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Romans 4
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Chapter 4
C.
THE EXAMPLE OF ABRAHAM
Abraham justified by faith
1
Apply this to Abraham, the ancestor from whom we are all descended.
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If Abraham was justified as a reward for doing something, he would really have had something to boast about, though not in God’s sight
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because scripture says: Abraham put his faith in God, and this faith was considered as justifying him.[*a]
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If a man has work to show, his wages are not considered as a favour but as his due;
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but when a man has nothing to show except faith in the one who justifies sinners, then his faith is considered as justifying him.
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And David says the same: a man is happy if God considers him righteous, irrespective of good deeds:
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Happy those whose crimes are forgiven, whose sins are blotted out;
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happy the man whom the Lord considers sinless.[*b]
Justified before circumcision
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Is this happiness meant only for the circumcised, or is it meant for others as well? Think of Abraham again: his faith, we say, was considered as justifying him,
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but when was this done? When he was already circumcised or before he had been circumcised? It was before he had been circumcised, not after;
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and when he was circumcised later it was only as a sign and guarantee that the faith he had before his circumcision justified him. In this way Abraham became the ancestor of all uncircumcised believers, so that they too might be considered righteous;
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and ancestor, also, of those who though circumcised do not rely on that fact alone, but follow our ancestor Abraham along the path of faith he trod before he had been circumcised.
Not justified by obedience to the Law
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The promise of inheriting the world was not made to Abraham and his descendants on account of any law but on account of the righteousness which consists in faith.
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If the world is only to be inherited by those who submit to the Law, then faith is pointless and the promise worth nothing.
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Law involves the possibility of punishment for breaking the law – only where there is no law can that be avoided.
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That is why what fulfils the promise depends on faith, so that it may be a free gift and be available to all of Abraham’s descendants, not only those who belong to the Law but also those who belong to the faith of Abraham who is the father of all of us.
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As scripture says: I have made you the ancestor of many nations[*c] Abraham is our father in the eyes of God, in whom he put his faith, and who brings the dead to life and calls into being what does not exist.
Abraham’s faith, a model of Christian faith
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Though it seemed Abraham’s hope could not be fulfilled, he hoped and he believed, and through doing so he did become the father of many nations exactly as he had been promised: Your descendants will be as many as the stars.[*d]
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Even the thought that his body was past fatherhood – he was about a hundred years old – and Sarah too old to become a mother, did not shake his belief.
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Since God had promised it, Abraham refused either to deny it or even to doubt it, but drew strength from faith and gave glory to God,
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convinced that God had power to do what he had promised.
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This is the faith that was ‘considered as justifying him’.
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Scripture however does not refer only to him but to us as well when it says that his faith was thus ‘considered’;
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our faith too will be ‘considered’ if we believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead,
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Jesus who was put to death for our sins[*e] and raised to life to justify us.
Chapters of Romans
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4
5
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7
8
9
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14
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