The Narrow Path Ministries

Until recently the mention of the "promise" in Rom 4:13-18 appeared to be added only as an idea to describe faith. Now the promise as a distinct topic from "faith" has become clear.

Paul made a distinct mention of the promise because without the promise of God faith is toward a subjective unclear goal. But here, in Romans 4 there was a need to show that the Gentile believers had a specific promise, that of being heirs of the world, to look forward to. By inclusion of a specific promise, Paul's argument became much more convincing.

There was a sequence in Paul's argument to calm the Roman believers in the midst of persecution (Rom 5:3). It goes as follows:
1. Show the Gentiles that they are included as a descendant of Abraham.
2. Describe the promise to Abraham and show that such promise applies to the Romans too.
3. Present the ideas of faith that give substance to the promise now held by the believers too
4. Show that Abraham too had to endure in faith despite the circumstances
5. Their faith combined with the promise would help the believers endure the persecutions.

Having seen the sequence of Paul's argument, the context of Romans became clearer. The passage becomes more than a series of interesting thoughts about Abraham.

Was that response a clarification or an indication of agreement or did you disagree?

You seem to be focusing on Paul's emphasis of the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham. This is one stream of thought of Paul that is mixed in with the efforts of Paul to show that the Romans too were included in being heirs of the world, and that their faith included access to that promise.

Nothing meant - haven't even read it closely yet and was just adding the reference to facilitate discussion.