Rescuing Paul (1)
Then he believed in the Lord; and He [a]credited it to him as righteousness. Genesis 15:6 NASB
Believed – As you know, Paul cites this verse from Genesis to justify his claim that Abraham was not considered righteous due to his own efforts but rather by the free act of God. He uses this citation in Romans 4 just before he launches into a discussion of circumcision. The Christian Church has always taken this verse to mean that “works” are not the basis of salvation. Since Luther and the Reformation, Paul’s citation of this verse has been used to argue that grace and works are polar opposites. In fact, Luther used this passage as justification for his idea of “alien righteousness,” that is, righteousness that has nothing whatsoever to do with any human efforts. Calvin justified his doctrine of irresistible grace (God’s election without human intervention) on the same idea. But is that what Paul is really saying?
In order to understand Paul’s use of this statement about Abraham, we must first adjust our theological lenses. Paul is a Jewish orthodox Messianic follower. He is not a Christian. He did not have a “conversion” experience. What he did have was a revelation that Yeshua is the Messiah, the Jewish Messiah, and that Judaism needed to recognize the implications of this fact. But that never changed his perspective about the Torah or about obedience. He makes this perfectly clear in several passages in other letters and in his defense before Felix. Therefore, we need to read Romans through the lens of an orthodox Jew. And we can start by noting what the Hebrew text implies.
In Hebrew, the passage reads:
וְהֶאֱמִן בַּיהוָה וַיַּחְשְׁבֶהָ לּוֹ צְדָקָה
The first word is the conjugated verb ʾāman with a vav prefix. This is a Hif’il perfect. That means it is a completed action (perfect) that expresses a causative aspect. Hif’il verbs bring something about. They begin something. “The Hiphil stem is generally used to express causative action in active voice. In many cases the noun derived from the same root is the object or result of the Hiphil verb associated with that root. For example, the Hiphil verb הִמְטִיר means ‘to cause to rain down’; the noun מָטָר means ‘rain’”.[1] The “perfect” tense means this causative action is finished. What do we learn?
Does this verbal form imply that Abraham’s trust (that’s what ʾāman means) brought about God’s response? And if that is not the case, then does it imply that Abraham’s trust was caused by something else, like the example “caused the rain to fall”? We have two possible scenarios. The first is that all of Abraham’s prior experience with God caused him to trust. This makes the verb a passive, that is, it reflects upon the subject. It’s something done to the subject, not something the subject does. This is possible because we have many stories of God’s faithfulness to Abraham before we come to this verse. But there is another possibility. The Hif’il verb could suggest that Abraham’s trust causes the ensuing judgment by God. If this is the case, then it isn’t correct to say that Abraham did nothing, as Luther would suggest. Abraham might not have fulfilled any of the specific physical commandments of orthodoxy, but he did what is the basis of fulfilling all the commandments. He trusted God. And that choice, that willingness, caused God to make a decision about Abraham, that is, to consider him ṣĕdāqâ (righteous). Had Luther paid attention to the Hif’il form, he would have seen that Abraham was not the recipient of “alien” righteousness, but rather that Abraham’s trust was a deliberate act that caused a change in his status before God. Abraham’s act caused God’s decision. God’s choice is not divorced from human decision but rather is brought about by human decision. Abraham opted to follow God and God considered that as sufficient proof of meeting the expected norm (which is what ṣĕdāqâ means). Obedience and grace go hand in hand.
Now we need to look at the verb ḥāšab (in green). Next.
Topical Index: believed, ʾāman, righteous, ṣĕdāqâ, Romans 4:3, Genesis 15:6
