1 WHAT then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, experienced?

2 For if Abraham was pronounced righteous because of works, he had something to boast of. But he had nothing before God;

3 for what says the Scripture? "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness."

4 To him who works, wages are credited not as by grace, but as due;

5 but to him who does not work, but believes in him who calls the unrighteous man righteous, his faith is credited for righteousness.

6 Just so David speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works,

7 "Blessed are they whose lawless acts have been forgiven, and whose sins have been covered over.

8 Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not charge up to him."

9 Does this blessedness come to the circumcision, or also to the uncircumcision? For we say, "Faith was credited to Abraham for righteousness."

10 How was it credited, when he was in circumcision or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision.

11 And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness of faith that he had in uncircumcision, so that he should be the father of all who believe while uncircumcised, and righteousness should be credited to them;

12 and the father of the circumcised, that is, of those who are not only circumcised, but who walk in the steps of the faith which our father Abraham had while uncircumcised.

13 It was not through the Law that the promise came to Abraham or to his descendants that he should be the heir of the world, but through the righteousness of faith.

14 For if those who are of the Law are heirs, faith is emptied of value and the promise is nullified.

15 For the Law works wrath. But where there is no law, neither is there lawbreaking.

16 Therefore all depends on faith, that it may be of grace, and thus the promise be sure for all his descendants, not only those who are of the Law, but also those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of all of us

17 as it is written, "I have made thee a father of many nations", in the view of the God whom he believed, who makes alive the dead and calls things that are not as if they were.

18 Abraham, when hope was past, believed in hope so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was said to him, "So shall your descendants be";

19 and without being weakened in faith he recognized his own body as dead, when he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah's womb.

20 Still he did not hesitate through want of faith in the promise of God, but was strong in faith, thus giving glory to God,

21 and was fully confident that what God had promised he was able to perform.

22 Therefore it was credited to him for righteousness.

23 It was not written for his sake only, that it was credited to him,

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

25 who was delivered up on account of our sins and was raised again that we might be accounted righteous.