<p>4:18&nbsp;<i>Who in hope believed against hope</i>&nbsp;&ndash; see on Rom. 4:19. The first &ldquo;hope&rdquo; may be human hope- and Abraham as a sinner was in a hopeless situation. Yet he believed and thereby shared in God&rsquo;s hopefulness for us, seeing himself as God saw him- as declared right. &ldquo;Against&rdquo; could equally be translated &ldquo;beyond&rdquo;. Beyond human hope, Abraham had hope. This is the essence of the Gospel- having no hope in our own strength, standing condemned and speechless before God, but believing in His hopefulness for us. His faith in this instance was that he would indeed become a father of many nations. He didn&rsquo;t just believe that he was declared right with God, but that really and truly there would be people world-wide who would likewise believe and become his seed. In this sense he believed in God&rsquo;s hope. We likewise need to share in the hopefulness of God for people rather than being negative, cynical and defeatist about people just because so many chose not to respond.</p><p><i>To the end that he might become a father of many nations, according to what had been spoken: So shall your seed be</i>- Because of Sarah&rsquo;s faith, &ldquo;therefore sprang there... so many as the stars of the sky in multitude&rdquo; (Heb. 11:11,12). Those promises to Abraham had their fulfilment, but conditional on Abraham and Sarah&rsquo;s faith. Gen. 18:18-20 says that the fulfilment of the promises was conditional on Abraham teaching his children / seed the ways of God. Those promises / prophesies were &ldquo;sure&rdquo; in the sense that God&rsquo;s side of it was. Rom. 4:18 likewise comments that Abraham became &ldquo;the father of many nations&rdquo; precisely because he&nbsp;<i>believed</i>&nbsp;in this hope. Yet the promise / prophecy that he would be a father of many nations could sound as if it would have happened anyway, whatever. But it was actually conditional upon Abraham&rsquo;s faith. And he is our great example exactly because he had the possibility and option of&nbsp;<i>not </i>believing in the hope he had been offered.</p>