because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification. This passage provides six important features of Abraham’s faith and all God-given faith, the only kind that saves. First, it says, “in hope against hope he [Abraham] believed.” Hope and faith are distinguished in that hope is generally a confidence that something will happen, whereas faith is the confident conviction that something has happened. Abraham possessed hope when, humanly speaking, there was no basis for it. In