Abraham, father of the just
1 ① Let us consider Abraham, our father in the flesh. What has he found? 2If Abraham attained righteousness because of his deeds, he could be proud. But he cannot be this before God. 3Because Scripture says: Abraham believed God who took it into account and held him to be a just man. 4Now, when someone does a work, salary is not given as a favor, but as a debt that is paid. 5Here, on the contrary, someone who has no deeds to show but believes in Him who makes sinners righteous before him: such faith is taken into account and that person is held as righteous. 6David congratulates in this way those who become righteous by the favor of God, and not by their actions: 7Blessed are those whose sins are forgiven and whose offenses are forgotten; 8blessed the one whose sin God does not take into account! 9Is this blessing only for the circumcised or is it also for the uncircumcised? We have just said that, because of his faith, Abraham was made a just man, 10but when did this happen? After Abraham was circumcised, or before? Not after, but before. 11He received the rite of circumcision as a sign of the righteousness given him through faith when he was still uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all those uncircumcised who come to faith and are made just. 12And he was to be the father of the Jews, provided that besides being circumcised, they also imitate the faith Abraham showed before being circumcised. 13If God promised Abraham, or rather his descendants, that the world would belong to him, this was not because of his obeying the Law, but because he was just and a friend of God through faith. 14If now the promise is kept for those who rely on the Law, then faith has no power and nothing is left of the promise. 15For it is proper of the Law to bring punishment, and it is only when there is no Law that it is possible to live without breaking the Law. 16For that reason, faith is the way and all is given by grace; and the promises of Abraham are fulfilled for all his descendants, not only for his children according to the Law, but also for all the others who have believed.
Abraham is the father of all of us, 17as it is written: I will make you father of many nations. He is our father in the eyes of Him who gives life to the dead, and calls into existence what does not yet exist, for this is the God in whom he believed. 18Abraham believed and hoped against all expectation, thus becoming father of many nations, as he had been told: See how many will be your descendants. 19He did not doubt although his body could no longer give life – he was about a hundred years old – and in spite of his wife Sarah being unable to have children. 20He did not doubt nor did he distrust the promise of God, and by being strong in faith, he gave glory to God: 21he was convinced that He who had given the promise had power to fulfill it. 22This was taken into account for him to attain righteousness. 23This was taken into account: these words of Scripture are not only for him, 24but for us, too, because we believe in Him who raised Jesus, our Lord, from among the dead, 25he who was delivered for our sins and raised to life for us to receive true righteousness.
- Rom 4,1 Paul then asks his Jewish brothers to go back to the sources of revelation. Long before the Law was given to Moses, there was the faith of Abraham. That means that faith is both more fundamental and more universal. The Law, instead, is a form of religion proper to the Jews and of value only for a period of their history. He asks: How did Abraham become the friend of God and why is he taken as the model of believers? Was it because he believed in God's promises, or because he had received the rite of circumcision? It is like asking a Christian today: What is important, to believe in Christ, or to be baptized? The answer is clear; we become the friends of God by believing in his promises. The rite of baptism ratifies with a divine seal the gift of God and our commitment to him. Therefore, baptism and the other sacraments are the signs of faith and have no value without faith. Baptism is the beginning of our living for God in the Christian community. Communion has no meaning unless we live in unity and share the fullness of the life of the Church. Worthy of notice is the fact that Christian people are now less concerned with rites and devotions that were so important to past generations. At the same time renewal movements give more stress to essentials: our faith and surrender to Christ. He did not doubt although his body could no longer give life. Abraham had a faith similar to the Christian who believes in the resurrection of Christ. We also are asked to believe in a God who gives life and for whom nothing is impossible. Faith has no power (v. 14). Here Paul points out something that many times we fail to see. To believe in God who rewards good and obedience to his laws is already faith (Heb 11:6). This faith, however, which is in respect and awareness of justice remains very far from Abraham's confidence in God's promise. Faith is found in every religion, but for Christians faith is everything.
