Unlimited: The God Who Calls Things into Being
Jul 27, 2022 1292
…the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not (Romans 4:17b).
This is a most impressive statement by the apostle Paul, and an important one for understanding righteousness by faith.
At this point in Paul’s argument, his Jewish audience might easily have mocked Paul for talking nonsense.
Paul points out two facts about God. The first one is that he gives life to the dead. How could someone who is dead come back to life? It goes against all human logic. But God can do it.
The second fact about God that Paul highlights is that he calls into being things that are not. Here Paul is referring specifically to the story of creation described in Genesis 1.
God calls into being things that are not.
Before creation, the earth was described as being,
formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep (Gen 1:2).
In other words, the things that we see all around us today didn’t exist. The earth was empty.
The rest of the creation story describes how God spoke and creation came into existence. He called them into being. In Paul’s argument, this is how we become righteous before God. Even though we are not righteous in and of ourselves, God calls it into being with his word, on the basis of the sacrifice of Christ. We are righteous because God sees us as righteous. And God’s view is the only one that counts!
Spiritual Application
God can call things into being in your life, things that are not currently there. It’s easy to ask God for things you know you don’t have, but much harder to ask God to supply the things in your life that you don’t even know you need. Surrender your life anew to God and ask him to call those things into being in your life that he knows you need.
Yes it's all true. Trusting God in all His ways is what i did since i receive HIM as my personal Savior..... He only knew what's best for me and my family's future . Praise God
I never even considered asking God for the things I don't even know I need. I never considered writing down the things that get in the way of my peace. Thank you so much for this series on Romans. Eli, may the blessings of 2 Thessalonians 3:16 be yours and the whole GNU family's!
Eliezer Gonzalez
Jul 28, 2022
Thank you so much, Kelly :) Grace and Peace, Eliezer