God’s declaration of justification in the life of the regenerated believer is not based upon the completion of requirements as some have suggested. God’s declaration of justification is founded upon God’s forgiving of transgressions and the gifting of faith leading to trust and belief. In Romans 4: 1 – 8, the apostle Paul speaks at some length about this justification process as displayed in the life of Abraham.
“What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.””
What is important about Abraham is that he is seen as the father of the Jewish nation. For many of the Jews of Paul’s day, there was a strong ethnic and national identity that was promoted as the source of right standing before God not on the basis of faith or belief but on the basis that the Jews were direct descendants from Abraham himself. In modern faith life, a similar notion has gained enormous traction in that many evangelicals associate their “salvation” not with the imputation of faith and righteousness leading to justification but on their membership in a local church or their espoused identity as a “Christian” with membership in the community. Unfortunately, like the nation of Israel in the Lord’s day and in Paul’s day this identity based salvation had little to do with true justification by faith and consequently many professing evangelicals will not enter the rest for unbelief. This seems to be Paul’s point exactly in Romans 4: 1 – 8. He begins by asking the question, “What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh?” or in other words, what good was Abraham’s ethnicity as related to right standing before God? Paul’s answer is clear; nothing! Paul specifically says that if Abraham’s salvation was based on works, with the implication here of simple nationality or birthright, Abraham would have something to boast about. However, Paul quickly asserts that this does not have merit before God. What Paul does offer as proper basis for justification is drawn from the historical account of Abram (not yet Abraham) where Abram is promised by God to be the father of a son. Abram’s belief in God’s word is used by Paul as proof not of works but of faith; that is the simple trust that prompted Abram to act according to what God had promised and required of him. Paul goes on to say here that this belief on Abram’s part was “counted” to him as righteousness. “Counted” here is the Greek word ἐλογίσθη which appears in the aorist passive indicative form. Lexically, the word means to keep records or accounts of debits and credits; it is an accounting term which may be compared to the maintaining of a balance sheet. Grammatically, the word is the simple declaration of a real event but an event that was not completed by Abram but rather by God Himself. In simple terms, Abram trusted in the word of God and God “settled accounts” with Abram at that point and found him not in debt. Does this mean that Abram had somehow earned enough credit to pay his debt? Certainly not; a survey of Abram’s life shows that he fell very short of God’s righteous requirements many times and even after God cut covenant with Abram and changed his name to Abraham, he still continued to sin against God. What this does mean is that God in the moment Abram trusted Him declared legally that He would not hold Abram’s debt against him. God, as a matter of forensic declaration, displayed Abram publically as being justified; that is, in right standing and not owing anything. In short, the account was listed as paid in full.
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