<p>4:20&nbsp;<i>B</i><i>ut instead, looking to the promise of God, he did not waver through unbelief</i>- &ldquo;Did not waver&rdquo; is Gk.&nbsp;<i>diakrino</i>, to judge. Abraham didn't judge God by doubting, analysing, forensically investigating, the promise made- finding all the possible reasons why it might not be true for him. This continues the idea of Rom. 3:4- that man effectively puts God in the dock and prosecutes Him for false witness and unreal promises, the accusers being the doubts of God&rsquo;s grace deep within the human mind. Abraham didn't do this. The word occurs only one other time in Romans, in the practical section, in Rom. 14:23: &quot;He that doubts s.w. 'stagger' is damned if he eat&quot;. If we are truly Abraham's children and don't doubt God's promises, we will have a strong conscience, not worrying that eating this or that or failing to keep some ritual will result in our losing God's grace.</p><p><i>But grew strong through faith, giving glory to God</i>- Gk. &lsquo;was / became strengthened&rsquo;- by whom? By God? In this case we would see God&rsquo;s grace yet more apparent, in that Abraham was justified by his faith in God&rsquo;s grace, but God Himself partially empowered that faith. This would be an example of how faith is part of an upward spiritual spiral, the dynamic in which is God Himself- a theme with which Romans begins, when Paul talks about going &ldquo;from faith to faith&rdquo; (Rom. 1:17). Exactly the same term is used about Paul after his conversion- he &quot;increased the more in strength&quot; and confounded Jewish opposition to the Gospel (Acts 9:22). As so often, Paul provides himself as a parade example of what he's preaching. Significantly, Paul elsewhere comments that it is Christ who strengthens him within his mind (Phil. 4:13 and context; other examples of the same word applied to Christ&rsquo;s strengthening of Paul are in 1 Tim. 1:12; 2 Tim. 4:17; and Heb. 11:37 says that the faithful of old were &ldquo;made strong&rdquo; in their faith, by God). We are thrown up yet again against God&rsquo;s grace. We can be saved by grace if we believe in that grace, but the Lord is willing to even strengthen us in that necessary faith. See on 4:21 &ldquo;fully persuaded&rdquo;, where again God is the persuader of human faith. Abraham therefore gave the glory to God, because it was God who had strengthened his faith and the whole thing comes down to God&rsquo;s grace in every way, for which we can only glorify Him. Paul uses the same phrase for &lsquo;giving glory to God&rsquo; as in Lk. 17:18, where it is a Gentile rather than the Jews who give glory to God for what He has done for them- and surely this is another of Paul&rsquo;s many allusions to the Gospel records.</p><p>Mt. 21:21 = Rom. 4:20. Paul saw Abraham as being like the man in the parable who had the faith to throw mountains into the sea.</p>