e simply makes a promise of His own
pure goodwill--'Thy seed shall be as the stars of heaven'--and Abraham
simply believed Him; and this, and nothing but this, was 'counted to
him for righteousness[1].' The two suggested relations of Abraham to
God are broadly contrasted and can be generally applied. In the one
case you have a compact between God who imposes, and man who accepts,
an allotted task with a payment attached to its fulfilment. If the man
fulfils it, his payment can be classed as due to him under the compact.
In the other case you have nothing done, no claim alleged, but a pure
act of God, accepting one of our sinful race, as he is, simply because
he takes God at His word. And this is how David also views our
relation to God. You find him[2] opening his mouth to tell {158} us
what sort of man is truly blessed, truly to be congratulated. And he
thinks not of one who claims a reward because of his merit, but of one
who has found no comfort or resource except in penitent confession of
his sins, and whose sins God has forgiven and has consented to treat as
if they did not exist. It is the unmerited act of the divine bounty,
it is God justifying the sinful, which is the source of blessedness
(vers. 1-8).

Now we go back to the case of Abraham to inquire whether the blessing
of divine acceptance was pronounced upon him because he was the head of
the chosen race marked out by circumcision--which was, so to speak, the
first part of the law. No, it was before he was circumcised. The
token of circumcision came afterwards[3], as the seal or external
confirmation of what he had already received simply as a believing man;
so that he might have for his true sons believers, whether
uncircumcised or circumcised, and they might share his acceptance
simply by believing God as he believed Him (vers. 9-12).

Plainly when God made Abraham the promise that he should be the heir of
the world[4], no law {159} was introduced into the relationship. It
was purely a matter of God promising and Abraham taking God at His
word. Indeed it could not have been otherwise. Introduce law, and you
introduce a compact between God and man which annuls the relationship
of God simply promising and man simply believing--a compact which
throws a strain on man's independent powers, which they are not able to
bear. The one inevitable result of the law is to put man in the
position, in which apart from law he cannot find himself, of a
defau