Romans 4:8-18

⁸Blessed the man whom the Lord will never regard as sinful!’

⁹Is this blessing, then, pronounced on the circumcised only or on the uncircumcised as well? We say that — ‘Abraham's faith was regarded by God as righteousness.’

¹⁰Under what circumstances, then, did this take place? After his circumcision or before it?

¹¹Not after, but before. And it was as a sign of this that he received the rite of circumcision — to show the righteousness due to the faith of an uncircumcised man — in order that he might be the father of all who have faith in God even when uncircumcised, so that they also may be regarded by God as righteous;

¹²as well as father of the circumcised — to those who are not only circumcised, but who also follow our father Abraham in that faith which he had while still uncircumcised.

¹³For the promise that he should inherit the world did not come to Abraham or his descendants through Law, but through the righteousness due to faith.

¹⁴If those who take their stand on Law are to inherit the world, then faith is robbed of its meaning and the promise comes to nothing!

¹⁵Law entails punishment; but, where no Law exists, no breach of it is possible.

¹⁶That is why everything is made to depend on faith: so that everything may be God's gift, and in order that the fulfilment of the promise may be made certain for all Abraham's descendants — not only for those who take their stand on the Law, but also for those who take their stand on the faith of Abraham. (He is the Father of us all;

¹⁷as scripture says — ‘I have made you the Father of many nations.’) And this they do in the sight of that God in whom Abraham had faith, and who gives life to the dead, and speaks of what does not yet exist as if it did.

¹⁸With no ground for hope, Abraham, sustained by hope, put faith in God; in order that, in fulfilment of the words — ‘So many will your descendants be,’ he might become ‘the Father of many nations.’