Audio commentary on this verse

Note 6 at Ro 4:17: The phrase, "and calleth those things which be not as though they were," is referring to the instance Paul had just cited when God changed Abram's name to Abraham (Ge 17:5). According to Strong's Concordance, the name Abram means "high father," and the name Abraham means "father of a multitude." The Lord changed Abram's name to Abraham one year before the birth of Isaac, thus confessing that Abraham was the father of a multitude before it happened in the physical.

This illustrates God's faith. God says things are so before there is physical proof that they are so. The same thing was done at creation (Ge 1). God spoke everything into existence, and then it was so. He spoke light into existence and then four days later created a source for that light to come from (Ge 1:3 and 14-19).

God has given us the power to create with faith-filled words (Pr 18:20-21, see note 4 at Mr 11:14 and note 4 at Mr 11:23). If we are going to operate in God's kind of faith, we have to learn to call those things that are not as though they were.