NOTES for Rom 4:1-8

When speaking of faith, we often mean belief in God’s very existence, in His presence in the world. Most people have no difficulty with this. It is rare to meet a genuine atheist; more often, a person is ready to acknowledge the presence and influence in the world of a Being they are prepared to call God. But this is not what Paul is speaking about. Today’s reading asks us, “Do you believe God? Do you trust Him?” It turns out, then, that our principal task is to believe His words, His action, and His plans, and to trust His will. Having thought about it, we are probably ready to do even this, but afterward we will have to act, trusting Him in everything and carrying out the work appointed for us. Will we manage it this time? Most likely not, and this upsets us and deprives us of hope and joy. Yet the faith that is counted as righteousness, as our principal work, consists precisely in accepting the most astonishing thing about the merciful God: that for Him, our trusting Him, getting up again and again, and trying to act according to His will matters more than the fact that once again we did not succeed.