Romans 4:13-25 - The Promise To Abraham Secured Through Faith

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. ¹⁴ For if they become heirs by the law, faith is empty and the promise is nullified. ¹⁵ For the law brings wrath, because where there is no law there is no transgression either.

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 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. 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." 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. ²⁰ He did not waver in unbelief about the promise of God but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God. ²¹ He was fully convinced that what God promised he was also able to do. ²² So indeed it was credited to Abraham as righteousness. ²³ But the statement it was credited to him was not written only for Abraham's sake, 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. ²⁵ He was given over because of our transgressions and was raised for the sake of our justification.