4:21
“Being fully persuaded that God had the power to do what He had promised”. We can sometimes think that having faith, or being “fully persuaded”, means that we have no doubts or struggles. The life of Abraham manifestly shows that this is not the case. What it does mean is that when our feelings and the reality of what we are like is taking us in one direction, and the word of God tells us to go in another direction, we choose God’s direction.
4:22
“This is why it was credited to him as righteousness”. The Jews were concerned about righteousness, and were proud of their Abrahmic ancestry, but they were going about it in the wrong way. They had a complete misunderstanding. Abraham was not counted as righteous because of circumcision, but because of his faith, as Genesis clearly states. It is possible to be wanting to achieve the right thing, but to be going about it in the completely wrong way.
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