C. S. Lewis observed that the Bible speaks about faith in two senses. First, it describes faith as belief. Faith is a matter of accepting what the Bible asserts to be true, as true. The second description of faith is linked to dependency. Faith is trust—our dependence upon God. In Romans 4, the apostle Paul speaks of faith in both senses, using Abraham as a model.

If it feels as if we have entered the conversation in the middle of the discussion, it is because we have. Paul is explaining why righteousness only comes through faith in Jesus Christ and not through the Law (see Rom. 3:21–22). The key is to depend on God’s promise to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. We cannot make ourselves righteous by our own efforts. Abraham believed God’s promise to give him an heir rather than being daunted by his own inability (4:19). He was “fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised” because he was “strengthened in his faith” by God’s promise (vv. 20–21).

Paul reveals that God’s plan all along was to make righteousness a gift that comes by believing the promise rather than a work to earn righteousness through human effort. He did this “so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham” (v. 16). The resurrection of Jesus was the ultimate proof that we can trust God to make good on this promise (v. 25). We tend to think that the power of faith depends upon us as if it were a feeling we can stir up for ourselves. In reality, the opposite is true. The power of faith depends upon God.

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