{"id":1455,"date":"2010-01-17T20:20:55","date_gmt":"2010-01-18T02:20:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.org\/blog\/?p=1455"},"modified":"2010-01-17T20:20:55","modified_gmt":"2010-01-18T02:20:55","slug":"romans-418-faithful-expectation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/romans-418-faithful-expectation\/","title":{"rendered":"Romans 4:18 – Faithful Expectation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Romans 4:18<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, “So shall your descendants be.”<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Truth to Learn<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Abraham\u2019s faith was an unwavering, fully-expectant faith.<\/p>\n

Behind the Words<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The word translated \u201chope<\/span>\u201d is the Greek word elpis<\/span><\/em>, which means \u201chope\u201d or \u201canticipation.\u201d In English when we think of \u201chope,\u201d we think of desiring something but not really expecting it to happen, or at best, thinking that there is a chance of it happening. This Greek word, however, means, \u201cthe desire of something with the expectation that it will<\/strong> happen.\u201d It is more than just \u201csimple hope,\u201d it is \u201cexpectant hope.\u201d For this reason, this word is often translated as \u201cfaith.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBelieved<\/span>\u201d is translated from the Greek word pisteu\u014d<\/span><\/em>, which means \u201cto believe in something to the point of having complete trust in it.\u201d<\/em> Again, the concept is not \u201cyeah, I suppose I believe,\u201d but \u201cI know because I absolutely believe!\u201d<\/p>\n

The word \u201cnations<\/span>\u201d is translated from the Greek word ethnos<\/span><\/em>, which means \u201ca race, a nation, or a group of people belonging and living together.\u201d When contrasted to Jews, it is often translated as \u201cGentiles.\u201d Here it is appropriately translated \u201cnations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meaning Explained<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Paul now makes a reference again to the events surrounding Abraham\u2019s moment of salvation, the point in time when God declared him as righteous. Here\u2019s how Moses recorded it back in the book of Genesis:<\/p>\n

Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.<\/span> (Genesis 15:5-6<\/span><\/strong>)<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s verse is a dramatic statement of the type of faith that Abraham showed when he believed God\u2019s promise that he would be the father of many nations. It says, \u201cWho, contrary to<\/span> hope \u2026<\/span>\u201d meaning that it was beyond reason for him to expect it. And yet he, \u201c\u2026 in hope believed \u2026<\/span>\u201d That is, Abraham had complete trust in the fact that this thing would happen without a doubt!<\/p>\n

The thing that he believed was that he would be the father of many nations just as God had told him. So why should this be considered beyond expectation? Because Abraham was about 80 years old and Sarah, his wife, was about 70 when the promise was made. They were both beyond child producing years, and yet Abraham fully believed that not only was God capable of doing it, he believed without a doubt that God would do it. Now that\u2019s faith!<\/p>\n

What we sometimes overlook here is that Sarah lived thirty-seven years after Isaac was born. And, after Sarah\u2019s death Abraham remarried (at the age of about 140) and had six more sons by his second wife, Keturah (See Genesis 23:1; 25:1,2<\/span><\/strong>).<\/span><\/p>\n

Application<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Is the faith of Abraham the kind of faith that you had when you believed that Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay for your sins, thus saving you for all eternity?<\/p>\n

In God\u2019s service, for His glory,<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"signature\"<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2010 Will Krause. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –<\/p>\n

<\/span>If this message or this link was forwarded to you by a friend and you wish to receive future verses directly to your inbox, you can call the church phone \"\"(618) 614-3070<\/span><\/span><\/span> and leave a message telling us your name and e-mail address or you can send an e-mail to:\"e-mail<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Romans 4:18 who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, “So shall your descendants be.” Truth to Learn Abraham\u2019s faith was an unwavering, fully-expectant faith. Behind the Words The word translated \u201chope\u201d is the Greek word elpis, which means \u201chope\u201d or \u201canticipation.\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[557,635,626,38,634],"class_list":["post-1455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-believe","tag-descendants","tag-father","tag-hope","tag-nations"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-nt","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1455\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}