Romans 4:13-25

4:13 | This is a summary of Romans 4:1-12. God’s promise is dependent on the law and rests squarely on the principle of faith.

4:15 | When God’s people look to the law for justification instead of to God, failure to keep the law makes them guilty and they face death instead of life (Gal. 3:10).

4:16-17 | God’s promise of the law is uncertain. His promise of faith is certain. The promise given to Abraham has not expired nor become the private possession of any one race. It permeates the entire world (9:26).

4:17-22 | Abraham’s faith conquered impossibility, improbability, inadequacy, inconsistency, insecurity, and infidelity. Abraham believed in the God of creation, who calls those things which do not exist as though they did. This is the essence of faith. The same God of Genesis 1-2 who brought forth Isaac, the son of promise, from the deadness of Sarah’s womb (Heb. 11:19). Later, at the altar, standing over that same son with a knife in obedience to the Lord, Abraham again believed that God could give life to the dead. Hope that is centered in God is contrary to the world’s hope.

4:20-22 | Abraham did not waver in his faith at the time of testing. God’s ability (to perform His promises) was the foundation of his faith’s stability (Gen. 18:14). Faith looks past the gift to the Giver and past the promise to the One who promises.

4:23-25 | Martin Luther said: “In these verses the whole of Christianity is comprehended.” These words were not just for Abraham’s sake alone but also for us – every believer in every age.