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Romans 4:1-12 - The Example of Abraham Ro.4.1-12

4 ¹ WHAT, THEN, are we to say about Abraham, our ancestor in the natural line? 4 ² If Abraham was justified by anything he had done, then he has a ground for pride. 4 ^{3 [ Gn.15.6. ]} But he has no such ground before God; for what does Scripture say? 'Abraham put his faith in God, and that faith was counted to him as righteousness.' 4 ⁴ Now if a man does a piece of work, his wages are not 'counted' as a favour; they are paid as debt. 4 ⁵ But if without any work to his credit he simply puts his faith in him who acquits the guilty, then his faith is indeed 'counted as righteousness'. 4 ⁶ In the same sense David speaks of the happiness of the man whom God 'counts' as just, apart from any specific acts of justice:

4 ^{7 [ Ps.32.1-2. ]} 'Happy are they', he says, 'whose lawless deeds are forgiven, whose sins are buried away; 4 ⁸ happy is the man whose sins the Lord does not count against him.'

4 ^{9 [ Gn.15.6. ]} Is this happiness confined to the circumcised, or is it for the uncircumcised also? Consider: we say, 'Abraham's faith was counted as righteousness'; 4 ¹⁰ in what circumstances was it so counted? Was he circumcised at the time, or not? He was not yet circumcised, but uncircumcised; 4 ¹¹ and he later received the symbolic rite of circumcision as the hall-mark of the righteousness which faith had given him when he was still uncircumcised. Consequently, he is the father of all who have faith when uncircumcised, so 4 ¹² and at the same time he is the father of such of the circumcised as do not rely upon their circumcision alone, but also walk in the footprints of the faith which our father Abraham had while he was yet uncircumcised.