ACC ~ Romans 4 v18 - 25

OVERVIEW:

To faith Abraham added hope, even when that flew in the face of reality. In natural terms there was no chance that an old couple like Abraham and Sarah would have children, and yet they did. Hope in the power of God to achieve the impossible is therefore integral to the Christian faith. Abraham’s justification was not a private affair. Rather, it was intended to be a model for us. Our faith as Christians is rooted not in belief in the Creator but in the fact that the Creator raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Christ’s death and resurrection are the pattern of the Christian life, in which we die to sin in baptism and are born again to a new life of righteousness.

4:18 | Believing Against Natural Hope

THE RESURRECTION HOPE. ORIGEN: As always, when the apostle Paul talks about faith, he adds hope as well, and rightly so, for hope and faith are inseparable. … Just as Abraham believed against hope, so all believers do the same, for we all believe in the resurrection of the dead and the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven. These appear to go against hope as far as human nature is concerned, but when we take the power of God into consideration, there is no problem. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

THE STARS IN THE SKY. AMBROSIASTER: It is clear that since Abraham had no hope of having a son, he believed God and had faith against hope that he would have a son, knowing that with God all things are possible.

The quotation is from Genesis [15:5], where God shows Abraham the stars of the sky and says: “So shall your descendants be,” because in believing he was justified. For Abraham believed what seems impossible to the world because it does not occur in the order of nature that old people should have children and know that their seed will increase to such an extent that it will be impossible to count them. Therefore, faith is precious because it believes in the future, even against what it now sees or knows. For it consoles itself in this hope, that it is God who promises. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

IN HOPE HE BELIEVED AGAINST HOPE. PELAGIUS: It was against all natural hope for a hundred-year-old man to believe that his seed would become as numerous as the stars, especially given that his wife had been barren in her youth and was now as feeble as he was. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

THEODORET OF CYR: Abraham believed against the hope of nature but in the hope of the promise of God. INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS.

4:19 | Trusting God, Not the Body

TRUSTING GOD MORE THAN HIS HUNDRED-YEAR-OLD BODY. ORIGEN: This may be understood literally or figuratively. In the literal sense, Abraham did not put his trust in his hundred-year-old body, which was obviously incapable of doing what God had promised him, but rather he trusted in God, the Almighty One who could perform what he had promised even when the laws of human fertility no longer functioned. … Figuratively, however, it may be understood in the light of what Paul says elsewhere: “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you.” It would be absurd to suggest that what Paul had in this respect was somehow lacking to Abraham. For Abraham also had put his earthly members to death, being neither excited by luxury nor inflamed by lust. … Sarah likewise did not suffer from lust or the desires of the flesh. … When they heard what God had promised them, they did not consider their own benefit. … All these things that would make them rich they regarded as worthless in order that they might win Christ, whose coming they foresaw. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

PELAGIUS: Faith takes no aspect of nature into account, because it knows that the one who spoke is almighty. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

OECUMENIUS: Paul was right to say: “about a hundred,” because Abraham was not a hundred but only ninety-nine years old. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

4:20 | Growing Strong in Faith

TRUSTING THE PROMISE. CHRYSOSTOM: Abraham trusted God even though God gave him no proof, nor even a sign. Rather, there were only mere words promising things which by nature were impossible. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 8.

GLORY TO GOD. AUGUSTINE: Paul says that Abraham “gave glory to God” when he was attacking those who were seeking their own glory in the sight of men by doing the works of the law. AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 25.

PELAGIUS: Abraham doubted neither the impossibility of old age nor the greatness of the promise. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

4:21 | Convinced of God’s Ability

NO FEAR THAT GOD CANNOT DO THE ENTIRE WORK. AUGUSTINE: God brings about the faith of the Gentiles, because he is able to perform what he has promised. If it is God who produces our faith, acting in a wondrous manner in our hearts so that we believe, surely we should not fear that he cannot do the entire work. PREDESTINATION OF THE SAINTS 2.6.

PELAGIUS: Abraham thanked God as if he had already received the gift. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

4:22 | Faith Reckoned as Righteousness

HE STRENGTHENED HIS WEAKNESS BY FAITH. AMBROSIASTER: Paul claims that Abraham is worthy of this praise because although he knew that he could not do it himself, he strengthened his weakness by faith, so that he believed that with God’s help he could do what he knew was impossible by the laws of the universe. He was of great merit before God because he believed God over against his own knowledge, not doubting that because he was God he could do things which were impossible according to the world’s wisdom.

Paul therefore urges the Gentiles to believe as firmly as Abraham did so that they might receive the promise of God and his grace without any hesitation, secure in the example of Abraham that the praise given to a believer increases if he believes what is incredible and seems to be foolish to the world. For the more foolish what he believes is thought to be, the more honor he will have, and indeed it would be foolish to believe it if it were said to occur without God. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

PELAGIUS: This was because Abraham believed so completely and so steadfastly. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

4:23 | Not Only for Abraham

A MODEL FOR FAITH. AMBROSIASTER: Paul says that in Abraham a model was given to both Jews and Gentiles, so that by his example we might believe in God and Christ and the Holy Spirit, and that it might be reckoned to us as righteousness. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

4:24 | For Our Sake Also

BELIEVING THAT GOD COULD RAISE ISAAC FROM NOTHING. ORIGEN: Note that Paul does not speak of those who believe that God is supreme, or of those who believe that he made heaven and earth, or of those who believe that he made the angels and the other hosts of the heavenly glory. Rather, he speaks of those who believe in the God who raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Did Abraham believe in this God even before he had raised Jesus? … Abraham’s faith contained within it the form and image of this great mystery. For when he was ordered to sacrifice his only son, he believed that God could raise him up from the dead. Moreover, he did not believe this of Isaac only but also of his seed, which is Christ. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

FOR OURS ALSO. AMBROSIASTER: Although what is now believed is different, faith has one and the same gift. Therefore we receive this gift because we believe. And believing that Christ is the Son of God, we are adopted as sons, for God could give no greater gift to believers than to call them sons of God once they had renounced their sins. For we are called “sons of God,” but they are not worthy even to be called servants. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

THE FATHER’S WORK THROUGH THE SON. APOLLINARIS OF LAODICEA: The Lord is building his own temple, for the Father raised Christ from the dead in order to do his work through the Son. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

IMITATE ABRAHAM’S EXAMPLE. PELAGIUS: We are meant to imitate Abraham’s example as if he were our father, just as we imitate the examples of the saints, by which they pleased the Lord. They were tempted so that they might know themselves and so that we might follow them. We shall benefit if we believe as completely that God has raised Christ from the dead as Abraham believed that his body, which was as good as dead, could be made alive in order to produce children. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

4:25 | Christ Crucified and Resurrected

PUT TO DEATH FOR OUR TRESPASSES. ORIGEN: Paul says this in order to show that we ought to hate and reject the things for which Christ died. For if we believe that he was sacrificed for our sins, how can we not consider every sin to be alien and hostile to us, considering that our Lord was handed over to death because of it? . . .

If we have risen together with Christ, who is our justification, and we now walk in newness of life and live according to righteousness, then Christ has risen for the purpose of our justification. But if we have not yet cast off the old man with all his works but instead live in unrighteousness, I dare to suggest that Christ has not yet risen for our justification, nor has he been sacrificed for our sins. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

WE CANNOT BE HELD BY DEATH. AMBROSIASTER: Those who were baptized before Christ’s passion received only the remission of their sins. … But after the resurrection both those who were baptized before and those who were baptized after were all justified by the set form of faith in the Trinity, and they received the Holy Spirit, who is the sign of believers that they are children of God. … For by the Savior’s passion death is vanquished. Once it was dominant because of sin, but it does not dare to hang on to those who have been justified by God. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

WHY CRUCIFIED AND RAISED. CHRYSOSTOM: After mentioning the cause of Christ’s death, Paul goes on to make the same cause a demonstration of the resurrection. For why was Christ crucified? Not for any sins of his own—and this is plain from the resurrection. For if Christ had been a sinner, how could he have risen from the dead? So if he did rise, it is clear that he was not a sinner. … Moreover, Christ did not die in order to make us liable to punishment and condemnation but in order to do good to us. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 9.

RAISED FOR OUR JUSTIFICATION. [PSEUDO-]CONSTANTIUS: Christ was not raised for justice (which would have condemned us) but for our justification. THE HOLY LETTER OF ST. PAUL TO THE ROMANS.

PELAGIUS: Christ wiped away our sins by his death, and, rising again in the same state as the one in which he died, he appeared to believers in order to confirm their righteousness. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

HIS RESURRECTION PREFIGURES THE GENERAL RESURRECTION. THEODORET OF CYR: Christ underwent suffering for our sins in order to pay our debt and so that his resurrection might prefigure the general resurrection of us all. INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS.