Reading from the Letter of Saint Paul the Apostle to the Romans

Brothers,
    before God's promise, Abraham did not hesitate,
he did not lack faith,
but he found his strength in faith
and gave glory to God,
    because he was fully convinced
that God has the power to accomplish what he has promised.
    And that's why
it was granted to him to be righteous.
Saying that it was granted to him,
Scripture is not only interested in him,
    but also to us,
for it will be granted to us because we believe
in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead,
    delivered for our faults
and resurrected for our justification.

            – Word of the Lord.

Believing the Promise: When Faith Becomes Righteousness

How Abraham's conviction illuminates our own relationship to the promise and trust in God

This meditation on Rom 4:20–25 offers a lively and well-argued reading of Abraham's faith, a model of trust that justifies because it is rooted in God's very promise. Paul unfolds a theology of transcendent but incarnate faith: to believe is already to respond to the call of the God who accomplishes. In a world where mistrust often prevails, this letter resonates like a peaceful call to relearn trust. The article is addressed to those who seek to combine faith, intelligence, and daily life, in the light of a justice received as a gift.

1. Context: Abraham's faith and Paul's spiritual genealogy.
2. Central analysis: a faith that justifies because it hopes.
3. Deployment axes: promise, power, loyalty.
4. Traditional Resonances: From the Faith of Israel to that of the Church.
5. Practical tips: how to live “it will be granted” today.

Context

The Letter to the Romans is arguably Saint Paul's most dense and theologically structured text. Written around 57-58, as he was preparing to travel to Jerusalem and then to Rome, it sets out the grand architecture of justification by faith. Paul addresses a community he does not yet know personally and seeks to unite Jews and pagans in a shared understanding of salvation. It is in this context that the passage in chapter 4, where Paul evokes Abraham as the founding figure of the faith, takes place.

Abraham becomes the perfect example of someone who believed without proof, without support other than the divine word. God promised him descendants when he and Sarah were already advanced in years. This situation of impossibility highlights the heart of Paul's message: faith is not born of human mastery but of trust in a God capable of "fulfilling what he has promised."

Paul writes: "It was granted to him that he should be righteous." But, he adds, "Scripture is not concerned with him alone": this statement has universal value. Abraham is not an isolated icon, but the foundation stone of a spiritual edifice that prefigures the justification offered to all by the resurrection of Christ.

In this perspective, the expression "it will be granted to us because we believe" becomes a theological pivot. Just as Abraham received righteousness through faith, the believer today receives justification through the justification he places in the risen Christ. The promise made to Abraham finds its Christ-like fulfillment: the passage from the particular to the universal, from the carnal (biological descent) to the spiritual (descent in faith).

This text, therefore, subtly links three levels:

• the biblical past : Abraham's faith as a model of hope,
• the Pauline present : faith as the principle of justification,
• the reader's present : faith as an active response to an ever-present promise.

This interweaving allows Paul to propose a spiritual anthropology: we are not saved by what we do, but by the living trust placed in God. In other words, faith is not mere intellectual assent but an act of recognition—a surrender that then translates into righteous conduct.

In Greco-Roman culture, shaped by the logic of merit, this idea of free and universal justification overturned the usual religious representations. Paul inaugurated a new understanding of the relationship between man and God: no longer a moral ascent towards the divine, but a covenant in which God, the first, makes just those who accept his promise.

A faith that justifies because it hopes

In the heart of Rm 4, Paul depicts a double movement: from God to man (the promise) and from man to God (faith). This dynamic of reciprocity is based on the conviction that there is absolute fidelity in God. Abraham becomes the witness of a faith "against all hope": believing that something will happen when everything seems to indicate the opposite.

This inner gesture is performative. It creates justice, not because it produces it morally, but because it adjusts to divine truth—to the promise kept. This is the very meaning of the word justice in the Bible: to be adjusted, in tune with the will and faithfulness of God.

For Paul, justification by faith does not mean a legal abstraction, but a relational act: to become righteous is to attune oneself to God's rhythm. And this attunement is manifested in history. Abraham believed even before receiving the sign of the covenant (circumcision), thus anticipating the Christian faith that precedes works.

In the second part of the passage, Paul makes a decisive hermeneutical leap: "In saying that this was granted to him, Scripture is not only concerned with him, but also with us." By this shift, he universalizes the promise: believers, whatever their origins, participate in the same faith as Abraham.

This participation is fully realized in Christ. The faith of the patriarch already foreshadowed that of the disciples who would believe in "him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead." The link between the death and resurrection of Christ structures the new understanding of faith: to believe is to recognize that life springs from death, that the promise is verified in the accomplished impossible.

Consequently, "it will be granted to us" becomes the condensed formula of all Pauline theology. The act of faith connects man to the living God, not by merit, but by consent. This "will be granted" because God himself promises and fulfills. Thus, justice is no longer a state to be conquered but a reality to be received.

The promise: an open horizon

God's promise to Abraham—a numerous descendants—is understood only as an opening. The future unfolds within it as a space of trust. The believer's faith receives this promise as a horizon, not a possession. By affirming that justice "will be granted," Paul places faith within the time of active waiting.

In human experience, every promise carries a risk: that of disappointment. Paul reverses this existential structure: God's promise never betrays, but often comes true in ways other than expected. This is why Abraham's faith becomes paradigmatic: it rests not on the anticipation of fulfillment, but on the certainty of the Promiser.

Thus, believing is not just hoping that something will happen; it is already entering into fulfillment by trusting the one who speaks. The promise then becomes inner dynamism, a spiritual motor. It saves from resignation.

The Power of God: Accomplishing the Impossible

Paul insists: Abraham was "fully convinced that God is able to accomplish." Faith is not based on human evaluation of possibilities, but on the recognition of a creative power. In the Bible, power does not mean coercion, but the ability to bring life into being. God "accomplishes" because he creates.

This conviction frees Abraham from the anxiety of control. It allows him to hope without proof. This is where an essential dimension of faith comes into play: active surrender. It is neither passivity nor naiveté, but trusting adherence to a force that surpasses human calculation.

This same act is called in Paul pistis : a mutual fidelity between God and man. The energy of faith does not come from the believing subject, but from the bond between the promise and its author. Thus, "what he promises, he fulfills" becomes not a moral slogan, but a description of reality as God shapes it.

Fidelity: Faith and Justification

In Pauline logic, to be justified means to be put in right relationship. Abraham is not declared righteous because he performs exemplary works, but because his trust opens his heart to divine faithfulness. Righteousness becomes a response. By believing, man lets God be God.

The link between faith and fidelity is inseparable: to believe is to welcome the fidelity of the God who believes in man. This circularity is the foundation of justification. In the resurrection of Christ, it reaches its fullness: by resurrecting Jesus, God authenticates not only his Messiah, but also the promise made to Abraham. From now on, human faith is based on an event sealed in history.

Resonances

Paul's interpretation extends that already begun in the Jewish tradition. In Genesis 15, Abraham is declared righteous before seeing the promise fulfilled. The Fathers of the Church, notably Irenaeus and Augustine, will read this passage as the foundation of the theology of grace. For Augustine, Abraham's faith announces justification "without the works of the Law," because God "makes the sinner righteous" through love.

In the Middle Ages, Thomas Aquinas would take up the same theme in the Summa Theologica : justice is not the fruit of our actions but of participation in divine truth. Luther would later rediscover this Pauline affirmation and make it the foundation of the Reformation. Thus, from century to century, the text nourishes diverse understandings of active faith.

In contemporary spirituality, this promise "it will be granted" is also understood as a concrete call: God continues to write promises of liberation with us. Believing then becomes an act of resistance to fear and cynicism.

Meditations

1. Reread the personal promise : What words of faith have been given to me? Write them down and entrust them to prayer.
2. Naming the impossible : Identify areas where I no longer believe in the possibility of God acting.
3. Practice gratitude : Every evening, say thank you for a promise already kept.
4. Look for the fit : In a conflict, a choice, ask myself: what is the fidelity to which God is calling me here?
5. Hope for others : Intercede for those who doubt, like Abraham for his descendants.

Faith as a common space

As we close this reading, we can understand Paul's confession not as a theological treatise, but as a personal invitation. Abraham believed, and this faith has come down through the ages to us. To believe today is to inscribe one's existence in a line of hope.

When everything within us demands the guarantee of the visible, faith offers another support: the promise of a God who fulfills. This promise invites us to be open, to patience, to wonder. It makes the life of faith a shared adventure: not the possession of the truth, but walking with the One who keeps his word.

So, "it will be granted to us" becomes more than a dogmatic affirmation: a breath of the believing heart. It is the language of offered trust, the grammar of joy, the certainty that justice is not a due, but a gift.

Practical

• Meditate on a phrase of biblical promise every morning.
• Write down the signs of fidelity experienced during the week.
• Replace a complaint with a word of confidence.
• Read Genesis 15 And Rm 4 in parallel.
• Pray to believe “against all hope.”
• Entrust your day: “God, you do what you promise.”
• Convey the peace received to a person in doubt.

References

1. The Jerusalem Bible, Epistle to the Romans.
2. Augustine, Of faith and works.
3. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, II-II.
4. Luther, Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans.
5. J. Guitton, Faith and Reason.
6. Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi.
7. N. Lohfink, Theology of the Promise in the Old Testament.