Romans 4:1-12 - Abraham's Faith Counted As Righteousness

¹ Then what are we to say about our ancestor Abraham? ² For if he was made upright by what he did, it is something to be proud of. But not to be proud of before God, ³ for what does the Scripture say? "Abraham had faith in God, and it was credited to him as uprightness."

⁴ Now paying a workman is not considered a favor, but an obligation, ⁵ but a man who has no work to offer, but has faith in him who can make the ungodly upright, has his faith credited to him as uprightness.

⁶ So David himself says of the happiness of those to whom God credits uprightness without any reference to their actions,

⁷ "Happy are they whose violations of the Law have been forgiven, whose sins are covered up! ⁸ Happy is the man whose sin the Lord will take no account of!"

⁹ Does this happiness apply to those who are circumcised, or to those who are uncircumcised as well? What we say is, Abraham's faith was credited to him as uprightness. ¹⁰ In what circumstances? Was it after he was circumcised or before? Not after he was circumcised, but before; ¹¹ and he was afterward given the mark of circumcision as the stamp of God's acknowledgment of the uprightness based on faith that was his before he was circumcised, so that he should be the forefather of all who, without being circumcised, have faith and so are credited with uprightness, ¹² and the forefather of those circumcised persons who not only share his circumcision but follow our forefather Abraham's example in the faith he had before he was circumcised.