our Lord charges His disciples in general, and at another time Peter particularly, Matthew 6:30, 14:31, as having little faith: they had faith; but, unlike to Abraham’s, it was deficient in strength. Our Lord, too, speaks of the comparatively strong faith of the centurion, Matthew 8:10. He had not found so great faith in Israel. The Apostles, also, addressing Jesus, pray, ‘Lord, increase our faith,’ Luke 17:5. In the same manner, the Apostle Paul speaks of the ‘measure of faith,’ Romans 12:3, importing that believers were endowed with different degrees of this gift. With such a profusion of instruction as the Scriptures afford on this point, it is strange that the love of theory should induce any to assert that faith is equal in all Christians. Giving glory to God. — How did he give glory to God? By believing that He would do what He promised, although nothing less than almighty power could effect what was promised. This is an important thought, that we glorify God by ascribing to Him His attributes, and believing that He will act according to them, notwithstanding many present appearances to the contrary. But how often is the opposite of this exemplified among many who profess to have the faith of Abraham, who, when unable to trace Divine wisdom, are apt to hesitate in yielding submission to Divine authority. Nothing, however, to countenance this is found in Scripture. On the contrary, no human action is more applauded than that of Abraham offering up Isaac in obedience to the command of God, in which he certainly could not then discover either the reason or the wisdom from which it proceeded.

Without disregarding it for a moment, he yielded to the Divine authority.

He was strong in faith, giving glory to God; that is, he gave full credit for the propriety of what was enjoined, and a ready acknowledgment of that implicit submission which on his part was due.

Vers. 21, 22. — And being fully persuaded that what He had promised He was able also to perform. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.

Fully persuaded, or fully assured, being strongly convinced. — This is the explanation of the way in which he gave glory to God. We might suppose that every one who professes to believe in the attributes of God, would judge as Abraham did; yet experience shows the contrary. Even Christians do not act up to their principles on this point. The Israelites believed in God’s power and favor to them; but in time of trial they failed in giving Him glory by confiding in Him. In like manner, Christians, in their own individual cases, do not generally manifest that confidence in God which their principles would lead to expect. Also, that is, He was as able to perform as to promise. And therefore. — Because he believed God, notwithstanding all contrary appearances, his faith was imputed to him unto righteousness.

Ver. 23. — Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him.

This history of the way in which Abraham received righteousness is not recorded for his sake alone, or applicable to himself only, but is equally applicable to all believers. The Apostle here guards us against supposing that this method of justification was peculiar to Abraham, and teaches that it is the pattern of the justification of all who shall ever find acceptance with God. The first recorded testimony respecting the justification of any sinner, as has been already observed, is that of Abraham. Others had been justified from the fall down to his time; but it was reserved for him to possess the high privilege and distinction of being thus the first man singled out and constituted the progenitor of the Messiah. In him all the nations of the earth were to be blessed, and consequently he was to be the father of all believers, who are all the children of Christ, Hebrews 2:13, and the heir of that inheritance on earth that typified the inheritance in heaven, which belongs to Jesus Christ, who is ‘appointed heir of all things,’ with whom all believers are joint heirs. And in Abraham we see that, in the first declaration of the nature of justification, it is held out as being conferred by the imputation of righteousness through faith only.

This passage, then, which refers to what is written, as well as those preceding it in this chapter, it must again be remarked, exhibit the character of the historical parts of Scripture as all divinely inspired, and all divinely arranged, in the wisdom of God, to apply to events the most important in the future dispensation. Every fact and every circumstance which they announce, as well as the whole narrative, was ordered and dictated by Him, to whom all His works are known from the beginning of the world, Acts 15:18.

Ver. 24. — But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead.

Righteousness shall be imputed to us, as well as to Abraham, if we have his faith. If we believe on Him that raised, etc. — Here God is characterized by the fact that He raised up Christ. This, then, is not a mere circumstance, but it is in this very character that our faith must view God.

To believe for salvation, we must believe not in God absolutely, but in God as the raiser up of Jesus Christ This faith in God, as raising up our Lord, must also include a right view of Him. It must imply a belief of the Gospel, not only as to the fact of a resurrection, but also as to the person and work of Christ.

Ver. 25. — Who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification . Delivered — The Father gave over the Son to death, delivering Him into the hands of wicked men. Here we must look to a higher tribunal than that of Pilate, who delivered Him into the hands of the Jews. He was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. When Herod, Pilate, and the Gentiles, with the people of Israel, were gathered together against Him, it was to do whatsoever God’s word and counsel had determined before to be done Acts 4:28. The crucifixion of Christ being the greatest of all crimes, was hateful and highly provoking in the sight of God; yet it was the will of God that it should take place, in order to bring to pass the greatest good. God decreed this event; He willed that it should come to pass, and ordered circumstances, in His providence, in such a way as gave men an opportunity to carry into effect their wicked intentions. In their sin God had no part; and His determination that the deed should be done, formed no excuse for its perpetrators, nor did it in any degree extenuate their wickedness, which the Scriptures charge upon them in the fullest manner. ‘Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain,’ Acts 2:23. This was an example of the same truth declared by Joseph to his brethren, ‘As for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good,’ Genesis 1:20. For our offenses or on account of our offenses. — This shows the need of Christ’s death. It was not for an example, or for a witness merely, but for our offenses. Raised again for our justification. — That is, He was raised that He might enter the holy place not made with hands, and present His own blood, that we might be made righteous, through His death for us. As the death of Christ, according to the determinate counsel of a holy and righteous God, was a demonstration of the guilt of His people, so His resurrection was their acquittal from every charge.

It is of importance to distinguish the persons to whom the Apostle refers in this and the following verses, where he says, if we believe, and speaks of righteousness being imputed to us, and of our offenses, and our justification. In the beginning of the chapter he uses the expression, ‘Abraham our father;’ but there he is introducing an objection that might be offered by the Jews, and appears to speak of Abraham as his own and their progenitor. But when, in the 12th verse, he says, ‘Our father Abraham,’ and, in the 16th, ‘the father of us all,’ he applied these expressions not to the Jews, or the natural descendants of Abraham, but to himself and those to whom he is writing, that is, to believers, to all of whom, whether Jews or Gentiles, in every age, as walking in the same steps of Abraham’s faith, they are applicable. And of the same persons he here speaks in the 24th and 25th verses, for whose offenses Jesus was delivered, and for whose justification He was raised again. They are those whom the Father had given Him, John 6:37, 17:2; Hebrews 2:13; for the effect of His death was not to depend on the contingent will of man, but was fixed by the eternal purpose of God. They are those of whom it was promised to the Redeemer, that when He should make Himself an offering for sin, He should see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied, — those who are or shall be saved, and called with an holy calling, not according to their works, but according to God’s purpose and grace which was given them in Christ Jesus before the world began, 2 Timothy 1:9, — those who have the faith of God’s elect, who are brought by Him to the acknowledgment of the truth which is after godliness, who have the hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised from eternity to their Head and Surety, Titus 1:1,2. No one, then, is entitled to consider himself among the number of those to whom the Apostle’s words are here applicable, unless he has obtained precious faith in the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. Yet the expression, our Savior, is often used by persons who reject God’s testimony concerning Him, and consequently have neither part nor lot in His salvation.

Having substituted Himself in the place of sinners, Jesus Christ suffered in His own person the punishment of sin, conformably to that declaration, ‘In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.’ He came forth from among the dead, in testimony that the threatening of God was accomplished, and as a pledge of the acceptance of His sacrifice, and that by His obedience unto death Divine justice was satisfied, the law honored and magnified, and eternal life awarded to those for whom He died, whose sins He had borne in His own body on the tree, 1 Peter 2:24. He was quickened by the Spirit, 1 Peter 3:18; by whom He was also justified, 1 Timothy 3:16, from every charge that could be alleged against Him as the Surety and Covenant-head of those whose iniquities He bore. The justification, therefore, of His people, which includes not only the pardon of their sins, but also their title to the eternal inheritance, was begun in His death, and perfected by His resurrection. He wrought their justification by His death, but its efficacy depended on His resurrection. By His death He paid their debt; in His resurrection He received their acquaintance. He arose to assure to them their right to eternal life, by fully discovering and establishing it in His own person, for all who are the members of His body.