Against Hope, in Hope
18 Against hope, Abraham in hope believed, to the end that he might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken, “So will your offspring be.” 19 Without being weakened in faith, he didn’t consider his own body, already having been worn out, (he being about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. 20 Yet, looking to the promise of God, he didn’t waver through unbelief, but grew strong through faith, giving glory to God, 21 and being fully assured that what he had promised, he was also able to perform. 22 Therefore it also was “credited to him for righteousness.”
Abraham's faith is described as clear-eyed rather than naive — the facts fully considered, and God weighed as heavier.
Against hope, Abraham in hope believed, to the end that he might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken, "So will your offspring be."
The phrase is a deliberate paradox: against hope, in hope. Every ground for expecting the promise was gone — that is against hope — and he believed anyway, not by ignoring the grounds but by hoping on a different foundation: that which had been spoken. The quotation is the night under the stars Genesis 15:5; what Abraham had was a sentence, and the sentence outweighed the situation.
Verse 19 makes the clear-eyedness explicit, and it matters for everything this chapter teaches about faith: without being weakened in faith, he didn't consider his own body, already having been worn out, (he being about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah's womb.
The facts are stated at their worst — the text says deadness, and Paul chose the word to echo the God-description just given: the God who gives life to the dead Romans 4:17. Faith here is not optimism, not a refusal to look. Abraham looked at a dead situation and a living God and did the arithmetic. Biblical faith is never the denial of the diagnosis; it is the refusal to let the diagnosis have the last word when God has spoken a later one.
Verse 20 describes the believing as a strengthening rather than a struggle survived: looking to the promise of God, he didn't waver through unbelief, but grew strong through faith, giving glory to God. The last clause quietly closes a circuit the letter opened in chapter 1: mankind's primal failure was refusing to glorify God and give thanks Romans 1:21. Abraham, trusting a promise against all appearances, gives God the glory the race withheld — faith is the first worship, the creature finally treating the Creator as true.
And verse 21 defines the faith exactly: being fully assured that what he had promised, he was also able to perform. Two convictions — he promised, he is able — and nothing else. Not confidence in the outcome's plausibility; confidence in the promiser's competence.
Therefore it also was "credited to him for righteousness" Romans 4:22. The therefore seals the chapter's case: this — trust in the God who speaks and can perform — is the thing God counts.
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