Romans 4:13-25--The Promise Realized Through Faith

Romans 4:13-25
English Standard Version

The Promise Realized Through Faith​
13 For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law 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. 15 For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression.

16 That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace 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 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.

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We're still on the topic of the Abrahamic covenant and whether that was a covenant of grace or of works.  Paul argues that there all the promises of the Abrahamic Covenant took place before the Law and therefore apart from the Law (the Law was the cornerstone of the Mosaic Covenant).  Instead, Paul argues that the Abrahamic covenant came about through the righteousness of faith.

Paul then strengthens his argument by saying that if the promises were conditional on obedience and adherence to the Law, then both faith and the promise itself is void because it would be a promise that God would never intend to keep, since no one with a sin nature is capable of keeping the Law (only Adam and Jesus could do that).

Then we repeat a common theme of the book--"For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression."  Paul has been making the argument that all of us are guilty for the Law that we did know and rebelled against and will continue to make this argument with some specific examples later like not being guilty of covetousness until Paul read the Law "Thou shalt not covet" and understood what it meant to cover that he then realized he was a law-breaker because he was a coveter at heart.  Before that he felt no conviction about coveting because he had no idea there was a Law against it or that he was breaking that Law. (See Romans 7:7-25 which we should probably get to in another week or two).

​Paul goes back to why it is that the Abrahamic Covenant and Abraham's salvation were both by grace alone and faith alone and not made or kept by works (acts of righteousness) or broken by acts of unrighteousness.  The ultimate fulfillment of this covenant is a covenant of grace and faith that is available to all people by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, and the first covenant and the first promise were also made to all people, "Through you, all the nations of the world will be blessed," and "I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you," so that the beginning is but a shadow of the greater promise and greater covenant that was to come.  Our interpretation of the Abrahamic covenant is key to how we decide to later interpret the covenant of salvation through Jesus Christ (which Paul is going to spend much of the book of Romans spelling out).  Paul says that Abraham believed that God could make "impossible" things happen because He's the same God who made everything out of nothing by the word of His mouth and makes that which is dead to be alive.  So then it was not hard for this infertile man to believe that when God swore by Himself to Abraham, “I have made you the father of many nations," Abraham understood that this was something that was already done to God and that all he needed to do was believe in the promise and the One who made the promise (we'll see that part of that belief will be obedience in accordance with the faith that we have as Abraham and Sarah still needed to act for Isaac to be born, but it was not through their own planning that Isaac was born--that's how Ishmael was born, but we'll get to that distinction later).
"No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. " (vs. 20-21)
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Now Paul returns to the statement "Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness"  Paul says this verse is given not simply for the benefit of Abraham, but for the benefit of all of us.  The fact that righteousness was something that was "counted" to Him and was not something earned or that he was entitled to, then we also understand the same about the righteousness of God that we are clothed in that comes from God through faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  For our sake, the Son took the punishment that we deserved and became the sin what was our identity, so that we might take on His identity, possess His righteousness by faith and through this that we would become co-heirs of everything good that the Father has planned for His Son and all the rest of His children including the New Heaven, the New Earth, and eternal life (not to mention all the blessings we experience here and now).