I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that I often planned to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have some harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles.

whom God put forward as an atoning sacrifice by his blood, to be received through faith. This was to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over sins committed beforehand;

How then was it reckoned to him? Was it after he had been circumcised, or before? It was not after, but before he was circumcised.

And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness which he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be reckoned to them.

And he is also the father of the circumcised who are not only circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith which our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.

In hope, he believed against hope, so that he became the father of many nations; as he had been told, "So shall your descendants be."

being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.

What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed, I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, "You shall not covet."

But it is not as though the word of God had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel,

And not only so, but also when Rebecca had conceived children by one man, our father Isaac,

though the twins were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad, in order that God's purpose of election might stand, not because of works but because of his call,

And as Isaiah said: "Unless the Lord of hosts had left us children, we would have become like Sodom, and we would have been made like Gomorrah."