Romans 4:17

Romans 4:17, in plain English

Scripture says God made Abraham the father of many nations. He's our father because he believed in the God who brings life from death and speaks things into existence.

Why it's here

Paul quotes Genesis 17:5. He's explaining why Abraham is such a perfect example: Abraham's faith was in a God who could do the impossible—keep a promise when humanly it was impossible. That's the God Paul wants his readers to have faith in. Not a God who needs you to perform; a God who can do what seems impossible.

Who's speaking

Paul, quoting God's promise to Abraham

Where it sits in the story

Abraham's whole story pivots on God's ability to do the humanly impossible. That becomes the definition of faith: trusting the God who is not limited by human circumstances or weakness.

The scholarly reading

Scripture describes Abraham as father of many nations because he believed in the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being what does not exist—demonstrating that faith in God's creative power is the source of his multiple offspring.

Language and setting

Paul quotes Genesis 17:5, but reinterprets it through the lens of Abraham's faith-posture. The phrases 'gives life to the dead' (zōopoieō nekrous) and 'calls into being what does not exist' (kalō ta mē onta hōs onta) echo Septuagintal language about divine omnipotence. These formulations particularly resonated in Hellenistic Jewish theology (Philo especially develops this). But Paul's point is existential: Abraham's fatherhood of many nations rests on his trusting in a God whose power transcends ordinary causality. The phrase 'in the presence of whom he believed' (katenanti hou episteusen) establishes Abraham's faith as oriented toward this God specifically—the God of resurrection power and creatio ex nihilo.

Voice

Paul, quoting Genesis 17:5 and interpreting its theological meaning

Significance

Abraham's status as patriarch of the nations is inseparable from his faith in God's power to accomplish the impossible. This faith becomes the model for what trust in God fundamentally means.

15because the law brings wrath. And where there is no law, there is no transgression.

16Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may rest on grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.

17As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the presence of God, in whom he believed, the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being what does not yet exist.

18Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.”

19Without weakening in his faith, he acknowledged the decrepitness of his body (since he was about a hundred years old) and the lifelessness of Sarah’s womb.

Read all of Romans 4 — Long before the law existed, Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. Grace was the plan from the very beginning.