The Things That Were Not

 Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. ¹⁷ As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.”^[c] He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.~ Romans 4:16-17 (NIV)

The Promise comes by faith;

So it is through faith that we enter into the promises of God (by grace), and it is in this regard that Abraham is the father of all; The father of faith.

It is interesting to me that after we are given Abraham as a model of faith, Paul slips in yet another role model in faith.

have you spotted from the verses who that is?

the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.

Now, I understand this seems to be stretching it, to say that God acts in faith, but there is certainly a sense in which he does.

Knowledge of himself, his power and his attributes, causes him to speak in full faith that what he says will be done. 'Let there be light', he says, and there is light.

That God acts in faith is even more evident to us in the person of Jesus. Do you remember the miracle of the man with the withered arm? What did Jesus say to him? "Stretch out your arm".

Uh, hello Jesus, what arm?

And yet he calls it into being.

And the man's faith as he complies, mirrors Jesus' faith as he obeys and attempts the impossible.


I love that God is the best boss ever. He doesn't seem to ask us to do that which he has not done himself.


The things that are not;

And it is this creative miracle of faith that heartens me in the same way it heartened Abraham. "I will make you the Father of many nations", God says (His wife barren and his body as good as dead). He could have said, 'no way. This thing shall never be'. But he believed God who spoke of the impossible. No wonder it was credited as righteousness.

This is how the Lord works.

God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did (NKJV)

I like the New king James versions way of putting it. He calls that which is not as though it were. And guess what? When God does that, then what was not, becomes.  It becomes what he calls it.
That is why there is such power in a name.

Think of Peter.

Peter was called Simon, but the Lord called this impetuous hot head "The Rock".

And what Peter became, typified what The Lord Jesus had prophetically named him.

And what of you and I?

I am sure that Jesus has secret prophetic names for us too. They are found throughout scripture, as God describes through his apostles and prophets, the identity of the children of God. Search them and see what God says about you.

So what you see right now, is not what you will be. The whole of creation is waiting for the revealing of the sons of God. I think what we will be and what we can be in him is truly awesome and worship inspiring.

And he is calling it into being.

You may not see it yet, but it is coming.

Stretch out you arm, he says.

What arm?, we say.

You cant call this an arm.

It has no muscle. it's a flap of skin filled with dead bones.

Yeah, but stretch it out anyway.