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

¹³ For the promise made to Abraham and his descendants, that he should own the world, was not conditioned on the law, but on the right standing he had with God through faith. ¹⁴ For if the law party is to possess the world, then faith has been nullified and the promise has been made null and void. ¹⁵ For the law results in wrath alone, but where there is no law, there can be no violation of it.

¹⁶ So it is conditioned on faith, that it might be in accordance with God's unmerited favor, so that the promise might be in force for all the descendants of Abraham, not only for those who belong to the law party but also for those who belong to the faith group of Abraham. He is the father of us all, ¹⁷ as the Scripture says, "I have made you the father of many nations." That is, the promise is in force in the sight of God in whom he put his faith, the God who can bring the dead to life and can call to Himself the things that do not exist as though they did. ¹⁸ Abraham, building on hope in spite of hopeless circumstances, had faith, and so he actually became the father of many nations, just as it had been told him, "So numberless shall your descendants be." ¹⁹ Because he never weakened in faith, he calmly contemplated his own vital powers as worn out (for he was about one hundred years old) and the inability of Sarah to bear a child, ²⁰ and yet he never staggered in doubt at the promise of God but grew powerful in faith, because he gave the glory to God ²¹ in full assurance that He was able to do what He had promised. ²² Therefore, his faith was credited to him as right standing with God. ²³ It was not for his sake alone that it was written, "It was credited to him"; ²⁴ it was for our sakes too, for it is going to be credited to us who put our faith in God who raised from the dead our Lord Jesus, ²⁵ who was given up to death because of our shortcomings and was raised again to give us right standing with God.