A Legacy Article on Romans 4
There are chapters in Scripture you don’t just read—you walk through them. Romans 4 is one of those chapters. It’s not merely Paul’s theological explanation of Abraham’s faith; it’s the beating heart of how God works with people who feel unfinished, unqualified, unworthy, or uncertain. This is the chapter that rips the pressure of performance out of your hands and replaces it with something far better: God’s promise made strong by His character, not your record.
Romans 4 stands like a lighthouse for anyone who has ever looked at their life and wondered, “How could God possibly count me righteous when I still feel like I’m figuring everything out?”
Paul’s answer is thunderously clear:
Because righteousness was never something you earned—
it was something God credited.
This chapter is not about perfection.
It’s about position.
It’s about trust.
It’s about the God who steps into your life long before you have anything to show Him… and calls you His anyway.
This is the story of Abraham, yes.
But it’s also the story of every believer who dares to believe God at His word even when the natural evidence says the opposite.
This is Romans 4.
Paul begins Romans 4 by taking us back more than a thousand years—back to Abraham, long before the Law, long before Moses, long before a single command was written on stone.
Why does Paul go back that far?
Because if righteousness existed before the Law, then righteousness cannot come from the Law.
And that is Paul’s whole point.
Abraham wasn’t chosen because he was righteous.
He was counted righteous because he believed the God who chose him.
Paul opens the chapter with a bold declaration: If Abraham was justified by works, he could boast. But he couldn’t—not even the “father of faith” could earn favor with God. Abraham’s story is not the story of a moral superstar. It’s the story of a man God called out of nowhere, and who simply responded by believing what God said.
And in that moment—before the sacrifices, before circumcision, before the covenant oath—God “credited it to him as righteousness.”
This is a spiritual transaction.
A divine accounting.
A heaven-level shift in status.
Not because of performance—
but because of trust.
Paul is making sure every believer—not just the perfect ones, not the ones who grew up in the right family, not the ones who haven’t fallen, not the ones who’ve kept every standard—understands this truth:
God doesn’t start with what you’ve done.
He starts with what He has promised.
And faith is the hand that receives it.
Paul knows human nature.
We have a way of turning everything beautiful into pressure.
We turn relationship into rules.
We turn promises into performance.
We turn faith into formulas.
And if anyone understood the crushing weight of religious performance, it was Paul.
So he introduces David as another witness.
David—king, poet, warrior, lover of God, deeply flawed human being—declares something breathtaking in Psalm 32:
“Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.”
Do you hear the relief in that?
The sigh of freedom?
The quiet exhale of a soul that finally realizes God is not counting their sins against them?
Romans 4 isn’t just an argument.
It’s liberation.
Paul is pulling the weight off your shoulders.
He’s saying:
You don’t have to impress God.
You don’t have to prove something to God.
You don’t have to stand on spiritual tiptoes, hoping your good deeds stack up high enough.
Your righteousness isn’t about wages.
It’s about a gift.
Wages are earned.
Gifts are received.
And God made the unshakable choice that righteousness would not be a paycheck—it would be a gift of grace given through trust.
This is why David rejoiced.
This is why Abraham believed.
This is why Paul writes with fire in his voice.
Because when grace is understood, you finally breathe.
And when righteousness is credited, you finally stand.
And when you know you’re loved, you finally live.
Paul brings up a detail most people overlook: Abraham’s righteousness was credited before he was circumcised.
Why does this matter so much?
Because circumcision symbolized covenant membership within Israel.
And some early believers thought righteousness came through rituals, works, or religious identity.
Paul demolishes that.
He says:
Abraham was counted righteous before the ritual, before the sign, before the performance, before he was “official.”
So righteousness does not begin with what you do.
It begins with God’s declaration over your life.
This is the beating heart of Romans 4:
God makes the first move.
Grace makes the second.
Faith simply receives what God has already prepared.
Abraham becomes “the father of all who believe” not because of his perfection, but because of the order of events:
God speaks.
Abraham believes.
Righteousness is credited.
Obedience follows—not to earn righteousness,
but because he already has it.
That is the Christian life in miniature.
Not trying to earn God’s approval—
but living from it.
Not achieving righteousness—
but receiving it.
Not striving for God’s acceptance—
but walking in it.
You cannot read Romans 4 without stopping at one of the most stunning descriptions of God in all of Scripture.
Paul says Abraham believed in:
“the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being the things that are not.”
This is not poetic language.
It is a job description of the Almighty.
This is who Abraham trusted.
This is who you trust.
The God who brings dead dreams back to life.
The God who resurrects what other people have buried.
The God who calls a destiny you cannot see into a future you cannot imagine.
The God whose promises are not predictions—they are declarations backed by His nature.
Abraham believed God even though:
• his body was “as good as dead”
• Sarah’s womb was long past childbearing
• decades had passed since the promise
• nothing around him matched what God said
But he believed anyway.
This wasn’t delusion.
This wasn’t wishful thinking.
This wasn’t hype.
This was trust in a God whose word is stronger than time, biology, circumstance, or human logic.
When everything says “no,” God can still say “yes.”
When everyone else sees a grave, God sees a garden.
When you see the end, God sees the beginning.
When you feel like nothing is happening, God is quietly preparing everything.
This is not the faith that denies reality.
It’s the faith that refuses to make reality the final authority.
Abraham didn’t pretend his body was young.
He didn’t pretend Sarah was fertile.
He didn’t pretend the circumstances were easy.
He simply refused to let what he saw outweigh what God said.
And that is the faith that transforms your entire life.
Many people misunderstand Romans 4 and assume Abraham never had questions.
But Paul doesn’t say Abraham never struggled;
he says Abraham never wavered in his conviction.
There is a difference between emotional turbulence and spiritual surrender.
You can feel the weight.
You can wrestle.
You can wonder.
You can pray through tears.
You can stagger emotionally without staggering spiritually.
Because faith isn’t the absence of weakness—
it is the decision to trust God more than the weakness.
Abraham didn’t deny the facts.
He confronted them.
But he confronted them with the truth of God’s promise, not the panic of his circumstances.
Faith grows in the gap between what God promised and what you see right now.
That gap is holy ground.
It’s the place where God shapes you.
Strengthens you.
Purifies you.
Teaches you.
Carries you.
Prepares you.
And reveals Himself to you.
This is why Paul says Abraham grew “strong in faith.”
Because faith is a muscle.
It’s strengthened by waiting.
It’s fortified by struggle.
It’s refined by surrender.
And Abraham’s story is a reminder that delays are not denials—
they are developments.
Paul shifts gears and makes one of the most important statements in the chapter:
“The promise comes by faith, so that it may be according to grace.”
Why faith?
Why not works?
Why not effort?
Why not moral perfection?
Because faith rests on Someone else.
Works rest on you.
Faith pulls you closer to God.
Works make you anxious about God.
Faith focuses on the Promise-Keeper.
Works focus on the promise-receiver.
Faith brings rest.
Works bring pressure.
God designed the entire system of salvation to run on grace so that:
• everyone can receive it
• no one can boast about it
• every culture, nation, and background can enter
• no one is disqualified by past mistakes
Grace levels the ground.
Faith opens the hand.
The promise becomes available to everyone.
And that is Paul’s overwhelming message:
You are not saved because of what you can do.
You are saved because of who God is.
Paul brings Romans 4 home with a powerful connection:
Abraham’s faith was not written only for him.
It was written for us.
To show us that the same God who credited righteousness to Abraham…
credits righteousness to anyone who believes in the One who raised Jesus from the dead.
This is not ancient history.
This is your present reality.
Paul says Jesus:
• was delivered over to death for our sins
• was raised to life for our justification
This is the gospel in a single sentence.
Jesus’ death removes your sin.
Jesus’ resurrection declares your righteousness.
Your slate isn’t wiped clean temporarily.
Your position isn’t fragile.
Your standing isn’t based on spiritual mood swings.
Your identity isn’t up for renegotiation.
You are justified.
Declared righteous.
Welcomed.
Accepted.
Loved.
Covered.
Filled.
Forgiven.
Set in the family of God.
This is not because you’re flawless—
but because Jesus is faithful.
This is not because you always get it right—
but because Jesus already did.
This is not because you’re impressive—
but because grace is immeasurable.
Romans 4 is not merely a chapter to understand.
It is a chapter to stand on.
It tells you:
Your failures don’t disqualify you.
Your history doesn’t define you.
Your efforts don’t save you.
Your doubts don’t remove you.
Your struggles don’t shock God.
Your imperfections don’t ruin God’s plan.
You are who God says you are.
You are counted righteous through Christ.
You are included in the family of faith.
You are held by grace.
You are carried by promise.
You are strengthened by waiting.
You are transformed by His love.
Let’s take Paul’s message and apply it directly to where you are right now.
Abraham believed God while looking at a body that had no ability to fulfill the promise.
Sometimes God speaks something over your life that your reality cannot support.
But remember:
Reality is temporary.
God’s word is eternal.
Faith is not pretending the mountain isn’t there.
Faith is believing God has authority over it.
He speaks identity over you long before He shapes you into it.
They are often signs of God’s preparation.
He sees:
• potential where you see failure
• calling where you see confusion
• breakthrough where you see nothing moving
• purpose where you see pieces
• strength where you see struggle
• destiny where you see delay
Not your behavior.
Not your track record.
Not your consistency.
Not your spiritual highs and lows.
It rests on Christ alone.
Romans 4 is not a chapter that praises Abraham.
It’s a chapter that magnifies God.
Abraham is proof that you don’t have to come from the right background.
You don’t need a perfect resume.
You don’t need a flawless history.
You don’t need spiritual credentials.
You just need to believe the God who calls you.
The God who gives life to the dead.
The God who brings hope into deserts.
The God who resurrects what others abandon.
The God who transforms what you surrender.
The God who credits righteousness before you get it all together.
The God who writes His promise over your life and refuses to take it back.
Romans 4 is your reminder that your life is not defined by what you’ve done.
It is defined by what God has declared.
And God has declared you righteous
through faith
in Jesus Christ.
That truth will carry you.
Transform you.
Strengthen you.
Lift you.
And anchor your soul.
Forever.
Watch Douglas Vandergraph’s inspiring faith-based videos on YouTube
Support the ministry by buying Douglas a coffee
— Douglas Vandergraph
#faith #Jesus #BibleStudy #Romans4 #ChristianInspiration #Hope #Grace #Encouragement #DailyStrength