Romans 4 - In Depth Bible Commentaries

456years old; and the deadness of the womb of Sarah. 4.20 But he did not waver in the lack of457 458trust in the promise of the God, but rather was made strong in the trust, giving glorious455(...continued)Because of this textual evidence, the adverb has been placed within brackets in the textthof Nestle-Aland, 27 edition, indicating uncertainty as to whether or not it was in the originaltext. We do not think this is sufficient textual evidence to cause the word to be placed withinbrackets, but think that it should be considered original.456Moo comments that “...Standing in the way of the fulfillment of the promise was not onlyAbraham’s advanced age but the ‘deadness,’ the ‘barrenness,’ of Sarah, the woman predictedto be the mother of the child through whom Abraham’s ‘seed’ would come. Since the word‘deadness’ is not the normal word for a woman’s barrenness, Paul has deliberately chosen hislanguage to make clear that Abraham’s faith with respect to this promise was specifically faithin the ‘God who gives life to the dead’ (verse 17b). In another way, also, our faith is to be likeAbraham’s, as Calvin eloquently notes:“‘Let us also remember, that the condition of us all is the same with that of Abraham.All things around us are in opposition to the promises of God: He promises immortality: weare surrounded with mortality and corruption: He declares that he counts us just; we arecovered with sins: He testifies that He is propitious and kind to us; outward judgments threatenHis wrath. What then is to be done? We must with closed eyes pass by ourselves and allthings connected with us, that nothing may hinder or prevent us from believing that God istrue.’” (P. 284)457Moo comments that “When Paul says that Abraham did not ‘doubt...because of unbelief,’he means not that Abraham never had momentary hesitations, but that he avoided a deepseatedand permanent attitude of distrust and inconsistency in relationship to God and hispromises. Unlike the ‘double-souled’ person who displays a deeply rooted division in hisattitude toward God (James 1:6-8), Abraham maintained a single-minded trust in thefulfillment of God’s promise...“Paul’s insistence that Abraham ‘did not waver because of unbelief’ in the face of God’spromise that he would foster offspring seems to be unjustified in light of Genesis 17:17, whichsays that Abraham, when told that Sarah would bear him a son, ‘fell on his face and laughed,and said in his heart, ‘Will a child be born to a man one hundred years old? And will Sarah,who is ninety years old, bear a child?’” The apparent conflict may be resolved in three mainways. (1) The reaction of Abraham in Genesis 17:17 may be understood as an ‘expressionof wonder’ at the promise rather than a reaction of disbelief...(2) We might confine Paul’scomment to the situation a described in Genesis 15...(3) Paul is not denying the presence ofsome degree of doubt in Abraham’s faith (for, after all, he was a sinful human) but is focusingon the heart attitude of Abraham towards God’s promise.” (P. 285)Terrence Fretheim comments that “While Abraham responds by falling on his face inobeisance in 17:3, here he falls on his face in laughter. His questions suggest that thislaughter expresses incredulity (contrast 15:6), or possibly bewilderment.” (The NewInterpreter’s Bible, Volume 1, p. 459) Or, we might further suggest, the laughter may245(continued...)