Realization of Faith
Passage: 4:13-25
Structure:
a. 4:13-15, righteousness of faith
b. 4:16-17a,
father of many nations
c. 4:17b, He
who gives life to the death & calls into being what does not exist
b’. 4:18-22,
father of many nations
a’. 4:23-25,
having faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ
Commentary:
We stay with
the example of Abraham, but now St. Paul is bringing his point home. It is not
an inheritance based on law, it is righteousness of faith that establishes our
connection with the father of our faith Abraham.
The apostle
gives two examples of believing in something that is considered impossible:
(1)
Abraham’s faith did not weaken for the promise of having children being 99
years old, when his wife – Sarah – was about 90 years old.
(2) Jesus
being raised from the dead.
Example
of Abraham:
First one is
a historical example of a man of faith. It has two parts: difficult and
impossible.
It is
difficult to get a 99 year old man “to get going.”
It is
impossible to make a barren (lit. dead) womb to conceive.
“Example”
of Jesus, as the
center point of our faith (4:23-25):
Raised from
the dead (this is difficult, but happened before)
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