<p>4:19&nbsp;<i>And without being weakened in faith</i>- s.w. &ldquo;impotent&rdquo;, Jn. 5:7; the word is usually used with the sense of sickness or weak health. Abraham was physically impotent, perhaps even seriously ill and weak at the time the promise was given- but not impotent or weak in faith. The idea of the Greek is that Abraham didn&rsquo;t weaken in faith as he observed / considered his body. We showed in our introductory comments that the theological first half of Romans has many connections with the practical second half. Thus we meet this very same phrase &ldquo;weak in faith&rdquo; in Rom. 14:1,2- where we are told to accept those who are &ldquo;weak in faith&rdquo;. This connection would seem to be a tacit admission that not all in the ecclesia are going to rise up to the faith of Abraham, even though he is to be the father of us all, in that we share that same family characteristic of faith. Thus on one hand Paul sets Abraham before us as a vital, crucial pattern- not an option, a nice idea, but a role model whose faith must be followed, in whose faithful steps we are to walk. And yet he accepts that not all in Christ will rise up to his level of faith- and we are to accept them. The same word for &ldquo;weak&rdquo; is used in Rom. 5:6- whilst we were weak AV &ldquo;without strength&rdquo;, Christ died for us. We therefore are to accept the weak, even as Christ died for us in our weakness. We share something of His cross in accepting those who are spiritually weaker than ourselves. Yet so many refuse to carry His cross in this matter, because their own pride stops them accepting those weaker in the faith than themselves.</p><p><i>When he considered his own body, now as good as dead (he being about one hundred years old)</i><i>-&nbsp;</i>He didn't fix his mind upon (Gk.) the fact his body was dead&nbsp;(i.e. impotent) and unable to produce seed (Rom. 4:19). He wasn't obsessed with his state, yet he lived a life of faith that ultimately God's Kingdom would come, he rejoiced at the contemplation of Christ his Lord; and he filled his life with practical&nbsp;service. He wasn't obsessed with the fact that in his marital position he personally couldn't have children when it seemed this was what God wanted him to do; and this was very pleasing to God. &nbsp;Gen. 17:1 says he was 99, so he was in his 100th year.</p><p><i>And the deadness of Sarah&rsquo;s womb</i>- So often we allow the apparent weakness of others to become a barrier to our faith. &lsquo;She&rsquo;ll never change&hellip; she just isn&rsquo;t capable of that&rsquo;. But Abraham not only believed that&nbsp;<i>he</i>&nbsp;could do it, but that the apparent obstacle of another&rsquo;s weakness was also surmountable by the word of promise.</p><p>There are some implied gaps within the record in Gen. 15:5,6: God brings Abraham outside, and asks him to number the stars gap; then He tells Abraham &quot;So shall thy seed be&quot; gap; and then, maybe 10 seconds or 10 hours afterwards, &quot;Abraham believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness&quot;. Those 10 seconds or 10 hours or whatever the period was, are summarized by Paul as how Abraham &quot;in hope believed against hope&quot; (4:18). His no-hope struggled against his hope / faith, but in the end his faith in God's word of promise won out. &quot;According to that which had been spoken, So shall thy seed be&quot; implies to me that he kept reflecting on those words: &quot;So shall thy seed be&quot; (three words in Hebrew,&nbsp;<i>ko zehrah hawya</i>). And we too can too easily say that we believe the Bible is God's word, without realizing that to just believe three inspired words can be enough to radically change our lives and lead us to eternity. I'm not sure that Abraham's ultimate belief of those three words&nbsp;<i>ko zehrah hawya</i>&nbsp;just took a few seconds. According to Paul, he &quot;considered... his body&quot;- he reflected on the fact he was impotent (see Gk. and RV).&nbsp;<i>Katanoeo</i>, &quot;consider&quot;, means to &quot;observe fully&quot; (Rom. 4:19). He took full account of his impotent state, knowing it as only a man can know it about himself. And he likewise considered fully the deadness of his elderly wife's womb, recalling how her menstruation had stopped years ago... but all that deeply personal self-knowledge didn't weaken his faith; he didn't &quot;waver&quot;, but in fact- the very opposite occurred. He &quot;waxed strong through faith... being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform&quot;. As he considered his own physical weakness, and that of his wife, his faith &quot;waxed&quot; stronger (RV), he went through a process of becoming &quot;fully assured&quot;, his faith was progressively built up (&quot;waxed strong&quot; is in the passive voice)... leading up to the moment of total faith that so thrilled the heart of God. And so it can happen with us- the very obstacles to faith, impotence in Abraham's case, are what actually leads to faith getting into that upward spiral that leads towards total certainty. Abraham's physical impotence did not make him &quot;weak&quot; s.w. translated &quot;impotent&quot; in Jn. 5:3,7 in faith- it all worked out the opposite. For his physical impotence made him not-impotent in faith; the very height of the challenge led him to conclude that God would be true to His word, and he would indeed have a child. For when we are &quot;weak&quot; s.w. &quot;impotent&quot;, then we are strong (2 Cor. 12:10). Thus the internal struggle of Abraham's mind led his faith to develop in those seconds or minutes or hours as he reflected upon the words &quot;So shall your seed be&quot;. He &quot;staggered not at the promise&quot; (Rom. 4:20), he didn't separate himself away from (Gk.) those three Hebrew words translated &quot;So shall your seed be&quot;, he didn't let his mind balk at them... and therefore and thereby he was made strong in faith (&quot;waxed strong in faith&quot; Rom. 4:20 RV). This process of his faith strengthening is picked up in the next verse: Abraham was &quot;fully persuaded that what God had promised, he was able also to perform&quot; (Rom. 4:21). There was a process of internal persuasion going on- leading to the moment of faith, which so thrilled God and was imputed to Abraham for righteousness. And of course Paul drives the point home- that we are to have the faith of Abraham. As he believed that life could come out of his dead body (&quot;dead&quot; in Rom. 4:19, with a passive participle, implies 'slain'), so&nbsp;<i>we</i>&nbsp;are to believe in the resurrection of the slain body of the Lord Jesus, and the real power of His new life to transform our dead lives (Rom. 4:23,24). Gal. 3:5,14 puts it another way in saying that if we share the faith of Abraham at that time, we will receive &quot;the promise of the spirit through faith&quot;, the enlivening of our sterile lives. And this takes quite some faith for us to take seriously on board; for as Abraham carefully considered the impotence of his physical body, so we can get a grim picture of the deadness of our fleshly lives. These ideas help us understand more clearly why the Lord chose to be baptized. He understood baptism as a symbol of his death (Lk. 12:50). Rom. 6:3-5 likewise makes the connection between baptism and crucifixion. The Lord knew that He would be crucified, and yet He lived out the essence of it in His own baptism.</p>