📜WEB · Romans 4:21
What does Romans 4:21 mean?
"and being fully assured that what he had promised, he was also able to perform."
— Romans 4:21 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
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,
and being fully assured that what he had promised, he was also able to perform.
Therefore it also was “credited to him for righteousness.”
Now it was not written that it was accounted to him for his sake alone,
but for our sake also, to whom it will be accounted, who believe in him who raised Jesus, our Lord, from the dead,
Explanation
Romans 4:21 speaks of Abraham's faith, describing his settled confidence that God would do exactly what he had promised. In plain language, the verse says that Abraham did not merely hope God's promise might come true — he was fully persuaded, without lingering doubt, that God had both the will and the power to accomplish what he had said he would do. This wasn't blind optimism or wishful thinking; it was a deep conviction rooted in who God is.
The context is Paul's letter to the Romans, written to a mixed community of Jewish and Gentile believers in Rome, likely in the mid-to-late 50s AD. In Romans 4, Paul is making a crucial theological argument: that righteousness comes through faith, not through keeping the law or through circumcision. He uses Abraham as his prime example, since Abraham was considered the father of the Jewish people and was declared righteous by God before he was circumcised and before the law was given (Genesis 15:6). Paul walks through the story of God's promise to Abraham — that he would have a son and become the father of many nations — even though Abraham was old and Sarah's womb was "as good as dead" (Romans 4:19). Verse 21 comes at the climax of this description, explaining the quality of faith that God counted as righteousness.
Theologically, this verse highlights that saving faith is not passive assent to facts but active trust in God's character and power. Abraham's faith was tested by circumstances that made the promise seem humanly impossible — his age, Sarah's barrenness — yet he did not waver (verse 20)
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