Romans 4:3

‘For what does the scripture say? “And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him for righteousness.” '

Having in Romans 4:2 introduced the idea of God ‘reckoning' something (counting it as so even if it is not) Paul will now refer to two Scriptures in which the word is used. The first relates to Abraham, who is the subject of his whole present argument. It is demonstrating that what he has been declaring is ‘in the Law' (i.e. in the Scriptures), as he had claimed in Romans 3:21.

He claims, the Scripture is quite clear on how Abraham was reckoned as righteous before God. It declares that, “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him for righteousness” (Genesis 15:6), and this before any of the events which would later be interpreted as being the cause of Abraham being acceptable before God (e.g. his being willing to offer him as a sacrifice in Genesis 22) took place. Here then was a clear statement in ‘the Law' that Abraham was ‘justified (reckoned as righteous before God) by faith'. It makes clear that Abraham was reckoned as righteous solely on the basis of his believing God and His word.

We should note that faith and God's sovereignty are the foundations of Abraham's life. He had come to Canaan from Ur of the Chaldees and Haran in response to God's call, a call that totally resulted from God's initiative, and was responded to by faith (Genesis 12:1). He experienced theophanies at times of God's choosing, and entered into covenants which were brought to him on God's initiative, and constantly believed and responded to His promises. In his life he revealed a constant trust in God. That indeed is what is revealed in Genesis 15. He also trusted and obeyed God when he was called on to sacrifice Isaac (Genesis 22). There is nothing in the Genesis account, apart from his religious response to God through sacrifices, (which themselves were an act of faith), which suggests that Abraham acted as he did because he was seeking salvation. The initiative in his life is seen to be all of God. And it was that basic faith, as a response to the initiative of God, which we are now told was ‘reckoned to him as righteousness'.

The verb ‘to reckon' is an accounting term. It means to ‘set down' in a course of dealing. The idea of such records is found regularly in Scripture. See for example, Malachi 3:16; Daniel 7:10; Revelation 20:12. It is the recording of what are seen as the actual facts (even though they might not be). Once recorded they were ‘written in stone'. It was regularly used in LXX with reference to the imputation of guilt (e.g. Leviticus 7:18; Leviticus 17:4).