Thematic Bible
Romans 4:1 (show verse)
Then what are we to say about our ancestor Abraham?
Romans 4:2 (show verse)
For if he was made upright by what he did, it is something to be proud of. But not to be proud of before God,
Romans 4:3 (show verse)
for what does the Scripture say? "Abraham had faith in God, and it was credited to him as uprightness."
Romans 4:4 (show verse)
Now paying a workman is not considered a favor, but an obligation,
Romans 4:5 (show verse)
but a man who has no work to offer, but has faith in him who can make the ungodly upright, has his faith credited to him as uprightness.
Romans 4:6 (show verse)
So David himself says of the happiness of those to whom God credits uprightness without any reference to their actions,
Romans 4:7 (show verse)
"Happy are they whose violations of the Law have been forgiven, whose sins are covered up!
Romans 4:8 (show verse)
Happy is the man whose sin the Lord will take no account of!"
Romans 4:9 (show verse)
Does this happiness apply to those who are circumcised, or to those who are uncircumcised as well? What we say is, Abraham's faith was credited to him as uprightness.
Romans 4:10 (show verse)
In what circumstances? Was it after he was circumcised or before? Not after he was circumcised, but before;
Romans 4:11 (show verse)
and he was afterward given the mark of circumcision as the stamp of God's acknowledgment of the uprightness based on faith that was his before he was circumcised, so that he should be the forefather of all who, without being circumcised, have faith and so are credited with uprightness,
Romans 4:12 (show verse)
and the forefather of those circumcised persons who not only share his circumcision but follow our forefather Abraham's example in the faith he had before he was circumcised.
Romans 4:13 (show verse)
For the promise made to Abraham and his descendants that the world should belong to him did not come to him or his descendants through the Law, but through the uprightness that resulted from his faith.
Romans 4:14 (show verse)
For if it is the adherents of the Law who are to possess it, faith is nullified and the promise amounts to nothing!
Romans 4:15 (show verse)
For the Law only brings down God's wrath; where there is no law, there is no violation of it.
Romans 4:16 (show verse)
That is why it all turns upon faith; it is to make it a matter of God's favor, so that the promise may hold good for all Abraham's descendants, not only those who are adherents of the Law, but also those who share the faith of Abraham. For he is the father of all of us;
Romans 4:17 (show verse)
as the Scripture says, "I have made you the father of many nations." The promise is guaranteed in the very sight of God in whom he had faith, who can bring the dead to life and call into being what does not exist.
Romans 4:18 (show verse)
Abraham, hoping against hope, had faith, and so became the father of many nations, in fulfilment of the Scripture, "So countless shall your descendants be."
Romans 4:19 (show verse)
His faith did not weaken, although he realized that his own body was worn out, for he was about a hundred years old, and that Sarah was past bearing children.
Romans 4:20 (show verse)
He did not incredulously question God's promise, but his faith gave him power and he praised God
Romans 4:21 (show verse)
in the full assurance that God was able to do what he had promised.
Romans 4:22 (show verse)
That was why it was credited to him as uprightness.
Romans 4:23 (show verse)
It was not on his account alone that these words, "it was credited to him," were written,
Romans 4:24 (show verse)
but also on ours, for it is to be credited also to us who have faith in him who raised from the dead our Lord Jesus,
Romans 4:25 (show verse)
who was given up to death to make up for our offenses, and raised to life to make us upright.