19 Salvation by Divine Power, Not by Human Effort (4:18-25)

In hope against hope he believed, in order that he might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken, “So shall your descendants be.” And without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb; yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief, but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what He had promised, He was able also to perform. Therefore also it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Now not for his sake only was it written, that it was reckoned to him, but for our sake also, to whom it will be reckoned, as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, He who was delivered up because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification. (4:18–25)

This passage concludes Paul’s illustration of Abraham as the supreme Old Testament example of saving faith. It makes clear the fact that although man’s faith and God’s grace are both involved in salvation, they are in no way equal components. Even man’s faith is included with the provision of God’s gracious salvation, as the apostle declares to the Ephesians: “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast. For we are His workmanship” (Eph. 2:8–10a).

Abraham’s original name was Abram (see Gen. ll:26ff.), which means “father of many.” Yet when God called him while he was living in Ur of the Chaldeans (Gen. 11:28, 31; cf. Acts 7:2–4), the patriarch was childless. By the time he left Haran, after the death of his father, Terah, Abraham was seventy-five years old (Genesis 12:4) and still without children. Yet by faith he began the last part of his journey to the land God had promised.

In His initial call, God promised that He would make of Abram a great nation (Gen. 12:1–2). And when the promise was reiterated some years later, the Lord promised Abram that his descendants would be as innumerable as the stars in the heavens (15:5; cf. 22:17), although the patriarch and his wife Sarah were still childless. It was at that time that Abram “believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness” (15:6). Yet it is evident from the preceding passages in Genesis that Abraham’s response to God had previously been that of sincere, unconditional faith.

We do not know what Abram’s thoughts were when he was originally called in Ur or when he first entered Canaan, the Promised Land. We do not know how God convinced Abram, an idolatrous pagan (see Josh. 24:2), that He was indeed the true and only God or how He persuaded Abram to place his trust in Him. But we do know that the same God who made the call prompted the faith to respond to it.

Abram’s faith was truly astounding. For some forty years before it was fulfilled, Abram believed God’s promise to give him an heir. For the century that he lived in Canaan (see Gen. 25:7), Abram owned none of it, except for the small parcel of ground he bought for a burial site for Sarah and himself (23:16–20). Abram trusted God to make him the father of a great nation and of a multitude of people, although there would not be a nation in the usual sense of that term until nearly 600 years later, when Joshua would lead the Israelites back into Canaan to possess it.

After Abram arrived in Canaan he was immediately faced with a number of severe tests of his faith. He encountered famine (Gen. 12:10), a potentially hostile pharaoh (12:14–20), a conflict with his nephew Lot (13:5–9), and apparently a struggle with fear (see 15:1). Yet through all that testing he remained faithful to the God who had called him.

In his commentary on Romans, Donald Grey Barnhouse writes insightfully of Abram:

Now Abram was an Oriental. He was used to the palaver of the Orientals. Furthermore, he was strategically located athwart the roads of the camel caravans that carried the commerce of the ancient world between Egypt and the North and East. He owned the wells, and his flocks and herds were great. The Scripture says that “Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold” (Gen. 13:2). When the caravans of the rich merchants came into the land, either from the north or from the south, they stopped at Abram’s wells. The servants of Abram took good care of the needs of the camels and the servants of the traders. Food was sold to the travellers. And in the evening time the merchants would have come to Abram’s tent to pay their respects. The questions would have followed a set pattern. How old are you? Who are you? How long have you been here? When the trader had introduced himself, Abram would be forced to name himself: Abram, father of many

It must have happened a hundred times, a thousand times, and each time more galling than the time before. “Oh, Father of many! Congratulations! And how many sons do you have?” And the answer was so humiliating to Abram: “None.” And, many a time there must have been the half concealed snort of humor at the incongruity of the name and the fact that there were no children to back up such a name. Abram must have steeled himself for the question and the reply, and have hated the situation with great bitterness.

… Father of many—father of none. The possibilities were varied, and I believe that it is possible to detect in the psychology of the narrative the fact that there was much gossip about it. The servants who heard the jokes and who saw Abram’s embarrassment repeated the details with embroidered variations. It was a world of cloth and goat skins, where all lived in tents, and where there was little privacy from the eyes and none in the realm of the ears. There must have been many conversations on the subject—who was sterile, Abram or Sarah? Was he really a full man? Oh, he was the patriarch; his word was law; he had the multitude of cattle and the many servants, but—he had no children, and his name was “father of many.” (God’s Remedy: Romans 3:21–4:25 [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1954], pp. 311–12)

Such pressure undoubtedly was a strong contribution to Sarah’s suggestion that Abram have a son by her Egyptian maid, Hagar (Gen. 16:2). It is quite possible that the servants overheard that proposal and knew that in desperation Abram consented. When Hagar became pregnant, everyone knew that it was Sarah who was sterile. Sarah soon regretted her rash suggestion and became envious of Hagar and treated her with considerable cruelty.

When Hagar gave birth to Ishmael, Abram at last had an heir, but it was an heir of his own sinful contriving and human virility, not the divinely-promised and divinely-provided heir to whom only Sarah could give birth. Thirteen years later, when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the merciful Lord appeared to him again and repeated the promise of multiplying Abram’s descendants. He also changed Abram’s name saying,

No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I will make you the father of a multitude of nations. And I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come forth from you. And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you. And I will give to you and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God. (Gen. 17:5–8)

But if Abram was embarrassed by his former name, he was even more embarrassed by his new one. Because he could not perceive how the promise could be fulfilled through a son by Sarah, who was now 90 years old and past the normal time of childbearing, Abraham asked the Lord that Ishmael might become the promised heir (Gen. 17:18). But the Lord replied, “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; and I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him” (Gen. 17:19). God now told Abraham explicitly that he would indeed bear a son by Sarah, that the birth would occur one year later, and that the son’s name was to be Isaac (v. 21).

It is a profound lesson to learn that God’s promises can only be fulfilled by God’s power, and human efforts to effect His will, no matter how sincere or clever those efforts might be, are doomed to failure, and bring God dishonor rather than glory. Human effort, even for the purpose of keeping God’s commandments or of fulfilling His promises, is futile and is a form of works righteousness. In warning the Galatian believers against the legalistic Judaizers (those teaching that Christians must conform to the Mosaic law as well as believe in Jesus in order to be saved) Paul said, “Tell me, you who want to be under law, do you not listen to the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the bondwoman and one by the free woman. But the son by the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and the son by the free woman through the promise” (Gal. 4:21–23).

Ishmael illustrates the product of legalistic human self-effort, whereas Isaac illustrates the product of God’s sovereign and gracious provision. Paul reminded the Galatian believers that, because of their trust in Jesus Christ, they were, “like Isaac, children of promise” (4:28). They were God’s children by the working of His divine grace, not by the working of their own human efforts.

Just as God would not recognize Ishmael as the son of His promise to Abraham because that son was naturally conceived, He will not recognize as His spiritual children those who trust in their own goodness and accomplishments.

After showing that salvation comes by faith not works (Rom. 4:1–8) and from grace not law (vv. 9–17), Paul concludes the chapter (vv. 18–25) by showing that faith also comes by divine power, not by human effort. In this passage the apostle points out three realities of saving faith: its analysis (vv. 18–21), its answer (v. 22), and its application (vv. 23–25).

THE ANALYSIS OF ABRAHAM’S FAITH

In this passage Paul lists seven key characteristics of Abraham’s faith and of all faith that is God-given, the only kind of faith that results in salvation.

First, the apostle declares of Abraham that in hope against hope he believed. The terms hope and faith are related, but they are not the same. Hope, in this case, is the desire for something that might be true or might happen, whereas faith is the firm confidence that it is true or will happen. The ancient patriarch had hope when, from the human vantage point, there was absolutely no basis or justification for hope. Yet despite the seeming impossibility hoped for, he believed it would happen as God said.

The object of Abraham’s faith was God, and in particular His promise that he, that is, Abraham, might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken, “So shall your descendants be.” When the Lord had taken Abraham “outside and said, ‘Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them,’ and He said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be,’ then [Abraham] believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness” (Gen. 15:5–6).

Second, Paul declares that Abraham believed God without becoming weak in faith. To become weak in faith is to allow doubt to cloud and partly undermine belief. Abraham had been trusting God for 25 years, acknowledging, as Paul had just intimated, that “God … gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist” (Rom. 4:17). As far as we know, Abraham had witnessed no miracle of God. He had never seen God raise a person from the dead or call anything or anyone into being who did not already exist. Yet he firmly believed that the Lord was easily capable of doing such things. Commenting on that characteristic of Abraham’s faith, the writer of Hebrews said, “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac; and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son; it was he to whom it was said, ‘In Isaac your descendants shall be called.’ He considered that God is able to raise men even from the dead; from which he also received him back as a type” (Heb. 11:17–19).

Third, Paul tells us that Abraham’s faith prevented him from becoming discouraged by his own natural weakness. Because Abraham’s faith in God was strong and unwavering, his own ignorance and weakness were no obstacles to his trust. He therefore did not falter when he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old. Abraham’s natural procreative power was now gone, as good as dead, yet that physiological fact did not diminish his faith. Natural impotence was no problem to Abraham, because his faith was in the supernatural God who had created him in the first place.

Many generations before the time of Abraham, Noah had demonstrated similar unwavering faith in God. When the Lord commanded Noah to build an ark, he had never seen rain, because all the earth’s necessary moisture came from mist and dew. Yet for 120 long years Noah faithfully continued to build the ark, for no other reason than that it was God’s will. In obedience to God, he gathered the animals exactly according to the Lord’s instruction and led them into the ark before it started to rain, a phenomenon unknown until God then sovereignly opened the floodgates of the heavens.

“By faith Noah being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark” (Heb. 11:7). Noah did not build the ark because he saw a need for it but solely because that was his divine commission. Not only did he build the ark because of his faith in the Lord, but while he built he was also a faithful “preacher of righteousness” (2 Pet. 2:5) to the unbelieving multitudes around him, who doubtless ridiculed him incessantly about his seemingly foolish and pointless construction project. That is the kind of undaunted faith that Noah’s descendant Abraham had.

Fourth, Abraham did not doubt God’s promise when the circumstances around him seemed to make its fulfillment impossible. When God repeated the specific promise that Isaac would be born to Abraham and Sarah the following year, both “Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; Sarah was past childbearing” (Gen. 18:11–14; cf. 17:21). But the deadness of Sarah’s womb was no more a hindrance to Abraham’s faith than was the impotence of his own body.

Fifth, with respect to the promise of God, Abraham did not waver in unbelief. He did not vacillate between faith and doubt as many believers frequently do. When from the human viewpoint things are going well, it is easy to trust God. But when things seem impossible, it is even easier to distrust Him. Sarah was a woman of faith, and “she considered Him faithful who had promised” (Heb. 11:11). But before her faith came to that point of unqualified trust, she had laughed at the promise she overheard the Lord making to her husband (Gen. 18:12).

It would seem from the Genesis narratives that Paul was mistaken about Abraham’s unwavering faith. When “the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, ‘Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; your reward shall be very great,’… Abram said, ‘O Lord God, what wilt Thou give me, since I am childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus? … Since Thou hast given no offspring to me, one born in my house is my heir’” (Gen. 15:1–3). Abraham openly admitted before God that he could not understand how the divine promise of an heir, much less of a multitude of nations, could be fulfilled. The only heir he could see was his chief servant, Eliezer, who would have received Abraham’s inheritance had no son been born to him by Sarah.

But struggling faith is not doubt, just as temptation to sin is not itself sin. The very fact that Abraham was trying to understand how God’s promise could be fulfilled indicates he was looking for a way of fulfillment, although he could not yet see a way. Weaker faith might have simply succumbed to doubt. Sincere struggling with spiritual problems comes from strong, godly faith. Such faith refuses to doubt and trusts in God’s promises, even when no way of fulfillment is humanly imaginable. God’s testing of His children’s faith is designed to strengthen their trust, and they should thank Him for it, hard as it seems to be at the time (see James 1:2–4). When Abraham was tested by God, he grew strong in faith.

John Calvin wisely observed that believers “are never so enlightened that there are no remains of ignorance, nor is the heart so established that there are no misgivings.” A Christian who claims to understand all of God’s truth and to envision the fulfillment of all His promises is not demonstrating great faith but great presumption. Godly faith is not full understanding but full trust, “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1).

Sixth, Paul says that Abraham’s faith was characterized by his giving glory to God. Godly faith glorifies God; the One who gives faith receives all the credit. Conversely, any faith that does not glorify God is not of or from Him. Faith in God, because it affirms His trustworthy character, is the supreme way that men glorify Him, while without faith, any attempt to worship, praise, or honor Him is a worthless, self-righteous sham. John makes the sobering declaration that “the one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the witness that God has borne concerning His Son” (1 John 5:10).

When King Nebuchadnezzar ordered Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to worship the golden image under threat of death, they calmly replied, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to give you an answer concerning this. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up” (Dan. 3:16–18). The overriding concern of those three young men was to honor, obey, and glorify God, just as their forefather Abraham had done.

As they sailed across the Mediterranean Sea on their way to Rome, Paul and his fellow travelers encountered a fierce storm that threatened to tear the ship apart. Even after throwing all the ship’s cargo and tackle overboard, they continued to founder, and everyone but Paul gave up hope of survival. Luke reports that

when they had gone a long time without food, then Paul stood up in their midst and said, “Men, you ought to have followed my advice and not to have set sail from Crete, and incurred this damage and loss. And yet now I urge you to keep up your courage, for there shall be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. For this very night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood before me, saying, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar; and behold, God has granted you all those who are sailing with you.’ Therefore, keep up your courage, men, for I believe God, that it will turn out exactly as I have been told.” (Acts 27:21–25)

Not even the most hazardous of circumstances could weaken Paul’s trust in his heavenly Father, and it is through such trust that His children glorify and honor Him the most.

Seventh, Abraham was fully persuaded that God’s promise was certain and His power sufficient, being fully assured that what He had promised, He was able also to perform. This statement sums up the fact that his faith in God was complete and unqualified.

THE ANSWER TO ABRAHAM’S FAITH

Therefore also it was reckoned to him as righteousness. (4:22)

The heart of this entire passage, in fact of the whole chapter, is that in response to Abraham’s faith, God graciously reckoned it to him as righteousness. In his sinful flesh, Abraham was totally unable to meet God’s standard of perfect righteousness. But the good news of salvation, “the gospel of God” (Rom. 1:1), is that the Lord will take the faith that He Himself has enabled a person to possess and count that faith as divine righteousness on the believing sinner’s behalf.

It is not that faith merits salvation but that faith accepts salvation from God’s gracious hand. Through that acceptance comes the righteousness that only God can impart.

THE APPLICATION OF ABRAHAM’S FAITH

Now not for his sake only was it written, that it was reckoned to him, but for our sake also, to whom it will be reckoned, as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, He who was delivered up because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification. (4:23–25)

The marvelous thing about Abraham’s faith being reckoned as righteousness is that the same divine principle applies to every person who trusts in God’s Son. The Holy Spirit inspired that truth to be written … for our sake also, to whom it will be reckoned just as it was for Abraham.

No part of Scripture was given only for the time in which it was written. The psalmist declares, “For [God] established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers, that they should teach them to their children, that the generation to come might know, even the children yet to be born, that they may arise and tell them to their children, that they should put their confidence in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments” (Ps. 78:5–7). Paul expresses the same truth later in the book of Romans: “For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Rom. 15:4).

The story of Abraham and of his faith is important to us today because men are now saved on exactly the same basis on which Abraham was saved—trust in God. Even the sacrificial work of Jesus was the provision for Abraham’s sin by which God saved him. Men today have much greater divine revelation than Abraham had. During his lifetime, and for many centuries afterward, there was no written Word of God. Yet Jesus declared categorically to the disbelieving Jewish leaders that “Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad” (John 8:56).

From the human side, the key phrase in Romans 4:24 is who believe in Him. Faith is the necessary condition for salvation. As the eleventh chapter of Hebrews makes clear, the only persons who have ever been received by God are those who have received Him by faith.

If, despite his limited revelation, Abraham could anticipate the Savior and believe that God could raise the dead, how much more reason do men today have to believe that the Father did indeed raise Jesus our Lord from the dead, in order that those who believe “in Him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16)?

Jesus was delivered up because of our transgression, and was raised because of our justification. Delivered up was a judicial term, referring to the commitment of a criminal to his punishment. Jesus Christ was delivered up to serve the sentence of death that our transgressions deserve, and He was raised up to provide the justification before God that we could never attain in our own power or merit.

The great nineteenth-century theologian Charles Hodge wrote,

With a dead Saviour, a Saviour over whom death had triumphed and held captive, our justification had been for ever impossible. As it was necessary that the high priest, under the old economy, should not only slay the victim at the altar, but carry the blood into the most holy place, and sprinkle it upon the mercy-seat; so it was necessary not only that our great High Priest should suffer in the outer court, but that he should pass into heaven to present his righteousness before God for our justification. Both, therefore, as the evidence of the acceptance of his satisfaction on our behalf, and as a necessary step to secure the application of the merits of his sacrifice, the resurrection of Christ was absolutely essential, even for our justification. (Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983 reprint], p. 129)

Despite his claims of scientific objectivism, modern man has become enthralled by the supernatural and by the prospect of extraterrestrial beings. Eastern mysticism, in many forms and degrees, is sweeping the intellectually “enlightened” world as never before in history. Many men and women of great prominence would not think of making a major decision or taking an extended trip without consulting their horoscopes.

This demonstrates that it is not that modern, educated, sophisticated man is beyond belief in the supernatural or the miraculous. It is rather that, like unbelieving men of all ages, he inherently resists the supernatural and miraculous work of Jesus Christ. For that supernatural, miraculous work to be effective, a person must confess and renounce his transgressions, which is the supreme offense to man’s depraved nature. But only by such confession and repentance, which always accompany true faith, can a person receive the justification, the reckoning of undeserved righteousness to his account, that the sacrifice of Christ makes possible.