Romans 4

²Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who gave you birth. When I called him, he was but one; then I blessed him and multiplied him.

¹⁶Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may rest on grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.

²²Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I.

⁵⁶Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see My day. He saw it and was glad.”

²⁶Brothers, children of Abraham, and you Gentiles who fear God, it is to us that this message of salvation has been sent.

⁸Produce fruit, then, in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.

³¹Therefore, as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”

³⁰If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.

⁹and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God on the basis of faith.

⁹not by works, so that no one can boast.

²²But the Scripture pronounces all things confined by sin, so that by faith in Jesus Christ the promise might be given to those who believe.

¹⁶Yet when I preach the gospel, I have no reason to boast, because I am obligated to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!

⁶Abram believed the Lord, and it was credited to him as righteousness.

²³And the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called a friend of God.

⁶So also, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”

⁷Understand, then, that those who have faith are sons of Abraham.

⁹Is this blessing only on the circumcised, or also on the uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness.

²²This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.”

²³Now the words “it was credited to him” were written not only for Abraham,

⁵However, to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.

⁶And if it is by grace, then it is no longer by works. Otherwise, grace would no longer be grace.

³²Why not? Because their pursuit was not by faith, but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone,

³⁵“Who has first given to God, that God should repay him?”

¹“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard.

²He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.

⁹and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God on the basis of faith.

²²And this righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no distinction,

³For at one time we too were foolish, disobedient, misled, and enslaved to all sorts of desires and pleasures—living in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.

⁴But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared,

⁹that if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

¹⁰For with your heart you believe and are justified, and with your mouth you confess and are saved.

⁸The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and foretold the gospel to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.”

⁹So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

³Because they were ignorant of God’s righteousness and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.

⁹and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God on the basis of faith.

⁹He has saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works, but by His own purpose and by the grace He granted us in Christ Jesus before time began.

⁸For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God,

⁹not by works, so that no one can boast.

⁸The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and foretold the gospel to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.”

⁹So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

³⁰It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God: our righteousness, holiness, and redemption.

²¹God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

¹Of David. A Maskil. Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.

²Blessed is the man whose iniquity the Lord does not count against him, in whose spirit there is no deceit.

³If You, O Lord, kept track of iniquities, then who, O Lord, could stand?

⁴But with You there is forgiveness, so that You may be feared.

⁴⁷Therefore I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven, for she has loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.”

⁴⁸Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”

²You forgave the iniquity of Your people; You covered all their sin. Selah

¹⁸Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity and passes over the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance—who does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in loving devotion?

¹⁹He will again have compassion on us; He will vanquish our iniquities. You will cast out all our sins into the depths of the sea.

⁸Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones You have crushed rejoice.

⁹Hide Your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities.

²Blessed is the man whose iniquity the Lord does not count against him, in whose spirit there is no deceit.

²⁴He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. “By His stripes you are healed.”

¹⁹that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men’s trespasses against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

²⁰Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ: Be reconciled to God.

¹⁸For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit,

¹⁰Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush Him and to cause Him to suffer; and when His soul is made a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand.

¹¹After the anguish of His soul, He will see the light of life and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant will justify many, and He will bear their iniquities.

¹⁴He redeemed us in order that the blessing promised to Abraham would come to the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.

¹¹Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, or free, but Christ is all and is in all.

⁸Though I am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,

³For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”

²⁶You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

²⁷For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

⁸For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the circumcised on behalf of God’s truth, to confirm the promises made to the patriarchs,

⁹so that the Gentiles may glorify God for His mercy. As it is written: “Therefore I will praise You among the Gentiles; I will sing hymns to Your name.”

¹⁵For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything. What counts is a new creation.

⁶For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. What matters is faith expressing itself through love.

¹⁸Was a man already circumcised when he was called? He should not become uncircumcised. Was a man still uncircumcised when called? He should not be circumcised.

¹⁹Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing. Keeping God’s commandments is what counts.

¹⁶In the fourth generation your descendants will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”

⁵And the Lord took him outside and said, “Now look to the heavens and count the stars, if you are able.” Then He told him, “So shall your offspring be.”

⁶Abram believed the Lord, and it was credited to him as righteousness.

¹When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty. Walk before Me and be blameless.

²²And this righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no distinction,

⁹Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man too is a son of Abraham.

⁷By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in godly fear built an ark to save his family. By faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

²²placed His seal on us, and put His Spirit in our hearts as a pledge of what is to come.

¹⁶Peace and mercy to all who walk by this rule, even to the Israel of God.

³⁵Jesus answered, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to Me will never hunger, and whoever believes in Me will never thirst.

²⁰So you will follow in the ways of the good, and keep to the paths of the righteous.

⁸If you do not know, O fairest of women, follow the tracks of the flock, and graze your young goats near the tents of the shepherds.

³⁹“Abraham is our father,” they replied. “If you were children of Abraham,” said Jesus, “you would do the works of Abraham.

⁴⁰But now you are trying to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham never did such a thing.

²²For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman.

²³His son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, but his son by the free woman was born through the promise.

¹⁸I urged Titus to visit you, and I sent our brother with him. Did Titus exploit you in any way? Did we not walk in the same Spirit and follow in the same footsteps?

²¹For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in His footsteps:

²⁹And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise.

¹⁴Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and east and north and south. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.

⁸So it is not the children of the flesh who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as offspring.

¹⁷I will surely bless you, and I will multiply your descendants like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will possess the gates of their enemies.

¹⁸And through your offspring all nations of the earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”

⁸Ask Me, and I will make the nations Your inheritance, the ends of the earth Your possession.

⁴“As for Me, this is My covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations.

⁵No longer will you be called Abram, but your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations.

¹⁸For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on a promise; but God freely granted it to Abraham through a promise.

¹⁹Why then was the law given? It was added because of transgressions, until the arrival of the seed to whom the promise referred. It was administered through angels by a mediator.

¹⁹(for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.

⁹and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God on the basis of faith.

³¹Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Certainly not! Instead, we uphold the law.

¹¹so My word that proceeds from My mouth will not return to Me empty, but it will accomplish what I please, and it will prosper where I send it.

²¹I do not set aside the grace of God. For if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.

¹³For sin was in the world before the law was given; but sin is not taken into account when there is no law.

¹⁰All who rely on works of the law are under a curse. For it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.”

¹⁹Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.

²⁰Therefore no one will be justified in His sight by works of the law. For the law merely brings awareness of sin.

⁵⁶The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

⁷What then shall we say? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed, I would not have been mindful of sin if not for the law. For I would not have been aware of coveting if the law had not said, “Do not covet.”

⁸But sin, seizing its opportunity through the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from the law, sin is dead.

¹⁹Why then was the law given? It was added because of transgressions, until the arrival of the seed to whom the promise referred. It was administered through angels by a mediator.

²⁴and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

²⁵God presented Him as an atoning sacrifice in His blood through faith, in order to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance He had passed over the sins committed beforehand.

⁸For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God,

⁸So it is not the children of the flesh who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as offspring.

²²But the Scripture pronounces all things confined by sin, so that by faith in Jesus Christ the promise might be given to those who believe.

⁷so that, having been justified by His grace, we would become heirs with the hope of eternal life.

²Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who gave you birth. When I called him, he was but one; then I blessed him and multiplied him.

²⁸He chose the lowly and despised things of the world, and the things that are not, to nullify the things that are,

⁴“As for Me, this is My covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations.

⁵No longer will you be called Abram, but your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations.

²¹For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom He wishes.

²⁹For those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers.

³⁰And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified.

⁶³The Spirit gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.

¹⁰Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

²⁴For in this hope we were saved; but hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he can already see?

⁵And the Lord took him outside and said, “Now look to the heavens and count the stars, if you are able.” Then He told him, “So shall your offspring be.”

⁶Abram believed the Lord, and it was credited to him as righteousness.

⁵And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.

²⁵So take courage, men, for I believe God that it will happen just as He told me.

¹²Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but desire fulfilled is a tree of life.

³⁵While He was still speaking, messengers from the house of Jairus arrived and said, “Your daughter is dead; why bother the Teacher anymore?”

³⁶But Jesus overheard their conversation and said to Jairus, “Do not be afraid; just believe.”

¹¹By faith Sarah, even though she was barren and beyond the proper age, was enabled to conceive a child, because she considered Him faithful who had promised.

¹²And so from one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.

¹⁷Abraham fell facedown. Then he laughed and said to himself, “Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Can Sarah give birth at the age of ninety?”

²⁰Yet he did not waver through disbelief in the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God,

²¹being fully persuaded that God was able to do what He had promised.

³¹Immediately Jesus reached out His hand and took hold of Peter. “You of little faith,” He said, “why did you doubt?”

²³“If You can?” echoed Jesus. “All things are possible to him who believes!”

²⁴Immediately the boy’s father cried out, “I do believe; help my unbelief!”

³⁰If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

⁴⁵Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord’s word to her will be fulfilled.”

¹³Be on the alert. Stand firm in the faith. Be men of courage. Be strong.

¹⁹“Do not be afraid, you who are highly precious,” he said. “Peace be with you! Be strong now; be very strong!” As he spoke with me, I was strengthened and said, “Speak, my lord, for you have strengthened me.”

¹⁰That is why, for the sake of Christ, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

¹You therefore, my child, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

⁴Say to those with anxious hearts: “Be strong, do not fear! Behold, your God will come with vengeance. With divine retribution He will come to save you.”

³⁷For no word from God will ever fail.”

²⁷“Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is anything too difficult for Me?

¹⁷“Oh, Lord God! You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too difficult for You!

¹⁹Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and in a sense, he did receive Isaac back from death.

⁴⁵Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord’s word to her will be fulfilled.”

¹⁴Is anything too difficult for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you—in about a year—and Sarah will have a son.”

³For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”

⁶And David speaks likewise of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:

¹¹Now these things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.

⁴For everything that was written in the past was written for our instruction, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures, we might have hope.

⁶These things took place as examples to keep us from craving evil things as they did.

¹⁶All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for instruction, for conviction, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

¹⁷so that the man of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work.

⁹For it is written in the Law of Moses: “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.” Is it about oxen that God is concerned?

¹⁰Isn’t He actually speaking on our behalf? Indeed, this was written for us, because when the plowman plows and the thresher threshes, they should also expect to share in the harvest.

²⁴But God raised Him from the dead, releasing Him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep Him in its grip.

²¹Through Him you believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and glorified Him; and so your faith and hope are in God.

³⁰But God raised Him from the dead,

⁹that if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

¹⁰For with your heart you believe and are justified, and with your mouth you confess and are saved.

¹⁸I ask that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know the hope of His calling, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints,

¹⁹and the surpassing greatness of His power to us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of His mighty strength,

²⁰Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep,

²¹equip you with every good thing to do His will. And may He accomplish in us what is pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

⁹This is how God’s love was revealed among us: God sent His one and only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him.

¹⁰And love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

⁵But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.

⁶We all like sheep have gone astray, each one has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all.

¹⁸For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit,

⁴who gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,

²¹God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

²⁴He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. “By His stripes you are healed.”