Romans 4:13-25

The Promise Realized Through Faith [Paul introduces another idea regarding faith and law]

¹³ For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law [given 430 years later] but through the righteousness of faith. ¹⁴ For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void [because the law came after Abraham]. ¹⁵ For [what] the law [does is that it] brings wrath [and cannot secure the inheritance of God’s promises], but where there is no law there is no transgression [which is why the law produces wrath]. [Violating the law turns sin into transgression against God which necessitates God’s wrath. God gave the law to the Jews. The Jews transgressed the law. The law therefore brings wrath against the Jews. One Jew, Jesus, paid the price for the wrath of God. Ultimately, the giving of the law leads to the cross of Christ. The grace of the cross, however, also covers God’s wrath against those outside the law.]

¹⁶ That is why it [the inheritance of the promise] depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace [grace is the necessary corollary to faith] and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, ¹⁷ as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead [consider Isaac as the unexpected child born to old parents, Isaac’s rescue from being sacrificed, and Jesus’ resurrection: “I am the resurrection and the life”] and calls into existence the things that do not exist. [Consider creation and spiritual conversion—the giving of faith as Jesus describes in John 3:1-8—as God brings vibrant, spiritual life out of people’s empty, sinful lives. None of the blessings of God’s promise to Abraham would have come to pass had it relied on human works or obedience to the law; but because faith grasps the sure promise of God, a promise that he has determined freely to give, the inheritance God has promised can become a reality, and a reality for anyone who believes.] ¹⁸ In hope [in God] he believed against [human] hope [that is based on the evidence of reason and common sense], that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” ¹⁹ He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. ²⁰ No unbelief [that is a deep-seated and permanent attitude of distrust or inconsistency in relationship to God] made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith [everything gains strength in meeting and overcoming opposition] as he gave glory to God [as the response of his strengthened faith], ²¹ fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. ²² That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” ²³ But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, ²⁴ but for ours also [Christian application]. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, ²⁵ who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

[Paul’s conviction that the OT everywhere speaks to Christians is fundamental to his theology and preaching and to our knowing and reading the OT in the light of, through the lens of Jesus Christ. Not only is our faith of the same nature as Abraham’s, but both ultimately have as their object the same God. It is the God of the promise, the promise given to Abraham but ultimately fulfilled in Christ and Christians, in whom both Abraham and we believe. A note on v. 25: Jesus’ death provides the ground for God’s justifying action and his resurrection vindicates (justifies) him, freeing him forever from the bonds of sin and provides for the believer in union with him the ongoing power over sin. We are justified because we are found in Christ.]