other interpretation than ' by means of faith in the blood of Christ as the ground of acceptance.' It lies in the nature of a sacrifice that the ofFer- ing is the ground of acceptance ; our confidence in it, or our faith, is the condition of its being accepted on our behalf. Faith therefore is the in- strumental, but not the meritorious, cause of justification. 4. Accord- ingly the sacred, writers never refer us to our faith, or to any thing in ourselves, as the ground of confidence towards God.
According to the second view the word righteousness is taken in a much more limited sense, and the phrase ' to impute faith for righteous- ness' is understood to mean ' faith was regarded as right, it was ap- proved.' This interpretation also is perfectly consistent with usage. Thus Ps. 106 : 31, it is said cf the zeal of Phineas, " It was counted to him as righteousness." This, of course, does not mean that it was re- garded as complete obedience to the law, and taken in its stead as the ground of justification. It means simply that his zeal was approved of. It was regarded, says Dr. Owen, " as a just and rewardable action." In like manner, Deut. 24: 13, it is said of returning a pledge, " It shall be righteousness unto thee before the Lord thy God." Agreeably to the analogy of these passages the meaning of this clause may be, ' his faith was regarded as right, it secured the approbation of God :' how it did this must be learned from other passages.
The third interpretation assumes that the word translated righteous- ness means here, as it does in many other passages, justification. The sense then is, ' Faith was imputed to him for justification,' i. e. that he might be justified, or in order to his becoming and being treated as right- eous ; see 10 : 4, " Christ is the end of the law for righteousness," i. e. in order that every one that believes may be regarded as righteous. No- thing is more familiar than this use of the preposition here used by the apostle. It points out the design with which any thing is done, as " unto repentance," that men may repent. Matt. 3: 11 ; "unto death," that we may die, Rom. 6:3. So 'unto salvation,' Rom. 10 : 1 ; 'unto condem- nation,' Luke 24 : 20. Or it indicates the result; Rom. 10 : 10, " With the heart man believ'eth unto righteousness," i. e. so that he is justified, regarded and treated as righteous. This view of the passage expresses accurately the apostle's meaning. It was not as ' one who works,' but as a believer, that Abraham was regarded in his justification. It was not works, but faith, that was imputed to him, in order to his being in- troduced into the number and blessings of the righteous. Faith, there- fore, was not the ground of his justification, but the means of his being justified.
(4, 5) JVow to him that worheth is the reward not reckoned of grace, hut of debt, but to him that worketh not, &c. These verses are designed, in the first place, to vindicate the pertinency of the quotation from Scrip- ture made in v. 3 ; by showing that the declaration ' faith was imputed for righteousness,' is a denial that works were the ground of Abraham's acceptance; and, secondly, that to justify by faith is to justify gratui-
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