Hoping Against Hope With Father Abraham
Paul shows us why the faith of a hundred-year-old man still rescues sinners today.
Today's Verse
No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.
Romans 4:20-21
Historical Context
Paul wrote Romans around AD 57, likely from Corinth, as he prepared to carry a relief offering to Jerusalem and then push west toward Spain. He had never visited the Roman church, but he wanted to lay out the gospel clearly before he arrived. The congregation was a mix of Jewish and Gentile believers, and the question of how these two groups stood together before God was pressing. Did Gentiles need to take on the law of Moses to belong to God's people? Were Jewish believers losing something precious by welcoming uncircumcised pagans as brothers? In chapter 4, Paul reaches back roughly two thousand years to Abraham, the father of the Jewish people, and shows that Abraham himself was justified by faith before he was circumcised and long before the law was given at Sinai. The argument is not a clever workaround. It is Paul's insistence that God has always saved the same way: by grace, through faith, on the basis of his own promise. Abraham is not the exception. He is the pattern.
Reflection
Abraham was a hundred years old. Sarah's womb had been closed her whole life. By every honest measurement, the promise of a son was impossible. And Paul tells us Abraham looked the impossibility full in the face. He "considered his own body, which was already as good as dead." He did not pretend the situation was better than it was. He did not whip himself into a positive mental attitude. He simply refused to let the deadness of his circumstances be louder than the word of God.
That is what biblical faith is. It is not optimism. It is not a personality trait. It is being "fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised." Abraham gave glory to God in advance, while the cradle was still empty.
And Paul says this was written for us. The same God who called Isaac out of a dead womb raised Jesus out of a sealed tomb. The Lord who was handed over for our trespasses was raised for our justification. The resurrection is not a metaphor for spring or new beginnings. It is the historical hinge on which our salvation hangs. Christ truly died under the wrath our sins deserved, and he truly walked out of the grave on the third day. If he did not, we are still in our sins. Because he did, righteousness is reckoned to everyone who trusts him.
So what dead thing are you staring at this morning? A marriage. A child who has wandered. A sin you cannot seem to kill. Your own slow heart. Abraham's God is your God. He gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. Do not waver. Grow strong in faith by giving him glory before you see the answer.
For Reflection
Where in your life right now are you being asked to trust God's promise against everything your eyes can see?
Prayer
Father, you are the God who gives life to the dead and calls into existence what is not. We confess that our faith is small and our eyes are often fixed on the deadness around us. Strengthen us as you strengthened Abraham. Convince us deep in the bone that you are able to do what you have promised. Thank you that Jesus was handed over for our trespasses and raised for our justification. Reckon us righteous in him, and let us give you glory before we see the answer. In Jesus' name, Amen.
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Image: Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, Sacrifice of Isaac, c. 1603, Uffizi Gallery, Florence — Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.