| 4:1 | What then shall we say that Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh,* has discovered regarding this matter?* |
| 4:2 | For if Abraham was declared righteous* by the works of the law, he has something to boast about – but not before God. |
| 4:3 | For what does the scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited* to him as righteousness.”* |
| 4:4 | Now to the one who works, his pay is not credited due to grace but due to obligation.* |
| 4:5 | But to the one who does not work, but believes in the one who declares the ungodly righteous,* his faith is credited as righteousness. |
| 4:6 | So even David himself speaks regarding the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: |
| 4:7 | “Blessed* are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; |
| 4:8 | blessed is the one* against whom the Lord will never count* sin.”* |
| 4:9 | Is this blessedness* then for* the circumcision* or also for* the uncircumcision? For we say, “faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness.”* |
| 4:10 | How then was it credited to him? Was he circumcised at the time, or not? No, he was not circumcised but uncircumcised! |
| 4:11 | And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised,* so that he would become* the father of all those who believe but have never been circumcised,* that they too could have righteousness credited to them. |
| 4:12 | And he is also the father of the circumcised,* who are not only circumcised, but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham possessed when he was still uncircumcised.* |
| 4:13 | For the promise* to Abraham or to his descendants that he would inherit the world was not fulfilled through the law, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. |
| 4:14 | For if they become heirs by the law, faith is empty and the promise is nullified.* |
| 4:15 | For the law brings wrath, because where there is no law there is no transgression* either. |
| 4:16 | For this reason it is by faith so that it may be by grace,* with the result that the promise may be certain to all the descendants – not only to those who are under the law, but also to those who have the faith of Abraham,* who is the father of us all |
| 4:17 | (as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”).* He is our father* in the presence of God whom he believed – the God who* makes the dead alive and summons the things that do not yet exist as though they already do.* |
| 4:18 | Against hope Abraham* believed* in hope with the result that he became the father of many nations* according to the pronouncement,* “so will your descendants be.”* |
| 4:19 | Without being weak in faith, he considered* his own body as dead* (because he was about one hundred years old) and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. |
| 4:20 | He* did not waver in unbelief about the promise of God but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God. |
| 4:21 | He was* fully convinced that what God* promised he was also able to do. |
| 4:22 | So indeed it was credited to Abraham* as righteousness. |
| 4:23 | But the statement it was credited to him* was not written only for Abraham’s* sake, |
| 4:24 | but also for our sake, to whom it will be credited, those who believe in the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. |
| 4:25 | He* was given over* because of our transgressions and was raised for the sake of* our justification.* |
Romans 4 - NET Bible [draft]
