Romans 4

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

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

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

4Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a matter of grace but as what is owed.

5But to the one who does not work but trusts in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.

6So also David speaks of the blessedness of the person to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:

7“Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven and whose sins have been covered.

8Blessed is the person to whom the Lord will never count sin.”

9Is this blessing, then, for the circumcised, or for the uncircumcised as well? For we say that faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness.

10How then was it credited? Was it when he was circumcised, or when he was uncircumcised? It was not when he was circumcised, but when he was uncircumcised.

11He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be credited to them as well,

12and the father of the circumcised who are not only circumcised but who also follow in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had while he was still uncircumcised.

13For the promise to Abraham or to his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith.

14For if those who rely on the law are heirs, faith is made empty and the promise is nullified.

15For the law brings about wrath, but where there is no law, there is no transgression either.

16That is why it depends on faith, so that it may rest on grace and the promise may be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all,

17as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed, the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that do not exist as though they did.

18Against hope, he believed in hope that he would become the father of many nations, just as he had been told, “So will your offspring be.”

19He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb.

20He did not waver in unbelief concerning the promise of God, but he was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God,

21being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.

22That is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.”

23But the words “it was credited to him” were not written for his sake alone,

24but also for ours. It will be credited to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead,

25who was handed over for our trespasses and raised for our justification.