Read the New Testament in 24 Weeks

4 ¶ What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, has found?

² For if Abraham were justified by works, he has reason to glory in himself, but not before God.

³ For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.

⁴ But unto him that works, the reward is not reckoned as grace, but as debt.

⁵ But to him that does not work, but believes in him that justifies the ungodly, the faith is counted as righteousness.

⁶ Even as David also describes the blessedness of the man unto whom God doth attribute righteousness without works,

⁷ saying, Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered.

⁸ Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute sin.

⁹ ¶ Is this blessedness, therefore, only upon the circumcision or also upon the uncircumcision? for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham as righteousness.

¹⁰ How was it then reckoned? when he was in circumcision or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision.

¹¹ And he received the circumcision as a sign, as a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had, yet being uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all the uncircumcised believers, that it might be counted unto them also as righteousness,

¹² that he be the father of the circumcision: not only to those who are of the circumcision, but also unto those who walk in the steps of the faith that was in our father Abraham before he was circumcised.

¹³ For the promise that he should be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.

¹⁴ For if those who are of the law are the heirs, faith is in vain, and the promise annulled,

¹⁵ because the law works wrath; for where there is no law, there is no rebellion either.

¹⁶ Therefore by faith, that it might be by grace, to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to that which is of the law, but also to that which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all,

¹⁷ ¶ as it is written, As a father of many Gentiles have I placed thee before God, whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which are not as those that are.

¹⁸ Who believed to wait against all hope, that he might become the father of many Gentiles, according to that which had been spoken unto him, So shall thy seed be.

¹⁹ And he did not weaken in faith: he considered not his own body now dead when he was about one hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara’s womb;

²⁰ he doubted not the promise of God, with unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God,

²¹ being fully persuaded that he was also powerful to do all that he had promised;

²² therefore, his faith was also attributed unto him as righteousness.

²³ ¶ Now it is not written for his sake alone that it was so reckoned to him,

²⁴ but for us also to whom it shall be so reckoned, that is, to those that believe in him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead,

²⁵ who was delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our justification.

5 ¶ Justified therefore by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus, the Christ,

² by whom we also have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and glory in hope of the glory of the sons of God.

³ And not only this, but we even glory in the tribulations, knowing that the tribulation works patience;

⁴ and patience, experience; and experience, hope;

⁵ and the hope shall not be ashamed, because the love of God is poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us.

⁶ ¶ For the Christ, when we were yet weak, in his time died for the ungodly.

⁷ For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.

⁸ But God increased the price of his charity toward us in that while we were yet sinners the Christ died for us.

⁹ Then much more now justified in his blood, we shall be saved from wrath by him.

¹⁰ For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled with God by the death of his Son, much more, now reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

¹¹ And not only this, but we even glory in God through our Lord Jesus, the Christ, by whom we have now received the reconciliation.

¹² Therefore, in the manner which sin entered into the world by one man, and because of sin, death; and so death passed upon all men in the one in whom all sinned.

¹³ For until the law, sin was in the world; but the sin was not imputed, there being no law.

¹⁴ Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even in those that did not sin after the manner of the rebellion of Adam, who is a figure of him that was to come.

¹⁵ But not as the offense, so also is the gift. For if through the offense of that one many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of one man, Jesus the Christ, has abounded unto many.

¹⁶ Nor was it in the same manner as by one sin, likewise also the gift; for the judgment truly came of one sin unto condemnation, but grace came of many offenses unto justification.

¹⁷ For if by one offense, death reigned because of one man; much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of gifts and of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus the Christ.

¹⁸ Therefore, in the same manner that by the iniquity of one guilt came upon all men unto condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one, grace came upon all men unto justification of life.

¹⁹ For as by one man’s disobedience, many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.

²⁰ Moreover the law entered that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound,

²¹ so that in the same manner as sin has reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus, the Christ, our Lord.