Romans 4.20a-Abraham Did Not Permit Himself to Doubt By Means of Unbelief
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday February 27, 2008
Romans: Romans 4:20a-Abraham Did Not Permit Himself to Doubt By Means of Unbelief
Lesson # 135
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 4:13.
This evening we will study Romans 4:20a, which teaches that with respect to God’s promise to give him a child, Abraham did not permit himself to doubt by means of unbelief.
Romans 4:13, “For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would be heir of the world was not through the Law, but through the righteousness of faith.”
Romans 4:14, “For if those who are of the Law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise is nullified.”
Romans 4:15, “for the Law brings about wrath, but where there is no law, there also is no violation.”
Romans 4:16, “For this reason it is by faith, in order that it may be in accordance with grace, so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants, not only to those who are of the Law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.”
Romans 4:17, “(as it is written, ‘A FATHER OF MANY NATIONS HAVE I MADE YOU’) in the presence of Him whom he believed, even God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist.”
Romans 4:18, “In hope against hope he believed, so that he might become a father of many nations according to that which had been spoken, ‘SO SHALL YOUR DESCENDANTS BE.’”
Romans 4:19, “Without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah's womb.”
Romans 4:20, “yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God.”
“Yet” is the “adversative” use of the conjunction de (deV) (deh), which introduces a statement that presents a contrast with Paul’s previous statement in Romans 4:19.
In Romans 4:19, Paul writes that Abraham did not become weak with respect to his faith in the Lord’s promise of a child even after facing the fact that he and Sarah were sexually impotent and unable to procreate.
Therefore, the contrast is that even though from the human perspective it was impossible for Abraham and Sarah to have a child “yet” he did not waver in unbelief towards God’s promise but rather was empowered by God by means of his faith in the Lord.
“The promise” is the noun epangelia (e)paggeliva) (ep-ang-el-ee-ah), which in context refers to the Lord’s promise to Abraham of a child through copulation with his wife Sarah since in context, in Romans 4:18-19, Paul is discussing the sexual impotency of both Abraham and Sarah.
What is important to understand though is that the promises that the nation of Israel and the Messiah would descend from Abraham were both contingent upon God giving Abraham a child since the nation of Israel descended from Abraham’s son Isaac and Isaac’s son, Jacob and his twelve sons and from one of these sons, Judah, the Messiah would in His human nature descend from.
“He did not waver” is composed of the emphatic negative adverb ou (ou)) (oo), “not” and the verb diakrino (diakrivnw) (dee-ak-ree-no), “He did waver.”
In Romans 4:20, the verb diakrino means, “to vacillate between two viewpoints, to doubt.”
Thus, the word signifies that Abraham did not doubt in the sense that he did not vacillate between human viewpoint and divine viewpoint.
The former said that it was impossible that he and his wife Sarah could have a child in their advanced age whereas the latter said that they could since with God all things are possible.
The word denote mental struggle according to Vincent.
Genesis 17:17 records Abraham laughing at the Lord’s promise that his wife Sarah would bear a child for him at ninety years of age.
Genesis 17:17, “Then Abraham 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?’”
He did not laugh out of doubt but out of joy since the Lord did not rebuke him for his lack of faith as the Lord did with Sarah when she laughed after hearing the Lord promise Abraham again that he would get Sarah pregnant as recorded in Genesis 18:13.
The passive voice of the verb diakrino is a “permissive passive,” which indicates that Abraham never permitted himself to enter into the state of unbelief concerning God’s promise of giving him and Sarah the ability to have a child in their advanced age.
The emphatic negative adverb ou emphatically negates the meaning of the verb diakrino.
Paul emphatically declares that Abraham “never” doubted God’s ability to deliver on His promise and give him and Sarah the ability to procreate once again in their advanced age.
Romans 4:20, “yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God.”
“In unbelief” is the noun apistia (a)pistiva) (ap-is-tee-ah), which is composed of the alpha privative meaning “without” and the noun pistis, “faith,” thus the word literally means, “without faith.”
Principle: Unbelief is the failure to take into account and acknowledge the character and nature of God, His presence and His Word.
Unbelief operates in the sphere of the old Adamic sin nature and contradicts faith and leaves God out.
Hearing the Word of Christ produces faith in God (Rm. 10:17).
Romans 10:17, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.”
The Christian soldier’s faith or total and absolute confidence in God’s faithfulness to His promises acts as a shield protecting his soul from the attacks of Satan and his kingdom of darkness, which come in the form of thought projections that are designed to produce doubt in God’s Word.
Ephesians 6:16, “In addition to everything, I solemnly charge all of you to take up for yourselves your shield, which is your faith because that will enable all of you to extinguish all the flaming arrows originating from the evil one.”
The believer employs the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, by exercising faith in the Word of God, which is expressed by obedience and results in victory in spiritual combat.
Ephesians 6:17, “Also, I solemnly charge all of you to take hold of your helmet, which is your salvation as well as your sword that originates from the Spirit, which is, as an eternal spiritual truth, God’s Word.”
1 John 5:4, “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world -- our faith.”
Faith in the Word of God appropriates the omnipotence of God.
Matthew 17:20, “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.’”
God will reward our faith since it pleases Him.
Hebrews 11:6, “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.”
In Romans 4:20, the noun apistia means “unbelief” and is used with reference to Abraham’s attitude towards the Lord’s promise to give him and his wife Sarah the ability to have a child in their advanced age.
Hebrews 3:12 teaches that unbelief is evil.
Hebrew 3:7-19, “Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, ‘TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME, AS IN THE DAY OF TRIAL IN THE WILDERNESS, WHERE YOUR FATHERS TRIED Me BY TESTING Me, AND SAW MY WORKS FOR FORTY YEARS. THEREFORE I WAS ANGRY WITH THIS GENERATION, AND SAID, THEY ALWAYS GO ASTRAY IN THEIR HEART, AND THEY DID NOT KNOW MY WAYS; S I SWORE IN MY WRATH, 'THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST.’ Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called ‘Today,’ so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end, while it is said, ‘TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS, AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME.’ For who provoked Him when they had heard? Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.”