Paul reminds us in an aside in Romans 4:17 of the God we are dealing with who:
..brings the dead to life and call those things that are not as if they are.
It’s an important aside seeing as Paul is telling us about some quite astonishing consequences and results arising from Jesus’ death and resurrection.
It is clear that Paul writes from personal revelation (see e.g. 2 Cor. 12:1-7, Eph. 3:3-5) but he also uses reason and logic to argue his points. He argues that God who created us all, knows all our words before we speak them (Psalm 139) and has written the complete story of everyone’s lives, can accomplish the seemingly impossible task of loving us into consistently wanting to live righteously in this crazy world.
He has accomplished this through the Cross.
The ability to actually live consistently righteously has been accomplished through His resurrection (Romans 5:18).
faithfulwon 