Romans 4

1 What then will we say that Abraham, our forefather, has found according to the flesh?

What then, it may be asked, are we to say about Abraham, the ancestor of our nation?

2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not toward God.

If he was pronounced righteous as the result of obedience, then he has something to boast of. Yes, but not before God.

3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”

For what are the words of scripture? “Abraham had faith in God, and his faith was regarded by God as righteousness.”

4 Now to him who works, the reward is not counted as grace, but as something owed.

Now wages are regarded as due to the person who works, not as a favour, but as a debt;

5 But to him who doesn’t work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness.

while, as for the person who does not rely on their obedience, but has faith in him who can pronounce the godless righteous, their faith is regarded by God as righteousness.

6 Even as David also pronounces blessing on the man to whom God counts righteousness apart from works:

In precisely the same way David speaks of the blessing pronounced on the person who is regarded by God as righteous apart from actions –

7 “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered.

“Blessed are those whose wrongdoings have been forgiven and over whose sins a veil has been drawn!

8 Blessed is the man whom the Lord will by no means charge with sin.”

Blessed the man whom the Lord will never regard as sinful!”

9 Is this blessing then pronounced only on the circumcised, or on the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness.

Is 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.”

10 How then was it counted? When he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision.

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

11 He received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while he was in uncircumcision, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they might be in uncircumcision, that righteousness might also be accounted to them.

Not 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;

12 He is the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had in uncircumcision.

as 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.

13 For the promise to Abraham and to his offspring that he would be heir of the world wasn’t through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.

For 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.

14 For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void, and the promise is made of no effect.

If 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!

15 For the law produces wrath; for where there is no law, neither is there disobedience.

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

16 For this cause it is of faith, that it may be according to grace, to the end that the promise may be sure to all the offspring, not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.

That 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;

17 As it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations.” This is in the presence of him whom he believed: God, who gives life to the dead, and calls the things that are not, as though they were.

as 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.

18 Against hope, Abraham in hope believed, to the end that he might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken, “So will your offspring be.”

With 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.”

19 Without being weakened in faith, he didn’t consider his own body, already having been worn out, (he being about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb.

Though he was nearly a hundred years old, yet his faith did not fail him, even when he thought of his own body, then utterly worn out, and remembered that Sarah was past bearing children.

20 Yet, looking to the promise of God, he didn’t waver through unbelief, but grew strong through faith, giving glory to God,

He was not led by want of faith to doubt God’s promise.

21 and being fully assured that what he had promised, he was also able to perform.

On the contrary, his faith gave him strength; and he praised God, in the firm conviction that what God has promised he is also able to carry out.

22 Therefore it also was “credited to him for righteousness.”

And therefore his faith “was regarded as righteousness.”

23 Now it was not written that it was accounted to him for his sake alone,

Now these words – “it was regarded as righteousness” – were not written with reference to Abraham only;

24 but for our sake also, to whom it will be accounted, who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead,

but also with reference to us. Our faith, too, will be regarded by God in the same light, if we have faith in him who raised Jesus, our Lord, from the dead;

25 who was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification.

for Jesus was given up to death to atone for our offences, and was raised to life that we might be pronounced righteous.