40 Bible Verses about Abraham

of the oath he swore to Abraham our father,

The promise made to Abraham and his offspring that he should inherit the world, did not reach him through the Law, but through the righteousness of faith.

Christ, I mean, became a servant to the circumcised in order to prove God's honesty by fulfilling His promises to the fathers,

But if so, what can we say about Abraham, our forefather by natural descent? This, that if 'Abraham was justified on the score of what he did,' he has something to be proud of. But not to be proud of before God. For what does scripture say? Abraham believed God and this was counted to him as righteousness. read more.
Now a worker has his wage counted to him as a due, not as a favour; but a man who instead of 'working' believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, has his faith counted as righteousness. Just as David himself describes the bliss of the man who has righteousness counted to him by God apart from what he does ??7 Blessed are they whose breaches of the Law are forgiven, whose sins are covered! Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not count to him. Now is that description of bliss meant for the circumcised, or for the uncircumcised as well? Abraham's faith, I repeat, was counted to him as righteousness. In what way? When he was a circumcised man or an uncircumcised man? Not when he was circumcised, but when he was uncircumcised. He only got circumcision as a sign or seal of the righteousness which belonged to his faith as an uncircumcised man. The object of this was to make him the father of all who believe as uncircumcised persons and thus have righteousness counted to them, as well as a father of those circumcised persons who not only share circumcision but walk in the steps of the faith which our father Abraham had as an uncircumcised man. The promise made to Abraham and his offspring that he should inherit the world, did not reach him through the Law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if it is adherents of the Law who are heirs, then faith is empty of all meaning and the promise is void. (What the Law produces is the Wrath, not the promise of God; where there is no law, there is no transgression either.) That is why all turns upon faith; it is to make the promise a matter of favour, to make it secure for all the offspring, not simply for those who are adherents of the Law but also for those who share the faith of Abraham ??of Abraham who is the father of us all (as it is written, I have made you a father of many nations). Such a faith implies the presence of the God in whom he believed, a God who makes the dead live and calls into being what does not exist. For Abraham, when hope was gone, hoped on in faith, and thus became the father of many nations ??even as he was told, So numberless shall your offspring be. His faith never quailed, even when he noted the utter impotence of his own body (for he was about a hundred years old) or the impotence of Sara's womb; no unbelief made him waver about God's promise; his faith won strength as he gave glory to God and felt convinced that He was able to do what He had promised. Hence his faith was counted to him as righteousness.

Why, it is as with Abraham, he had faith in God and that was counted to him as righteousness. Well then, you see that the real sons of Abraham are those who rely on faith. Besides, Scripture anticipated God's justification of the Gentiles by faith when it announced the gospel beforehand to Abraham in these terms: All nations shall be blessed in thee. read more.
So that those who rely on faith are blessed along with believing Abraham.

It was by faith that Abraham obeyed his call to go forth to a place which he would receive as an inheritance; he went forth, although he did not know where he was to go. It was by faith that he sojourned in the promised land, as in a foreign country, residing in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob who were co-heirs with him of the same promise; he was waiting for the City with its fixed foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

It was by faith, when Abraham was put to the test, that he sacrificed Isaac, he was ready to sacrifice his only son, although he had received the promises and had been told that it is through Isaac that your offspring shall be reckoned ??19 for he considered that God was able even to raise men from the dead. Hence he did get him back, by what was a parable of the resurrection.

"Listen, brothers and fathers," said Stephen. "The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was still in Mesopotamia, before ever he stayed in Haran, and said to him, 'Leave your land and your countrymen and come to whatever land I show you.'

instead of presuming to say to yourselves, 'We have a father in Abraham.' I tell you, God can raise up children for Abraham from these stones!

And this woman, a daughter of Abraham, bound by Satan for all these eighteen years, was she not to be freed from her bondage on the sabbath?"

There you will wail and gnash your teeth, to see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and all the prophets inside the Realm of God and yourselves put outside.

And Jesus said of him, "To-day salvation has come to this house, since Zacchaeus here is a son of Abraham.

"We are Abraham's offspring," they retorted, "we have never been slaves to anybody. What do you mean by saying, 'You will be free'?" Jesus replied, "Truly, truly I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave. Now the slave does not remain in the household for all time; the son of the house does. read more.
So, if the Son sets you free, you will be really free. I know you are Abraham's offspring! Yet you want to kill me, since my word makes no headway among you! I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you act as you have learned from your father." They answered him, "Abraham is our father." "If you are Abraham's children," said Jesus, "then do as Abraham did; but now you want to kill me ??to kill a man who has told you the truth, the truth I have learned from God. Abraham did not do that.

It was by faith, when Abraham was put to the test, that he sacrificed Isaac, he was ready to sacrifice his only son, although he had received the promises

When our father Abraham offered his son Isaac on the altar, was he not justified by what he did?

and the scripture was fulfilled: Abraham believed God, and this was counted to him as righteousness ??he was called God's friend.

There you will wail and gnash your teeth, to see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and all the prophets inside the Realm of God and yourselves put outside.

Many, I tell you, will come from east and west and take their places beside Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Realm of heaven,

Now it happened that the poor man died, and he was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man died too, and was buried. And as he was being tortured in Hades he raised his eyes and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus in his bosom; so he called out, 'Father Abraham, take pity on me, send Lazarus to dip his fingertip in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in these flames.' read more.
But Abraham said, 'Remember, my son, you got all the bliss when you were alive, just as Lazarus got the ills of life; he is in comfort now, and you are in anguish. Besides all that, a great gulf yawns between us and you, to keep back those who want to cross from us to you and also those who want to pass from you to us.' Then he said, 'Well, father, I beg you to send him to my father's house, for I have five brothers; let him bear testimony to them, that they may not come to this place of torture as well.' 'They have got Moses and the prophets,' said Abraham, 'they can listen to them.' 'No, father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone only goes to them from the dead, they will repent.' He said to him, 'If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be convinced, not even if one rose from the dead."

Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and stayed in Haran. From Haran God shifted him, after his father's death, to this land which you now inhabit.

Surely it is written in the Law that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave-woman and one by the free-woman; but while the son of the slave-woman was born by the flesh, the son of the free-woman was born by the promise. Now this is an allegory. The women are two covenants. One comes from mount Sinai, bearing children for servitude; that is Hagar, read more.
for mount Sinai is away in Arabia. She corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for the latter is in servitude with her children. But the Jerusalem on high is free, and she is 'our' mother. For it is written, Rejoice, O thou barren who bearest not, break into joy, thou who travailest not; for the children of the desolate woman are far more than of the married. Now you are the children of the Promise, brothers, like Isaac; but just as in the old days the son born by the flesh persecuted the son born by the Spirit, so it is still to-day. However, what does the scripture say? Put away the slave-woman and her son, for the son of the slave-woman shall not be heir along with the son of the free-woman.

For Melchizedek, the king of Salem, a priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham on his return from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him ??2 who had a tenth part of everything assigned him by Abraham ??this Melchizedek is primarily a king of righteousness (that is the meaning of his name); then, besides that, king of Salem (which means, king of peace). He has neither father nor mother nor genealogy, neither a beginning to his days nor an end of his life, but, resembling the Son of God, continues to be priest permanently. Now mark the dignity of this man. The patriarch Abraham paid him a tenth of the spoils. read more.
Those sons of Levi who receive the priestly office are indeed ordered by law to tithe the people (that is, their brothers), although the latter are descended from Abraham; but he who had no Levitical genealogy actually tithed Abraham and blessed the possessor of the promises! (And there is no question that it is the inferior who is blessed by the superior.) Again, it is mortal men in the one case who receive tithes, while in the other it is one of whom the witness is that 'he lives.' In fact, we might almost say that even Levi the receiver of tithes paid tithes through Abraham; for he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him.

Surely it is written in the Law that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave-woman and one by the free-woman; but while the son of the slave-woman was born by the flesh, the son of the free-woman was born by the promise. Now this is an allegory. The women are two covenants. One comes from mount Sinai, bearing children for servitude; that is Hagar, read more.
for mount Sinai is away in Arabia. She corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for the latter is in servitude with her children. But the Jerusalem on high is free, and she is 'our' mother. For it is written, Rejoice, O thou barren who bearest not, break into joy, thou who travailest not; for the children of the desolate woman are far more than of the married. Now you are the children of the Promise, brothers, like Isaac; but just as in the old days the son born by the flesh persecuted the son born by the Spirit, so it is still to-day. However, what does the scripture say? Put away the slave-woman and her son, for the son of the slave-woman shall not be heir along with the son of the free-woman.

For Melchizedek, the king of Salem, a priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham on his return from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him ??2 who had a tenth part of everything assigned him by Abraham ??this Melchizedek is primarily a king of righteousness (that is the meaning of his name); then, besides that, king of Salem (which means, king of peace).

Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and stayed in Haran. From Haran God shifted him, after his father's death, to this land which you now inhabit.

It was by faith, when Abraham was put to the test, that he sacrificed Isaac, he was ready to sacrifice his only son, although he had received the promises

they are not all children of Abraham because they are descended from Abraham. No, it is through Isaac that your offspring shall be reckoned ??8 meaning that instead of God's children being the children born to him by natural descent, it is the children of the Promise who are reckoned as his true offspring. For when God said, I will come about this time and Sara shall have a son, that was a word of promise. And further, when Rebecca became pregnant by our father Isaac, though one man was the father of both children, read more.
and though the children were still unborn and had done nothing either good or bad (to confirm the divine purpose in election which depends upon the call of God, not on anything man does), she was told that the elder will serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob I loved but Esau I hated.

Now you are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with your fathers when he said to Abraham, all families on earth shall be blessed in your offspring.

to deal mercifully with our fathers and to be mindful of his holy covenant, of the oath he swore to Abraham our father, that freed from fear and from the hand of our foes we should worship him read more.
in holiness and uprightness all our days within his presence.

Now the Promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring; it is not said, 'and to your offsprings' in the plural, but in the singular and to your offspring ??which is Christ.

It was by faith, when Abraham was put to the test, that he sacrificed Isaac, he was ready to sacrifice his only son, although he had received the promises and had been told that it is through Isaac that your offspring shall be reckoned ??19 for he considered that God was able even to raise men from the dead. Hence he did get him back, by what was a parable of the resurrection.

It was by faith that Abraham obeyed his call to go forth to a place which he would receive as an inheritance; he went forth, although he did not know where he was to go.

Your father Abraham exulted that he was to see my Day: he did see it and he rejoiced."

no unbelief made him waver about God's promise; his faith won strength as he gave glory to God

For Abraham, when hope was gone, hoped on in faith, and thus became the father of many nations ??even as he was told, So numberless shall your offspring be.

Your father Abraham exulted that he was to see my Day: he did see it and he rejoiced."

Now the Promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring; it is not said, 'and to your offsprings' in the plural, but in the singular and to your offspring ??which is Christ.

(For of course it is not angels that he succours, it is the offspring of Abraham.)

Your father Abraham exulted that he was to see my Day: he did see it and he rejoiced."

When our father Abraham offered his son Isaac on the altar, was he not justified by what he did?

It was by faith, when Abraham was put to the test, that he sacrificed Isaac, he was ready to sacrifice his only son, although he had received the promises and had been told that it is through Isaac that your offspring shall be reckoned ??19 for he considered that God was able even to raise men from the dead. Hence he did get him back, by what was a parable of the resurrection.

Thus it was that Abraham by his stedfastness obtained what he had been promised.

Now is that description of bliss meant for the circumcised, or for the uncircumcised as well? Abraham's faith, I repeat, was counted to him as righteousness.

Hence his faith was counted to him as righteousness.

from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name and nature,