New Testament · Letters

Romans chapter 4

So what do we say Abraham, our , about all this?Because if Abraham was based on , he’d have something to — but not when it comes to God.Because what does the say? “Abraham God, and that trust was as .”Now when someone works, their isn’t considered a — it’s what they earned.But for someone who doesn’t rely on what they do, and instead the God who — their trust is credited to their account as being right with God. says the same thing when he talks about for the person God credits as right with him — apart from anything they’ve done:“What joy for those whose are , whose are .”“What joy for the person whose failure will never .”Now, does this ‘’ declaration apply only to the , or to the uncircumcised too? We keep coming back to this: “Abraham’s trust was credited to his account as being right with God.”So how was it ? When he was circumcised or before? It wasn’t after — it was before he was circumcised!He received circumcision as a — a confirming the right-standing he already had through trust while he was still uncircumcised. This made him the of everyone who trusts God without being circumcised, so that right-standing could be credited to them too.And he’s also the father of the circumcised — but not just because they’re circumcised. He’s the father of those who also in the same kind of trust our father Abraham had before he was ever circumcised.The that Abraham and his descendants would didn’t come through — it came through the right-standing that comes from trust.Because if the people who rely on the law are the heirs, then and the .Here’s why: the law produces . But where there’s no law, there’s no to speak of.That’s why it depends on trust — so that it’s based on . This the promise to all of Abraham’s descendants: not just to those who have the law, but also to those who share Abraham’s kind of trust. He is the father of all of us,just as it’s written: “I’ve made you the father of .” He stood in the presence of the God he trusted — the God who and ., Abraham , so that he became the father of many nations, just as he’d been told: “That’s how many your descendants will be.”Without weakening in his trust, he faced the fact that his own body was — he was about a hundred years old — and that Sarah’s womb was also .He didn’t toward God’s promise. Instead, his trust made him strong, and he because he was that what God had promised, God had the .And that’s exactly why “it was as being right with God.”Now the words “it was credited to him” weren’t written just for Abraham’s sake.They were written for us too — for those of us who trust the one who . It will be credited to us in the same way.He was to death because of our , and he was so that we could be .