Romans 4:14Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Now the Apostle again proves, but in another way, that it was impossible to receive the inheritance through the law. Having compared faith with circumcision and marked its superiority, he again sets it against the law, saying: “For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void.”

Lest anyone say that it is possible both to have faith and to keep the law, the Apostle proves that this is impossible. Whoever clings to the law in the opinion that it can save dishonors the power of faith.

Therefore he says, “faith is made void,” that is, there is no need for salvation by grace, since faith cannot display its power. And “the promise is made of no effect.” Perhaps a Jew will object: what need have I of faith?

If this is true, then together with faith the promises too are destroyed. Notice that the Apostle contends with the Jews in everything from the very beginning, from the time of the patriarch.

Having shown by Abraham’s example that righteousness is co-heir with faith, he proves the same concerning the promise. So that the Jew should not say, “What is it to me that Abraham was justified through faith?” Paul says that what matters most to the Jew, the promise of inheritance, cannot be fulfilled without faith. This especially alarms the Jews.

Of which promise does he speak? Of the promise that the Jew is heir of the world, and that all are blessed in him. The Apostle next explains how this promise has been made void.

And lest Abraham’s faith seem to anyone a small feat, the Apostle unfolds its whole greatness. To place his son on the altar for slaughter, and at the age of one hundred, with his body deadened, still to hope to receive a new son. Could be done only by one convinced as of something evident and beyond doubt that God can give life even to the dead and call into being what does not exist (Rom 4:17, 19).

Such indeed was Abraham’s faith, which was reckoned to him as righteousness. After this the Apostle makes the application. Our faith too must be filled with the same power, in order to suffice for our justification, faith “in Him Who raised from the dead Jesus Christ our Lord, Who was delivered up for our sins and raised for our justification” (Rom 4:24-25).

Moreover, if the reception of the promise is made dependent on observance of the Mosaic law, then Abraham’s faith and the promise given to him lose their meaning. In this way faith is robbed, as it were, of its chief object, and its essential significance is destroyed. This, of course, cannot be allowed, for faith in God and hope in the promise concerning the Savior have always been the most important guides for all people.

By setting faith aside and putting forward the law, the law’s adherents destroy the promise. On the contrary, wishing to show the hopelessness of the condition under law alone, the Apostle says that the law only reveals sins. It produces God’s wrath upon those who transgress it.

Thus people would have lighter responsibility without the law, because then they would sin in ignorance. Under the law, sins are more visible, and therefore responsibility is greater. A person under the law constantly feels himself sinful and under wrath.

All this had to be said in order to show that only faith brings forgiveness of sins and gives peace with God. Therefore, after pointing out this unfavorable side of the law, the Apostle goes on to say that the cause of all this is man, his weakness, and not the law, which is holy and good...

In the second respect, it means this: the promise was given to faith, and its fulfillment must also be conditioned by faith. The essence of the promise is that, through the Seed who came from Abraham’s loins, blessing would pour forth upon all nations that would believe in this Seed.

The condition for sharing in this blessing is faith. Faith makes people heirs of the good things promised to Abraham. But if, instead of faith, you make the law the condition for sharing in this blessing, you cut off the possibility of such participation.

For blessing is the fruit of good pleasure. Where there is no good pleasure, blessing is impossible. But the law produces wrath and therefore removes blessing. If it removes blessing, then it destroys the promise. The promise is unfulfillable under the law.

This is what comes of your zeal for the law. By abolishing faith, you destroy the promise.