4:23-24 Paul applied God's dealings with Abraham to his readers in this pericope's final verses. God will credit His righteousness to all who believe Him. As in verse 3, the content of faith is not specific (v. 24). The more important point is that we trust God as Abraham did. Our confidence must be in Him. Paul was not saying here that we need to believe that God raised Jesus from the dead. That is important, as he says elsewhere (1 Cor. 15), not as a condition for salvation but because it is a fact of history.141Paul intended his mention of God raising Jesus here to help the reader remember that He is the same God who brings life out of death as the God whom Abraham believed. It may be easier for us to believe than it was for Abraham because we look back on a resurrection completed whereas Abraham looked forward to one anticipated.
4:25 What did Paul mean when he spoke of the death and resurrection of Jesus? The NIV interprets the Greek proposition dia, which occurs twice in this verse, as "for,"implying a prospective sense. The NASB translates it as having a retrospective sense: "because of."The retrospective sense is its usual significance rather than the rarer prospective sense, which we could render "with a view to.""Because of"is probably a clearer translation in view of the normal retrospective use of dia, its use in parallel statements here, and since it makes good sense here. Paul evidently meant Jesus underwent crucifixion because of our transgressions of God's law (cf. Isa. 53:11-12), and He experienced resurrection with a view to our justification. In other words, it seems best to understand the preposition in a retrospective sense in the first line and in a prospective sense in the second line.142God is the implied agent of the action (cf. 3:25; Isa. 53:12).
"Christ being raised up, God announces to me, Not only were your sins put away by Christ's blood, so that you are justified fromall things; but I have also raised up Christ; and you shall have your standing in Him. I have given you this faith in a Risen Christ, and announce to you that in Him alone now is your place and standing. Judgment is forever past for you, both as concerns your sin, and as concerns My demand that you have a standing of holiness and righteousness of your own before Me. All this is past. Christis now your standing! He is your life and your righteousness; and you need nothing of your own forever. I made Christ to become sin on your behalf, identified Him with all that you were, in order that you might become the righteousness of God in Him.'"143
"God's entire redemptive plan is summarized in this final verse of chap. 4."144
Chapter 4 is a unit within Paul's exposition of how God imputes His righteousness to sinners (3:21-5:21). It serves to show that justification has always come because of faith toward God and not because the sinner obeyed God's law. This was true before Jesus Christ died as well as after. Faith is the only way by which anyone has ever received justification from God. Paul's emphasis was on faith as the method of obtaining righteousness, not on the content of faith.
