Romans Chapter 4 Vs. 17

The Promise Realized Through Faith

(As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were. Rom 4:17

I have made... Quoted from Gen. 17:4-5. This is a prophecy fulfilled before New Testament times.

who quickeneth the... Two things of God here:

1. Resurrection (Rom. 4:17; 8:11; John 5:21; 6:63; 1Cor. 15:22, 15:35, 15:45; 2Cor. 3:6; Gal. 3:21; 1Tim. 6:13; 1Pet. 3:18)

2. Faith (Rom. 4:17; 8:24-25; Mat. 17:20; 21:22; Mark 9:23; 11:22-24; Heb. 11:1). True faith is counting things that be not as though they were. This is what God exercised when He called the worlds into existence (Heb. 11:3; 2Pet. 3:5; Gen. 1:1; Job 38:4-7)

This Scripture has been greatly misunderstood by many.

In verse 19 you will see that Abraham experienced this first hand.

“And calleth those things which be not as though they were” is another reference to the forensic nature of justification. God can declare believing sinners to be righteous even though they are not, by imputing His righteousness to them, just as God made or declared Jesus “sin” and punished Him, though he was not a sinner. Those whom He justifies, He will conform to the image of His Son.

Many nations could not be just Israel. Israel is just one nation. This Scripture is speaking of the Jew and Gentile. The Gentiles were not, because they were heathen people. Through Jesus they are the family of God, which they had not been previously.

Here is the definition of quickened which I found might help to understand what this is saying, especially when we look at verse 19. “Quickening” – the process of showing signs of life; “the quickening of seed that will become ripe grain”

Paul then supported his conclusion in Rom. 4:16 with scriptural authority, quoting God’s covenantal promise from Gen. 17:5. The fact that believers in this Church Age are identified with Abraham and God’s covenant with him does not mean that the physical and temporal promises to Abraham and his physical descendants are either spiritualized or abrogated. It simply means that God’s covenant and Abraham’s response of faith to it have spiritual dimensions as well as physical and temporal aspects (cf. see Rom. 4:13). The quotation is in effect a parenthesis. Therefore the latter part of Rom. 4:17 connects with the close of Rom. 4:16 : “He is the father of us all…” in the sight of God. (The words He is our father are not in the Gr., but are added in the NIV for clarification.) God… gives life to the dead and calls things that are not (lit., “the non-existing things”) as though they were (lit., “as existing”).

Identifying God in this way obviously refers to God’s promise in Gen. 17:1-27 following the statement quoted above that Abraham and Sarah would have a son of promise when Abraham was 100 and Sarah was 90 (Gen. 17:17, 17:19; 18:10; 21:5; cf. Rom. 4:19). That he would be the ancestor of many nations seemed impossible in his and Sarah’s childless old age.