⁵¹ Amen, amen I tell you, if anyone keeps My word, he will never see death.”

⁵² “Now we know You have a demon!” the Judean leaders said to Him. “Abraham and the prophets died. Yet You say, ‘If anyone keeps My word, he will never taste death.’ ⁵³ You are not greater than our father Abraham who died, are You? The prophets also died! Who do You make Yourself out to be?”

⁵⁴ Yeshua answered, “If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing. It is My Father who gives Me glory—the One of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’ ^{[a] 55} Yet you do not know Him, but I know Him. If I say I do not know Him, I will be a liar like you. Yet I do know Him and keep His Word. ⁵⁶ Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day; he saw it and was thrilled.”

⁵⁷ Then the Judeans said to Him, “You’re not even fifty years old and you’ve seen Abraham?”^[b]

⁵⁸ Yeshua answered, “Amen, amen I tell you, before Abraham was, I am!”

7 Then the kohen gadol said, “Are these things so?”

² Stephen declared, “Brothers and fathers, listen. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran. ³ He said to him, ‘Leave your country and your relatives, and come here to the land that I will show you.’ ⁴ Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. From there, after his father died, God moved him to this land where you now live. ⁵ He gave him no inheritance in it—not even a foothold—yet He promised ‘to give it to him as a possession to him and to his descendants after him,’ even though he had no child.

⁶ “But God spoke in this way, that his ‘descendants would be foreigners in a land belonging to others, and they would enslave and mistreat them for four hundred years. ⁷ But I will judge the nation they serve as slaves,’ God said, ‘and afterward they shall come out and serve Me in this place.’^[a]

⁸ “Then God gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision.^[b] So he became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day, and so Isaac with Jacob, and Jacob with the twelve patriarchs.

¹⁹ Now we know that whatever the Torah says, it says to those within the Torah, so that every mouth may be shut and the whole world may become accountable to God. ²⁰ For no human, on the basis of Torah observance, will be set right in His sight^[a]—for through the Torah comes awareness of sin.

How God Accepts Us

²¹ But now God’s righteousness apart from the Torah has been revealed, to which the Torah and the Prophets bear witness— ²² namely, the righteousness of God through putting trust in Messiah Yeshua,^[b] to all who keep on trusting. For there is no distinction, ²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. ²⁴ They are set right as a gift of His grace, through the redemption that is in Messiah Yeshua. ^{[c] 25} God set forth Yeshua as an atonement,^[d] through faith in His blood, to show His righteousness in passing over sins already committed. ²⁶ Through God’s forbearance, He demonstrates His righteousness at the present time—that He Himself is just and also the justifier of the one who puts his trust in Yeshua.^[e]

²⁷ Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. By what principle? Of works? No, but by the principle of faith. ^{[f] 28} For we consider a person to be set right apart from Torah observance. ²⁹ Is God the God of the Jewish people only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also. ³⁰ Since God is One, He will set right the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. ³¹ Do we then nullify the Torah through faithfulness? May it never be! On the contrary, we uphold the Torah.

Abraham Set Right by Faith

4 What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found? ² For if Abraham was set right by works, he has something to boast about—but not before God. ³ For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” ^{[g] 4} Now to the one who works, the pay is not credited as a gift, but as what is due. ⁵ But to the one who does not work, but trusts in Him who justifies the ungodly, his trust is credited as righteousness— ⁶ just as David also speaks of the blessing on the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:

⁷ “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered.

⁸ Blessed is the man whose sin Adonai will never count against him.”^[h]

⁹ Is this blessing then only on the circumcised, or also on the uncircumcised? For we say, “trust was credited to Abraham as righteousness.”^[i]

¹⁰ In what state then was it credited? While circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised! ¹¹ And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness of the trust he had while he was uncircumcised, so he might be the father of all who are trusting while uncircumcised—that righteousness might be credited to them as well. ¹² Also he is the father of the circumcised, to those not only circumcised but also walking in the footsteps of the trust of our father Abraham before his circumcision.^[j]

Trusting in the Promise

¹³ For the promise to Abraham or to his seed—to become heir of the world—was not through law, but through the righteousness based on trust. ¹⁴ For if those who are of the Torah are heirs, trust has become empty and the promise is made ineffective. ¹⁵ For the Torah brings about wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there a violation.

¹⁶ For this reason it depends on trust, so that the promise according to grace might be guaranteed to all the offspring—not only to those of the Torah but also to those of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all ¹⁷ (as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations”^[k]). He is our father in the sight of God in whom he trusted, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence that which does not exist. ¹⁸ In hope beyond hope, he trusted that he would become the father of many nations according to what was spoken—“So shall your descendants be.” ^{[l] 19} And without becoming weak in faith, he considered his own body—as good as dead, since he was already a hundred years old—and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. ²⁰ Yet he did not waver in unbelief concerning the promise of God. Rather, he was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God. ²¹ He was fully convinced that what God has promised, He also is able to do. ^{[m] 22} That is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.”^[n]

²³ Now not only for his sake was it written that it was credited to him, ²⁴ but for our sake as well. It is credited to us as those who trust in Him who raised Yeshua our Lord from the dead. ²⁵ He was handed over for our transgressions and raised up for the sake of setting us right.^[o]

Shalom with God through Messiah

5 Therefore, having been made righteous by trusting, we have shalom with God through our Lord Yeshua the Messiah. ^{[p] 2} Through Him we also have gained access by faith into this grace in which we stand and boast in the hope of God’s glory. ³ And not only that, but we also boast in suffering—knowing that suffering produces perseverance; ⁴ and perseverance, character; and character, hope. ⁵ And hope does not disappoint, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Ruach ha-Kodesh who was given to us.

⁶ For while we were still helpless, at the right time Messiah died for the ungodly.

Slaves or Sons?

¹⁵ Brothers and sisters, I speak in human terms: even with a man’s covenant, once it has been confirmed, no one cancels it or adds to it. ¹⁶ Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. It doesn’t say, “and to seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “and to your seed,” who is the Messiah. ¹⁷ What I am saying is this: Torah, which came 430 years later, does not cancel the covenant previously confirmed by God, so as to make the promise ineffective. ¹⁸ For if the inheritance is based on law, it is no longer based on a promise. But God has graciously given it to Abraham by means of a promise.

Slaves or Sons?

¹⁵ Brothers and sisters, I speak in human terms: even with a man’s covenant, once it has been confirmed, no one cancels it or adds to it. ¹⁶ Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. It doesn’t say, “and to seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “and to your seed,” who is the Messiah. ¹⁷ What I am saying is this: Torah, which came 430 years later, does not cancel the covenant previously confirmed by God, so as to make the promise ineffective. ¹⁸ For if the inheritance is based on law, it is no longer based on a promise. But God has graciously given it to Abraham by means of a promise.

¹¹ In Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision done not by hand, in the stripping away of the body of the flesh through the circumcision of Messiah. ¹² You were buried along with Him in immersion, through which you also were raised with Him by trusting in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. ¹³ When you were dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with Him when He pardoned us all our transgressions. ¹⁴ He wiped out the handwritten record of debts with the decrees against us, which was hostile to us. He took it away by nailing it to the cross. ¹⁵ After disarming the principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in the cross.^[a]

Melchizedek, a Kohen Forever

7 For this Melchizedek was king of Salem, kohen of God Most High. He met Abraham returning from the defeat of the kings and blessed him, ^{[a] 2} and to him Abraham apportioned a tenth of everything. First, by the translation of his name, he is “King of Righteousness”^[b]; and then also King of Salem, which is “King of Shalom.” ³ Without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life but made like Ben-Elohim, he remains a kohen for all time.

⁴ Now see how great this man is! Even Abraham the patriarch gave him a tenth out of the plunder. ⁵ Indeed, those sons of Levi who receive the priesthood have, according to Torah, a command to collect a tithe from the people^[c]—that is, from their kin, although they have come out of the loins of Abraham. ⁶ But this one—who did not have their genealogy—has collected tithes from Abraham and has blessed him, the one holding the promises. ⁷ Now it is beyond dispute that the lesser is blessed by the greater. ⁸ In one case, dying men receive tithes; but in the other, one about whom it is testified that he lives on. ⁹ Through Abraham even Levi, the one receiving tithes, has paid the tithe, so to speak— ¹⁰ for he was still in his father’s loins when Melchizedek met him.

Yeshua, Our Kohen Gadol Forever

¹¹ Now if perfection was through the Levitical priesthood (for based on it the people had been given the Torah^[d]), what further need was there for a different kohen to arise—designated according to the order of Melchizedek, not according to the order of Aaron? ¹² For whenever the priesthood is altered, out of necessity an alteration^[e] of law also takes place. ¹³ For the one about whom these things are said belongs to another tribe, from which no one has officiated at the altar. ¹⁴ For it is clear that our Lord has sprung forth^[f] from Judah—concerning this tribe, Moses said nothing about kohanim. ¹⁵ And it is even more evident, if another kohen arises like Melchizedek— ¹⁶ one made not by virtue of a Torah requirement of physical descent,^[g] but by virtue of the power of an indestructible life. ¹⁷ For it is testified,

¹⁸ For on the one hand, a former requirement is set aside because of its weakness and ineffectiveness— ¹⁹ for Torah made nothing perfect. But on the other hand, a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God.

⁸ By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place he was to receive as an inheritance. He went out, not knowing where he was going. ⁹ By faith he migrated to the land of promise as if it were foreign, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob—fellow heirs of the same promise. ¹⁰ For he was waiting for the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

¹¹ By faith even Sarah herself received ability to conceive^[a] when she was barren and past the age, since she considered the One who had made the promise to be faithful. ¹² So from one—and him as good as dead—were fathered offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven, and as uncountable as the sand on the seashore.^[b]