Romans 4
4
The Example of Abraham
1Well then, what can we say about our ancestor Abraham? 2If he became acceptable to God because of what he did, then he would have something to brag about. But he would never be able to brag about it to God. 3#Gn 15.6; Ga 3.6. The Scriptures say, “God accepted Abraham because Abraham had faith in him.”
4Money paid to workers isn't a gift. It is something they earn by working. 5But you cannot make God accept you because of something you do. God accepts sinners only because they have faith in him. 6In the Scriptures David talks about the blessings that come to people who are acceptable to God, even though they don't do anything to deserve these blessings. David says,
7-8 #
Ps 32.1,2. “What a blessing
when God forgives our sins
and our evil deeds.
What a blessing
when the Lord erases our sins
from his book.”
9Are these blessings meant for circumcised people or for those who are not circumcised? Well, the Scriptures say that God accepted Abraham because Abraham had faith in him. 10But when did this happen? Was it before or after Abraham was circumcised? Of course, it was before.
11 #
Gn 17.10,11. Abraham let himself be circumcised to show he had been accepted because of his faith even before he was circumcised. This makes Abraham the father of all who are acceptable to God because of their faith, even though they are not circumcised. 12This also makes Abraham the father of everyone who is circumcised and has faith in God, as Abraham did before he was circumcised.
The Promise Is for All Who Have Faith
13 #
Gn 17.4-6; 22.17,18; Ga 3.29. God promised Abraham and his descendants that he would give them the world. This promise wasn't made because Abraham had obeyed a law, but because his faith in God made him acceptable. 14#Ga 3.18. If Abraham and his descendants were given this promise because they had obeyed a law, then faith would mean nothing, and the promise would be worthless.
15God becomes angry when his Law is broken. But where there isn't a law, it cannot be broken. 16#Ga 3.7. Everything depends on having faith in God, so that God's promise is assured by his gift of undeserved grace. This promise isn't only for Abraham's descendants who have the Law. It is for all who are Abraham's descendants because they have faith, just as he did. Abraham is the ancestor of us all. 17#Gn 17.4,5. The Scriptures say that Abraham would become the ancestor of many nations. This promise was made to Abraham because he had faith in God, who raises the dead to life and creates new things.
18 #
Gn 15.5. God promised Abraham a lot of descendants. And when it all seemed hopeless, Abraham still had faith in God and became the ancestor of many nations. 19#Gn 17.17. Abraham's faith never became weak, not even when he was nearly 100 years old. He knew he was almost dead and that his wife Sarah could not have children. 20But Abraham never doubted or questioned God's promise. His faith made him strong, and he gave all the credit to God.
21Abraham was certain that God could do what he had promised. 22So God accepted him, 23just as we read in the Scriptures. But these words were not written only for Abraham. 24They were written for us, since we will also be accepted because of our faith in God, who raised our Lord Jesus to life. 25#Is 53.4,5. God gave Jesus to die for our sins, and he raised him to life, so that we would be made acceptable to God.
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
Romans 4
4
Romans 4
1¶ What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, has found?
2For if Abraham were justified by works, he has reason to glory in himself, but not before God.
3For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.
4But unto him that works, the reward is not reckoned as grace, but as debt.
5But to him that does not work, but believes in him that justifies the ungodly, the faith is counted as righteousness.
6Even as David also describes the blessedness of the man unto whom God doth attribute righteousness without works,
7 saying, Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered.
8Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute sin.
9¶ Is this blessedness, therefore, only upon the circumcision or also upon the uncircumcision? for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham as righteousness.
10How was it then reckoned? when he was in circumcision or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision.
11And he received the circumcision as a sign, as a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had, yet being uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all the uncircumcised believers, that it might be counted unto them also as righteousness,
12that he be the father of the circumcision: not only to those who are of the circumcision, but also unto those who walk in the steps of the faith that was in our father Abraham before he was circumcised.
13For the promise that he should be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
14For if those who are of the law are the heirs, faith is in vain, and the promise annulled,
15because the law works wrath; for where there is no law, there is no rebellion either.
16Therefore by faith, that it might be by grace, to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to that which is of the law, but also to that which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all,
17¶ as it is written, As a father of many Gentiles have I placed thee before God, whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which are not as those that are.
18Who believed to wait against all hope, that he might become the father of many Gentiles, according to that which had been spoken unto him, So shall thy seed be.
19And he did not weaken in faith: he considered not his own body now dead when he was about one hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara’s womb;
20he doubted not the promise of God, with unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God,
21being fully persuaded that he was also powerful to do all that he had promised;
22therefore, his faith was also attributed unto him as righteousness.
23¶ Now it is not written for his sake alone that it was so reckoned to him,
24but for us also to whom it shall be so reckoned, that is, to those that believe in him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead,
25who was delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our justification.
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The Jubilee Bible 2000 (JUB) by Ransom Press International