Four points in connection with justification are discussed in the fourth chapter of Romans:(1) the principle on which anyone can be justified (verses 1-5); (2) the moral class that can share in this favor (5-8); (3) the limits in the human family to which such a blessing extends (9-17); and (4) the testimony set before us, believing which we can share in this grace (18-25).

The Principle

God justifies the ungodly through faith, and the earliest example of this is found in Abraham. "What shall we then say 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" (verses 1,2). Now it is clear that he was justified by works, as James 2:21 reminds us; but in that he could not boast before God. For his being justified by works was after all but the witness that he had done his duty, as he had been commanded. If Abraham then was only justified by works, however much he might have boasted before men, he must have been dumb before God. This is because he was included in the verdict brought in against men that "all have sinned" and that "there is none righteous, no, not one." But "What saith the Scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness" (verse 3). He was then justified on the principle of faith. His faith was counted, or reckoned to him for righteousness. How instructive is the language when pondered over. "To him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt" (verse 4). Such an one would claim to be righteous. He would not need to be reckoned righteous. "But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness" (verse 5). The kernel of this part of the gospel is found embedded in the history of Abraham. That night, so fruitful in blessing to Jews, is fruitful in instruction to us; and though nineteen centuries were to run by before the gospel times could begin, we are taken back by the Spirit of God to that time in the patriarch’s history (Gen. 15) to see therein illustrated the simplicity of faith, and the results from such an exercise of it. "Abraham believed God." How much is expressed in these words!

The Moral Class

What is the moral class that can share in this favor of being justified? It is the ungodly (verse 5), and we are turned for a fitting example of this to David’s history, whose words are quoted in proof of it:"Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin" (vs. 7,8). Justification by faith, then, is no new procedure on God’s part, nor is it a new thing that He should justify one who is ungodly; a precedent for each can be quoted from the Old Testament, precedents which a Jew would be the last to gainsay. And the precedent of David is particularly useful, because it shows that one guilty of willful sin, as he was, could nevertheless come to rejoice in the non-imputation of guilt of which he had been convicted.

The Human Family
But who can share in this? Again we are turned to Abraham’s history for an answer, which should effectually silence the cavillings of those who would Judaize. Now, there were two articles in the creed of such in Paul’s day, to which they clung tenaciously and pressed most persistently:(1) a Gentile must keep the law of Moses to be justified (Gal. 5:4); and (2) they must be circumcised if they would be saved (Acts 15:1). Both these contentions were refuted by the history of the patriarch. Abraham was justified by faith, centuries before the law was given by Moses. And since he was justified by faith, he was certainly saved years before he was circumcised (Gen. 15:6; 17:26). Thus, neither the keeping of the law nor the submission to the rite of circumcision are needful for any one to be justified by faith. Hence it was plain that Gentiles could share in the grace of justification just as much as Jews. And if the latter could boast of having Abraham for their father, so could the former. Abraham was the "father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised" as well as "the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised" (verses 11,12). Did this shock Jewish prejudices? Careful study of the Word would settle it all beyond the possibility of dispute (verses 13-17). Indeed, keeping to the ground of the law, or putting people under it for Christian blessing, was, as far as they were concerned, the way to lose all. Faith in that case would become void, and the promise be made of none effect (verse 14). So little perception had those people of the baneful effect of such teaching.