for they had utterly transformed the reality of God into what was unreal, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

So where has human boasting gone? It was completely shut out. On what principle? On that of doing something? No, but on the principle of faith.

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.

For what does the Scripture say? "Abraham put his faith in God, and it was credited to him as right standing with God."

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."

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.

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;

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.

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.

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,

in full assurance that He was able to do what He had promised.

Therefore, his faith was credited to him as right standing with God.

It was not for his sake alone that it was written, "It was credited to him";

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,

who was given up to death because of our shortcomings and was raised again to give us right standing with God.

Certainly sin was in the world before the law was given, but it is not charged to men's account where there is no law.

And yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the way Adam had, against a positive command. For Adam was a figure of Him who was to come.

So through baptism we have been buried with Him in death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the Father's glorious power, so we too should live an entirely new life.

for we know that our former self was crucified with Him, to make our body that is liable to sin inactive, so that we might not a moment longer continue to be slaves to sin.

for we know that Christ, who once was raised from the dead, will never die again; death has no more power over Him.

For when you were slaves of sin, you were free so far as doing right was concerned.

So, my brothers, you too in the body of Christ have ended your relation to the law, so that you may be married to another husband, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.

What are we then to conclude? Is the law sin? Of course not! Yet, if it had not been for the law, I should not have learned what sin was, for I should not have known what an evil desire was, if the law had not said, "You must not have an evil desire."

I was once alive when I had no connection with the law, but when the command came, sin revived, and then I died;

Did that which is good, then, result in death to me? Of course not! It was sin that did it, so that it might show itself as sin, for by means of that good thing it brought about my death, so that through the command sin might appear surpassingly sinful.

For though the law could not do it, because it was made helpless through our lower nature, yet God, by sending His own Son in a body similar to that of our lower nature, and as a sacrifice for sin, passed sentence upon sin through His body,

For nature did not of its own accord give up to failure; it was for the sake of Him who let it thus be given up, in the hope

who can condemn them? Christ Jesus who died, or rather, who was raised from the dead, is now at God's right hand, and is actually pleading for us.

nor are they all children of Abraham, because they are his descendants, but the promise was "In the line of Isaac your descendants will I be counted."

Not only that but this too: There was Rebecca who was impregnated by our forefather Isaac.

she was told, "The elder will be a slave to the younger."

Just as He says in Hosea: "I will call a people that was not mine, my people, and her who was not beloved, my beloved,

And in the place where it was said, 'You are no people of mine,' they shall be called sons of the living God."

Then Isaiah was bold enough to say: "I have been found by a people who were not searching for me; I have made known myself to people who were not asking to know me."

Very well, but it was for lack of faith that they were broken off, and it is through your faith that you now stand where you are. Stop your haughty thinking, rather continue to be reverent,

For everything that was written in the earlier times was written for our instruction, so that by our patient endurance and through the encouragement the Scriptures bring we might continuously cherish our hope.

Remember me to the church too, that meets at their house. Remember me to my dear Epaenetus, who was the first convert to Christ in the province of Asia.