Godbey's Commentary - Acts - Romans - Enter His Rest

16. “There it is by faith, in order that it may be by grace, that the promise may be sure to all the
seed, not only to those who are of the law, but to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the
father of us all.” “Seed” here means all truly elect in Christ, i.e., all who will be saved by the
atonement in all ages. You see that faith and grace are counterparts of the same plan of salvation, i.e.,
the antithetical hemispheres of the same glorious globe of human redemption. Hence, like Siamese
twins, they must live and die together. Hence you see legalism nullifies the grace of God and slights
the whole scheme of redemption. If salvation had been by works, the thief on the cross might have
been left out. Millions of people die out of reach of interceding priests and water baptism; yet they
are not beyond the reach of God’s redeeming grace. The elect of God are, in all nations and ages,
indiscriminately dispersed in all the earth. Grace reaches every one of them utterly independent of
human instrumentality. God can use anything or nothing in the salvation of souls. Faith is the human
side of the glorious plan, and grace the divine side. The former is coexistent with humanity and the
latter with God. Hence the silly pusillanimity of laying a human embargo on the divine prerogative.
17. “As has been written, that I have made thee a father of many nations.” What a wonderful
honor is the Abrahamic paternity! Just as God is the spiritual Father of all the saved of all ages and
nations, i.e., all the elect who avail themselves of the redemption in Christ, so God renovated the
mediatorial covenant with Abraham, which He made with Christ to redeem the world, before the
Fall, thus honoring Abraham as His “friend,” making him the human representative in the covenant
of redemption, complimenting him with the fatherhood of the faithful, i.e., the elect, the saved of all
ages and nations. This transaction with Abraham is of infinite value to us all, because in his case we
have an illustrative example, setting forth the human side of the gracious economy. What is it? Oh,
how plain and simple! Wayfaring men, though fools, can not err therein.” We are saved by grace
through faith alone. What is grace? It is the free gift of God in Christ, saving all who will receive
Him. What is faith? It is the hand which you reach out and receive Christ, i.e., you just take God at
His word and believe His wonderful promises. Is this all? Certainly it is all. Abraham is our
illustrative example. We are to be saved precisely as he was, otherwise we have no interest in Christ
(Galatians 3:29). How was he justified? “He believed God, and it was counted unto him for
righteousness, i.e., justification (Genesis 15:6). This took place twenty-five years before he received
circumcision, i.e., joined the church; but some one might think baptism, sacrament, or church
membership had something to do with his salvation. It is true, long after he was saved by grace
through faith alone, he became a paragon church member, which was all right in its place, i.e., the
school of Christ, but never did have anything to do with personal salvation, which is the work of God
alone, and consequently through faith alone. Grace being the divine and faith the human, they are
counter hemispheres of the same globe of salvation! Hence, grace alone means faith alone. The devil
rages over faith alone, because it knocks out the pope and the priest and smashes his arrangements
generally, giving God all the glory. Whenever you poke in water baptism or anything else to help
God save a soul, you offer Him a downright insult and plunge into idolatry, because He turns away
with disgust and leaves you and the water god to work the matter out. The very insinuation that God
needs any help to save a soul is a blasphemous insult to His majesty. “Before God whom he
believed, who createth life in the dead and calleth things which are not as though they are.” When
God made the covenant with Abraham, He saw every soul that would ever be saved standing before
Him, and conferred on that patriarch the faithful paternity of that mighty host, assuring him, “In thy
seed, i.e., Christ, shall the families of the earth be blessed.” That fulfillment is yet future, reserved
for the millennium, when Satan will be cast out and Jesus reign in every home on the face of the