Righteousness by Faith Alone (1): Abraham's Justification (Romans 4:1-3) by Rev. Angus Stewart
I. Why Him?
II. Why Not by Works?
III. Why by Faith Alone?
William Sanday & Arthur C. Headlam on Romans 4:3 on the Jewish, legalist view of Abraham: "Abraham was the only righteous man of his generation; therefore he was chosen to be ancestor of the holy People. He kept all the precepts of the Law which he knew beforehand by a kind of intuition. He was the first of seven righteous men whose merit brought back the Shekinah which had retired into the seventh heaven, so that in the days of Moses it could take up its abode in the Tabernacle ... According to the Jews the original righteousness of Abraham, who began to serve God at the age of three ... was perfected (1) by his circumcision, (2) by his anticipatory fulfillment of the Law."
Charles Hodge on Romans 4:3: "This idea of imputation is one of the most familiar in all the Bible, and is expressed in a multitude of cases where the term is not used. When Stephen prayed, Acts vii. 60, 'Lord, lay not this sin to their charge,' he expressed exactly the same idea that Paul did, when he said, 2 Tim. iv. 16, 'I pray God it may not be laid to their charge,' although the latter uses the word impute and the former does not. So the expressions, 'his sin shall be upon him,' 'he shall bear his iniquity,' which occur so often, are perfectly synonymous with the formula, 'his sin shall be imputed to him;' and, of course, 'to bear the sins of another,' is equivalent to saying, 'those sins are imputed.' The objection, therefore, that the word impute does not occur in reference to the imputation of the sin or righteousness of one man to another, even if well founded, which is not the fact, is of no more force than the objections against the doctrines of the Trinity, vicarious atonement, perseverance of the saints, etc., founded on the fact that these words do not occur in the Bible. The material point surely is, Do the ideas occur? The doctrine of the 'imputation of righteousness' is not the doctrine of this or that school in theology. It is the possession of the Church. It was specially the glory and power of the Reformation. Those who differed most elsewhere, were perfectly agreed here. Lutherans and Reformed, alienated from each other by the sacramentarian controversy, were of one mind on this great doctrine."
Robert Haldane on Romans 4:3: "Faith is the recipient of that righteousness by which we are justified. Unto righteousness is the literal rendering, as the same word in the original is so often translated in this discussion, as where it is said, ch. i. 16, the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation; and ch. iii. 22, even the righteousness of God which is unto all; and so in innumerable other places, but especially in a passage precisely parallel to the one before us, ch. x. 10, 'For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness' ... The expression 'unto righteousness' is elliptical, and signifies unto the receiving of righteousness."
Martin Luther: “The doctrine of justification is the head and the cornerstone. It alone begets, nourishes, builds, preserves, and defends the church of God; and without it the church of God cannot exist for one hour. For no one who does not hold this article—or, to use Paul’s expression, this ‘sound doctrine’ (Titus 2:1)—is able to teach aright in the church or successfully to resist any adversary. This is the heel of the Seed of the woman that opposes the old serpent and crushes its head. That is why Satan, in turn, cannot but persecute it.”