What does it mean that God calls into being things that were not (Romans 4:17)?

from the old testament

• There are two interpretations of Romans 4:17, both of which rely on Old Testament background material. This section provides that information.
• Ex Nihilo View: One view of Romans 4:17 is that it refers to God creating something out of nothing. Whether that is what Paul meant in Romans or not, it is true in Scripture in general. Genesis 1 records the act of God creating by speaking, which theologians call creating ex nihilo (creating out of nothing). Each time God creates, He speaks the created item into existence (Genesis 1:3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20, 24). Because of this, a Psalmist would later say, “By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host” (Psalm 33:6). God created ex nihilo by speaking things into existence.
• God’s Promise View: The other view of Romans 4:17 is that Paul was referring to God’s promise to Abraham. A key verse for that promise is Genesis 17:5, which reads, “No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.” In it, God says, “I have made” (present tense) Abraham a father of nations, despite those nations not yet existing. He could speak as if they already existed because He would surely bring them into existence.

from the new testament

• Romans 4:17 reads, “as it is written, ‘I have made you the father of many nations’—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.” The question is what Paul meant when he said, “calls into existence the things that do not exist.”
• As mentioned in the Old Testament section, there are two interpretative views. The first is that Paul refers to God’s ex nihilo creative power (cf. Hebrews 11:3). By including this statement, Paul shows that God has the power to keep His promises, reminding the reader that He creates everything out of nothing. Some also strengthen this by connecting it to the fact that, just as God created life out of nothing, His promise required the creation of life (a child) for Abraham and his barren wife (Romans 4:19).
• While plausible, the difficulty with this view is that it is harder to fit within the natural flow of Paul’s argument and the immediate context of God's promise to many nations through Abraham (Romans 4:16–18).
• The second view attempts to connect the interpretation more directly to the context by arguing that the Greek should be translated with a different nuance. The NET Bible is an example, which renders Romans 4:17 as describing God as the one “who makes the dead alive and summons the things that do not yet exist as though they already do.” In this translation, the present-tense reality of God’s promise in Genesis 17:5 is reflected by stating that God spoke as if the nations already existed, because He would surely bring them into existence.
• While the first view is biblically sound as a general statement of God’s creative abilities, the second view is grounded more closely in Paul’s immediate argument and, thus, is likely what Paul meant. However, regardless of one’s view of Romans 4:17, Paul’s primary point is that righteousness is credited through faith (Romans 4:5), and he used Abraham as the father of all by virtue of his faith in God’s promise, despite not having a son in his old age (Romans 4:19–21).

implications for today

We often measure what’s possible by what we can see—but Romans 4:17 calls us to anchor our lives in what God has said. When a diagnosis comes back uncertain, when finances feel stretched beyond what we can manage, or when a relationship seems beyond repair, we are tempted to believe that the outcome is already decided. Yet God speaks into those very places—not ignoring reality but redefining it—reminding us that what does not yet exist is not beyond His power to bring about.

Once we are saved, which is the greatest promise God fulfills, the truth of His calling into being things that were not, changes how we live day to day. We pray when situations feel hopeless because we know God is powerful. We obey when the path is unclear, trusting that God is already working ahead of us. We hold onto promises like forgiveness, transformation, and eternal life—even when we don’t yet see their full reality—because God has already declared them as certain in Christ.

This truth steadies us in both the ordinary and the overwhelming. When we feel stuck in patterns of sin, we trust that God can create new life in us. When we feel unseen or insignificant, we remember that God is writing a story bigger than what we can currently perceive. And when we face uncertainty about the future, we rest in this: the God who calls into being is at work, and He will faithfully bring every promise to completion.