Justification by Faith: Our Father Abraham (Part 3) – Romans 4:17b-25

PRAY & INTRO: God both fulfills his righteousness and provides his righteousness through the Lord Jesus Christ. [repeat] This righteousness is not something we can accomplish by our good works (even works of the Mosaic Law); rather, this righteousness is received by grace through faith.

… just as Abraham was counted righteous by faith apart from works. Paul then sets out to show how Abraham’s faith was the means through which God graciously counted him righteous, not by circumcision, which came after, nor by the law, which came some 430 years later.

What then makes Abraham the “father of many nations”? Abraham is the father of all who are justified by faith, whether they are people who are under the law (also his physical descendants) or are Gentiles who do not have the law.

All who have a faith like Abraham’s are justified by God’s gift of righteousness, a righteousness accomplished by Jesus the Messiah in his death and resurrection.

So first Paul will show the reader: What does it mean to have a faith like Abraham’s faith. From Abraham’s own life we can understand the nature of faith. 

And then second: Paul returns most explicitly to his readers applying this faith like Abraham’s to a faith in God’s righteousness and power proven through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we can be counted righteous by faith.

Romans 4:17–25 ESV

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 and calls into existence the things that do not exist. ¹⁸ In hope he believed against hope, 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 made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 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. 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.

In quoting this promise from God that he had made Abraham the father of many nations, Paul has been emphasizing that Jesus is the Messiah who is the seed of Abraham through whom all the nations are blessed, making Abraham the father of many nations in the sense that he is the spiritual father of all, both Jew and Gentile, who are justified by faith (a promise which is ultimately fulfilled through God’s righteousness preserved and provided through the death and resurrection of Jesus).

As Paul continues, remember that this is further expansion on Paul’s argument that Abraham was justified by faith in God’s promise apart from works, and that such faith is the only way to be right with God, now focused more explicitly on the promised Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul also points to the fact that Jesus actually accomplishes the righteousness God necessarily requires by his death and resurrection.

Abraham then is the father of all who are counted righteous by faith, a justification accomplished by the death and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah, who is Lord of all.

And then from v. 17b to the end of the chapter, we have two movements in this section:

The Nature of Abraham’s Faith By Which God Credited Righteousness to Him (verses 17b-22)

What does it means to have a faith like Abraham’s faith?

Paul describes in detail Abraham’s faith in God’s faithfulness and ability to fulfill his promise (beyond human inability and earthly limitations). And Paul again emphasizes that it was through faith that God credited him with righteous standing in relationship to God.

And then (in vv. 23-25) Paul brings this theme of faith back to application for his readers:

With Faith Like Abraham’s, Now in God’s Promise Through the Accomplishment of Jesus, We Too Will Be Counted Righteous (verses 23-25)

God’s promise is that right standing with Him that leads to final salvation unto Him comes through the Lord Jesus, a righteousness which God himself accomplished by delivering Jesus unto death for us and raising him from the dead.

First, let’s follow Paul’s flow of thought regarding what we should learn about faith from Abraham’s faith. 

Our faith is in the God who is  able  to make alive the dead and to call nonexistent things into being.

Paul describes Abraham as believing in the God who made this promise to him that he would become the father of many nations (that his descendants would number like the stars, that through him the nations would be blessed). This one in whom Abraham believed, Paul then defines as the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.

The God who made this promise to Abraham is the God who creating all things—the universe of space and time in which we live and move and have our being—where previously nothing existed except God himself. God can generate what he desires with absolutely no limitations, except for that of his own perfect character and will. Therefore, what God says, he will do.

And giving life to the dead is the phrase Jews used to refer to conversion from paganism to God. God did this when he called Abraham from a life of idolatry to a life of worshipping the one true God. Not only that, but Paul will use both of these concepts as metaphors for what God accomplished in the bodies of Abraham and Sarah to produce a miraculous heir (in their son Isaac). Their reproductive ability was dead, but God gave life and brought into being a son from a barren womb.

So it was by faith that Abraham would experience God’s ability to give life to the death, to bring into existence what did not exist.

What then does Paul mean (in v. 18) when he says that in hope Abraham believed against hope, that God would fulfill his promise to make him the father of many nations and that his offspring would number like the stars visible in the night sky?

Faith produces  hope  in God’s faithfulness and ability to accomplish his promise, beyond human calculation and known obstacles.

Hope is the future-facing aspect faith. It is the expectant confidence of what will be accomplished. So faith produced hope in Abraham, in spite of knowing that by his own understanding of the situation and human limitations that it was impossible for him and Sarah to bear children.

What is hopeless in human understanding and ability can be changed to expectant hope in what God has promised. When we believe God can bring the dead to life and call into existence things that were not, we have good reason for hope in what He has promised, no matter our inability to accomplish or even see how God can accomplish his promise.

I ask you then (as application here already), from what is presented in the Bible, is faith an irrational decision to believe in something despite all evidence to the contrary? No, faith actually knows, as much as we can know, that there are very real obstacles, but faith rationally believes in a God who created this world and us in it, and that he has the ability to work beyond those limitations, to even give life where there is presently only death.

So isn’t faith actually the God-assisted ability to see God’s trustworthiness (I say God assisted because it is beyond the inability of our sin-enslaved minds)… Isn’t faith the God-assisted ability to see God’s trustworthiness and to therefore rationally live by an ongoing trust in his faithfulness and ability to accomplish his promise?

Thus hope is a confident expectancy of waiting on God to fulfill his promise. - Again, hope is the future-facing orientation of faith. Love, which also comes from God (Rom 5:5), is the present activity that springs from faith (so too with all obedience, of which love is culminating or encapsulating). Conversion is that moment in time when God first brings faith to life in you.

Now Paul goes on to explain in v. 19 how Abraham’s faith to hope in God’s promise was “against hope,” against the evidence that he perceived based on human limitations. 

Faith in God’s promise does not  weaken  in consideration of our inability and the apparent impossibility of the situation.

When Abraham surveyed the details of how God would produce an heir, things looked bleak. He was nearly 100 (already dead in terms of reproduction) and Sarah was 90 and had remained barren. How would God bring life from Abraham’s dead loins, and bring into existence that which Sarah’s womb was evidently incapable of producing? The point is that Abraham knew these obstacles, and yet he also knew that God would do as he said.

By the fact that Abraham didn’t weaken in faith, does Paul mean that Abraham had flawless faith? In other words, can this mean that he never wavered at all, never doubted, that his faith never once failed him? No, Abraham did falter at times, so the meaning of this is that although Abraham’s faith wasn’t perfect, it was on a trajectory of being settled and consistent. Although imperfect, Abraham’s trust in God was a settled belief as a way of life.

What should we do when our faith falters? Remember God’s promise and his willingness and ability to carry it out. Meditate on who God is, meditate on his past acts that prove his faithfulness and power, and meditate on his sure promises. [repeat]

Your faith is not in the perfection of your faith but in the God who accomplishes his promise. So even doubts and despair and severe faltering cannot undo the promise of God. You will know your faith is genuine if you consider God’s ability and are restored and established with confidence in God. In fact, there may be lengthy seasons of life where “trust in God” is quite literally all you have.

When we sin, when we struggle, even when our faith falters… remember who God is and that his promise is sure. In order to not weaken in faith, we must see God’s ability and willingness beyond our inability and the apparent impossibility of the situation.

So, instead of focusing on the obstacles to fulfillment, Paul shows in vv. 20-21 how Abraham glorified God with a faith that was fully convinced of God’s ability to do as he promised.

An unwavering, growing faith gives  glory  to God in full conviction that God is faithful and able.

The text of v. 20 says of Abraham, “in the promise no unbelief made him waver.” (or doubt, or hesitate… to pause or hold back uncertainty and unwillingness) No, he did not waver from believing that the God who gives life to the dead and brings into being things that were not, is capable to fulfill the promise he made.

See, by faith Abraham knows that he didn’t merit the promise. Instead, God sought him out—called him to himself—and made these promises for the sake of his own glory. When we realize who God is and why his is doing what he has promised, we have no reason to doubt that he will do it. Since the God who is worthy of all glory is doing these things for his glory, we have absolutely not reason to doubt that he will fulfill what he promises.

And the more Abraham depends on God and looks forward to the fulfillment of God’s promise, his confidence in God grows. In fact, strengthened is a passive verb, indicating that the one whom he trusted was enabling, strengthening his faith for service to God. And that increasing faith of dependence and confidence in God, gives God glory. The participial phrase “giving glory to God” seems best understood as the way in which Abraham glorifies God—through this unwavering belief that God himself strengthens as we trust in him. And for all of it God gets the glory.

Tom Schreiner notes, “We have seen that the fundamental sin of human beings is the failure to give glory to God (Rom. 1:21–23), the worship of the creature rather than the Creator (1:25; cf. Byrne 1996: 154–55). By contrast, faith glorifies God because it acknowledges that life must be lived in complete dependence on him.” (Schreiner, Romans, BECNT) So God is doing all for his glory, and we bring him glory by faith in his goodness and ability to do as he promises.

What kind of faith glorifies God? v. 21 Abraham was full convinced, completely confident, that God was able (powerful, strong, more than sufficient) to do what he had promised. Faith is living dependently on God, believing the promises of God. And by that unwavering, dependent faith that God himself strengthens, God receives glory.

Now v. 22 brings Abraham’s faith back to Paul’s central theme of justification, to be in right standing with a perfectly righteous God, which does not come by our works but through faith.

The  righteousness  God credited to Abraham through faith in God’s promise should lead us to respond in faith to God, knowing it is He who accomplished our forgiveness and justification by the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus.  

We’ve explained this before from Paul’s teaching in Romans, but it bears repeating here that Abraham was (and we are) counted righteous by God through faith and not because of works. Works are still important in the sense that the one who has faith will obey God, but the works themselves do not achieve right standing with God. That right standing he graciously grants through faith, on the basis of the righteousness accomplished for us by Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection.

And that’s what Paul reemphasizes as application for his readers: This righteousness credited to Abraham was recorded in the Scriptures for our benefit as well, so that we too might be justified by faith… faith in the God who raised Jesus from the dead, whom God delivered up for our sins and raised for our justification.

Again I’ll quote Tom Schreiner here: “The story of Abraham is not merely a historical curiosity. It is directly relevant to the lives of the Roman readers, for the account about Abraham was written for their sakes so that they too could become part of the family of Abraham by sharing the faith of Abraham.” (Schreiner, Romans, BECNT)

Not only the specific promise to and faith of Abraham, but also all of God’s word is beneficial to us, revealing the trustworthiness of God, and progressively revealing his plan and his faithfulness to his promises. In fact, we have now received further revelation of how God is fulfilling his promises, giving us reason to hope alongside Abraham with even greater assurance in the final consummation still to come.

God began fulfilling his promises to Abraham by bringing life to Sarah’s womb that she should bear a son, Isaac. But we have received even greater knowledge and confidence of God fulfilling his promises in that his Messiah has come: God incarnate, whom the triune God gave up as a perfect sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins, and whom he raised so that we might receive his righteousness credited to us.

How would we follow Abraham’s example? Believing in the God who brings life from death, who raised Jesus from the dead. - Where often for the NT believer Paul identifies our faith in Jesus specifically, here Paul uniquely speaks of believing in the God who raised Jesus, deliberately pointing to the continuity that faith’s object is the God who is faithful to fulfill what he has promised. So while previous generations believed in God’s promise of a future redeemer, that redemption is now fulfilled in Jesus by his death and resurrection. We too believe in God’s promise to save through the righteous standing Christ has achieved for us.

What righteousness (or whose righteousness) is credited to our account, or even to Abraham’s account? It is God’s own righteousness, which he both proved and accomplished through the Son incarnate dying for sin and being raised in righteousness. This he graciously gifts to us when we receive his promise and accomplishment—all of him and all for his glory—in faith.

Again, what is the foundational basis of the righteousness (received by faith) for all saints for all time? (Rom 3:23-24) How important is the historical incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus? (Rom 3:26)

The person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ is central and essential to God’s plan of salvation and to his purposes for all of creation and history. - So too Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham of blessing the world through his seed, the fulfillment of all promises of a coming redeemer, the fulfillment of the law, and the fulfillment of a perfect king from the lineage of David, who has inaugurated his kingdom and will yet return to rule over all.

Receiving God’s gracious promise in faith is the vehicle through which God credits righteousness, God’s own righteousness achieved for us by the Lord Jesus in his cross and resurrection… “that he might be just and justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

We too will be counted righteous by unwavering belief in God’s achievement for us through Jesus our Lord. (In fact, we have been given much greater understanding of whose righteousness it is that is credited to our account, and how God accomplished it.)

In conclusion, we are reminded that in Romans chapter 4 Paul has taught us that…

Abraham is the father of all who are counted righteous by faith, a justification accomplished by the death and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah, who is Lord of all.

Concluding Application:

(Before you sign off and put away your pen and note pad… or before you move on without allowing the word of God to train you to relate rightly to God, consider at least these ways that you can be applying this text.)

Meditate on both the gracious promise of God, and the ability of God to accomplish what he promises.

Meditate on God’s goodness and grace to grant us righteousness by faith and not by works. If it were by works, we would get what we deserve.

Meditate on the nature of faith—how faith’s object is God himself, and therefore we can believe God without wavering because of what we perceive as obstacles and because of what we cannot foresee as possible.

Meditate on God’s perfect plan to fulfill his own righteousness in Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection, while also in Christ making provision for our forgiveness and righteousness to be in right relationship to him.

And begin meditating on how the faith that God has granted you now gives you hope for the final salvation still to come, which allows you to live in the present with a faith and hope that focuses on God’s trustworthiness and ability to keep his promises, in spite of all that tests and difficulties that we are facing and will face. 

Like Abraham, by faith God counts us righteous. And being right with God is the essential matter of our lives that counts for all eternity. And that faith plays into the central purpose for all things: that God should be the one who receives all the glory, both now and forever. Amen.

PRAY

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