Romans 4:18-25, Commentary
Jul 10th, 2009 by Micah Tillman | Start the Discussion |
[ Romans 1 | 2 | 3| 4: Intro, 1-8, 9-17, 18-25, Conclusion | 5 ]
18 Hoping against hope, he believed that he would become “the father of many nations,” according to what was said, “So numerous shall your descendants be.” 19 He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was already as good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. 20 No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21 being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. 22 Therefore his faith “was reckoned to him as righteousness.”
23 Now the words, “it was reckoned to him,” were written not for his sake alone, 24 but for ours also. It will be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, 25 who was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification.
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4:18-25 — Abraham didn’t waver in his faith, eh? What about the whole having a son with his wife’s servant, then?
Unless Paul is just completely pulling his hearers’ legs — which he couldn’t get away with, given the Jewish members of his audience, and their familiarity with the story of Abraham — he must simply be describing Abraham’s attitude in the conversation in question.
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In other words, Paul must be giving us an explication here of what it meant for Abraham to have faith as he listened to God make the promise to him, such that in the very next verse, the writer (whether Moses or the original source Moses “edited” [see Rethinking Genesis, by Duane Garrett]) could declare the faith Abraham had just had/displayed as leading Abraham to be reckoned righteous.
In still other words, what Paul is doing here is giving us a description of Abraham’s experience of faith, to help us get a better picture of what faith is like.
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And I think v. 21 is a great summary of what faith is: “being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.” Which, as I’ve argued before, is nothing really to be proud of, or to think is even that big of a deal.
God is God. God can do whatever God wants. Therefore, who could really doubt — if she or he actually took the time to think about it — that “God [is] able to do what he [has] promised”?
God promises that we will be saved if we have faith in/believe in God/Jesus (e.g., vv. 23-24).
What does it mean to have faith? To be convinced that God is able to do what he has promised.
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But why would God promise something that God couldn’t do?
First, God is omnipotent, and therefore can do anything that’s actually a “thing” (i.e., anything that’s not self-contradictory [e.g., "both being and not being good"] or senseless [e.g., "making a rock to heavy for God to lift"]).
Second, God is not a liar, so God wouldn’t make false promises (see Numbers 23:19, which is perfect for this context!).
So, being convinced that God can do what God promises is not that big of a deal. It’s not that hard. It’s just a matter of reminding yourself of what and who God is.
And when you do that, you can’t help but be convinced, any more than you can help but be convinced that rocks on earth fall down in most situations (once you remind yourself of what a rock is, and what gravity is, and that most rocks on earth are not in the middle of being thrown upward by people, tornadoes, or hurricanes).
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[ Romans 1 | 2 | 3| 4: Intro, 1-8, 9-17, 18-25, Conclusion | 5 ]
