(Genesis 15:1–7; Psalm 32:1–11; Hebrews 11:8–19)
1
What, then, will we say Abraham our father to have found, according to flesh?
2
For if Abraham was declared righteous by works, he has to boast—but not before God;
3
for what does the writing say? “And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him for righteousness”;
4
and to him who is working, the reward is not reckoned of grace, but of debt;
5
and to him who is not working, and is believing on Him who is declaring righteous the impious, his faith is reckoned for righteousness—
6
even as David also speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God reckons righteousness apart from works:
7
“Blessed [are] they whose lawless acts were forgiven, || And whose sins were covered;
8
Blessed [is] the man || To whom the LORD may not reckon sin.”
9
[Is] this blessedness, then, on the circumcision, or also on the uncircumcision—for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness?
10
How then was it reckoned? He being in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision;
11
and he received a sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of faith in the uncircumcision, for his being father of all those believing through uncircumcision, for the righteousness also being reckoned to them,
12
and father of circumcision to those not of circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of faith, that [is] in the uncircumcision of our father Abraham.
Abraham Receives the Promise
(Genesis 15:8–21)
13
For not through law [is] the promise to Abraham, or to his seed, of his being heir of the world, but through the righteousness of faith;
14
for if they who are of law [are] heirs, faith has been made void, and the promise has been made useless;
15
for the Law works wrath; for where law is not, neither [is] transgression.
16
Because of this [it is] of faith, that [it may be] according to grace, for the promise being sure to all the seed, not to that which [is] of the Law only, but also to that which [is] of the faith of Abraham,
17
who is father of us all (according as it has been written: “A father of many nations I have set you,”) before Him whom he believed—God, who is quickening the dead, and is calling the things that are not as being.
18
Who, against hope, believed in hope, for his becoming father of many nations according to that spoken: “So will your seed be”;
19
and having not been weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already become dead (being about one hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb,
20
and at the promise of God did not stagger in unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, having given glory to God,
21
and having been fully persuaded that what He has promised He is also able to do:
22
for this reason also it was reckoned to him for righteousness.
23
And it was not written on his account alone that it was reckoned to him,
24
but also on ours, to whom it is about to be reckoned—to us believing on Him who raised up Jesus our Lord out of the dead,
25
who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised up because of our being declared righteous.
Copyright © 2020 Covenant Press and the CCC - licensed under CC BY-SA