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In 3:21 Paul states that justification by faith is not contrary to but upholds the law. This is demonstrated from the life of Abraham, the respected father of the Jews. His example carries great weight with them. God regarded Abraham as righteous on the basis of his faith (Ge 15:6), before he was circumcised (Ge 17:10). Abraham was justified by faith first and later received circumcision as a seal of his righteousness. He did not do any work to earn the good standing of right relationship with God. Therefore he did not have any reason to boast. Since Abraham was justified while he was uncircumcised, this blessing of justification is available to uncircumcised Gentiles. Then Abraham was circumcised. So the blessing of justification is also available to circumcised Jews. Since this blessing is available to both uncircumcised Gentiles and circumcised Jews, it has to be through faith, not the law (vv.1-12).
If the blessing were through the law, the promise would be worthless, since no one can perfectly observe the law. The law can only convert sin into transgression and bring wrath. Thus the promise would be nullified. The promise comes by faith, not by the law. Therefore it is based on grace, not on human achievement, and thus can be guaranteed. God promised to make Abraham the father of many nations. Those who follow the faith of Abraham become his descendants, and thus God’s promise is fulfilled (vv.13-17).
The faith of Abraham consists in being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised (v.21). In spite of their physical conditions, he still took God’s promise at face value and acted accordingly. He circumcised himself and his household before Isaac was conceived (Ge 17:23-27). Thus he gave glory to God (v.20). Abraham believed in God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were (v.17). Today, we believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead (v.24). Both Abraham and we believe in the same God who gives life to the dead. Since Abraham was justified by faith, we, too, can be justified on this basis (vv.18-25). Since v.24 mentions that we believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, a statement about him is added in v.25: He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. No doubt this statement was formulated according to Isa 52:13-53:12. The two clauses in v.25 are not to be understood in such a way as to separate the function of Christ’s death from that of his resurrection. While in v.25 our justification is connected with Christ’s resurrection, in 5:9 it is connected with his death (blood).