Romans 4

1So what shall we say about Abraham, the father of our people? What did he discover?

2If Abraham was made right with God by his works, then he had something to brag about — but not before God.

3For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God, and because of that he was accepted as right with God.

4Now when a person works, their pay is not counted as a gift, but as something owed to them.

5But to the person who does not work, but trusts God, who makes the ungodly right with Himself, their faith is counted as making them right with God.

6David says the same thing when he speaks of the happiness of the person whom God counts as right, apart from works:

7Happy are those whose wrongs are forgiven, whose sins are covered.

8Happy is the person whose sin the Lord will never count against them.

9Is this happiness only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham's faith was counted as making him right with God.

10So when did this happen? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? It was before, not after!

11Abraham received circumcision later as a sign, a seal of the rightness he already had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So he is the father of all who believe but are not circumcised, so that they too can be counted right with God.

12And he is also the father of the circumcised — not only those who are circumcised, but those who also follow in the steps of the faith our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.

13God's promise that Abraham would inherit the world did not come through the law. It came through the rightness that is by faith.

14For if those who depend on the law are the heirs, then faith means nothing and the promise is worthless.

15The law brings God's anger, but where there is no law, there is no breaking of the law.

16So the promise comes by faith, so that it may be a gift of grace, guaranteed to all of Abraham's family — not only to those who have the law, but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.

17As the Scripture says: I have made you the father of many nations. Abraham is our father in God's sight, the God he believed — the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that did not exist.

18Against all hope, Abraham believed in hope, and so he became the father of many nations, just as he had been told: That is how many your descendants will be.

19His faith did not weaken, even though he was about a hundred years old and his body was as good as dead, and Sarah was too old to have children.

20He did not doubt God's promise through unbelief. Instead, his faith made him strong, and he gave glory to God,

21Being fully sure that God had the power to do what He had promised.

22That is why his faith was counted as making him right with God.

23The words “it was counted to him” were not written for Abraham alone,

24but also for us. Our faith will be counted in the same way, since we believe in the God who raised Jesus our Lord from death.

25Jesus was handed over to die for our sins, and He was raised to life to make us right with God.