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“Concerning the Promise of God He Did Not Waver in Unbelief”
1 What, therefore, shall we say that Abraham, our ancestor with respect to human descent, discovered in these matters?
2 If, in the case of Abraham, it was by deeds that he was held to be righteous, he would have had good reason to make high and exalted claims. Yet those weren’t the grounds for his standing as a loyal servant in the eyes of God.
3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham placed his faith in God, and it was put down on record for him as righteousness.”+
4 Now, when a person works, his pay is put down on record not as a gift, but as something he is owed.
5 Yet in the case of someone who isn’t working, but is placing his faith in the one who is ready to mercifually regard the ungodly as righteous, his faith is put down on record as righteousness.
6 Along these same lines, David, too, speaks about the blessedness of the man for whom God puts righteousness down on record apart from deeds:
7 “Blessed are those whose wicked deeds are forgiven,
and the guilt of whose sins is blotted out!
8 Blessed is the man
whose guilt the Lord will surely not keep on record!”+
9 This “blessedness” of which David speaks, therefore, is it available only to the circumcised, or is it possible for it to be experienced by the uncircumcised, too? Remember, we have already made the point that faith was put down on record for Abraham as righteousness.
10 Well then, at the time when “it was put down on record,” Abraham had at that point already been circumcised, right? No! He was still uncircumcised at that point.
11 And when he finally did receive circumcision, he received it as a sign, as a confirmation of the righteous standing he already had with God because of the faith he demonstrated prior to being circumcised. As a result, he is the father of all who have faith but have never been circumcised, so that righteousness might be put down on record for them, too,
12 and also the father of those who not only share his circumcision, but who also live their lives according to the example of faith that our ancestor Abraham modeled even before he was circumcised.
13 Indeed, it wasn’t through Torah that the promise came to Abraham or to his seed—that he would of the whole earth be the heir—but through the righteousness of faith.
14 If it is those who share Torah who are heirs, you see, then faith is made invalid and the promise is canceled,
15 because Torah produces wrath. (Where there is no Torah, though, there is no conscious violation of specific commands, either.)
16 That is the reason why the promise is by faith, so that it would be a gift, and, as a result, remain in force for all of Abraham’s seed—not only for the person who shares Torah, but also for the person who shares the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all,
17 just as it is written, “I have made ˢyou a father of many nations.”+ In the presence of God Abraham had faith, in the presence of the one who brings the dead back to life and speaks about things still to come as though they’ve already been fulfilled.
18 It was even when there was no human reason to hope, on the basis of a God-given hope, that Abraham placed his faith in God, and as a result he was certain to become “a father of many nations,”+ in accord with what had been spoken: “That is how numerous ˢyour seed will be.”+
19 He stared at the fact of his worn out body (since he was nearly a good hundred years old) and the fact of Sarah’s barren womb without weakening in his faith.
20 Concerning the promise of God he did not waver in lack of faith, but was strengthened in his faith, having given glory to God
21 and having been fully convinced that what God had promised he was also able to accomplish.
22 That is why “it was put down on record for him as righteousness.”+
23 Now it wasn’t for Abraham’s sake only that those words were written, that “it was put down on record for him,”
24 but also for ours, for whom it will certainly be put down on record—we who are placing our faith in the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.
25 He was “given over”+ for the sake of our offenses and was raised to life for the sake of our being held to be righteous.