Read the New Testament in 24 Weeks

4 Then what should we say Avraham, our forefather, obtained by his own efforts? ² For if Avraham came to be considered righteous by God because of legalistic observances, then he has something to boast about. But this is not how it is before God! ³ For what does the Tanakh say? “Avraham put his trust in God, and it was credited to his account as righteousness.”^{[a] 4} Now the account of someone who is working is credited not on the ground of grace but on the ground of what is owed him. ⁵ However, in the case of one who is not working but rather is trusting in him who makes ungodly people righteous, his trust is credited to him as righteousness.

⁶ In the same way, the blessing which David pronounces is on those whom God credits with righteousness apart from legalistic observances:

⁹ Now is this blessing for the circumcised only? Or is it also for the uncircumcised? For we say that Avraham’s trust was credited to his account as righteousness; ¹⁰ but what state was he in when it was so credited — circumcision or uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision! ¹¹ In fact, he received circumcision as a sign, as a seal of the righteousness he had been credited with on the ground of the trust he had while he was still uncircumcised. This happened so that he could be the father of every uncircumcised person who trusts and thus has righteousness credited to him, ¹² and at the same time be the father of every circumcised person who not only has had a b’rit-milah, but also follows in the footsteps of the trust which Avraham avinu had when he was still uncircumcised.

¹³ For the promise to Avraham and his seed^[c] that he would inherit the world did not come through legalism but through the righteousness that trust produces. ¹⁴ For if the heirs are produced by legalism, then trust is pointless and the promise worthless. ¹⁵ For what law brings is punishment. But where there is no law, there is also no violation.

¹⁶ The reason the promise is based on trusting is so that it may come as God’s free gift, a promise that can be relied on by all the seed, not only those who live within the framework of the Torah, but also those with the kind of trust Avraham had — Avraham avinu for all of us. ¹⁷ This accords with the Tanakh, where it says, “I have appointed you to be a father to many nations.”^[d] Avraham is our father in God’s sight because he trusted God as the one who gives life to the dead and calls nonexistent things into existence. ¹⁸ For he was past hope, yet in hope he trusted that he would indeed become a father to many nations, in keeping with what he had been told, “So many will your seed be.”^{[e] 19} His trust did not waver when he considered his own body — which was as good as dead, since he was about a hundred years old — or when he considered that Sarah’s womb was dead too. ²⁰ He did not by lack of trust decide against God’s promises. On the contrary, by trust he was given power as he gave glory to God, ²¹ for he was fully convinced that what God had promised he could also accomplish. ²² This is why it was credited to his account as righteousness.^[f]

²³ But the words, “it was credited to his account . . . ,” were not written for him only. ²⁴ They were written also for us, who will certainly have our account credited too, because we have trusted in him who raised Yeshua our Lord from the dead — ²⁵ Yeshua, who was delivered over to death because of our offences and raised to life in order to make us righteous.

5 So, since we have come to be considered righteous by God because of our trust, let us continue to have shalom with God through our Lord, Yeshua the Messiah. ² Also through him and on the ground of our trust, we have gained access to this grace in which we stand; so let us boast about the hope of experiencing God’s glory. ³ But not only that, let us also boast in our troubles; because we know that trouble produces endurance, ⁴ endurance produces character, and character produces hope; ⁵ and this hope does not let us down, because God’s love for us has already been poured out in our hearts through the Ruach HaKodesh who has been given to us.

⁶ For while we were still helpless, at the right time, the Messiah died on behalf of ungodly people. ⁷ Now it is a rare event when someone gives up his life even for the sake of somebody righteous, although possibly for a truly good person one might have the courage to die. ⁸ But God demonstrates his own love for us in that the Messiah died on our behalf while we were still sinners. ⁹ Therefore, since we have now come to be considered righteous by means of his bloody sacrificial death, how much more will we be delivered through him from the anger of God’s judgment! ¹⁰ For if we were reconciled with God through his Son’s death when we were enemies, how much more will we be delivered by his life, now that we are reconciled! ¹¹ And not only will we be delivered in the future, but we are boasting about God right now, because he has acted through our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, through whom we have already received that reconciliation.

¹² Here is how it works: it was through one individual that sin entered the world, and through sin, death; and in this way death passed through to the whole human race, inasmuch as everyone sinned. ¹³ Sin was indeed present in the world before Torah was given, but sin is not counted as such when there is no Torah. ¹⁴ Nevertheless death ruled from Adam until Moshe, even over those whose sinning was not exactly like Adam’s violation of a direct command. In this, Adam prefigured the one who was to come.

¹⁵ But the free gift is not like the offence. For if, because of one man’s offence, many died, then how much more has God’s grace, that is, the gracious gift of one man, Yeshua the Messiah, overflowed to many! ¹⁶ No, the free gift is not like what resulted from one man’s sinning; for from one sinner came judgment that brought condemnation; but the free gift came after many offences and brought acquittal. ¹⁷ For if, because of the offence of one man, death ruled through that one man; how much more will those receiving the overflowing grace, that is, the gift of being considered righteous, rule in life through the one man Yeshua the Messiah!

¹⁸ In other words, just as it was through one offence that all people came under condemnation, so also it is through one righteous act that all people come to be considered righteous. ¹⁹ For just as through the disobedience of the one man, many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the other man, many will be made righteous. ²⁰ And the Torah came into the picture so that the offence would proliferate; but where sin proliferated, grace proliferated even more. ²¹ All this happened so that just as sin ruled by means of death, so also grace might rule through causing people to be considered righteous, so that they might have eternal life, through Yeshua the Messiah, our Lord.