Romans 4:1-12 - Abraham's Faith Counted As Righteousness
1 Then what are we to say about our forefather Abraham? 2 For if he was considered in right standing with God on the condition of what he did, he has something to boast of, but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? "Abraham put his faith in God, and it was credited to him as right standing with God."
4 Now when a workman gets his pay, it is not considered from the point of view of a favor but of an obligation; 5 but the man who does no work, but simply puts his faith in Him who brings the ungodly into right standing with Himself, has his faith credited to him as right standing.
6 So David, too, describes the happiness of the man to whom God credits right standing with Himself, without the things he does having anything to do with it:
7 "Happy are they whose transgressions have been forgiven, whose sins were covered up; 8 Happy the man whose sin the Lord does not charge against him!"
9 Now does this happiness come to the Jews alone, or to the heathen peoples too? For we say, "Abraham's faith was credited to him as right standing." 10 Under what circumstances was it credited to him as right standing? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? Not after but before he was circumcised. 11 Afterward he received the mark of circumcision as God's seal of his right standing with Him on condition of faith which he had before he was circumcised, that he might be the forefather of all who have faith while still uncircumcised, that they might have their faith credited to them as right standing with God; 12 and the forefather of those Jews who not only belong to the circumcision but also follow in the footsteps of our forefather Abraham in the faith he had before he was circumcised.