Romans 4:20,21

he staggered not, &c. The Gr. suggests the paraphrase; "he looked away from his own physical state, only at the Promise, and did not doubt its terms just because they were the Promise. So he rose in a great effort and exercise of faith, which consisted in giving glory to God (the -glory" of absolute and adoring trust in Him as God); in being perfectly sure of His ability to keep whatever promise He should in fact make."

We have here a fuller account than anywhere else of the nature of Faith as essentially Trust; not mere historic belief, nor mental assent, but personal Trust; reposed, with application to self of the consequences, on the Divine Promiser as such. We have also a precious suggestion of some reasons (if we may say so) whyGod prescribes Faith as the condition of the justification of a sinner. Faith, we see, is an act of the soul which looks wholly away from "self" (as regards both merit and demerit), and honours the Almighty and All-graciousin a way not indeed in the least meritorious(because merely reasonable, after all), but yet such as to "touch the hem of His garment." It brings His creature to Him in the one right attitude complete submission and confidence. We thus see, in part, whyfaith, and only faith, is the way to reach and touch the Merit of the Propitiation. This is suggested in the next verse.