What Paul does not say about Abraham in his Letter to the Romans…

By Dr Quek Tze-Ming

Paul doesn’t say anything about Abraham’s Obedience. Isn’t it curious that Romans 4 repeatedly discusses Abraham’s faith/trust in God, but never once mentions Abraham’s obedience?

After all, it’s quite natural to associate Abraham with obedience. Abraham leaves Haran for Canaan, “as the LORD had told him” (Gen 12:4). Abraham undergoes circumcision, and circumcises the males of his household, “as God had said to him” (Gen 17:23). Abraham shows he is willing to sacrifice Isaac his son on God’s command (Gen 22).

Unsurprisingly, most later interpreters of Abraham’s story do focus on his obedience to God. Here are some examples, from writings just before the time of Jesus:

In this context, where lots of other Jewish writings praise Abraham for his obedience, Paul’s silence here on Abraham’s obedience is quite striking.

Paul doesn’t (quite) say that Abraham is an Example to Follow. Paul does tell the story of Abraham as an example of justification by faith, but he doesn’t actually say that Abraham is an example for people to follow. This is interesting because Paul often does explicitly tell his readers elsewhere that they should imitate someone (see Phil 3.17; 1 Thess 1:6-7, etc.). Romans 4:12 is the closest Paul gets to that, when he says that Abraham is the Father of non-Jews who walk in his footsteps of faith. But Paul still doesn’t quite say, “Therefore, believe like Abraham believed,” or “Abraham is an example of faith.” 

Now, of course it is true that Abraham is obedient in many areas of his life, and Abraham’s faith is indeed a worthy example for us to follow (e.g., Heb 11:8ff). But here in Romans 4, these two things that Paul does not say is quite revealing of Paul’s emphasis throughout this chapter. In Romans 4, Abraham is an example of what God has done and what God is doing, not so much of Abraham’s character or conduct. 

What Paul does say: We remember that the great issue at this point of Romans is: “How can sinful people be justified or declared righteous before God?” Paul’s answer is: Through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God is the One who calls into being Abraham’s family, who are a justified people from both Jews and non-Jews. By describing God as the One who justifies the ungodly (Rom 4:5) and “the One who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist” (Rom 4:17), Paul is depicting justification and resurrection as God’s act of creation. In so doing, Paul wants to say that Abraham’s family is not self-deriving. Abraham’s family exists not because of its own godliness or goodness but purely by God’s creative act. Abraham’s family contributes as much to its justification as the raw material of the world contributes to God’s mighty act of creation in Genesis – nothing. 

Therefore, all boasting in religious achievements is excluded. All Abraham and his family do for justification, is to trust in God and his promises.

This reminds us that justification by faith in Christ is Good News. Because it is based on God’s grace and power, it liberates us from BOTH pride and presumption (“look how well I’ve done my religious duties”); AND anxiety and despair (“how can I ever do enough to be accepted by God?”).

One final takeaway. Notice how Paul thinks through this problem of an ungodly people. He doesn’t try to apply some human-centred patch, or come up with the obvious thing for people to do (“just try harder!”). What Paul does first is to focus on God: What is God up to? What has God done in Jesus? What does Scripture say? What does that teach us? 

That is a good reflex that we should follow, as we read through both Scripture, and our lives with God.