This week’s epistle text offers the opening salvo in the next section of Paul’s great treatise. After spending the first four chapters establishing the primacy of faith over works, Paul now turns to that which foundationalizes faith: hope. This hope is based upon the founding stories of God’s past acts, as illustrated by the examples of Abraham and Sarah. Their faith in God’s promise of a future, of a family, gave them hope for fulfillment, hope for the child of their prayers.

But if Abraham and Sarah’s hope ultimately led them to faith, the new state of justification offered by Christ brings disciples beyond faith to the new reality of reconciliation. Paul’s opening sentence in this section culminates all his previous arguments made in chapters 1-4. Since “we are justified by faith” we can…