What does it mean that upon believing God, Abraham was counted righteous?

Explanation:

Paul quotes from Genesis 15:6 where it says that Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. The verb Paul uses for credited is the aorist passive of λογίζομαι. The verb λογίζομαι is used in the financial sense of keeping accounts. Thus, what Paul is saying is that Abraham believed God, and then God set righteousness down on Abraham’s account. In other words, God gave Abraham’s account the status of righteousness, because he believed God.³ Thus, Paul is not saying that Abraham’s faith was itself a righteous act, but that because Abraham believed God, God gave Abraham the status of righteousness.

Counterargument:

There were other Jewish authors who understood the fact that Abraham was counted righteous, not in the sense that because he believed God gave him the status of righteousness, but that his faith had intrinsic value. In other words, Abraham offered God faith, and God counted Abraham as righteous because the faith itself is valuable. For example, one Jewish author writes, Our father Abraham became the heir of this and of the coming world simply by the merit of the faith with which he believed in the Lord.⁴ Given that Paul was Jewish, he could be interpreting the phrase similarly. That is, he could be saying that Abraham was counted as righteous because his faith was intrinsically valuable. 

Response to counterargument:

We can detect that Paul does not interpret the fact that Abraham is credited as righteous in the sense that his faith has intrinsic value. The reason we can detect this is because Paul will explicitly say in Romans 4:4 that for the one who works his wages are counted as his due, not a gift.⁵ In other words, if Abraham’s faith had intrinsic value, then he merited God’s favour, which means that righteousness was counted as his due, not a gift. But this is exactly what Paul denies. Paul uses Abraham as an example to support what he writes in Romans 4:5, which is that the one who does not work but believes, his faith is counted as righteousness. In other words, the one has no merit to offer God and yet believes God’s promises, God considers righteous. So by putting Abraham forward as one who is counted righteous by faith, Paul rejects the notion that Abraham’s faith merited the status of righteousness.

Explanation:

The reason Paul quotes from Genesis 15:6 is to show that Abraham was counted righteous, even though he did not merit this status. In other words, upon believing God, God gave Abraham the status of righteousness. We can see that the whole context of this section suggests this interpretation because Paul’s purpose in introducing Abraham as an example is to show that we are justified by faith, not works of the law (Romans 3:21). In fact, our boasting is excluded (Romans 3:27), including Abraham’s, because neither was he justified by works (Romans 4:2).

Counterargument:

This argument assumes that if something has merit, it is a work. That is, the argument assumes that if God merited Abraham’s faith as righteousness, that faith must be a work. But there is a sense in which faith is not a work. Rather, faith is to trust and believe God. And since Abraham trusted and believed God, God merits faith as righteousness. In other words, it is possible that works have one form of merit, and faith has another. Since we are under sin we cannot perform works, so we cannot be merited based on our works. Still, if faith has merit, we can be merited based on our faith.

Response to counterargument:

The notion that faith could have merit undermines the spirit of Paul’s arguments about justification by grace, through faith. In fact, Paul says this in Romans 4:4 when he writes that for the one who works his wages are his due. Of course, merit has to do with what one is due, so Paul is saying that merit is incompatible with the gift of grace. Of course, Paul contrasts the one who receives his due based on works with Abraham, who was counted righteous as a gift of grace. So Paul cannot mean that faith merits righteousness in a different way than works, because his whole point is that since we are all under sin, no human can merit anything before God.

The one weakness of this view is that it assumes works of the law is equivalent to any merit whatsoever. Works of the law is also a technical term to refer to keeping the Mosaic law, so Paul might be saying that Abraham is not righteous for keeping the Mosaic law, but for having faith, which has merit. Of course, works of the law can also refer to works in general, and this is likely what Paul has in mind, because he says that even the Gentiles keep the law, although they did not have the Mosaic law.

Explanation:

Paul quotes from Genesis 15:6 where it says that Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. Clearly what Paul seems to be saying is that Abraham did not do any good works; rather, he was found to be righteous simply by the fact that he believed God. ⁸ In other words, God counted the faith of Abraham as righteousness.

Counterargument:

This argument overlooks the context. For Paul’s point in this section is to show that Abraham did not merit righteousness. Paul has made clear that justification by faith is apart from works, and that Abraham has no reason to boast before God (Romans 4:2). Given that Paul is opposing works and faith, that Abraham has no reason to boast, Paul would not suddenly say that Abraham’s faith merited righteousness.

The weakness of this view is that it overlooks Paul’s entire argument from Romans 1:18 onward. Paul has been arguing that no one is justified by works of the law, including both Jews and Gentiles. Still, justification is possible through Jesus Christ, and we participate in Christ by faith. Thus, Paul would not put Abraham forward as an example of someone who has merited righteousness before God, even if that merit is based on faith, not works.