📜WEB · Romans 4:17
What does Romans 4:17 mean?
"As 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."
— Romans 4:17 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void, and the promise is made of no effect.
For the law produces wrath, for where there is no law, neither is there disobedience.
For 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.
As 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.
Besides 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.”
Without 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.
Yet, looking to the promise of God, he didn’t waver through unbelief, but grew strong through faith, giving glory to God,
Explanation
Romans 4:17 sits in the middle of Paul's argument that Abraham was justified by faith, not by works or circumcision. Paul quotes Genesis 17:5, where God renamed Abram "Abraham," meaning "father of many nations," even though at the time Abraham had no children by Sarah and both he and his wife were far past the age of childbearing. Paul is pointing out that God spoke this promise as an accomplished fact long before there was any visible evidence it could happen. The verse describes the character of the God Abraham trusted: a God who "gives life to the dead" and "calls the things that are not, as though they were."
Paul wrote this letter to the church in Rome, a mixed congregation of Jewish and Gentile believers, to explain the gospel systematically, especially how righteousness comes through faith rather than through the Mosaic law. In chapter 4, Paul uses Abraham as the prime biblical example of justification by faith, since Abraham lived and was declared righteous (Genesis 15:6) before circumcision and before the law was given. This makes Abraham the spiritual father of all who believe, whether Jew or Gentile, since the promise did not depend on ethnic lineage or legal observance but on faith in God's word and power.
Theologically, this verse reveals the nature of the God in whom saving faith is placed. Paul highlights two divine acts: God gives life to the dead, and God calls into existence things that do not exist. This echoes both creation (God speaking the world into being from nothing) and resurrection (later connected explicitly
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