NOTES for Rom 4:13-22

In the Letter to the Romans the apostle Paul tells what we can and should learn from Abraham. The patriarch's faith brings him not only the long-awaited child, but also makes him righteous. Again in the Old Testament we see glimmers of the radiance of paradise, which would have seemed forever lost to humanity, the paradise where aging and death had no power over Adam and Eve. The law of the material world is trampled down, trampled down by God and by a human being who believes in His word and power. Abraham had been promised that many nations would come from him. And what then? Abraham, already almost a hundred years old, still had not seen his offspring. But for the son to be born, another child had to grow: the child of faith. Abraham nurtured it within himself for many years. And it is amazing that precisely this child, if we believe, makes us his descendants and gives us the possibility of taking part in the promise. The promise of being heirs of the world, the Kingdom of God.