Romans 4:21

Being fully persuaded. Gr . plerophored , “to satisfy fully.” In the form here used it means to be filled with a thought or a conviction, hence, to be fully convinced. Paul uses the same word to exhort Timothy to “make full proof’ of his ministry (2 Tim. 4:5) and to express God’s purpose that by him the gospel should “be fully known” (v. 17). In Luke 1:1 it describes those things which “are most surely believed.”

Real faith means conviction. The life of faith is a life of confidence and assurance. Thus Paul could say, “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day” (2 Tim. 1:12). It is an error to suppose that lack of such conviction is an evidence of humility. On the contrary, to doubt God’s promises or His love is to dishonor Him, because to doubt is to question His character and His word (see TM 518, 519). It is harder for many to believe that God can love and forgive them, notwithstanding their sinfulness, than it was for the aged patriarch to believe that he would be the father of many nations. But confidence in God that He can do what seems to us impossible is as necessary in the one case as in the other. The sinner honors God by trusting His grace, as much as Abraham did by trusting His power.

What he had promised. That is, what God had promised. Since it was God who made the promise, Abraham believed it without question. Faith in God is in its essence a certain relation of a person to a person. Abraham’s knowledge of God and trust in God were such that the patriarch was ready to accept all that God said and to obey all that God commanded.

A hie. Gr. dunatos, which may have a stronger sense than simply “able.” It is rendered “mighty” in Luke 24:19; Acts 18:24; 2 Cor. 10:4. The occasion of Abraham’s acceptance of the promise was not the only time that he showed such confidence in the power of God. His faith was equally implicit and strong when he was commanded to sacrifice his promised son (Heb. 11:19).

The purpose of the discourse on Abraham is to show, with reference to Gen. 17:15 — 22; 18:9-15, how Abraham’s faith in the promise of a seed through Sarah corresponds in essence to our faith in “him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead” (Rom. 4:24). Abraham’s faith was in a divine power above nature, in One who is able to bring life to that which humanly is dead. And as Abraham’s faith in the promised birth of Isaac involved a further faith in the fulfillment through Isaac of all the promises, so the Christian’s faith in the resurrection of Christ involves faith in all that is signified and assured by that event. Not only in the experience here described, but in his whole life as recorded in Genesis, Abraham stands out as an example of habitual faith in a divine order beyond the natural sight.