<p>4:23<i>Now it was not written for his sake alone</i>- Where was it written? In some unrecorded Scripture? In God&rsquo;s heavenly record book? Or is the allusion to the finality of the legal case now concluded, that &lsquo;it was written&rsquo; in the sense of legally concluded, under the hammer, so to speak? The suggestion is that right now in this life, if we really believe God&rsquo;s offered salvation, or perhaps,&nbsp;<i>for so long</i>&nbsp;as we believe it- we are written down as declared right before His judgment. In this case, Paul is interpreting the comment in Gen. 15:6 &ldquo;And it was imputed unto him for righteousness&rdquo; as a writing in Heaven, the court secretary writing down the outcome of the case. The Jews taught that justification would only be at the future day of judgment (see&nbsp;D.&nbsp;Moo,<i> Romans</i>&nbsp;1-8, Wycliffe Exegetical Commentary (Chicago: Moody, 1991) p. 293). Paul is teaching that in fact we can be justified, declared right with God, here and now; and we ought to be able to know and feel that.</p><p><i>That it was counted to him</i>- This appears to be a pointless repetition of the same phrase in the preceding 4:22. Paul keeps on and on repeating it to try to impress upon us the sheer wonder of it all- that we are counted righteous when we are not.</p>