This singular statement, “Now Sarai was barren; she had no child” (Genesis 11:30), one could reasonably affirm, situates much if not all the remaining plotline of Holy Scripture from creation to new creation. God, who spoke the heavens and earth into existence from nothing and who breathed life into Adam’s body formed from earth’s dust, comes to Abraham, whose wife is barren, to promise him innumerable descendants who would descend from the firstborn son birthed by his infertile wife. From Sarah’s barren womb God promises to bring forth a male seed for Abraham from whom a great nation would descend and bless the world (Genesis 12:1-9). He fulfills his promise to give a son to Abraham whose wife Sarah was desolate, and he does this when they are very old, long after their childbearing years. Yet, the son birthed by barren Sarah is but a token, a foreshadow of the Coming One. The True Promised Seed is Messiah Jesus (Galatians 3:16).
Thus, Scripture sustains the theme of God’s astounding acts of creation, begun in Genesis 1-2. God closes women’s wombs, preventing pregnancies, that he might open those same wombs, enabling barren women to give birth to male infants who are appointed to crucial roles in God’s covenant-keeping, redemptive-revelatory purposes. These remarkable births to barren women, from Isaac’s conception to John the Baptist’s, all recall God’s speaking into existence things that were not and foreshadow the unique opening of a chaste virgin’s womb with the Holy Spirit-conceived male child. (For a fuller development of this biblical theme of barrenness, see here.) Jesus’ unique birth without a human father and his being raised from the dead, after his sacrificial crucifixion, bracket his messianic ministry characterized by miraculous powers that recall God’s creation of the universe ex nihilo and of Adam from dust but also inaugurate the new creation by bringing forward the powers of the coming age with the arrival of Jesus of Nazareth (cf. Hebrews 6:5).
Belief in God’s testimony that he raised his Son from the dead is of the same species as belief in God’s written account that he created the heavens and the earth ex nihilo and formed Adam, the first man, from the ground and gave him life by breathing into his formed body the breath of life. These two beliefs, one concerning God’s account of his first creation with the First Adam and the other of God’s account of his new creation inaugurated in the virgin-born Last Adam, though distinguishable, are inseparable because they are of one unified and progressive, unfolding drama with the former creation foreshadowing the new. This inseparability of the new creation from the initial creation and the indivisibility of the Last Adam from the First Adam, the Apostle Paul makes clear in his argument in Romans 4. The veracity of the gospel’s teachings concerning the resurrection of Jesus and of us as well in the Last Day and also our being justified now by faith in God who raised our Lord from the dead are inseparable from the truthfulness of the creation account of Genesis that God created the heavens and the earth ex nihilo and formed the first Adam from the ground. If we dispute the truthfulness of God’s testimony concerning his initial creation, we unavoidably bring into question the truthfulness of God’s testimony concerning his new creation, for God’s creative power that establishes the new is the same that formed the initial creation. Paul’s argument makes it clear that the two stand or fall together. The universe the Creator brought into existence, in the beginning, the creation God cursed with death after the First Adam’s disobedient act, is the same creation God is actively redeeming with life breathed into the dead through the obedient act of the Last Adam who is “a life-giving spirit” (1 Corinthians 15:45).
Ponder the Apostle Paul’s exposition of Genesis 15:6—“Faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness” (ἐλογίσθη τῷ Ἀβραὰμ ἡ πίστις εἰς δικαιοσύνην). His expounding of God’s pronouncement of Abraham’s justification entails four juxtaposed contrasts: (1) belief, not works; (2) promise covenant, not law covenant; (3) the status of being uncircumcised, not circumcised; and (4) God’s acting, not human acting. Though these four contrasts beg for a fuller explanation than provided here, Paul’s discussion focuses on God’s acting that both grounds and obligates belief. The Apostle inextricably entangles his teachings concerning God’s (1) creating of all things from nothing, (2) bringing forth life from death (Isaac & Jesus raised from the dead), and (3) justifying those who believe God’s supernatural acts (Abraham & we who believe). The consequence of these entanglements is this. Abraham is a type of all believers. His belief that God would bring forth life from Sarah’s dead womb is a foreshadow of our belief that God raised his Son from the dead. God reckons Abraham’s and our belief for righteousness, not because belief itself has the power to acquire God’s verdict of justification but because of whom we believe, the God who brings forth life from death. This belief of which Paul speaks is of the same species of belief required by the Creator’s testimony concerning his acts when he called forth the heavens and the earth ex nihilo and when he formed Adam from the dust of the ground and breathed into his body the breath of life. The Apostle Paul reasons: to believe that God raised his Son from the dead is of the same kind of belief that Abraham exercised when he believed God “who gives life to the dead and calls non-existing things into existence” (Romans 4:17). It is fitting to point out where the Apostle puts his emphasis. It is not the act of faith itself that Paul features but the object of faith. This is evident when Paul expands on what Abraham laid hold of by faith.
On account of this the promised inheritance is from faith that it might be according to grace, for the purpose that the promise might be confirmed to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of Abraham’s faith, who is the father of us all, just as it is written: “I have appointed you to be the father of many nations” in the sight of him whom he believed, namely God who gives life to the dead and calls non-existing things into existence. Who against hope believed on the evidence of hope that he would become the father of many nations in keeping with what was spoken, “So shall your seed be.” And he did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was already as good as dead, since it was nearly one hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. But he did not doubt by reason of unbelief, but he grew strong in faith, by giving glory to God and by being fully assured that what God promised he was also able to accomplish. Therefore also “it was reckoned to him for righteousness” (Romans 4:18-22).
Everyone whose faith God honors by declaring them righteous does not yield to doubt concerning God’s powers, promises, and the accomplishments he claims for himself. Abraham’s believing descendants do not turn to humanly contrived schemes that contradict God’s Word concerning his works and promises. The belief that God honors with justification does not quibble over what the Lord God deems “an easy thing” to do (2 Kings 3:18). Abraham’s believing descendants, we who are of Abraham’s faith, believe as our father believed.
Abraham’s decrepit body did not incite him to disbelieve in God who works wonders to waver or to weaken. Though his and his wife’s bodies were withered, wrinkled, and shriveled—”as good as dead”—Abraham did not doubt that God would fulfill his promise to bring forth a son from their long marital union which yielded no descendants. The faith Abraham’s descendants exercise believes God’s holy testimony concerning his magnificent power to create the vast heavens and earth ex nihilo, to form the first human from the dust of the earth and enliven him with his own breath, to cause an aged and barren woman to become pregnant and give birth to a son.
Then, to make his point as unambiguous as possible, the Apostle Paul states,
But “it was reckoned to him” was not written for him alone but also for us, to those who will be reckoned, that is to those who believe upon the one who raised our Lord Jesus from the dead. Who was delivered up on account of our trespasses and was raised on account of our being declared righteous (Romans 4:23-25).
Therefore, to call into question the veracity of God’s authorized testimony concerning his making of the first human and his creating of the heavens and the earth ex nihilo and all that fills them within the span of six days (Exodus 20:11), is subversive and antithetical to being of the faith of Abraham (ὁ ἐκ πίστεως Ἀβραάμ; Romans 4:16). Belief in the good news that God raised his Son from the dead is inseparable from belief in the creation account of Genesis that God created the heavens and the earth ex nihilo and formed Adam, a living creature, from the dust of the ground. If Paul’s affirmations and teachings concerning creation ex nihilo and the formation of Adam as the first human are wrong, then his teachings concerning the Christ, resurrection, and justification are equally unreliable.