Romans 4 - In Depth Bible Commentaries

429 430descendant(s) of his, that he should be inheritor of a world –but rather, through a right-428(...continued)and Christian believers are children according to promise); Ephesians 1:13 (the promisedSet-apart Spirit); 2:12 (non-Jews were at one time strangers to the covenants of promise); 3:6(but they now share in the promise in Anointed King Jesus through the Good News); 6:2 (thecommandment to honor parents is the first commandment with a promise); 1 Timothy 4:8(godliness holds promise both for the present life and for the life to come); 2 Timothy 1:1 (thepromise of life that is in Anointed King Jesus);Hebrews 4:1 (the promise of entering into God’s rest is still open); 6:12 (believersshould become imitators of those who inherit the promises), 15 (Abraham, after long waiting,finally received the promise), 17 (God guaranteed his promise with an oath); 7:6 (Melchizedekblessed those inheriting the promise of God); 8:6 (Jesus and his new covenant give betterpromises than those of the old covenant); 9:15 (the promised eternal inheritance of the newcovenant); 10:36 (through endurance what was promised will be received); 11:9, 9 (the landpromised to Abraham and his descendants), 13, 17 (promises made to Abraham and hisdescendants), 33 (people of faith obtained promises), 39 (still there are promises not yetreceived); 2 Peter 3:4 (sceptics ask, “Where is the promise of his coming?”), 9 (the Lord is notslow about his promise) and 1 John 2:25 (he has promised us long-lasting life)–a total ofsome 52 occurrences.The strange fact is that there really is no word for "promise" in the Hebrew Bible. Thatis why Schniewind and Friedrich state in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament II, p.579, that "This word has no preliminary history in the Old Testament." But their conclusioncan be easily contested, for the Jewish Bible is filled with statements / declarations made byGod concerning what will happen in the future, especially in terms of blessings for his people,that can accurately be described in our modern terminology as “promises.”What we find in the Hebrew Bible is that God "speaks," and announces to his peoplewhat their future holds for them, whether of blessing or disaster--and because it is God's"word," it holds true. When Almighty God says "I will do thus and so," the person who truststhat divine word knows that it will "come true"--simply because God has said it, and God'sword is true.Paul calls this an evpaggeli,a, a “promise"--or, we may understand Paul as affirming, it isa divine "announcement" or "order" to history. Of course it will happen, because God hasannounced it, God has ordered it.429What does Paul mean by "the promise that came to Abraham and his descendants"?There can be little doubt as to the correct answer. Paul has reference to the very "back-bone"of the Genesis story of Abraham and his descendants. They were the recipients of a divineword concerning the future, a promise that carried them forward into the future. It was a divineword that served as a sort of "command to history,” as it described what the future would holdfor Abraham and his descendants, and as it gave him and his family their “marching orders.”The first occurrence of that word is:233(continued...)