Romans

The Example of Abraham

Let’s consider Abraham, our father in the flesh. What has he found?

If Abraham gained righteousness through his deeds, he could be proud. But he can’t be this before God

because scripture says: Abraham believed God, who considered it and counted him as a righteous man.

Now, when someone does work, salary is not given as a favor but as a debt that is paid.

Here, on the contrary, someone who has no deeds to show but believes in him, who makes sinners righteous before him: such faith is taken into account, and that person is considered righteous.

David praises those who become righteous by God’s grace and not by their actions:

Blessed are those whose sins are forgiven and whose offenses are forgotten;

blessed is the one whose sin God does not count against him.

Is this blessing only for the circumcised, or is it also for the uncircumcised? We just said that because of his faith, Abraham was made a just man,

but when did this happen? After Abraham was circumcised or before? Not after, but before.

He received the rite of circumcision as a sign of the righteousness given to him through faith, when he was still uncircumcised, so that he could be the father of all those uncircumcised who come to faith and are made just.

And he was to be the father of the Jews, provided that, besides being circumcised, they also imitate the faith Abraham showed before being circumcised.

The Promise of Descendants

If God promised Abraham, or rather his descendants, that the world would belong to him, this was not because of his obeying the law, but because he was just and a friend of God, through faith.

If the promise is now kept only for those who rely on the law, then faith has no power and the promise is no longer effective.

It is proper for the law to impose punishment, and only when there is no law can one live without breaking it.

For that reason, faith is the way, and everything is given by grace; the promises of Abraham are fulfilled for all his descendants, not just his children according to the law, but also for everyone who has believed. Abraham is the father of all of us,

as it is written: I will make you the father of many nations. He is our father in the eyes of Him who gives life to the dead, and calls into existence what does not yet exist, for this is the God in whom he believed.

Abraham believed and hoped despite all odds, thus becoming the father of many nations, as he was told: See how numerous your descendants will be.

He did not doubt, even though his body could no longer give life—he was about a hundred years old—and the dead womb of Sarah.

He did not doubt or distrust God’s promise, and by being strong in faith, he gave glory to God

and was convinced that he who had given the promise had the power to fulfill it.

Therefore, his faith was credited to him as righteousness.

Now the words, it was credited to him, were written not for him alone

but for us too, because we believe in him who raised Jesus, our Lord, from the dead,

who was delivered for our sins and raised for our justification.