While Paul denied that we can earn our righteousness as a wage (Romans 4:1-5), he also said that only doers of the law will be declared righteous (Romans 2:13), so clearly there must be a reason why our righteousness requires us to choose to be doers of the law other than in order to earn it as a wage, such as faith insofar as Paul said that the faith by which we are declared righteous does not abolish our need to obey God's law, but rather our faith upholds it (Romans 3:27-31).
While it is true that Abraham believed God, so he was declared righteous (Genesis 15:6), it is also true that he believed God, so he obeyed God's command to offered Isaac (Hebrews 11:17), so the same faith by which he was justified was expressed as obedience to God, but he did not earn his righteousness as the result of his obedience as through it were earned as a wage (Romans 4:1-5). In James 2:21-24, it quotes Genesis 15:6 to support saying that Abraham was declared righteous by his works when he offered Isaac, that his faith was active along with his works, and that his faith completed his works, so he was declared righteous by his works insofar as they were expressing his faith, but not insofar as they were earning a wage.
While the only way to become righteous is through faith apart from needing to have done works that result in becoming righteous (Romans 3:27), to become righteous through faith means to become someone who practices righteousness through the same faith, which is why the faith by which we are declared righteous does not abolish our need to obey God's law, but rather our faith upholds it. So God's law is His instructions for how to practice righteousness, not for how to result in becoming righteous. For example, God's law reveals that helping the poor is a way to practice righteousness, but no amount of helping the poor will ever cause someone to become righteous because the only way to become righteous is through faith. So when God declares us to be righteous through faith He declaring us to be someone practices His righteousness through faith in obedience to His instructions for how to do that found in His law in accordance with following Christ's example.
No.
According to Deuteronomy 30:11-14, the Mosaic Law is not too difficult to obey, so if Acts 15:10 had been referring to the Mosaic Law as being a heavy burden that no one could bear, then they would have been in direct disagreement with God. Moreover, the Psalms express an extremely positive view of the Mosaic Law, such as with David repeatedly saying that he loved it and delighted in obeying it, so if we consider the Psalms to be Scripture and to therefore express a correct view of the Mosaic Law, then we will share it as Paul did (Romans 7:22), which is incompatible with viewing it as being a heavy burden that no one could bear. For example, in Psalms 1:1-2, blessed are those who delight in the law of the Lord and who mediate on it day and night, so we can't believe in the truth of these words while not allowing them to shape our view of the Mosaic Law, which means that the view that the Mosaic Law is a heavy burden that no one can bear is incompatible with the view that the Psalms are Scripture. Moreover, we should not interpret the authors of the NT as holding a view of the Mosaic Law that is incompatible with what they quoted as Scripture.
In Acts 15:11, it clarifies that the ruling in 15:10 was not in regard to the Mosaic Law, but in regard to a means of salvation that was opposed to salvation by grace, namely salvation by circumcision that was proposed in Acts 15:1. Earning our salvation was not the the purpose for which God commanded circumcision, so the Jerusalem Council upheld the Mosaic Law by correctly ruling against requiring circumcision for an incorrect purpose. The Jerusalem Council did not have the authority to countermand God, so they should not be interpreted as trying to do that, and even if they had been trying to do that, then the bottom line is that we must obey God rather than man.
Either Acts 15:19-21 contains an exhaustive list of everything that would ever be required of a mature Gentile believer or it does not, so it is contradictory to treat it as being an exhaustive list to limit which laws Gentiles should follow while also a non-exhaustive list by saying that there are obviously other laws that Gentiles should follow, such as the greatest two commandments, or those in verses like 1 Corinthian 6:9-11, Titus 3:1-3, or Galatians 5:19-21. Moreover, in Matthew 22:36-40, Jesus said that all of the other commandments hang on the greatest two, so they are all connected and including the greatest two commandments means that all of the other commandments come with them. It is not the case that Acts 15:19-21 contains an exhaustive list for mature Gentile believers, but as stated it was a list intended to not make things difficult for new believers, but as a starting point, which they excused by saying that Gentiles would continue to learn about how to obey Moses by hearing him taught every Sabbath in the synagogues.
Friend-what religion are you embracing? Judaism?
Do you know what Torah means? It excludes the NT.
So why are you here imposing upon me that which is not written?
Abraham is declared righteous through faith.
1. (1-3) Abraham was not justified by works, but declared righteous through faith.
What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”
a. What then shall we say: In building on the thought begun in Romans 3:31 Paul asks the question, “Does the idea of justification through faith, apart from the works of the law, make what God did in the Old Testament irrelevant?”
b. What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found: In answering that question, Paul looks at Abraham, who was the most esteemed man among the Jewish people of his day – even greater than the “George Washington” of the American people.
c. For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about: If anyone could be justified by works, they would have something to boast about. Nevertheless such boasting is nothing before God (but not before God).
i. This boasting is nothing before God because even if works could justify a man, he would in some way still fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).
ii. This boasting is nothing because before God, every pretense is stripped away and it is evident that no one can really be justified by works.
d. For what does the Scripture say? The Old Testament does not say Abraham was declared righteous because of his works. Instead, Genesis 15:6 says that Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness.
i. Paul makes it clear: Abraham’s righteousness did not come from performing good works, but from belief in God. It was a righteousness obtained through faith.
ii. Generally, the Jewish teachers of Paul’s day believed that Abraham was justified by his works, by keeping the law. Ancient passages from the rabbis say: “We find that Abraham our father had performed the whole Law before it was given” and “Abraham was perfect in all his deeds with the Lord.” The rabbis argued that Abraham kept the law perfectly before it was given, keeping it by intuition or anticipation.
iii. The Apostle Paul does not say that Abraham was made righteous in all of his doings, but God accounted Abraham as righteous. Our justification is not God making us perfectly righteous, but counting us as perfectly righteous. After we are counted righteous, then God begins making us truly righteous, culminating at our resurrection.
iv. “Counted is logizomai. It was used in early secular documents; ‘put down to one’s account, let my revenues be placed on deposit at the storehouse; I now give orders generally with regard to all payments actually made or credited to the government.’ Thus, God put to Abraham’s account, placed on deposit for him, credited to him, righteousness… Abraham possessed righteousness in the same manner as a person would possess a sum of money placed in his account in a bank.” (Wuest)
v. Genesis 15:6 does not tell us how other men accounted Abraham. Instead, it tells us how God accounted him. “Moses [in Genesis] does not, indeed, tell us what men thought of him [Abraham], but how he was accounted before the tribunal of God.” (Calvin)
vi. Remember that righteousness is also more than the absence of evil and guilt. It is a positive good, meaning that God does not only declare us innocent, but righteous.
2. (4-5) A distinction made between grace and works.
Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness,
a. Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace: The idea of grace stands opposite to the principle of works; grace has to do with receiving the freely given gift of God, works has to do with earning our merit before God.
i. Wuest on charis, the ancient Greek word translated grace: “Signified in classical authors a favor done out of the spontaneous generosity of the heart without any expectation or return. Of course, this favor was always done to one’s friend, never to an enemy… But when charis comes into the New Testament, it takes an infinite leap forward, for the favor God did at Calvary was for those who hated Him.”
b. Not counted as grace but as debt: A system of works seeks to put God in debt to us, making God owe us His favor because of our good behavior. In works-thinking, God owes us salvation or blessing because of our good works.
i. God isn’t praising laziness here. “The antithesis is not simply between the worker and the non-worker but between the worker and person who does not work but believes.” (Murray)
c. But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness: Righteousness can never be accounted to the one who approaches God on the principle of works. Instead it is given to the one who believes on Him who justifies the ungodly.
d. Him who justifies the ungodly: This is who God justifies – the ungodly. We might expect God would only justify a godly man but because of what Jesus did on the cross, God can justify the ungodly.
i. It isn’t as if God is happy with our ungodly condition. We are not justified because of our ungodliness, but despite our ungodliness.
ii. Morris quoting Denney: “The paradoxical phrase, Him that justifieth the ungodly, does not suggest that justification is a fiction, whether legal or of any other sort, but that it is a miracle.”
e. Faith is accounted for righteousness: Just as Abraham, so our faith is accounted for righteousness. This was not some special arrangement for Abraham alone. We can enter into this relationship with God also.
i. By this we understand that there are not two ways of salvation – saved by works through law-keeping in the Old Testament and saved by grace through faith in the New Testament. Everyone who has ever been saved – Old or New Testament – is saved by grace through faith, through their relationship of a trusting love with God. Because of the New Covenant we have benefits of salvation that Old Testament saints did not have but we do not have a different manner of salvation.
