<p>4:17&nbsp;<i>(As it is written, A father of many nations have I made you) before Him whom he believed, God, who gives life to the dead</i><i>-</i> This continues the language of our standing &ldquo;before God&rdquo; in 3:19,20 and being condemned there for our sins, and yet also being declared righteous there by His grace and our faith in that grace. The first part of v. 17 is in brackets, correctly in my opinion. Abraham was declared the &ldquo;father of us all&rdquo; (4:16) before God, as he stood as it were in God&rsquo;s judgment presence and was justified, declared right- God then considered him as the father of us all, naming things AV &ldquo;calling&rdquo; which didn&rsquo;t exist as if they did. Abraham the ungodly was counted as Godly; we who were sinners, disobedient to the law, were counted as obedient; and thus God as it were saw Abraham before His presence not merely as Abraham, but as representative of so many others who would likewise believe in God&rsquo;s grace and be thereby justified.</p><p><i>And called things that are not, as though they were</i>- This is exactly what Paul has been arguing all through his letter so far. God calls the unrighteous righteous, counting righteousness to those who believe, who are themselves not righteous. &ldquo;Calls&rdquo; strictly means &lsquo;to name&rsquo;, and the reference would initially be to the way God called Abram as Abraham, as if he already was the father of the people of many nations whom God foresaw would believe in His promised grace just as Abraham had done. God saw us then as if we existed, in the same way as He sees us as righteous even though we are not. The idea of calling things which don&rsquo;t exist into existence also has suggestions of creation (Is. 41:4; 48:13). The new, spiritual creation is indeed a creation&nbsp;<i>ex nihilo</i>, an act of grace. Incomprehensible to the modern mind, the natural creation involved the creation of matter from out of God, and not out of any visible, concrete matter which already existed. The physical creation therefore looked forward to the grace of the new creation- creating people spiritually out of nothing, counting righteousness to them which they didn&rsquo;t have, treating them as persons whom they were not.</p><p>Because God is not limited by time, He speaks of things which do not now exist as if they do, because He knows that ultimately they will exist (Rom. 4:17). This explains why the Bible speaks as if Abraham is still alive although he is now dead; as if the believers are now saved in God&rsquo;s kingdom, although &ldquo;he that endureth to the end shall be saved&rdquo; (Mt. 10:22); as if Israel were obedient to God&rsquo;s word (Ps. 132:4 cp. Ex. 19:5-6), when they will only be so in the future; as if Christ existed before His birth, although he evidently only existed physically after his birth of Mary.&nbsp;</p><p>Our comprising the Kingdom to some degree is understandable seeing that God speaks of &quot;those things which be not as though they were&quot; (Rom. 4:17). Thus Abraham and those believers who have died are described as 'living unto God' in prospect, because He can foresee their resurrection (Lk. 20:38). It is to this that Rom. 6:11 refers: &quot;Reckon yourselves (i.e. in prospect)... alive unto God through (having been resurrected with) Jesus&quot; in baptism. In the same way as in prospect we should reckon ourselves resurrected to eternal life, unable to give service to sin any longer, so in the same way we are now in the Kingdom. Careful attention to the tenses in 1 Cor. 15:20 indicates the same logic; by His resurrection Christ has &quot;become the firstfruits of them that slept&quot;- not those 'who are sleeping', but &quot;that slept&quot;, seeing that because of their Lord's resurrection they also are alive in prospect. Similarly if Christ had not risen &quot;they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished&quot; (1 Cor.15:18), implying that now they are not perished. The practical meaning of all this is that we should live now in the same joy and righteousness as if we were in the Kingdom. &quot;The day (of the Kingdom) is at hand: let us therefore... walk honestly, as in the day&quot; (Rom.13:12,13), i.e. as if we are now living in the Kingdom which is soon to come.</p>