We need a good working knowledge about ‘justification’ as was offered to mankind throughout the entire Bible. To be justified is to be counted as being righteous in God’s eyes.

Consider the book of Genesis, which covers about 2,000 years of human history. God could have easily given thousands of books covering in detail so many aspects of the first 2,000 years of human history, but who would have time read thousands of books? We don’t have all the details we might want but we accept what God has given us about that period of human history. And God through Paul chose to use the faith of Abraham in order to address the matter of justification. Paul, in the first 5 verses of Romans 4, quotes what was said of Abraham in Gen. 15:6 to address justification in time past.

¹What shall we say then that Abraham our [Israel’s] father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? 2 For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. 3 For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it [his faith] was counted unto him for righteousness. 4 Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. ⁵But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Rom 4:1-5

Paul seems to address Jewish objectors to justification by faith by giving examples of two great men of faith - Abraham and David. And he starts with the illustration of the God-glorifying example of Abraham’s faith. Beginning in verse 2, he writes, “For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.”

Both Genesis 15 and Romans 4 tell us that Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Notice that Paul does not say that Abraham believed IN God, which got him saved. No, the Devil believes in God and he is not saved. What got Abraham saved was that he believed what God had said at the time, perhaps when God said, “I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing…” God talked to people back in those days. It wasn’t a matter of just believing in God’s existence. They knew He existed. It was a matter of faith in what He said.

Believing in what He said is how everyone got saved before Abraham was called, including Adam and Eve. After the fall in the garden and God brought the sin curse upon mankind and creation, But God gave Adam and Eve a promise, the hope of a coming redeemer through Eve’s seed, and this redeemer would bruise Satan’s head while Satan would bruise His heel. What was Adam’s reaction? Gen 3:20 And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living. By naming his wife Eve, he was showing his faith in the promise of what God had said. We see the evidence of Adam’s faith through his work of naming his wife Eve.

I think it could be said of Adam and Eve as it was said of Abraham that they believed God and it was counted unto them for righteousness. This would also explain Cain’s banishment. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe IN God. It was that he did not have faith in anything God told him at the time.

Back to Paul. He wrote, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.” What does that exactly mean- counted unto him for righteousness? The word, counted, is the same Greek word translated as imputed in 4:22 when Paul says, “it was imputed to him for righteousness.” God’s righteousness was imputed or counted to Abraham only because of God’s faith in God’s words.

What does that mean? What does “imputed” mean? To impute something is to have it applied to your account. When God imputes righteousness, He writes His righteousness onto your account, which means you are saved and sealed in Him forevermore. The very phrase “imputed to him for righteousness” means that person has eternal life.

Look at vs. 23. “Now it was not written for his [Abraham’s] sake alone, that it was imputed to him; But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.”

Do you see what’s happening here? Even though God was keeping a secret about today’s age of pure grace, He still had US IN MIND when He imputed His righteousness to Abraham forever because of His faith. Look at what Paul says here in vs. 4:23 Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; 24 But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead…

The story of Abraham was written for our sakes, too, because we’re also saved by faith just like Abraham and we’re sealed forever just like Abraham and THAT makes him our father, the father of all who believe... even if we are not of His lineage that gave birth to the Nation Israel. The amazing thing here is that the story of Abraham wasn’t written about us or to us, but it was written FOR US. God had us in mind when He had Moses pen the story of Abraham. God wants us to feel a connection to all the faithful saints of old. Even though God never revealed His grace secret, He always had us in His mind all throughout the OT. He elected to have Abraham saved by faith before he was circumcised so that Abraham could be our father as well, because God wants us to know that we Gentiles are part of His entire family.

When Paul tells us that we are accepted in the beloved, God wants us to know that we are part of His whole family of beloved saints and that Abraham is our father, too. We believers in this age of grace are not some exclusive group set off to the side in the heavens while the Lord and all of Israel run His kingdom down here on Earth. Even though we’ll be in our heavenly seats, we are as much a part of the administration of God’s kingdom as the Lord Himself and Israel on earth.

The big point is that the same thing that happened to Abraham when he got saved, when God imputed His righteousness to him for his faith, is the same thing that happens to us. Paul shows us that the method of justification has always been the same; however, what Abraham believed to earn God’s righteousness was different than what we must believe today. Abraham simply believed what God told him at the time. Today, we believe what God tells us now that Christ was delivered [to the Cross] for our offences and was raised again For Our Justification, and we properly respond in faith by believing, by trusting, in His payment for our sins. While the good news to be believed was different, the method of salvation by faith alone was always the same.

Not only that, but Paul tells us in vs. 16, as well as 3 other times in this chapter, that Abraham is the father of ALL who believe. Paul said in Gal 3:7 “Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.” Gal 3:9 “So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.” The method of salvation has been true for everyone across all ages as it was true for Abraham. If you believed God’s words for us, then you would become a child of Abraham, blessed with faithful Abraham in that your faith would be counted for righteousness just as it was for Abraham.

I’ve heard it said many times that OT saints really didn’t know how to be saved, which makes no sense to me at all. How could they not know how to be saved when God lifted up Abraham’s faith and showed them that “This is how you are saved!” The Jews could never ever say to God that they didn’t know how to be individually saved. They were all absolutely without excuse. If they knew the story of Abraham, then they knew how to be saved, and what Jew wouldn’t know the story of Abraham?