What then were the circumstances under which this took place? Was it after he had been circumcised, or before?

it was for our sakes too. Faith, before long, will be placed to the credit of us also who are believers in Him who raised Jesus, our Lord, from the dead,

in order that as sin has exercised kingly sway in inflicting death, so grace, too, may exercise kingly sway in bestowing a righteousness which results in the Life of the Ages through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Sin took advantage of this, and by means of the Commandment stirred up within me every kind of coveting; for apart from Law sin would be dead.

and if children, then heirs too--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ; if indeed we are sharers in Christ's sufferings, in order that we may also be sharers in His glory.

Nor is that all: later on there was Rebecca too. She was soon to bear two children to her husband, our forefather Isaac--

Moreover, if they turn from their unbelief, they too will be grafted in. For God is powerful enough to graft them in again;

so now they also have been disobedient at a time when you are receiving mercy; so that to them too there may now be mercy.

Greetings, too, to the Church that meets at their house. Greetings to my dear Epaenetus, who was the earliest convert to Christ in the province of Asia;