Romans 4:17

Plain English Version

God promised that a long time ago, and it is in his book. God told Abraham, “I will make you the father of lots of nations.” Abraham believed that God can do that. You know, God can do anything. He can even make dead people alive again, and he can make new things out of nothing.

Cross References

Genesis 17:16

And God said, “I will do a good thing for her too. She will have a son, and you will be his father. Yes, I will do that good thing for her. Lots of people will be born into her son’s family, and they will split up into lots of nations. And some of those people will be the big bosses of those nations.”

Genesis 17:20

And you asked me to do good things for Ishmael. Well, I listened to you, and I will be good to him too. He will have a big family, and later on, 12 big bosses will be in his family. I will make his mob into a great nation.

Genesis 28:3

Then Isaac said, “God has power over everything. So I’m asking God to be good to you. I’m asking him to give you lots of kids and grand-kids, so that your family will grow into lots of different tribes.

Matthew 3:9

But don’t just say to yourselves, ‘We are in Abraham’s family, so we’ll be all right.’ Listen, God can turn these stones here into Abraham’s family.

John 5:21

You see, my father can make dead people alive again. And I am like my father, I can give life to anyone I want to.

John 5:25

Listen, there are people that are spiritually dead, but I am God’s son, and I am telling you straight, a time is coming when they will hear my voice, and if they listen to me, they will come alive spiritually. And that time is happening now.

John 6:63

It is God’s spirit that makes people alive. People can’t do that by themselves. And those words that I said to you now, they are from God’s spirit, and if people believe those words, they will live with God for ever.

Romans 3:29

So now, what do you reckon? Is God just the God of the Jewish people, or is he the God of other people that are not Jews too? Of course he is God of both. He is God for the people that are not Jewish as well as for the Jews.

Romans 4:18

Everyone reckoned that Abraham was too old to have any kids, but he believed that God was going to make him the father of lots of nations. God promised Abraham that later on lots of people were going to be born into his family and they were going to be a real big mob.

Romans 8:11

Remember that Jesus died, but God made him alive again. And God will do that for you too. Your bodies will die, but after that, God will make them alive again. His spirit will do that. He lives inside you.

1 Corinthians 1:28

And God picked people from this world that are not great, and people that are like nothing, so that in the end, those other people that reckon they are great, they will become like nothing.

1 Corinthians 15:45

This is what God says in his book, “The 1st man, Adam, became a living person.” But we can think of Jesus, that he is the last Adam. You see, he is the spirit that makes people alive.

1 Timothy 6:13

You know about God. He makes things live. And you know about Jesus. People took him to Pontius Pilate, and he told that boss the true story about himself. Well, God is watching us now, and Jesus is listening to us. So I want you to promise me this one thing with both of them listening to you. I want you to promise me that you will do everything that I’m telling you to do in this letter. Promise me that you will do it all properly, so that nobody can say you did it wrong. And keep on doing it until we see Jesus Christ come back again.

1 Peter 2:10

At one time you were not God’s family, but now, you are his family. At one time you didn’t understand that God is very good, but now you know that he is. He felt sorry for you, and he was very good to you. He saved you.

2 Peter 3:8

But, my friends, don’t forget this one thing about God. He can use time in a different way. God can make one day be like 1,000 years, and he can make 1,000 years be like one day.