Romans 4:3 - The Gospel in Abraham’s Faith - by Scott Sperling

³ What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” — Romans 4:3

“Abraham Believed God”

The citation in the verse before us in Romans 4:3 — “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness” — comes from Genesis 15:6, penned long before the Mosaic law, long before the temple’s stones were laid. It is a verse of surpassing weight and moment, for it declares plainly that righteousness was imputed to Abraham not for works wrought, but for faith embraced. And this same verse appears again and again in the epistles of the New Testament, and from its repetition we shall draw forth riches most precious. Paul himself cites the verse again in his letter to the Galatians, and there he unfolds a truth of luminous beauty: that Abraham’s faith was not faith in a mere shadow or abstraction, but faith in the very Gospel itself, though veiled in the language of promise. And then James, in his epistle, takes up this very verse, and seems to contradict it utterly — or so the careless reader may think. In this study, we shall labor to show that no contradiction exists, but rather a perfect harmony, a divine symphony wherein each voice plays its needful part.

Thus we come to our great task: to expound this verse with reverent diligence, to trace the argument of Paul in both Romans and Galatians, to reconcile the seemingly warring voices of Paul and James, and to draw forth practical application for our souls, that we may walk in righteousness and live worthily of the faith we profess.

Faith Came First

Consider the moment chosen by God to grant Abraham righteousness. He selects not the account of Abraham’s calling in Genesis 12, nor his building of the altar at Shechem, nor his tithing to Melchizedek. No, he selects an episode situated long after Abraham’s initial calling, long after his years of pilgrimage in Canaan, and remarkably, long before his greatest works of obedience. In Genesis 15, Abraham has but a promise: that his seed shall be as the stars of heaven. And what does Abraham do? What can he do? He “believes.” He believes the word of the Almighty God, though it violates reason, though it mocks the testimony of his flesh. And in that moment of faith, his faith was “credited to him as righteousness.” Here is the beating heart of the Gospel! Not the works that follow, not the obedience that flows later, but the naked, trembling faith of a man who takes God at His word.

And observe further: many of Abraham’s great works — his obedience in offering up Isaac, his steadfastness in the land of promise, his acts of covenant-keeping — all these came afterward, after this testimony of Abraham’s faith. The faith came first. The works were not the cause but the fruit; not the basis but the evidence. As a great tree does first send forth its roots into the darkness, hidden from view, drawing up sustenance that the world cannot see, and only afterward does burst forth in green leaves and fruitful branches for all to behold — so it was with Abraham. His faith was the hidden root; his works were the visible branches. And God, who sees all things, justified him not for the branches, but for the root. This is the wisdom of God, and this is the mechanism of justification that Paul expounds: righteousness belongs to faith, and faith alone.

Thus Paul makes good his argument: Abraham, the very father of the faithful, the patriarch whom all Jews do revere, was justified not by the law (which came after Abraham’s life), not by works (which came after Abraham’s faith), but by the faith itself. And if Abraham was justified by faith, then surely the promise of justification through faith is not a novelty, but an eternal plan by God.

The True Object of Abraham’s Faith

But here arises a question of the utmost moment: What was the substance of Abraham’s faith? In what did he believe? Was it a vague trust in providence, a general confidence in God’s power? No, beloved. Paul himself answers this question most precisely in his epistle to the Galatians. Here’s what he says: “Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard? So also Abraham ‘believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.’ Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham. Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: ‘All nations will be blessed through you.’ So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith” (Galatians 3:5–9).

Mark the profundity of Paul’s assertion! When Scripture said that “Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness,” the Spirit of God was already announcing the Gospel to Abraham. The promise — “All nations will be blessed through you” — this was no mere promise of earthly posterity, no mere multiplication of seed in the flesh. No! This was the Gospel itself, veiled in the language of covenant, but unmistakably the Gospel. That blessing to all the nations would come through Christ: through His sacrifice, through His redemption, through the proclamation of grace to Gentile and Jew alike. Abraham could not see it with the clarity with which we see it, yet he saw it nonetheless. The light that fell upon Abraham was indeed the light of Christ, though cast through the prism of promise rather than the crystal clarity of the New Testament revelation.

Here, then, is a truth of transcendent import: Abraham was saved by faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ — the Gospel suited to his era, the Gospel as it came to him in the garment of covenant-promise, but the Gospel nonetheless. When the spirit of Abraham reached out in faith to embrace God’s Word, he embraced, though unknowingly, the coming Redeemer, the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. He believed in the light he had been given, and in believing, he was justified.

This truth unfolds before us a most luminous understanding of God’s word: the Old Testament is not a collection of disconnected tales and laws, but a progressive and veiled revelation of Christ himself, growing ever more clear as we approach the New Testament. The whole of Scripture speaks of one Person, and that Person is Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world.

What a wonder it is to contemplate! The Lord God, in His infinite wisdom, did not merely speak of Christ through the prophets; He caused the very history of Israel to become prophecy, and the very institutions of the law to become types and shadows of the coming Savior. For example, Abraham is called to offer up Isaac upon a mountain, and raises the knife — is this not a pre-enactment of God offering His own Son upon a mount most terrible and glorious? By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. This trial was Abraham’s faith made manifest, and in its details, it was faith in Christ foreshadowed.

Consider likewise the law of Moses, with its multiplicity of sacrifices for sin. When the priest lays his hand upon the head of the offering and the blood is shed, is this not a perpetual sermon, a visual gospel, declaring week after week and month after month that sin requires atonement, that death is the wages of transgression, and that only through a substitute’s blood can fellowship with God be restored? Every believing Israelite who witnessed these sacrifices and believed God’s promise that forgiveness would come through them was believing in the Gospel, though he knew not the name or face of the One who would fulfill all types.

So it was that believers in every age were saved by faith in the light of the Gospel they had been given. Moses believed in the light of the Gospel as it came to Moses; David believed in the light as it came to David; the faithful in Israel believed in the light as it came to them. Each responded to the truth as they understood it, and God, who alone knows the secrets of hearts, justified them all by that faith. We stand in incomparably greater privilege! The veil has been rent. The shadow has fled before the substance. We now see clearly Him who was hidden. We read the Old Testament with eyes opened by the resurrection of Christ, and everywhere — everywhere — we behold His person, His work, His glory.

Thus the ancient Scriptures become a wondrous book of prophecy, illuminated by the light of the Gospel. And we, who possess that Gospel in its fullness, are blessed beyond measure to see the unity and harmony of all Scripture, converging upon the Person of Christ.

In the episode when Jesus appears to disciples on the road to Emmaus, we come to a scene of surpassing beauty and instruction concerning these things. This occurred after the resurrection of Jesus, but before His ascension. These disciples were heavy with sorrow and bewilderment, speaking one to another of the trial and death that had just occurred, unable to comprehend that it was Jesus — the very Person of whom they spoke — who walked beside them. Jesus perceived that their sorrow was caused by a dullness of understanding, and so He mildly rebuked them with a question both tender and sharp: “‘How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?’ And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself” (Luke 24:25–27).

And mark, what a Bible study was that! What a teacher! Christ Himself, the very subject of all Scripture, unfolded to these disciples how the whole of the Old Testament — beginning with Moses and extending through all the Prophets — spoke concerning Himself. We can scarcely imagine the glory of that instruction, and the opening of eyes and the burning of hearts that accompanied it.

When these disciples later reflected upon that encounter, they said this: “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:32). O what a longing this passage must awaken in our own breasts! If only to have walked that road, to have heard that voice, to have felt that burning in the heart, as the Messiah Himself revealed His own presence throughout the sacred pages! Yet we are not bereft of this privilege, beloved. When we read Scripture rightly, when we read it as pointing always to Christ, we walk that same road. We hear that same voice. We should be able feel that same burning, though it may be the gentle glow of the Spirit’s work rather than the fire of that immediate companionship.

Through this episode, we can understand the doctrine of God’s progressive revelation to His people. God has revealed what was timely to reveal, at each point upon humanity’s historical timeline. God never left His people in darkness; He granted them light according to His purpose. And for those who believed in that light, that specific revelation that they had been given, they were justified by faith — the same faith, in substance though not in clarity, that justifies us today.

Excursus: Paul and James Reconciled

Let us now speak of a matter that has troubled the minds of many readers of Scripture, a knot that seems so tangled that some have sought even to pluck it from the canon. They read from Paul: “For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law” (Romans 3:28). And then they turn to the epistle of James and read: “You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone” (James 2:24). And they cry out: Contradiction! The Bible contradicts itself! Paul and James are at war!

But hear now the truth, which will make your heart glad: There is no contradiction. There is, rather, a divine wisdom that speaks through different lips for different purposes, that corrects us from different angles lest we fall into error. Let us labor now to show this, and in so doing, to unlock the riches that lie in both epistles.

First, let us understand the concern that Paul addresses. Paul writes to churches beset by false teachers who would burden them with the observance of the law, who would say: “You must be circumcised; you must keep the Sabbath; you must observe all the ordinances of Moses.” Paul’s cry against this is vehement and absolute. The law cannot justify! Works cannot save! It is faith, faith alone, that receives the justification that God offers in Christ. And why? Because justification is not a reward for achievement, but a gift of God’s grace. It is not something earned, but something given, based on our faith — our willingness to cast ourselves upon God’s mercy, to receive what we cannot deserve.

Now turn to the epistle of James. James writes about a different peril. His readers were beginning to think, perhaps, that faith was merely a matter of intellectual assent. “I believe that there is one God,” they might say, and rest content. And James rushes to correct this notion with the urgency of one who would slap drowsy consciences awake. “Can such belief save you? No!” A faith that is merely mental, that does not transform the life, that does not issue forth in love and service toward others — such a faith is dead, it is useless, it is mere demonic assent.

Observe now the critical distinction. Paul is answering the question: What justifies a person before God? What is the very basis, the foundation, the instrument by which a sinner is reconciled to the Almighty? And Paul’s answer — burning with apostolic fire — is: Faith. True faith in Jesus Christ and His atoning work. Not works, not law, not human achievement, but faith.

But James is answering a different question: How can we discern whether a person’s professed faith is genuine? How can we (who are not omniscient, who cannot see into another’s soul) determine whether someone truly believes, or merely claims to believe? And James’s answer is clear: Look at the life. Look at the behavior. Does this person’s life reflect the teachings of Christ? Does the person show love to the needy? Does the person demonstrate the fruits of the Spirit? If not, then the claimed faith is not a true faith.

In other words, Paul speaks from God’s perspective. God knows all things; God sees the heart. And God justifies on the basis of true faith, which He alone can perceive with perfect clarity. James, however, speaks from a human perspective. We mortals cannot see into hearts; we can only observe conduct. And James teaches us that if we would test whether someone is truly justified, we must look for the fruits of that justification in their behavior.

This is not contradiction; this is complementarity. This is two physicians looking at the same patient from different angles, each offering a necessary truth. Let us now trace through James’s epistle and demonstrate this understanding with care.

The Question That Opens All: James 2:14

The epistle of James begins his treatment with a penetrating question: “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them?” (James 2:14). Mark carefully how James frames this! Someone “claims” to have faith. But James asks: “Can such faith save them?” Already, in the very asking of this question, James reveals something crucial — he believes that true faith does save. He is not doubting the saving power of faith. Rather, he is questioning whether this particular person, this claimant, truly possesses that faith.

Indeed, a few verses prior to this, James had already affirmed the saving power of faith. He wrote: “Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?” (James 2:5). Here James speaks of inheriting the kingdom — which is to say, being saved, being reconciled to God — and he links this salvation to being “rich in faith.” James is no foe to faith; he is a champion of it!

Moreover, earlier in the same chapter, James defines his Christian brothers and sisters as those who have faith: “My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism” (James 2:1). James addresses his readers as “believers,” as those who believe in “our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.” Faith is the given, the assumption, the foundation upon which James builds all his ethical exhortations.

Thus James is not contradicting Paul’s doctrine that we are saved by faith. Rather, James is addressing the false security that comes from merely “claiming” faith while living a life of palpable godlessness. James takes for granted that true faith saves; what he challenges is the reality of claimed faith that does not demonstrate itself in righteous action.

Three Examples: Testing the Reality of Professed Faith

James then provides three examples to illuminate his point, each one striking in its clarity. The first is the case of the neighbor in want. He writes: “Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead” (James 2:15–17).

Here is a clear case: A professing believer encounters a brother or sister naked and hungry. The believer says, “God bless you, my friend; go in peace and be warmed and filled” — a pious sentiment, prettily spoken. But the believer does nothing. No cloak is offered; no food is given. Is such faith genuine? Can it be? If Christ is truly your Lord, and if you have truly believed in Him, would not His teaching — that whatsoever you do to the least of these you do unto Him — would not this teaching burn in your conscience? Would not your faith, if it were true faith, constrain you to act?

The second example is perhaps even more stark. James speaks of demons. He writes: “You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that — and shudder” (James 2:19). What a penetrating observation! Even the demons possess a sort of faith — they know that God exists; they know that Christ rules; they tremble before the majesty of the Almighty. Yet surely, their belief does not save. Why? Because their belief has no life in it, no transformation, no fruit. They do not trust God for salvation; they do not obey Him; they do not love Him. Their “faith” is mere intellectual assent, and assent without trust, without obedience, without love, is dead — deader than the grave.

The third example is the most significant, for it brings us full circle to our text in Romans. James turns to Abraham, and he says: “You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,’ and he was called God’s friend” (James 2:20–23).

Observe now the triumphant logic of James! He does not say that Abraham was justified by the offering of Isaac. No! He says that Abraham’s faith “was made complete” by what he did, and then he cites the very verse that Paul cites — the verse that says “Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.” James knows, as we have established, that this crediting of righteousness occurred long before the offering of Isaac. So what is James saying? He is saying that when Abraham later offered Isaac, this act was the proof, the fulfillment, the evidence and the vindication of his faith. The faith came first; the works proved and perfected that faith.

The Order of Faith and Works

Here is the key to the entire matter! The chronology is crucial. Genesis 15:6 records that “Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.” This event occurred — let us be precise — when Abraham was still childless, when he had no proof that God’s promise would be fulfilled. Later, in Genesis 22, Abraham was called to offer Isaac. By this time, Isaac had been born, had grown into a young man, and Abraham had lived many years in the assurance that God’s promise would be kept. So the order was: First, faith (Genesis 15). Then, after many years, the proving of that faith through works (Genesis 22).

This is the point that James makes with perfect clarity. When James says in verse 24, “You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone,” he speaks from the vantage point of a human observer. As a pastor, as a leader of a congregation, I (James seems to say) cannot peer into your soul as God does. I cannot see whether your faith is true. But I can observe your actions. And if you truly believe in Christ, I should see in your life the fruits of that belief. If I see that a person loves his brothers and sisters in Christ, that he gives to the poor, that he keeps himself pure, then I can say with confidence: This person has true faith. He is righteous. His righteousness is demonstrated, proven, vindicated by what he does.

Thus James is not overturning the doctrine of justification by faith. He is affirming it. He is saying effectively: True faith, by its very nature, produces righteous works. And when I see those works in your life, I know that your faith is genuine and justifying. I know that you are truly a believer.

So we must cast aside any notion of contradiction. Paul and James are not enemies; they are allies, each speaking needful truth in his own key. Paul speaks of what God sees and what God does. James speaks of what we mortals may discern and how we must live. There is perfect harmony here, if we have but the ears to hear.

Paul and James in Agreement: The Testimony of the Epistles

Does not Paul himself sound the same note as James when occasion warrants it? Consider his epistle to Titus, wherein Paul speaks of false teachers who “claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him” (Titus 1:16). Here is Paul, the great trumpet of grace and justification by faith, turning to rebuke those who profess faith but live godlessly. And what does he say? “To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted. They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him” (Titus 1:15–16).

Is not this the very voice of James? Professing faith without displaying faith by action is to deny God by one’s very conduct. Indeed, in his epistle to the Ephesians, Paul is even more explicit. He writes: “But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people... For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person — such a person is an idolater — has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God” (Ephesians 5:3–5)

Mark what Paul says here! If you live a life of immorality, impurity, and greed, you have no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ. This is not a mere admonition; it is a warning of the gravest sort. It is Paul declaring that behavior and faith are inseparably linked. Professed faith that gives forth such bitter fruit is not true faith at all.

Thus Paul and James are in perfect accord. Both assert that true faith necessarily produces holy living. Both warn against empty profession. Both exalt justification by faith as the foundation of salvation, while insisting that true faith cannot be separated from works. One writes as a theologian, systematizing the doctrine of grace. The other writes as a pastor and counselor, applying that doctrine to the fractured souls and broken lives of believers. Both are needful. Both are true. Both are from the Holy Spirit, who alone is the author of Scripture.

The Complementary Wisdom of the Holy Spirit

What wisdom is manifest here! The Holy Spirit, in His infinite understanding of human nature, has given us both Paul and James, and their voices do not contradict but complete each other. We are creatures of two great temptations, and we have need of both apostles to guide us aright.

There are seasons when our spirits are pressed down by the weight of our own failures, when we feel the accumulated burden of years of sin and shortcoming, when the condemnation of conscience threatens to drag us down into the pit of despair. In those hours of darkness and heaviness, we need the trumpet of Paul! We need to hear again that marvelous declaration: “For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law” (Rom. 3:28). We need to be reminded that God’s grace is not proportioned to our worthiness, that His love does not ebb and flow with our performance, that the justification offered in Christ is not a thing earned but received, received by empty hands stretched toward God in faith.

But there are other seasons, God forgive us, when our faith becomes smug, when we rest too comfortably in the assurance of our salvation, when we allow our fleshly desires to run rampant and give ourselves license to pursue the lusts of the world, thinking all the while, “I am saved; I have faith; what harm can my behavior do?” It is in those seasons that we need James to shake us, to awaken us from our spiritual stupor, to rebuke us with the sharp question: “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds?” (James 2:14). We need James to look us in the eye and challenge us: Is your faith true? Does it show itself in your works? Are you living a life worthy of the faith you profess?

This is the wisdom of the Holy Spirit. Not to leave us in despair, but to buoy us with grace. Not to leave us in spiritual apathy, but to stir us to holy living. To do both, God gave us both Paul and James. Blessed be the Spirit of wisdom, who knows how to minister to the various conditions of our souls!

Let us now draw forth the practical fruit of all we have learned. “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness” (Rom. 4:3). This is the foundation. This is the gospel. We are justified — made right with God, reconciled to the Creator, delivered from the wrath to come — by faith in Jesus Christ alone. Not by our good works, not by our obedience, not by our moral achievements. No achievement of ours can merit what God offers in grace. We come as beggars, empty-handed, and we receive as a gift what we could never purchase.

But because we are justified by faith, because we have been made righteous in God’s eyes through trusting in Christ, therefore we must labor to live righteously. Not to gain righteousness — we have that already — but to display it, to demonstrate it, to let it shine forth in our conduct and bearing. We must ask ourselves daily: Am I living a life that honors the God who has justified me? Am I showing love to my brothers and sisters? Am I pursuing holiness? Am I denying myself, taking up my cross, and following my Master?

The faith that justified Abraham is the faith that must justify us. We believe in God’s promise — that in Jesus Christ, forgiveness is offered, that through His sacrifice we are redeemed, that by His resurrection we are assured of eternal life. And believing, we are credited with righteousness. This is Paul’s gospel, and it is the gospel that saves. Yet because we have this faith, therefore let our lives shout it from the housetops. Let our works prove the reality of our profession. Let us so live that the watching world might look upon us and see in our conduct the fruit of a genuine trust in the living God.

Thus Paul and James are perfectly reconciled. Faith is the instrument of our justification; works are the fruit and demonstration of that faith. One is the root, hidden from view; the other is the branch, visible to all. Both are necessary. Both are true. Both are beautiful in their proper place.

❦