Commenting on Rom 4:6-8 (cf. Psa 32):
The ‘blessed’ man is one ‘to whom
God reckons righteousness’, and that ‘apart from works’. Notice the apostle’s
point. It is not as though justification by faith alone were an article of
faith taught in a single obscure place. He points to Abraham and David as
examples of those in whom the addition and subtraction of justification have
been experienced. Their sins were forgiven’, ‘covered’ and ‘not taken into
account’, what we have termed the ‘subtraction’ of justification. They were
also ‘recknon(ed) righteous’, what we have called the ‘addition’ of
justification. All that has been done ‘apart from works’. These ‘case studies’
of Abraham and David are cited as examples of what is true throughout the whole
Old Testament. (Terry L. Johnson, The Case for Traditional Protestantism:
The Solas of the Reformation [Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2004],
89)
To see how this is a “self-own” as the kids would say, see
the discussion of King David and his re-justification at:
