Understanding Romans 3.21-4.25, Part Two: Paul’s Use of Genesis 15.6 and Psalm 32.1-2 in Romans 3.21-4.25, 5.1-11, and 6.1-11

In part one of this essay, ‘Understanding Romans 3.21-4.25’, I argued that Paul’s understanding of the righteousness of God is through our faith in Jesus Christ, not Christ’s faithfulness, in the phrase ‘faith of Christ’ (Rom. 3.22 in particular).  As I look more at his use of the Old Testament, Genesis 15.6 and Psalm 32.1-2, in this essay, we will gain some further insight into why this is so.  My main interest, however, will be to show how these two Old Testament texts, quoted in Romans 4.3 and 4.7-8, respectively, are a part of Paul’s argument already in Romans 3.21-31, throughout 4.1-25, and even possibly in Romans 5.1-11 and 6.1-11.  This is a bold thesis, that these verses feature so much throughout so much of Romans.  Paul is certainly not grabbing two Old Testament texts for their rhetorical value; he is, rather, arguing exegetically and theologically.

The relevance of these arguments shows itself in how we understand ‘justification’ theology in Paul.  Paul’s use of these Old Testament passages helps to explain that the problem with the Law is not that it divides Jews from Gentiles in the Church, as New Perspective scholars like James D. G. Dunn and N. T. Wright have maintained.[1]  (If this were so, Paul would not have treated food laws, Jewish holy days, and circumcision as matters of indifference.  He would have opposed them as divisive.) The problem with the Law, rather, is that human beings are sinful, and their works of the Law cannot cover their sin.  Justification, moreover, is more than just juridical—God the judge choosing not to condemn us.  It is also moral—God doing what is necessary to make sinners upright in heart and able to glory in God.  Language and thought seem to flow from these two Old Testament texts throughout this section of Romans, and recognizing this helps us to understand Paul’s argument and theology better.

Counting/Reckoning

As noted in Part One, Jewish interpretation at this time accepted that one way in which two passages of Scripture could be brought together in an argument was if they shared a word in common (this rule was called Gezerah Shawah).  In referencing more than one Scripture passage for an argument, there would then be ‘two or three witnesses’ for an argument (cf. Deut. 19.15).  Gen. 15.6, quoted in Rom. 4.3, and Ps. 32.1-2, quoted in Rom. 4.7-8, are put forward by Paul as Scriptural witnesses in defense of the proposal that God’s righteousness is through faith and not works.  Neither passage uses the word ‘works’, but each quote shares the word ‘count’ (ESV), or ‘reckoned’ (NRSV)—the English translation of the Greek word, logizomai.  The ESV translates these verses as follows (italics mine):

Genesis 15.6 And he [Abraham] believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

Psalm 32.1-2 Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

Also, the word ‘counts’ occurs 12 times in Romans 3.28-4.25—it is the word on which Paul’s discussion hinges.  (It also appears in Romans 5.13 in regard to sin not being counted where there is no Law.)  Paul’s argument is that God counts Abraham’s faith as righteousness, and the person whom God does not count a transgressor, sinner, or iniquitous person is blessed.  These are positive (Gen. 15.6) and negative (Ps. 32.1-2) ways of stating the same theological point.  Whereas Paul had long argued this theology from Gen. 15.6 (since Gal. 3.6 was written eight or so years earlier, and 2 Cor. 5.19 a few years earlier), he now includes Ps. 32.1-2 in his argument.

Paul also finds in both of these Old Testament texts a common affirmation of ‘being blessed.’  In both Galatians 3.8-9 and Romans 4.6, 9, Paul draws out his theology of grace and that justification is not only for the Jews but also the Gentiles with reference to this word, ‘blessed.’  In the former passage, he draws this out from the example of Abraham (Genesis 12.3); in the latter passage, he draws it out from Psalm 32.1-2.  Thus, the story of Abraham (Genesis 12 and 15) and Psalm 32 provide textual basis for Paul’s theology of grace (‘blessed’), faith, justification, justification of the Jews and Gentiles alike, and his opposition to works and boasting.

Paul’s Anticipation of the Quotations of Gen. 15.6 and Ps. 32.1-2 in Rom. 3.21-31

Paul’s use of these two Old Testament texts comes in Romans 4, but he seems to have them in mind already in Romans 3.21-31.  Two questions about Rom. 3.21-31 might be answered by considering the possibility that Paul is anticipating his later quotation of Gen. 15.6 and Ps. 32.1-2.  One is, ‘Why does Paul return to the topic of sin in Rom. 3.23, having concluded it just a few verses earlier (v. 20) and moved on to speak of the righteousness of God (3.21-5.21)?  A second is, ‘Why, having reached a climactic statement about God’s righteousness and Christ’s atoning work in Rom. 3.21-26, does Paul ask, ‘Where, then, is boasting?’ in v. 27?

Consider, first, Genesis 15.6.  In Romans 3.22 we read that God’s righteousness is ‘through faith’.  Paul will, right through 4.25, explain this theology from Gen. 15.6.  Regarding Rom. 3.22, scholars have often noted the apparent redundancy, for Paul not only says that righteousness is ‘through faith of Jesus Christ’ but also that it is ‘to all who believe’.  This apparent redundancy is removed for those scholars who contend that Paul’s phrase should be translated ‘through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ’ (a subjective genitive).  This is grammatically possible, but not a likely reading.  Were it a subjective genitive, the argument goes, there would be no redundancy between ‘faith of Jesus Christ’ and ‘to all who believe’ in v. 22.

Alternatively, and this is my position, Paul’s language in v. 22 has to do with his reflection on a verse on which he will base his doctrine of righteousness through faith: Gen. 15.6.  Paul first states his theology that defines righteousness as ‘through faith in Jesus Christ’ (an objective genitive in Greek).  Then he adds ‘to all who believe’, reflecting the language of Gen. 15.6: ‘Abraham believed God’.  Paul’s purpose of adding ‘to all who believe’ is not simply to offer the Scriptural basis for ‘faith in Jesus Christ’.  It is further, and especially, because he is arguing that what applied to Abraham in Gen. 15.6 also applies to everyone.  This is the reason that his next words are, ‘For there is no distinction, for all….’ (Rom. 3.22-23).  The ‘to all who believe’ has the emphasis on ‘all’, not ‘believe’—the principle of righteousness through faith (the first part of v. 22) is not only for Abraham but for all who believe (the second part of v. 22).  So understood, there is no redundancy.  Indeed, Paul says precisely this in the next chapter, repeating Rom. 3.22 and proving that Paul’s genitive there is objective, not subjective:

Romans 4.23-24 Now the words, “it was reckoned to him,” were written not for his [Abraham’s] sake alone, but for ours also. It will be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead….

Moreover, if Paul was really emphasizing the faithfulness of Jesus Christ in Romans 3.22, it is most peculiar that he does not develop this point.  On the contrary, he develops the point that righteousness through faith applies to ‘all’ (Jews and Gentiles) throughout Rom. 3.21-4.25.  A doctrine of Christ’s faithfulness could be thoroughly orthodox and, for narrative and character ethicists, is fruitful suggestion to develop.  The only problem is, however, that this is just not Paul’s point in Romans at all (nor, for that matter, in Galatians): there is no development of such a view as there is about the reckoning of righteousness to one who has faith/trusts/believes in God/Jesus (objective).  ‘Faith’ is always about the trust that Abram and his children of faith have in God (objective genitive).  This is why two other ‘faith’ texts in the Old Testament are also used: Isaiah 28.16 and Habakkuk 2.4.  They, along with Genesis 15.6, require an objective genitive interpretation in Paul.

As Romans 3.22 anticipates Paul’s quotation of Genesis 15.6, Romans 3.23 anticipates Psalm 32.1-2.  The two Old Testament verses work together in Romans 4, but they also work together in Romans 3.22-23.  The Genesis passage does not mention sin, whereas this is the focus of Psalm 32.  Psalm 32 helps us to understand why we need God’s righteousness (Rom. 3.21)—why it cannot come from ourselves.  In Romans 3.23, Paul says, ‘For all have sinned and lack the glory of God’ (my translation).

We might, perhaps, press this argument further on two points.  Doing so requires assuming that Psalms 32 is, indeed, in Paul’s thoughts already in Romans 3.23.  First, why does Paul say that sinners lack the ‘glory’ of God in Romans 3.23?  Second, why does Paul turn to discuss boasting in Romans 3.27?  An answer might be that the last verse of Psalm 32, v. 11, could be in view.  Following the Hebrew, a good translation, such as that in the ESV, has, ‘… and shout for joy, all you upright in heart.’  The Hebrew word, harniynu, is translated by the ESV as ‘shout for joy’.  The Septuagint, however, translated this word with ‘kauchasthe,’ from kauchaomai.  This Greek word may be translated into English as ‘glory,’ ‘rejoice’, or ‘boast’.  Thus, we might appreciate first that ‘glorying’ and ‘boasting’ and ‘rejoicing’ in something capture overlapping ideas, despite the different English words. 

Paul’s saying that sinners lack the glory of God in Romans 3.23 may be his reflection on Psalm 32: how can we ‘glory’/’shout for joy’ (Psalm 32.11) if we are all sinners (Psalm 32.1-2), not ‘righteous’ and ‘upright in heart’ (Psalm 32.11)?  The psalm begins by claiming that one is blessed when God forgives the sinner’s transgressions and covers over his sins, but it ends by calling the upright in heart to boast or glory in the Lord.  For Paul, the latter is impossible because of the former unless God has done something to make the sinner upright in heart—and this is, of course, his central argument at this point in Romans.  If it is by God’s act of righteousness in Jesus Christ that sinners are made upright in heart, then there is no room for the sort of glorying that is really a sinner’s boasting in his faltering attempt to live according to the Law.  The person who is ‘blessed’ is the one whose sin has been covered by God.  Thus, Paul asks in v. 27, ‘Where, then, is boasting/glorying?’  It is not in the Law but in God.

As an aside, such a reading of Romans 3.27-31 is an argument against any attempt to reduce Paul’s argument to some restricted meaning of the Law.  The problem Paul has with the Law is that sinful people cannot accomplish what is needed; only God’s righteousness can accomplish redemption and reconciliation.  It is not some ethnic boasting that Paul has in view—boasting in works of circumcision, eating kosher foods, and keeping Jewish holy days (so James D. G. Dunn and those following him).  Paul’s mind, shaped by the arguments of Psalm 32, sees that sinners need God to cover their sins precisely because they cannot become righteous by following a Law they cannot keep.  There is no boasting in works when the problem for which we need God’s grace, the ‘making righteous of the ungodly’ (Romans 4.5), is our sinfulness (Romans 4.2).

Romans 4.25 and Psalm 32

Turning to the final verses of Romans 4, we find Paul summing up his argument:

Romans 4:23-25 (ESV) But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

The two Old Testament texts can be detected in this conclusion as well.  I have already  commented on how Romans 3.22 is repeated in Romans 4.23-24.  However, is Psalm 32 also still in view?  I would suggest that it is.  I have already argued that Psalm 32 is the negative statement of Genesis 15.6.  Where the latter speaks of God reckoning ‘righteousness,’ the former speaks of God not reckoning ‘sin’.  So, when Paul says in 4.25 that Jesus ‘was delivered up for our trespasses,’ he may be explaining how God does not reckon sin (Psalm 32.1-2).  And when he continues in 4.25 with ‘and raised for our justification’ (ESV), he has Genesis 15.6 in view one last time, explaining how God reckons righteousness. 

If so, I would suggest that the translation in Romans 4.25 should rather be, ‘and raised for our righteousness’.  To be sure, Paul’s theological focus in Romans 3.21-4.25 is the reckoning (counting, attributing), which has more the meaning of justification than righteousness.  Yet translations rightly translate Genesis 15.6 with ‘righteousness’, not ‘justification’: the ‘justification’ element lies in the word ‘logizomai’ (‘reckon’), not in dikaiosunē (which could be translated either as ‘justification’ or ‘righteousness’).  That ‘righteousness’ would be the right emphasis is confirmed when Paul returns to expand on Romans 4.25 in 6.1-11, where Paul explains that his argument is not that the sinners are simply justified but that they are made righteous in Christ.  Note that the reader could skip Romans 5 altogether: the thought in 4.25 continues in chapter 6.  Abraham does not simply believe something God promises—this is not what Genesis 15.6 means.  Abraham believes God’s salvific plan.  He falters, as we read in Romans 4, when he attempts to accomplish that plan through his own work (having a child with Hagar) (Genesis 16).  God’s plan of salvation is that righteousness would come from Him, not us—not our works.  Thus, Abraham’s righteousness is attributed to him by God because of his faith in the plan of salvation that God has for humanity—a plan, Paul argues, that is to cover the sin of sinners (cf. Ps. 32), that is, to make sinners righteous.

            Romans 4.25, Expanded in 6.1-11, and Psalm 32

After Romans 5, Paul returns to what he said in 4.25 for further clarification (Romans 6.2-11).[2]  He will argue that God’s grace is not simply about the sinner being justified/reckoned righteous but also the sinner being made righteous.  In other words, it is wrong to think that the discussion of God’s reckoning people righteous is mere justification.  (It is partly that, of course.)  It is also a rendering the sinner righteous.  He says, for example, ‘How can we who died to sin still live in it?’ (Rom. 6.2).  Jesus’ death, into which we are baptized, is more than forgiveness of sin for us because, through it, we die to sin.  Jesus’ resurrection, in which we participate, is not simply ‘for our justification’ (as the ESV translates 4.25).  Our participation in Jesus’ resurrection means that ‘we too might walk in newness of life’ (Rom. 6.4).  Thus, Paul’s understanding of what we call ‘justification’ is not only about justification but also about righteousness.  God’s ‘reckoning’ Abraham righteousness by faith (Gen. 15.6) applies to everyone who believes, including the sinner whose sin He covers (Psalm 32.1-2).  But how does God do this?  The answer comes not from the Old Testament texts but from the Gospel of Jesus Christ: righteousness comes through Jesus Christ’s death (setting us free from sin, Rom. 6.7) and resurrection (empowering us to live in newness of life, Rom. 6.4).  Justification can no more be separated from righteousness than Jesus’ death can be separated from his resurrection.  God’s reckoning extends to us as well: we are to ‘reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus’ (Rom. 6.11).

            Psalm 32 and Romans 5.1-11

Interestingly, as Paul continues (from Rom. 3.21-4.25) into Romans 5.1-11, it seems that he just possibly might have some further thought from Psalm 32 in mind.  This would explain why he does not immediately move from Romans 4.25 to 6.1-11.  The continuity of thought, first, in Romans seems to be as follows:

·       Romans 3.23 says ‘All have sinned and lack the glory [doxēs] of God’; Romans 5.2 says ‘we [who have been made righteous] rejoice in hope of the glory [doxēs] of God.’

·       Romans 3.27 asks ‘Then what becomes of our boasting (hē kauchēsis)?’; Romans 5.3 reads, ’Not only that, but we rejoice [kauchōmetha] in our sufferings…;’ and Romans 5.11 says, ‘More than that, we also rejoice [kauchōmenoi] in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.’

The notions of ‘glory of God’ and our ‘boasting’/‘rejoicing’ are, perhaps surprisingly to the English reader, related.  The Greek reader knows that kauchēsis (and cognates) appear in these various passages and involves the overlapping notions of glory, rejoicing, and boasting.  True, Paul uses a different Greek word in Romans 3.23 for ‘glory’ (doxa), but the thought seems to be as follows, using the word ‘glory’ throughout no matter which Greek word is used:

1.     all have sinned and lack the glory of God (3.23), for

2.     we have no basis to glory in any work of our own (because we are sinful) (3.27ff);

3.     we can, however, glory in our sufferings (because they work character that produces hope) (5.3ff);

4.     and we do glory in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, who has reconciled us to God (5.11).

Such a laying out of the continuity of Paul’s thought might suggest that we understand ‘glory of God’ as an objective genitive: we lack glorying in/exulting in/rejoicing in God because we are sinners. 

The thought in Romans is also the thought of Psalm 32, read in light of God’s work through Jesus Christ.  The following connections between Psalm 32 and Romans 5.1-11 might be noted:

(1) Psalm 32 is about confession of sin and God’s forgiveness.  Without using the word ‘reconciliation’ or ‘peace,’ as Paul does, the psalm is precisely about the sinner being reconciled to God. 

(2) Moreover, Psalm 32 (LXX) says, ‘You are a refuge from suffering (thlipsis) encircling me’ (v. 7, my translation) and ‘Many are the afflictions of the sinner, but mercy surrounds the one who hopes [elpizonta] in the Lord [kurion]’ (v. 10).  (‘Hopes in the Lord’ is another way of saying ‘faith of Jesus Christ,’ i.e., putting your faith in Jesus.)   Romans 5, somewhat surprisingly, introduces the notion of suffering (thlipsis, v. 3)—but there it is in Psalm 32! 

(3) Paul’s focus is on ‘hope’: ‘we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God’ (v. 2); ‘character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame’ (vv. 4-5).  Psalm 32.10 (LXX) says, ‘… mercy surrounds the one who places his hope in the Lord’ (my translation).  The focus on ‘hope’ in Romans 5.1-11 is right there in Psalm 32.10.

(4) Even the use of the word ‘Lord’ in Psalm 32.10 might be related to Paul’s conclusion: ‘More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation’ (Romans 5.11).

Conclusion

While a number of points have been suggested in this essay, perhaps I can sum up the overall argument as follows: Paul uses Genesis 15.6 and Psalm 32 (especially vv. 1-2) in Romans 3.21-4.25 (not only where he quotes the verses in ch. 4).  Moreover, what he says is in this section, using these two Old Testament texts, is further related to his arguments in Rom. 5.1-11 and 6.2-11.  Paul’s interpretation of these two Old Testament texts in light of Jesus Christ helps him to answer two main questions:

            Question 1: How can God forgive transgression, cover sin, and not reckon sin to sinful

people (Psalm 32.1-2)?

            Answer: God does not reckon the sin of those who have put their faith in Jesus, who

provided his blood to cover the mercy seat for atonement of sin and was delivered up [to death] for our trespasses, and we participate in his death to sin.  (As people of ‘faith’, we are not under the Law (doing works of Law and boasting in them).  Sin is not reckoned where there is no Law, Romans 5.13.)

            Question 2: How can God reckon righteousness through faith (Genesis 15.6)?

            Answer: Jesus was raised from the dead for our righteousness and to newness of life, in

which we also participate.

            Thus, we, too, must reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus (Rom.

6.11).  Dying with Christ is thus related to Psalm 32.1-2, and being raised with Christ is related to Genesis 15.6.  This expands Romans 4.25: Christ was delivered up to death for our trespasses (cf. Ps. 32) and raised to life for our righteousness (Gen. 15.6).

---

[1] In the book (Paul and Palestinian Judaism) that started the whole New Perspective reading of Paul, E. P. Sanders, of course, stated that the problem with the Law for Paul was simply that it was not Christ, basing his view on a simplistic reading of Galatians 2.21.  The dominant argument for the New Perspective scholars, however, was articulated by James D. G. Dunn in his various writings, including his commentary on Romans.

[2] How very wrong have been those scholars, since Albert Schweitzer, who have sought to argue that Romans 5 (either in 5.2ff or 6.1ff) introduces a whole new theological argument (a move from justification theology to participation—‘in Christ’—theology!  Paul takes them together in one theology.