⁹ And God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. ¹⁰ This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. ¹¹ You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a ^(A)sign of the covenant between me and you. ¹² He who is ^(B)eight days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or ^(C)bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring, ¹³ both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money, shall surely be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. ¹⁴ Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”

³⁸ And Peter said to them, ^(A)“Repent and ^(B)be baptized every one of you ^(C)in the name of Jesus Christ ^(D)for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive ^(E)the gift of the Holy Spirit. ³⁹ For ^(F)the promise is for you and ^(G)for your children and for all ^(H)who are far off, everyone ^(I)whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”

⁹ Is this blessing then only for ^(A)the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? ^(B)For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. ¹⁰ How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. ^11 (C)He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was ^(D)to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well, ¹² and to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.

The Promise Realized Through Faith

¹³ For ^(E)the promise to Abraham and his offspring ^(F)that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. ^14 (G)For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. ¹⁵ For ^(H)the law brings wrath, but ^(I)where there is no law ^(J)there is no transgression.

¹⁶ That is why it depends on faith, ^(K)in order that the promise may rest on grace and ^(L)be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, ^(M)who is the father of us all,