1What shall we say, then, about Abraham, our forefather by human descent? What did he find?
2For if Abraham was made right by works, he has something to boast about - but not before God.
3For what does the scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness."
4Now when a man works, his pay is not counted as a gift of grace. It is owed to him.
5But when a man does not work, but believes in the one who makes the ungodly right, his faith is counted as righteousness.
6David says the same thing when he describes how happy the man is to whom God counts righteousness apart from works:
7"Blessed are those whose wrongs are forgiven, and whose sins are covered."
8"Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not count against him."
9Does this blessing come only on the circumcised, or on the uncircumcised as well? For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness.
10How was it counted, then? Was he circumcised at the time, or not circumcised? He was not circumcised, but uncircumcised.
11And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness of the faith he had while he was still uncircumcised. So he is the father of all who believe, even though they are not circumcised, so that righteousness might be counted to them too.
12And he is the father of the circumcised - not of those who are merely circumcised, but of those who also walk in the steps of the faith that our father Abraham had while he was still uncircumcised.
13For the promise that he would be heir of the world did not come to Abraham or to his offspring through the law. It came through the righteousness of faith.
14For if those who keep the law are the heirs, then faith is empty, and the promise means nothing.
15For the law brings wrath. Where there is no law, there is no breaking of the law.
16So it comes by faith, so that it may be by grace. Then the promise is certain for all the offspring - not only for those who have the law, but also for those who share the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.
17(As it is written, "I have made you a father of many nations.") He is our father in the sight of God, whom he believed - the God who gives life to the dead, and calls things that do not exist as though they did.
18When there was no hope, he believed in hope, so that he became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, "So shall your offspring be."
19He was not weak in faith. He did not think about his own body, which was as good as dead, since he was about a hundred years old, nor about the deadness of Sara's womb.
20He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief. Instead he was strong in faith, and gave glory to God.
21He was fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.
22And that is why it was counted to him as righteousness.
23Now the words "it was counted to him" were not written for his sake alone,
24but for us also. It will be counted to us, if we believe in him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead.
25He was handed over to death for our sins, and was raised again to make us right.