Romans 4:18-25 – Salvation by Grace Through Faith

We hear the Word of God which brings the faith needed for us to believe. So what the people in times past had faith in was not the same as what we have faith in today, obviously, because more words of God and more things of God have been revealed to us today. In times past there was no book of Romans or any book of our new testament today.

But it’s still faith that God counts for righteousness throughout human history.

So Paul’s teaching that salvation will ultimately be by grace through faith to everyone who believes, because no one can save themselves. It has to be by God’s grace through faith.

 

As we travel through the epistle to the Romans we can’t help but realise it’s importance to the church, the Body of Christ today.

How sad it is that this epistle, especially the chapters we’ve studied, is almost completely neglected by modern church leadership which miserably fails to teach it’s precious people the truth so clearly and painstakingly outlined in Paul’s epistles, especially Romans.

Outside of Paul’s epistles, Romans through to Philemon, we simply cannot know the purpose, the foundation of the Body of Christ and our individual part in it.

 

Romans 4:16 says, therefore it is of faith, not your works, not your circumcision, not the law, that it might be by grace.

And so if Isarel received righteousness or the promises or blessing from God by works, by the law, through circumcision, or national heritage then it’s not by grace. It’s based on who they are in the flesh and what they’ve done in the flesh, it’s not by grace.

That’s what the Old Testament taught as well. God’s a gracious God. He had to be merciful to give his blessings. And Paul’s doing everything he can to urge them, the Jews, and us, to understand that.

 

Through the rest of Romans 4 Paul’s talking about how it’s by grace through faith, and how that’s a righteous and good thing and how faith stands alone so the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to that which are of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham.

Paul’s showing in Romans 4 is that it was never enough for Israel just to be “under the law.” They also had to have faith. Without faith, even an Israelite could not receive the promises. Paul goes back to Abraham to show this.

Not all Abraham’s physical children received the promise—only the children of promise, the ones who believed. Not all the circumcision received it—only the ones who believed. Not all Israel received it—only those who believed. Jesus Himself taught this when He said Israel had to believe on Him to receive the kingdom.

 

So Paul turns from talking about Israel to saying Abraham is quote “the father of us all.”

Why? Because as we’ve pointed out many times, Abraham was counted righteous before circumcision, before the law, and before Israel even existed. He had nothing but faith. That’s why, based on Abraham’s pattern, righteousness can be imputed to anyone who believes—Jew or Gentile.

 

Romans 4:11 says circumcision was only a seal of the righteousness Abraham already had by faith when he was uncircumcised.

That made him the father of all who believe, whether circumcised or not. Righteousness is imputed by faith—not works, not circumcision, not Israel, not the law.

 

In Romans 4:17 Paul quotes Genesis 17: “I have made thee a father of many nations.”

God didn’t say “I will make you”—He said “I have made you.”

The promise was already settled.

Galatians 3:8 says this,

And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. 

 

Abraham didn’t know about the cross or resurrection, but he knew God’s words and believed them. That’s why Galatians 3:9 says those who are of faith are “blessed with faithful Abraham.”

 

Abraham heard God’s promise of a seed and many nations. He believed, and God imputed righteousness to him.

Paul’s point is simple: if Abraham received righteousness by faith before circumcision and before the law, then anyone can.

Even Israel must come by faith, not by saying “we have the law” or “we’re circumcised.” And since Abraham was uncircumcised when he believed, Gentiles can also receive righteousness by faith.

So Abraham is the father of Israel who believe, and the father of Gentiles who believe. And for the body of Christ today, the pattern is the same: we trust God, we respond in faith, and God imputes righteousness. That’s the whole point of Romans 4—righteousness by faith avaiable for all.

 

However the content of faith differs between dispensations and that’s vital to understand.

Abraham believed he would be the father of many nations. Moses believed Israel would be a blessing to the world. Gentiles in time past believed they would be blessed through Israel. But today we believe the gospel of Christ’s death and resurrection as we just read in Romans 4:24–25.

Same God, same faith, same imputation—different message.

 

Abraham’s the only one of the patriarchs promised to be the father of many nations, and the only one given a promise before circumcision. That’s why he alone can be “the father of us all.”

Gentiles who believe do not inherit Israel’s earthly promises. They’re not the promised nation. They receive righteousness by faith, but not Israel’s land or kingdom blessings.

And the body of Christ today is not Gentiles seeking blessing through Israel—we’re saved today directly by grace through faith.

 

That is Paul’s whole argument in Romans 4.

 

In Galatians 3:16 Paul says

Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. 

 

The promises were made to Abraham and his seed, singular, not seeds, plural, and this seed is Christ.

Some people struggle with that because Genesis and Romans 4 clearly show God promised Abraham many descendants—“as the stars” and “as the dust.” Paul himself says Abraham would be the father of many nations. So why does Paul stress one seed instead of many?

Because both are true.

God promised Abraham a multiplied seed—many nations—but that whole multiplied blessing would come through one son.

Abraham had Ishmael and other children, but the promised line came through Isaac, who pictures Christ.

So in Galatians 3 Paul’s not saying Gentiles get Israel’s earthly blessings. He’s saying Gentiles in the body of Christ receive blessing through the one Seed, Jesus Christ.

 

Galatians 3:7 says those “of faith” are the children of Abraham—not by flesh, not by circumcision, not by Israel’s covenants. Galatians 3:9 says those of faith are “blessed with faithful Abraham.” Galatians 3:22 says the promise is given “to them that believe.” while Galatians 3:26 says we are children of God “by faith in Jesus Christ.”

So how do we get imputed righteousness? By faith in Christ’s finished work. Abraham is our father only in that sense—faith, not flesh.

 

Romans 4:17 says Abraham is “the father of us all” before God, who “quickens the dead.” Romans 4:18 says Abraham believed “against hope” that he would become the father of many nations.

What Abraham believed is different from what we believe, but Who he believed is the same as us. How he responded is the same, and what God imputed is the same—righteousness by faith.

 

The “seed” in Romans 4:18 is the multiplied seed. In Galatians 3 Paul shows that the multiplied nations come through one seed—Christ. So the seed is many but through one.

 

Romans 4 explains why faith alone glorifies God more than any work. People attack “faith alone” by saying it ignores good works, but Paul shows faith is powerful because its object is God Himself. Abraham’s faith was not faith in himself, or faith in faith, or faith that “anything can happen.” It was faith in God, who “quickens the dead” as Romans 4:17 states.

 

“Quicken” is a strong word. It doesn’t just mean “the giving of life”—it means giving life to the dead.

1 Corinthians 15:45 says,

And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.

 

Jesus, the “last Adam,” is a quickening spirit. We’re born spiritually dead, and Christ makes us alive. That’s why the word “quicken” matters.

 

In John 5:21 Jesus tells us,

For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. 

 

Jesus is the one who’ll raise the righteous and the wicked. He’s the quickening one.

 

1 Corinthians 15:36 says a seed is not quickened unless it dies. Life from the dead is God’s specialty. That’s why Abraham’s faith was strong—he trusted the God who brings life out of death.

 

So Paul’s point in Romans 4 is simple:

• Abraham believed God.
• God imputed righteousness to him.
• This happened before circumcision, before the law, before Israel.
• Therefore righteousness can be imputed to anyone who believes—Jew or Gentile.
• And today we believe the gospel of Christ’s death and resurrection, and God imputes righteousness to us the same way.

 

In Romans 4, Paul shows what was “dead” in Abraham’s life. Romans 4:19 says Abraham did not consider his own body “now dead,” nor the “deadness of Sarah’s womb.” They were too old to have a child. Yet God promised Abraham a seed. So Abraham had to trust the God who brings life out of death. That’s the whole point.

 

Scripture gives many examples of God quickening dead wombs:

• Rebekah in Genesis 25
• Hannah, mother of Samuel in 1 Samuel 2:21
• Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist Luke 1:5-25
• And even Mary’s miraculous conception Luke 1:27-38

God brings life where there is no life.

 

Romans 4:17 says,

(As it is written, I have made thee (Abraham) a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.

 

When God speaks, His words create reality. Our words don’t.

He told Abraham, “Your wife will have a child,” even though everything looked impossible. God’s words never returns void.

This isn’t like people setting goals and hoping they reach them. We fail all the time. But when God says something will be, it will be—even if it requires supernatural intervention.

Genesis 1:3 shows this,

And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. 

 

His words have power. Our words do not. This’s where the Word‑of‑Faith movement goes terribly wrong. God’s words create; man’s words do not.

Isaiah 46:9–10 rebukes false gods and shows God’s uniqueness,

Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, 

Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:

 

You want to be sure the Bible is really the word of God? God proves it by prophecy—He tells the future and brings it to pass. Men fail at this constantly. False prophets have always existed, from Elijah’s day to now. But God’s word stands.

Isaiah even named Cyrus 100 years before he was born, describing how he would send Israel back from Babylon. Ezra records the fulfillment. The Bible is full of prophecy and fulfillment across 1,500 years and 40 writers. No other book can do that.

 

Isaiah 46:11 says,

…I (God) have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it. 

 

Isaiah 55:11 says God’s word will not return void,

So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. 

 

That’s why Abraham could trust God. And that’s why we can trust Him. The same God who quickened Abraham’s dead situation is the God who quickens our dead spirit when we believe the gospel.

That truth helps us today when we wonder why God uses weak, ordinary people in the church to preach the gospel of grace.

God doesn’t want the “best” people—He wants sinners who’ll just believe what He says.

There’re many people who think they’re good but reject God just as there are those who know the extent of their sinfulness but believe God. Those who trust His word become the vessels He uses.

 

So, Abraham believed God “who quickens the dead and calls those things which be not as though they were.” That’s the heart of faith and hope. When God speaks something that’s not yet seen, faith believes Him.

If you think God’s words are nonsense, you don’t believe.

But Abraham heard God say he would have a son through a barren wife, and he believed. Even though he laughed at first he trusted the God who brings life out of death.

 

Hebrews 11:1 says,

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 

 

Faith is not blind willpower. Faith must rest on what God said. If we believe a pastor, a priest, or anyone else instead of God’s words, our faith is empty.

Faith comes by hearing the Word of God as Romans 10:17 says. God’s words are the substance and the evidence that those words are true is that God Himself said them, and God cannot lie.

Faith glorifies God—because the object of faith is God’s power and truth. Abraham didn’t trust his own strength or ability. He trusted God’s promise.

 

Romans 4:19 says of Abraham,

And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara’s womb: 

 

At nearly 100 years old, everything he saw in the natural told him the promise was impossible. But God’s words made him rethink what he saw in the natural. Faith changed his thoughts. That’s what strong faith is—not strong works, but strong confidence in God’s promise, what He’s said.

Romans 4:18 says Abraham “against hope believed in hope.”

His situation was hopeless, but God had spoken. Abraham expected God to do what He said.

That’s hope—expecting what’s not yet seen.

The same thing happened later when God told Abraham to offer Isaac. Hebrews 11:19 tells how Abraham believed God would raise Isaac from the dead if needed. He trusted God’s promise more than what he saw with his natural senses.

 

So what is weak faith and strong faith?

Strong faith is not strong works. A person can do many good works and still have weak faith. Strong faith is believing God’s words even when everything we see says otherwise. Weak faith is trusting what we see in this world and through our natural senses more than what God said.

Romans 4 teaches that Abraham’s faith glorified God because he believed God’s promise, not his own ability. And that’s the same kind of faith God counts for righteousness today.

 

Paul’s point in Romans 4 is simple: God promised Abraham a seed, and Abraham knew he could not produce that child by his own works.

This was before the law and before circumcision. Abraham said, “We can’t do it—God will have to.”

That faith—not works—was counted for righteousness.

 

Sarah had the same kind of faith. Hebrews 11:11 reads,

Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. 

 

She knew her womb was dead, but she believed God anyway. She laughed at first, but she still believed.

Their faith was strong because the object of that faith was strong—God Himself. Faith glorifies God when it trusts what He said He would do.

 

Jesus said in Matthew 26:41 “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Our flesh is weak. The law is weak when it comes to righteousness.

Romans 8:3 says the law “was weak through the flesh.”

Galatians 4:9 calls the law “weak and beggarly.”

Our good works are weak too. None of these things can justify us. Only faith is strong because it rests on God’s power not ours.

 

Some Christians misunderstand the “little faith” and the “mustard‑seed faith” that Jesus spoke of.

In Matthew 6:30, Jesus rebukes Israel for their “little faith” relating to their provision. That passage is not written to the church, the body of Christ today. Paul tells us, “If you don’t work, you don’t eat.” Different dispensation.

 

In Matthew 16, Jesus again says “O ye of little faith” when the disciples think He’s talking about bread to eat. They believed in Him, but they didn’t understand His words. That’s the key.

Faith is tied to understanding God’s words. If we don’t understand what God said, our faith is little. If we understand and believe what God said, our faith grows.

Faith’s not measured in “bars on a chart” or “levels.”

Hebrews 11:1 says faith is “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” The substance is God’s words. The evidence is that God Himself said them.

Faith comes by hearing the Word of God. If we believe in something God never said, that’s not faith at all.

 

In Matthew 17:20, Jesus says faith like a mustard seed can move mountains. But again, faith only works when it is based on what God said. Did God tell me to move a mountain? I can’t believe something into existence if God never promised it.

Churches today often claim “we can do anything if we believe,” but if God didn’t say it, that’s not faith it’s unbelief dressed up as faith and it’s a cruel deception.

 

Abraham’s faith was strong because he believed God’s promise even when everything he saw said it was impossible.

Romans 4:19 says he “considered not his own body now dead” nor Sarah’s dead womb. God’s words changed how he thought. That’s what strong faith looks like, trusting God’s promise over what our eyes and our other senses see and feel.

 

So Paul’s whole point is that:

• Flesh is weak.
• The law is weak.
• Works are weak.
• But faith in God’s promise is strong.
• And that’s why God counts faith for righteousness.

 

So, when Jesus said, “If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you can move mountains,” that only works if God actually told you to move a mountain.

If God didn’t say it, you won’t do it. When God told Moses to lift his staff, the Red Sea parted. If some Israelite boy tried the same thing today, nothing would happen. Why? Because God didn’t tell him to do it. It’s God who works, not people. Faith comes from what God said, not from what we dream of and try to imagine.

That’s why “people of faith” in every religion are not the same. What are they believing? Do they know the true God? Are they believing His words? If not, their faith is empty.

Even many churches today believe things God never said. Faith comes by hearing God’s Word. Abraham knew God, heard what God said, and believed Him. That’s why his faith was strong—because he believed that God could do what He promised.

 

Christians often say, “We can do anything if we have faith.”

No.

We can do anything God said we can do. If God didn’t promise it, it’s not faith—it’s wishful thinking.

God did give some people miracle‑working power in the Bible, but He didn’t give that to you and me. What He gave you and me is the power of the gospel, the power which saves sinners as we see in Romans 1:16.

Faith doesn’t grow through feelings, music, or emotion. Faith grows by hearing God’s words and believing them and we must rightly divide those words.

If we believe something God said to Israel or Abraham or Moses or David but never said to us, that’s not faith.

 

Philippians 4:13 says,

I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. 

Paul wasn’t saying he could do anything he imagined. He meant he could endure anything—abundance or suffering—because Christ strengthened his inner man. His faith rested in Christ’s work, not his own strength.

 

Grace through faith is strong when we’re weak. We walk by faith, not by sight as 2 Corinthians 5:7 says. We don’t look at circumstances for truth—we look at God’s Word. When Paul was weak, Christ was strong in him says 2 Corinthians 12:9–10.

 

Romans 4:20 says Abraham “staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God.”

To stagger is to doubt what God said. Abraham and Sarah both laughed at first, but they believed. They didn’t stagger in unbelief—they were persuaded God would do what He promised.

 

So, strong faith is not strong works. It’s not boldness, stubbornness, or education. A person can be bold and still believe the wrong thing. A person can be highly educated and have no faith at all.

Faith comes only from hearing God’s Word and being persuaded that God will do what He said.

Tradition, rituals, candles, and ceremonies are not faith. Faith is trusting God’s promise.

 

So when Romans 4 says Abraham was “strong in faith, giving glory to God,” it doesn’t mean he held a worship service. It means he honoured God by believing Him. That is what glorifies God—trusting His Word.

God is glorified when a man believes what He said and trusts that He’ll do it.

That’s glorifying God, not stubbornness, not good works, not building temples God never told us to build.

Israel glorified God under the law because God told them to do those works. But in this dispensation, God never told us to build temples or perform Israel’s rituals. Faith today is simply knowing what God said and believing He will do it.

 

In this dispensation, God promised eternal life when we die if we trust in Christ’s death and resurrection.

He didn’t promise wealth, health, beauty, or an easy life. He promised resurrection. And since that promise is fulfilled after death, no one can test it or disprove it. We either believe God or we don’t.

That’s why faith today is undefeatable—because it rests on God’s promise, not on anything we can see.

 

Abraham had to see God’s promise fulfilled before he died. If he died childless, God would be a liar. But for us, God’s promise is fulfilled after death. So everything rests on faith in God’s word.

 

Romans 4:21 says Abraham was “fully persuaded” that what God promised, He was able to perform. God didn’t promise and then Abraham perform, God promised and God performed. Faith is simply being persuaded that God will do what He said.

If we don’t know what God said, we can’t have faith. But if we hear, “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord,” then you know exactly what God promised.

 

Hebrews 11:1 also says,

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

What’s the evidence? Scripture. What God has said.

Christ died, Christ rose, Christ lives. That’s the proof God keeps His word. But faith itself rests on God’s character. Romans 3:4 says, “Let God be true and every man a liar”. People fail. No matter what the movies may portray, man’s word can’t be relied on but God’s word never fails. This’s why we need to be sure of what exactly His word is.

 

1 Thessalonians 2:13 says this,

For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe. 

 

The Word of God “works effectually in them that believe.”

God works after faith—that’s why it’s grace through faith. Without trust, there’s no relationship. God says, “Believe Me, and I’ll give you everything I’ve promised you in Christ.”

Paul told Timothy this in 1 Timothy 4:13,

Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.

 

That’s how faith grows—through God’s words, not through man’s books or man’s words and that’s why Bible study matters.

 

Romans 4:21 says God is able to perform what He promised. He’s able. That’s faith. Hearing what He said, knowing that He’s able and believing that He will.

Israel’s New Covenant also depended on God performing, not them. The Old Covenant said, “You perform.” The New Covenant said, “I will perform.” God puts His Spirit in them so He performs through them.

 

So Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3:4–5,

And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward: Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; 

 

That knowledge that our sufficiency is of God made Paul an able minister, not Paul himself. God revealed His wisdom, and Paul believed it.

So, Romans 4 teaches:

• Faith glorifies God.
• Faith rests on God’s promise.
• Faith trusts God’s ability.
• Faith stands when everything else falls.

Because God said it, God performs it.

God’s sufficiency is His grace . It’s Him doing what we cannot do.

That’s what Abraham learned. He didn’t stagger at God’s promise. He was fully persuaded that God was able to perform what He promised. That’s grace. Not the grace of the cross yet, but the grace of God giving him a son when he and Sarah were as good as dead. It was by grace, not works, and through faith in what God said.

 

So Romans 4:22 says, “therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.” At the start of the chapter Paul asked, “What did Abraham find?” He found that righteousness was counted to him when he believed God. Now Paul explains why. It’s because Abraham believed the righteous One who promised to do something only God could do. That’s why faith is counted for righteousness.

But our faith must be in what God actually said, or it can’t be counted for righteousness because it’s not faith.

 

Paul told the Corinthians he preached “Christ and Him crucified” so their faith wouldn’t be in vain.

In 2 Timothy 1:12 he says, “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able…”—same pattern as Abraham. Faith in God’s promise, and God’s ability to perform it.

 

Then Paul turns from Abraham to us.

Romans 4:23–24 says it wasn’t written for Abraham alone, “but for us also.”

We learn from Abraham.

Only Paul gives the doctrine for the Body of Christ today, but as 2 Timothy 3:16 says,

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 

 

And Romans 15:4 says,

For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. 

 

Hope is tied to faith. It’s the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. We learn from Scripture that God always does what He says. That’s why we can trust the gospel of grace now, today.

 

Paul even uses Moses’ law for instruction and for our example and we see this in 1 Corinthians 9:10, 1 Corinthians 10:6 and 10:11. He’s not putting us under the law—he’s teaching it so we can learn from it.

We can, and should, learn from Israel’s failures, Abraham’s faith, David’s trust, Daniel’s courage. We just can’t claim their covenants or promises. There’s a difference in dispensations.

 

Romans 4 shows righteousness is by grace through faith for all who believe God. Abraham was saved by grace through faith, but his faith was in God’s promise of a seed—not in Christ’s finished work.

Our gospel explains how God can save all men: through the cross.

 

So Romans 4:24 says righteousness is imputed to us “if we believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead.” Abraham believed God would give him a son. We believe God raised His Son from the dead.

 

Romans 4:25 says Christ

…was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification. 

 

That’s the condition for imputed righteousness and for God not imputing sin as we’ve seen in Romans 4:6–8.

Same God. Same grace. Same principle of faith. Different content of faith. Abraham believed God’s promise of a seed. We believe the gospel of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. And God imputes righteousness to all who believe.

 

Who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead? God did—the whole Godhead.

Galatians 1:1 shows the Father raised Him, Jesus said He would raise Himself in John 2:19 and John 10:17-18, and the Spirit raised Him in Romans 8:11 and 1 Peter 3:18.

Jesus was God in the flesh as Colossians 2:9 tells us,

For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

 

His resurrection was the work of God Himself.

 

Paul says in Romans 10:8–9 that salvation comes by believing God raised Jesus from the dead.

Peter preached that to Israel in Acts 2, that Jesus is Lord and is risen. But what’s missing there is why He died and rose.

That’s what Paul adds in Romans 4:25: He was delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification.

That’s the gospel according to Paul.

All the apostles preached Christ’s resurrection but Paul explains its meaning. Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again for our justification, 1 Corinthians 15:1–4.

 

2 Corinthians 5:21 has this,

For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. 

 

Christ was “made sin for us”. Righteousness is the key and the reason. Without righteousness we cannot have peace and relationship with God.

Romans 3:24 says we’re “justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” Justified  means to declare or to pronounce, one to be righteous.

This is the difference between dispensations.

Abraham believed God would give him a seed, and God counted that faith for righteousness.

We believe God raised Christ from the dead for our salvation, and God counts that for righteousness too.

Abraham trusted God to quicken or to put life into his and Sarah’s dead bodies. We trust God’s performance in Christ’s death and resurrection.

 

That’s the lesson of Romans 4, that righteousness comes by grace through faith, and now—unlike Abraham—we’re placed in Christ, which Paul will unfold in Romans 5.