Thematic Bible


Thematic Bible




Then what are we to say about our forefather Abraham? 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." read more.
Now when a workman gets his pay, it is not considered from the point of view of a favor but of an obligation; but the man who does no work, but simply puts his faith in Him who brings the ungodly into right standing with Himself, has his faith credited to him as right standing. So David, too, describes the happiness of the man to whom God credits right standing with Himself, without the things he does having anything to do with it: "Happy are they whose transgressions have been forgiven, whose sins were covered up; Happy the man whose sin the Lord does not charge against him!" 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. For if the law party is to possess the world, then faith has been nullified and the promise has been made null and void. For the law results in wrath alone, but where there is no law, there can be no violation of it. 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, 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. 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." 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, and yet he never staggered in doubt at the promise of God but grew powerful in faith, because he gave the glory to God 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.

just as "Abraham put his faith in God, and it was credited to him as right standing with God"? So you see, it is the men of faith who are the real descendants of Abraham. Because the Scripture foresaw that God would bring the heathen into right standing with Himself on condition of faith, He beforehand proclaimed the good news to Abraham in the promise, "It is through you that all the heathen will be blessed." read more.
So the men of faith are blessed as partners with trusting Abraham.

By faith Abraham, on being called, obeyed in starting off for a country which he was to receive as his own, and he did it in spite of the fact that he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his temporary home in the land that God had promised him, although a land inhabited by others, living merely in tents with Isaac and Jacob, who were to share the promise with him. For he was confidently looking forward to that city with the solid foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

By faith Abraham, when he was put to the test, offered Isaac as a sacrifice; that is, he who had received the promise was starting to offer as a sacrifice his only son, of whom it had been said, "Through Isaac your offspring must be traced." For he considered the fact that God was able to raise people from the dead; and so from the dead, in a figure, he did receive him back.

Was not our forefather Abraham shown to be upright by his good deeds, namely, by offering Isaac his son upon the altar? You see that faith cooperated with his good deeds, and by his good deeds faith was made complete; and so the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "Abraham put his faith in God, and it was credited to him for uprightness, and he was called God's friend." read more.
You see that a man is shown to be upright by his good deeds, and not merely by his faith.



Was not our forefather Abraham shown to be upright by his good deeds, namely, by offering Isaac his son upon the altar? Verse ConceptsAncestorsAbraham, New Testament ReferencesJustified By WorksWorks Of Faith

Was not our forefather Abraham shown to be upright by his good deeds, namely, by offering Isaac his son upon the altar? You see that faith cooperated with his good deeds, and by his good deeds faith was made complete; and so the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "Abraham put his faith in God, and it was credited to him for uprightness, and he was called God's friend." read more.
You see that a man is shown to be upright by his good deeds, and not merely by his faith. Was not even Rahab the prostitute shown to be upright by her good deeds, namely, by entertaining the scouts and sending them off by a different road?

So faith by itself, if it has no deeds to back it up, is dead. But someone may say, "You have faith, and I have good deeds. Show me your faith without any good deeds, but I will show you mine by my good deeds." Do you believe in one God? Very well; the demons, too, believe that, and shudder. read more.
But, O senseless man, are you willing to learn that faith without good deeds is worthless? Was not our forefather Abraham shown to be upright by his good deeds, namely, by offering Isaac his son upon the altar? You see that faith cooperated with his good deeds, and by his good deeds faith was made complete; and so the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "Abraham put his faith in God, and it was credited to him for uprightness, and he was called God's friend." You see that a man is shown to be upright by his good deeds, and not merely by his faith. Was not even Rahab the prostitute shown to be upright by her good deeds, namely, by entertaining the scouts and sending them off by a different road? Just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without good deeds is dead.



Was not our forefather Abraham shown to be upright by his good deeds, namely, by offering Isaac his son upon the altar? Verse ConceptsAncestorsAbraham, New Testament ReferencesJustified By WorksWorks Of Faith

because we know that a man does not come into right standing with God by doing what the law commands, but by simple trust in Christ, we too have trusted in Christ Jesus, in order to come into right standing with God by simple trust in Christ and not by doing what the law commands, because by doing what the law commands no man can come into right standing with God. Verse ConceptsAccepting ChristdecisionsLaw, Purpose OfLegalismSalvation, Necessity And Basis OfSelf Righteousness, And The GospelSin, Deliverance From GodUnion With Christ, Nature OfJustification Under The GospelJustification By FaithSalvation Not By WorksBenefits Of Faith In ChristJustified By WorksRighteous By FaithWorks Of The LawFree WillKeeping FaithBeing SavedJustificationBeing PositiveMoralityNot Being AlonelaweffortJustification Is Not By The LawJustification Is Not By Works


that God has fulfilled it to us their children, by raising Jesus to life, just as the Scripture says in the Second Psalm, 'You are my Son, today I have become your Father.' Now as a proof that He has raised Him from the dead, no more to return to decay, He has spoken this, 'I will fulfill to you the holy promises made to David.' Because in another psalm he says, 'You will not let your Holy One experience decay.' read more.
For David, after having served God's purpose in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid among his forefathers, and so he did experience decay, but He whom God raised to life did not experience it. So, my brothers, you must understand that through Him the forgiveness of your sins is now proclaimed to you, and that through union with Him every one of you who believes is given right standing with God and freed from every charge from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.

For those who depend on what the law commands are under a curse, for the Scripture says, "Cursed be everyone who does not continue in all the commands that are written in the book of the law, to do them." Now it is evident that through the law no man is brought into right standing with God, for "The man in right standing with God will live by faith,"

But, O senseless man, are you willing to learn that faith without good deeds is worthless? Was not our forefather Abraham shown to be upright by his good deeds, namely, by offering Isaac his son upon the altar? You see that faith cooperated with his good deeds, and by his good deeds faith was made complete; read more.
and so the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "Abraham put his faith in God, and it was credited to him for uprightness, and he was called God's friend." You see that a man is shown to be upright by his good deeds, and not merely by his faith.

So I tell you, for every worthless word that men utter they will have to give account on the day of judgment; for it is by your words that you will be acquitted and by your words that you will be condemned."

just as "Abraham put his faith in God, and it was credited to him as right standing with God"? So you see, it is the men of faith who are the real descendants of Abraham. Because the Scripture foresaw that God would bring the heathen into right standing with Himself on condition of faith, He beforehand proclaimed the good news to Abraham in the promise, "It is through you that all the heathen will be blessed." read more.
So the men of faith are blessed as partners with trusting Abraham. For those who depend on what the law commands are under a curse, for the Scripture says, "Cursed be everyone who does not continue in all the commands that are written in the book of the law, to do them." Now it is evident that through the law no man is brought into right standing with God, for "The man in right standing with God will live by faith," and the law has nothing to do with faith, but it says, "It is the man who does these things that will live by doing them." Christ ransomed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us -- for the Scripture says, "Cursed be everyone who is hanged on a tree" -- that the blessing promised to Abraham might through Jesus Christ come to the heathen, so that through faith we might receive the promised Spirit.

For we hold that a man is brought into right standing with God by faith, that observance of the law has no connection with it. Or is He the God of Jews alone? Is He not the God of heathen peoples too? Of course, He is the God of heathen peoples too, since there is but one God, who will consider the Jews in right standing with Himself, only on condition of their faith, and the heathen peoples on the same condition.

But, O senseless man, are you willing to learn that faith without good deeds is worthless? Was not our forefather Abraham shown to be upright by his good deeds, namely, by offering Isaac his son upon the altar? You see that faith cooperated with his good deeds, and by his good deeds faith was made complete; read more.
and so the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "Abraham put his faith in God, and it was credited to him for uprightness, and he was called God's friend." You see that a man is shown to be upright by his good deeds, and not merely by his faith. Was not even Rahab the prostitute shown to be upright by her good deeds, namely, by entertaining the scouts and sending them off by a different road?

Was not our forefather Abraham shown to be upright by his good deeds, namely, by offering Isaac his son upon the altar? Verse ConceptsAncestorsAbraham, New Testament ReferencesJustified By WorksWorks Of Faith






and said to him, 'Leave your country and your kinsmen and come to Whatever country I may show you.' So he left the country of the Chaldeans and for a time made his home in Haran. Then after the death of his father, God had him move to this country in which you now live. He gave him no property in it, not even a foot of land, and yet He promised to give it to him and his descendants after him, as a permanent possession, although he had no child at that time. read more.
This is what God promised: 'His descendants will be strangers living in a foreign land, and its people will enslave and oppress them for four hundred years.' But God further promised: 'I will pass sentence on the nation that enslaves them, and after that they will leave that country and worship me on this very spot.' And with Abraham He made the sacred compact of circumcision, and he became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day, and Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.

By faith Abraham, on being called, obeyed in starting off for a country which he was to receive as his own, and he did it in spite of the fact that he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his temporary home in the land that God had promised him, although a land inhabited by others, living merely in tents with Isaac and Jacob, who were to share the promise with him. For he was confidently looking forward to that city with the solid foundations, whose architect and builder is God. read more.
By faith Sarah received strength to become pregnant, and actually gave birth to a child, although she was past the time of life for it, because she thought that He who made her the promise was to be trusted. And so there sprang from one man, and that dead as to any prospects for offspring, a people as numberless as the stars in the sky and as the sands beside the seashore. These people all died victoriously as a result of their faith, although they did not receive the blessings promised; that is, because they really saw them in the far-off future and welcomed them, and so professed to be only foreigners and strangers here on earth. For people who make such a profession as this show that they are in search of a country of their own. And if they had been cherishing the memory of the country they had left, they would have had an opportunity to go back. But in reality they were aspiring for a better country, I mean, a heavenly one. This is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them. By faith Abraham, when he was put to the test, offered Isaac as a sacrifice; that is, he who had received the promise was starting to offer as a sacrifice his only son,

Then Peter opened his mouth and said, "Now I really see that God shows no partiality, but in every nation the man who reveres God and practices doing right is acceptable to Him.


But you, dearly beloved, must continue to build yourselves up on the groundwork of your most holy faith and to pray in the Holy Spirit; you must keep yourselves in the love of God and continue to wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, to bring you to eternal life.

Now for this very reason you must do your level best to supplement your faith with moral character, moral character with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with patient endurance, patient endurance with piety, piety with brotherly affection, brotherly affection with universal love. read more.
For if you have these qualities and they continue to increase in you, they will make you neither idle nor unproductive in attaining a full knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is blind -- or short-sighted-- and forgetful of the cleansing that he has received from his former sins.

"Teacher, what sort of command is greatest in the law?" And He answered him, "'You must love the Lord your God with your whole heart, your whole soul, and your whole mind.' This is the greatest command, and is first in importance. read more.
The second is like it: 'You must love your neighbor as you do yourself.' The essence of the whole law and the prophets is packed into these two commands."

So then there is no condemnation at all for those who are in union with Christ Jesus. For the life-giving power of the Spirit through union with Christ Jesus has set us free from the power of sin and death. 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, read more.
so that the requirement of the law might be fully met in us who do not live by the standard set by our lower nature, but by the standard set by the Spirit. For people who live by the standard set by their lower nature are usually thinking the things suggested by that nature, and people who live by the standard set by the Spirit are usually thinking the things suggested by the Spirit. For to be thinking the things suggested by the lower nature means death, but to be thinking the things suggested by the Spirit means life and peace. Because one's thinking the things suggested by the lower nature means enmity to God, for it does not subject itself to God's law, nor indeed can it. The people who live on the plane of the lower nature cannot please God. But you are not living on the plane of the lower nature, but on the spiritual plane, if the Spirit of God has His home within you. Unless a man has the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. But if Christ lives in you, although your bodies must die because of sin, your spirits are now enjoying life because of right standing with God. If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead has His home within you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give your mortal bodies life through His Spirit that has His home within you. So, brothers, we are under obligations, but not to our lower nature to live by the standard set by it; for if you live by such a standard, you are going to die, but if by the Spirit you put a stop to the doings of your lower nature, you will live. For all who are guided by God's Spirit are God's sons. For you do not have a sense of servitude to fill you with dread again, but the consciousness of adopted sons by which we cry, "Abba," that is, "Father." The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirits that we are God's children; and if children, then also heirs, heirs of God and fellow-heirs with Christ if in reality we share His sufferings, so that we may share His glory too. For I consider all that we suffer in this present life is nothing to be compared with the glory which by-and-by is to be uncovered for us.

Brothers, my heart's good will goes out for them, and my prayer to God is that they may be saved. For I can testify that they are zealous for God, but they are not intelligently so. For they were ignorant of God's way of right standing and were trying to set up one of their own, and so would not surrender to God's way of right standing. read more.
For Christ has put an end to law as a way to right standing for everyone who puts his trust in Him. For Moses says of the law-way to right standing with God that whoever can perform the law will live by it. But here is what the faith-way to right standing says, "Do not say to yourself, 'Who will go up to heaven?'" that is, to bring Christ down; or "'Who will go down into the depths?'" that is, to bring Christ up from the dead. But what does it say? "God's message is close to you, on your very lips and in your heart"; that is, the message about faith which we preach. For if with your lips you acknowledge the fact that Jesus is Lord, and in your hearts you believe that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For in their hearts people exercise the faith that leads to right standing, and with their lips they make the acknowledgment which means salvation. For the Scripture says, "No one who puts his faith in Him will ever be put to shame." But there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is over them all, because He is infinitely kind to all who call upon Him. For everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.

But the product of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. There is no law against such things. And those who belong to Jesus the Christ have crucified the lower nature with its passions and evil cravings. read more.
If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk where the Spirit leads.

Take care that none of you ever pays back evil for evil, but always keep looking for ways to show kindness to one another and everybody. Always be joyful. Never stop praying. read more.
Make it a habit to give thanks for everything, for this is God's will for you through Christ Jesus. Stop stifling the Spirit. Stop treating the messages of prophecy with contempt, but continue to prove all things until you can approve them, and then hold on to what is good. Continue to abstain from every sort of evil. May God Himself, who gave you peace, consecrate your whole being. May you be safely kept, spirit, soul, and body, so as to be blameless when our Lord Jesus Christ comes back.

But if you really observe the law of the King in accordance with the Scripture, "You must love your neighbor as you do yourself," you are doing right; but if you show partiality, you are committing sin, because you are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. For whoever obeys the whole law, except to slip in a single instance, is guilty of breaking it all. read more.
For He who said, "You must not commit adultery," also said, "You must not commit murder." Now if you do not commit adultery but you do commit murder, you are just the same a lawbreaker. You must continue talking and acting like people who are to be judged by the law that treats them as free. For merciless judgment will be the portion of the merciless man; yet mercy will triumph over judgment. My brothers, what good is there in a man's saying that he has faith, if he has no good deeds to prove it? Such faith cannot save him, can it? If some brother or sister is thinly clad and has no food for the day, and one of you says to him, "Blessings on you, keep warm, eat until you have aplenty," without giving him the things that are needed for the body, what good does it do? So faith by itself, if it has no deeds to back it up, is dead. But someone may say, "You have faith, and I have good deeds. Show me your faith without any good deeds, but I will show you mine by my good deeds." Do you believe in one God? Very well; the demons, too, believe that, and shudder. But, O senseless man, are you willing to learn that faith without good deeds is worthless? Was not our forefather Abraham shown to be upright by his good deeds, namely, by offering Isaac his son upon the altar? You see that faith cooperated with his good deeds, and by his good deeds faith was made complete; and so the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "Abraham put his faith in God, and it was credited to him for uprightness, and he was called God's friend." You see that a man is shown to be upright by his good deeds, and not merely by his faith. Was not even Rahab the prostitute shown to be upright by her good deeds, namely, by entertaining the scouts and sending them off by a different road? Just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without good deeds is dead.


But, O senseless man, are you willing to learn that faith without good deeds is worthless? Was not our forefather Abraham shown to be upright by his good deeds, namely, by offering Isaac his son upon the altar? You see that faith cooperated with his good deeds, and by his good deeds faith was made complete;