Romans 4:17

‘(As it is written, ‘A father of many nations have I made you') before him whom he believed, even God, who gives life to the dead, and calls the things that are not, as though they were.'

The Scriptural evidence is now given. ‘A father of many nations have I made you'. These words are found in Genesis 17:5. They would be literally true of the descendants of his many sons as they mingled with other peoples to form tribes, and they would be spiritually true of all who experienced the worldwide blessing that would come from Abraham through his seed (Genesis 12:3), a worldwide blessing which was a theme of the prophets (Isaiah 42:6; Isaiah 49:6; and often).

And all this would be ‘before God', Who ‘gives life to the dead, and calls the things that are not as though they were'. This last especially has in mind the son who would be born to Sarah who was little short of a miracle. Out of what appeared to be a hopeless situation God produced life from a dead womb, a son who at the time appeared to be an impossibility, that is, was a ‘was not' who became a ‘was' because that is what God can do.

But in the context it is also true of the birth and growth of the church, the true Israel of God (Galatians 6:16). That too is a miracle birth, brought about by the grace and power of God. For the reference to His ‘giving life to the dead' must surely be seen as connecting with Romans 4:24 where it was most literally fulfilled in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, with the result that His people are ‘accounted as righteous' (Romans 4:25). Whilst the things which ‘are not', which became the things that ‘are', surely has in mind the new people of God, who were brought into being through Him (Romans 4:25). ‘I will call them my people who were not my people' (Romans 9:25).