The Faith that Creates Reality: Abraham's Hope and Ours Text: Romans 4:18-25
Introduction: The Scandal of an Empty Nursery
We live in an age that is allergic to promises. We are a cynical, jaded people. We are drowning in a sea of advertisements, political slogans, and self-help gurus, all promising the moon and delivering, at best, a handful of dust. Our default setting is skepticism. Our wisdom is to trust what we can see, what we can measure, what we can control. We believe in the hard data, the tangible assets, the undeniable facts. We are, in short, a people who walk by sight.
And into this dreary, gray world of pragmatism, the Apostle Paul drops the story of Abraham. And it is a story that is profoundly offensive to our modern sensibilities. It is the story of a man who built his entire life, not on the observable facts, but on a bare, naked promise from God. The facts were brutal and clear. He was a hundred years old. His body was, as Paul bluntly puts it, "as good as dead." His wife, Sarah, was ninety, and her womb was a tomb. For decades, the nursery in their tent had remained stubbornly, mockingly empty. Every objective, scientific, biological fact screamed one word: impossible.
And yet, Abraham believed. This is the central point Paul is driving home in his great treatise on justification. He is not just giving us a history lesson. He is laying a charge of dynamite at the base of every man-made religion of self-righteousness. Every other religion, every secular philosophy, says, "Do this, achieve that, become better, and then you will be acceptable." They are all systems of sight. Christianity, and Christianity alone, says that you are justified, declared righteous before God, not by what you do, but by what you believe. And not just believing in anything, but believing in a very specific kind of God: the God who makes promises that look utterly insane from the world's point of view.
This passage is not just about Abraham's faith; it is a diagnostic tool for our own. It forces us to ask what we are really trusting in. Are we trusting in our retirement accounts? Our political party? Our own moral performance? Or are we, like Abraham, willing to look at the deadness of our own situation, the deadness of our own hearts, and believe in the God who brings life out of death? This is the faith that saves. It is not a vague optimism. It is a rugged, hard-nosed confidence in the character and power of the God who spoke the universe into existence and who raised Jesus from the dead.
The Text
In hope against hope he believed, so that he might become a father of many nations according to that which had been spoken, “SO SHALL YOUR SEED 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 God had promised, He was able also to do.
Therefore IT WAS ALSO COUNTED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.
Now not for his sake only was it written THAT IT WAS COUNTED TO HIM,
but for our sake also, to whom it will be counted, as those who believe upon Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead,
He who was delivered over on account of our transgressions, and was raised on account of our justification.
(Romans 4:18-25 LSB)
Hope Against the Evidence (v. 18)
Paul begins by describing the nature of Abraham's faith. It was a faith that flew in the face of all earthly reason.
"In hope against hope he believed, so that he might become a father of many nations according to that which had been spoken, 'SO SHALL YOUR SEED BE.'" (Romans 4:18)
The phrase "in hope against hope" captures the essence of the conflict. All the earthly "hopes," all the natural expectations, were dead. There was no human reason to hope. The only thing Abraham had was a word from God. His hope was not grounded in his circumstances but in God's character. He had two things in front of him: the promise of God and the evidence of his senses. He chose to believe the promise.
This is crucial. Saving faith is not a leap in the dark; it is a leap into the light of God's Word, even when that light makes the surrounding darkness look even darker. Abraham's faith was not a denial of reality. He didn't pretend he was a young man. He didn't pretend Sarah was fertile. He looked the brutal facts squarely in the face, as we see in the next verse. But he weighed those facts against the promise of God and found the facts to be the lighter thing.
The basis of his hope was "that which had been spoken." Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Faith is not generated from within us. It is a response to a divine initiative, a divine promise. God spoke, and Abraham believed what God spoke. The promise was specific: "So shall your seed be," referring back to that night in Genesis 15 when God told him to count the stars. This is the kind of faith God honors, a faith that takes Him at His specific, revealed Word.
Faith That Stares at the Facts (v. 19-21)
Paul then elaborates on how Abraham's faith interacted with the grim reality of his situation.
"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 God had promised, He was able also to do." (Romans 4:19-21)
Notice the progression. First, Abraham "contemplated" the deadness. He was a realist. He looked at his own impotence and Sarah's barrenness. This is not the "power of positive thinking." This is the power of a promise-keeping God. True faith does not stick its head in the sand. It acknowledges the mountain, it acknowledges the impossibility, and then it looks to the God who specializes in impossibilities.
Second, in the face of this deadness, he "did not waver in unbelief." The Greek word for waver means to be divided, to hesitate between two opinions. Abraham was not torn. He had made his decision. He was standing on the promise. This does not mean he never had doubts or moments of weakness. The Old Testament account shows us his struggles. But his settled conviction, the trajectory of his life, was one of trust in God's word.
Third, instead of wavering, he "grew strong in faith." How? By "giving glory to God." This is a key insight. Faith is not something we muster up through sheer willpower. Faith is strengthened when our focus shifts from the size of our problem to the size of our God. By praising God for who He is, by glorifying Him as the Creator who gives life to the dead, Abraham's own faith was fortified. Worship is the gymnasium of faith.
Finally, he was "fully assured." This is the result. This is the fruit of a faith that looks at the facts, rejects unbelief, and gives glory to God. He was convinced that God's ability matched His promise. The question was not about Abraham's potency, but God's omnipotence. And on that point, there was no question at all.
The Great Transaction (v. 22-24)
Here Paul brings the argument to its glorious conclusion, connecting Abraham's faith directly to ours.
"Therefore IT WAS ALSO COUNTED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS. Now not for his sake only was it written THAT IT WAS COUNTED TO HIM, but for our sake also, to whom it will be counted..." (Romans 4:22-24a)
This is the central doctrine of the Reformation, the heart of the gospel. The word "counted" is a legal and financial term. It means to impute, to credit to someone's account. God did not look at Abraham's faith and say, "Well, that act of believing is so meritorious that I will accept it in place of perfect obedience." No, that would make faith a work. Rather, God credited Abraham's account with a righteousness that was not his own. Faith is the empty hand that receives the gift. Faith is the instrument, not the ground, of our justification.
And Paul makes it clear that this is not some historical curiosity. This principle is timeless. It was written down not to memorialize Abraham, but to instruct us. The same transaction is available to us. Righteousness will be "counted" to us on the very same basis as it was to Abraham.
And what is that basis? "...as those who believe upon Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead." Here is the parallel. Abraham believed in the God who could bring life from the dead womb of Sarah. We believe in the God who brought life from the dead tomb of Jesus. The object of faith is the same: a God of resurrection. Our situation is just as impossible as Abraham's. We are spiritually dead in our trespasses and sins. Our moral accounts are not just empty; they are catastrophically in debt. There is nothing in us that can generate life or righteousness. We must look away from ourselves to the God who has demonstrated His life-giving power in the ultimate way.
The Foundation of Our Faith (v. 25)
The final verse is a tightly packed summary of the gospel, linking the two great acts of Christ to our salvation.
"He who was delivered over on account of our transgressions, and was raised on account of our justification." (Romans 4:25)
This is the foundation upon which our imputed righteousness rests. It is not a legal fiction. It is grounded in the historical work of Jesus Christ. He was "delivered over" to death. This was the payment. The justice of God required a penalty for our sins, our transgressions. On the cross, all our spiritual debt was placed on His account, and He paid it in full. God's wrath was satisfied.
But if He had stayed in the grave, we would have no assurance that the payment was accepted. His resurrection is the divine receipt. It is God the Father's public declaration that the sacrifice was sufficient and the debt was canceled. He was "raised on account of our justification." His resurrection didn't accomplish our justification, His death did that. But His resurrection is the proof, the vindication, the guarantee that we are, in fact, justified. It is the Father's "Amen" to Christ's "It is finished."
Therefore, to believe in the God who raised Jesus from the dead is to believe in the whole gospel. It is to acknowledge our own deadness, our transgressions. It is to trust that Christ's death was the all-sufficient payment for those transgressions. And it is to rest in the fact that His resurrection is the unbreakable guarantee of our righteous standing before God. This is the faith that was counted to Abraham as righteousness, and it is the only faith that will be counted to us as righteousness.
Conclusion: From Abraham's Tent to the Empty Tomb
The faith of Abraham and the faith of a Christian are one and the same. Abraham looked forward to the promise of a son through whom all the nations would be blessed, believing in the God who could bring life from his own dead body. We look back to the historical fulfillment of that promise in the Son, Jesus Christ, believing in the God who brought Him to life from the dead tomb.
The world tells you to believe in yourself. The gospel tells you to believe in a God who raises the dead. The world tells you to build your life on what you can see and control. The gospel tells you to build your life on the promise of a God who delivered His Son for your offenses and raised Him for your justification.
This is not a weak or fragile faith. This is a robust faith, a faith that can look at the deadness of your circumstances, the deadness of your sin, the deadness of a hostile culture, and not waver. Why? Because it is not faith in faith. It is not faith in your ability to believe. It is faith in an object. It is faith in the God who keeps His promises. It is faith in the crucified and risen Christ. He is the guarantee. He is the righteousness. And to all who abandon their own efforts and trust in Him, that perfect righteousness is counted as theirs, forever.