The Romance of Romans—Ten

Therefore salvation must be by grace through faith so that the promise might be divinely secured for all, Jews or Gentiles, who express the same kind of trust in God which our father of faith, Abraham, did. As it says in scripture, "I have made you a father of many nations." He believed God who raises the dead and has the prophetic power to call the things yet future, as good as done.
Against all odds, he continued to hope and believe that God would give him a son and make him a father of many nations. Even after he turned one-hundred and both he Sarah were beyond the age of conceiving children, he grew strong in faith without surrendering to unbelief and kept praising God, fully convinced that God would do what he said he would. Again, it was his faith that was counted to him as righteousness.

Now this was not just true for Abraham; that his righteousness was by faith. It applies to us, who will also receive God's righteousness if we believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was sacrificed for our trespasses and raised again so that we might be made right with God.

Commentary:
It’s interesting to me that Paul totally “edits out” Abraham and Sarah’s decision for Abraham to attempt to have an heir through having relations with Hagar! It’s good to know that God does the same for us in our deviations from His will and that specific wrong choices do not automatically disqualify us as a person of faith. It’s also interesting to me that this particular act of faith that Paul highlights in Abraham’s life happened many years after his initial response of faith. Yet, Paul is still speaking about “salvation by grace through faith” and it’s dynamics in a person’s life story. Salvation is a big word in the New Testament. It goes beyond “justification” and includes the whole of one’s life journey in friendship with God. Exercising faith in Jesus Christ is not a one-time event in our lives, but an ongoing trust in Him to do for us what He has promised to us in the Gospel. Our initial faith in Jesus is confirmed again and again in our lives as we live out the implications of having been regenerated by the power of the Holy Spirit.