The Example of Abraham

4 What then are we to say was gained by^[a] Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh? ² For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.^{(A) 3} For what does the scripture say? “Abraham believed^[b] God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.”^{(B) 4} Now to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift but as something due.^{(C) 5} But to one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness.

God’s Promise Realized through Faith

¹³ For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith.^{(A) 14} 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 the law brings wrath, but where there is no law, neither is there transgression.^(B)

¹⁶ For this reason the promise depends on faith, in order that it may rest on grace, so that it may be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (who is the father of all of us,^{(C) 17} as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”), in the presence of the God in whom he believed,^[a] who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.^(D)