It ennobles a Christian immensely to know and to feel that he is a channel through which the life of Christ is to flow out.
G. V. W.
It has been clearly proved that both Jews and Gentiles were justified before God upon one common ground; that is, justification by faith, and apart from law altogether. But there is another question which would be of great importance, especially to a Jew; namely, What about Abraham, to whom all the promises were made, and of whom the Jews were the natural descendants? for they gloried in being children of Abraham. These verses (4:2-3) show, and that from the Old Testament, that Abraham was only another example of the very truth which has already been brought out in the epistle, that is, justification by faith: “For what saith the Scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness” (vs. 3).
It is beautiful to see how the apostle, through the Spirit of God, brings the Old Testament Scriptures to prove what he is saying; not that we require—the Old Testament to prove that the New is inspired, but it shows how that He who wrote the book of Genesis is the One who, hundreds of years afterward, wrote the epistle to the Romans.