Romans 4:5

But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness.

Worketh not ... is a reference to one who rests from any thought that he could merit salvation by keeping the law of Moses. It is not a reference to one who will not obey the gospel of Christ.

Believeth on him that justifieth ... is a reference to obedient faith, the kind exemplified by Abraham and discussed at length under Romans 4:3; the fact of obedience not being mentioned is not significant, "believeth" being another example of the synecdoche, in which one of a related group of actions stands for all of them. What is significant is the omission of "only" or "alone" as a qualifier.

Worketh ... worketh not ... in this verse and Romans 4:4, are terms Paul used to describe "keeping the law perfectly," and "resting from the notion that any such thing is possible." Neither of these terms has any reference to obeying the gospel, and the primary steps of obedience such as repentance and baptism. To understand Paul's teaching, a comparison with James 2 is necessary. Paul was affirming that works cannot justify apart from faith in Jesus Christ; and James was stressing that faith in Jesus Christ cannot save without works. To fail to believe, to exclude either faith, or the work of faith, is to fail of justification. Both James and Paul referred to the example of Abraham to corroborate their teaching. Paul pointed out that Abraham was not justified by the works of the law but by faith. James pointed out that Abraham was not justified by faith only but by the work of faith, a far different thing from works of the law; and the teachings of those two inspired writers harmonize perfectly, as a careful attention to what they REALLY wrote easily shows.

A study of the kinds of works mentioned in the scriptures was made under Romans 2:6; but the two different classes of works mentioned by Paul and James, to the effect that Abraham was "not justified by works" and "was justified by works" are more plainly separated thus: the forms and ceremonies of the law of Moses are the works of which Paul said a man is not justified by doing them; and the conditions of salvation given through Jesus Christ and the apostles constitute "the work of faith" (2 Thessalonians 1:3), concerning which James said a man is justified by them and not by faith only.

To him that worketh not ... is thus a reference to that person who knows that he is not capable of living a life of sufficient holiness to merit eternal life, apart from the Lord Jesus Christ; but who believes in Christ, obeys the gospel, his faith "in Christ" (faith manifested as a member of Christ's body) thereupon being accounted to him as righteousness.

A great deal of the exegesis on this chapter is devoted to a single end, that of removing Christian baptism as a valid precondition of redemption in Christ. The sacred ordinance is belittled and set at naught on the grounds that it is a work of human righteousness, in no way related to salvation. Of course, baptism is, in one sense, a work of faith, a thing commanded by the Head of our holy religion; but in another sense, it is a work of Christ himself. Jesus "made and baptized more disciples than John" (John 4:1); and yet the same passage reveals that it was not Jesus, but his disciples, who were physically baptizing people. The same is true today; Christ baptizes those persons who faithfully submit to the ordinance, even though the physical administration of the ordinance is accomplished by other disciples of the Lord. Thus, any notion that baptism is purely a work of human righteousness is false.

Strangely, some who would make a sinner's baptism to be "works," and thus exclude it as a precondition of salvation, are strong to insist that faith is not "works" and the sole condition of salvation; but faith itself is a work of faith, in exactly the same sense as baptism. No less a scholar than Charles Hodge pointed that out. He wrote:

But faith considered as an act, is as much a work as prayer, repentance, almsgiving, or anything of the kind. And it is as much an act of obedience to the law, as the performance of any other duty.[4]

Therefore, if obeying the gospel and being baptized should be classed as "works" in any derogatory sense, then the same thing applies to faith, Christ himself making it a "work." He said, "This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent" (John 6:29). Thus, of both baptism and faith, the scriptures teach that they are "works" in the sense of being things people must do in order to be saved; and both are, in a higher sense, "the work of God," having originated with God and being commanded of him. Faith and baptism are, therefore, absolute coordinates, a fact that made it possible for Jesus to say, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved" (Mark 16:16). All of the apostles so recognized them, as in Hebrews, where faith and baptism are named together as coordinates, each of them being a part of the foundation doctrine of Christianity (Hebrews 6:1-3). In the light of truth, it seems incredible that people should seriously advocate the possibility of being saved by faith only.

Of all the preconditions of entering a covenant relationship with God, these being faith, repentance, confession, baptism (obedience to these conditions bringing the believer into Christ), baptism is less of a work than any of the others. Lipscomb discoursed on that, as follows:

Baptism has fewer of the qualities of a work than either faith or repentance. Faith is an act of the heart, the soul, the inner man - something the man does. It is a work. ... So of repentance. "Believe" and "repent" are both active - both done by the subject. The person baptized gives himself up into the hands of the administrator, and is buried out of self, to be raised up in Christ, and, as a servant of God, to "walk in the light as he is in the light" (1 John 1:7). When a man dies, and his friends take his body and bury it, no one would call it a work of the man buried. This is the true type of him who is baptized. Baptism is a work of God performed upon the man baptized through God's servant to bring him dead in trespasses and sins into the state of life with God. The life is imparted through faith, turns from sin in repentance, and puts off the body of sin in baptism.[5]

Further attention to the position of this sacred ordinance in God's scheme of redemption will be given in Romans 6; but here it may be noted that one of the best examples shedding light on this question is that of the man born blind, who was commanded by Jesus to "Go wash in the pool of Siloam" (John 9:7). The blind man obeyed, receiving his eyesight in his act of obedience; and it may be viewed as certain that if he had refused or neglected to obey Jesus' command, he would have died as blind as he was born. The blind man received his eyesight in the pool, but there was no efficacy in the water; and in exactly the same manner, the believer receives forgiveness of sins in his act of being baptized, with no efficacy whatever attributed to the water. Salvation from alien sins is promised upon the word of Jesus thirst in the New Testament thus: "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved" (Mark 16:16), instructions that are as simple as "Go wash in the pool of Siloam"; why should people have any trouble understanding either? Why all the allegations of people who should know better that if one accepts the Lord's proposition, he is thereby nullifying salvation by faith? Why all the arrogant assertions that "water cannot save anyone"? There has positively not been anyone born in the current century so stupid as to believe that water washes away sins, or that water saves anybody. If it can be understood that the blind man was given his sight in the pool, with the water having nothing to do with it, it should also be as easily understood that the sinner is saved in the baptismal font, not by the water, but by Jesus Christ our Lord. Such a view as this is the only interpretation that harmonizes with what the scriptures say of Paul's own baptism. The inspired preacher, Ananias, spoke to Paul thus:

"Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord" (Acts 22:16).

Also, the blind man did not "earn" his eyesight, any more than the baptized believer "earns" salvation by being baptized.

[4] Charles Hodge, Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1968), p. 109.

[5] David Lipscomb, A Commentary on the New Testament Epistles (Nashville, Tennessee: The Gospel Advocate Company, 1969), p. 82.