Hope Against Hope | Frontline Faith

Play This Verse Study

0:00 0:00

Scripture • World English Bible

Romans 4:13–25

WEB

¹³For the promise to Abraham and to his offspring that he would be heir of the world wasn’t through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.

¹⁴For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void, and the promise is made of no effect.

¹⁵For the law produces wrath; for where there is no law, neither is there disobedience.

¹⁶For this cause it is of faith, that it may be according to grace, to the end that the promise may be sure to all the offspring, not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.

¹⁷As it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations.” This is in the presence of him whom he believed: God, who gives life to the dead, and calls the things that are not, as though they were.

¹⁸Against hope, Abraham in hope believed, to the end that he might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken, “So will your offspring be.”

¹⁹Without being weakened in faith, he didn’t consider his own body, already having been worn out, (he being about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb.

²⁰Yet, looking to the promise of God, he didn’t waver through unbelief, but grew strong through faith, giving glory to God,

²¹and being fully assured that what he had promised, he was also able to perform.

²²Therefore it also was “credited to him for righteousness.”

²³Now it was not written that it was accounted to him for his sake alone,

²⁴but for our sake also, to whom it will be accounted, who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead,

²⁵who was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification.

World English Bible (WEB) • Public Domain

Reflection

Paul holds up Abraham as the portrait of hope when every natural reason to hope has disappeared. The promise given to Abraham was not secured by law or human effort but by a righteousness that comes through faith. That is an important first point: our standing before God, and the anchor of our hope, is not built on our performance but on God’s promise and his faithfulness.

Abraham’s situation was, by every outward standard, hopeless. He was old; Sarah’s womb was barren. Yet Abraham did not let his shifting circumstances determine his certainty about God. Paul uses two surprising phrases to describe what God does: he gives life to the dead, and he calls things that are not as though they were. That language shows that God’s power to fulfill promises often begins where human possibility ends. Faith is not wishful thinking; it’s looking at the promises of God and trusting God to do what only he can do.

What sustained Abraham was not blind optimism but confident trust in God’s character. He “didn’t waver through unbelief” and “grew strong through faith.” In other words, faith deepens in the tension between promise and reality. The harder the circumstance, the more faith has the opportunity to display God’s glory. This is ultimately tied to the gospel: Paul brings the argument forward to Jesus. The same God who raised life from death for Abraham’s promise is the God who raised Jesus for our justification. The resurrection anchors Christian hope. Even when human hopes die, the risen Jesus secures a hope that cannot be extinguished.

Practically, this passage frees us from two mistaken responses to disappointment. One is to crumble into despair and let circumstances dictate our belief. The other is to double down on performance and law-keeping as if earning God’s favor will make promises come true. Instead, we are called to persistent, resolute faith: to keep our eyes on God’s promises, to confess his power where there appears to be none, and to give him glory by trusting him.

If you are facing a situation where hope seems gone—medical news, broken relationships, stalled dreams—remember that Christian hope is rooted in a God who acts where we cannot. He calls reality into being and raised Jesus from the dead so that his promises to us are sure. Like Abraham, we can stand, not because we can manufacture the outcome, but because we know the One who can.

Putting Faith Into Action

When you feel hopeless, rehearse God’s promises and the resurrection: write down one promise from Scripture and pray it back to God this week, asking him to strengthen your faith to trust him.
Take a concrete step of obedient faith in a difficult situation: make a phone call, apologize, seek counsel, volunteer, or start a conversation you’ve avoided—act as though God’s promise to work is true even if the outcome is uncertain.
Encourage someone else who’s discouraged by sharing how Christ’s resurrection gives us hope; offer to pray with them and remind them that faith trusts God’s power to bring life where we see none.

Prayer

Father, you give life to what is dead and call realities into being. When circumstances tell me there is no way, strengthen my faith to look to your promises and give you glory. Help me trust the risen Christ whose victory secures my hope. Amen.

Memory Verse

Romans 4:20 — Yet, looking to the promise of God, he didn’t waver through unbelief, but grew strong through faith, giving glory to God, (WEB)

“Yet, looking to the promise of God, he didn’t waver through unbelief, but grew strong through faith, giving glory to God,”

Keep Going Continue to Part 11 Peace with God Romans · Romans 5:1–11 Read the next devotional →

Bible Context

Read all of Romans 4

Romans 4

World English Bible • WEB

¹What then will we say that Abraham, our forefather, has found according to the flesh?

²For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not toward God.

³For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”

⁴Now to him who works, the reward is not counted as grace, but as something owed.

⁵But to him who doesn’t work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness.

⁶Even as David also pronounces blessing on the man to whom God counts righteousness apart from works:

⁷“Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven,

⁸Blessed is the man whom the Lord will by no means charge with sin.”

⁹Is this blessing then pronounced only on the circumcised, or on the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness.

¹⁰How then was it counted? When he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision.

¹¹He received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while he was in uncircumcision, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they might be in uncircumcision, that righteousness might also be accounted to them.

¹²He is the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had in uncircumcision.