Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
23 You who fear the Lord, praise him!
All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him;
stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!(A)
24 For he did not despise or abhor
the affliction of the afflicted;
he did not hide his face from me[a]
but heard when I[b] cried to him.(B)
25 From you comes my praise in the great congregation;
my vows I will pay before those who fear him.(C)
26 The poor[c] shall eat and be satisfied;
those who seek him shall praise the Lord.
May your hearts live forever!(D)
27 All the ends of the earth shall remember
and turn to the Lord,
and all the families of the nations
shall worship before him.[d](E)
28 For dominion belongs to the Lord,
and he rules over the nations.(F)
29 To him,[e] indeed, shall all who sleep in[f] the earth bow down;
before him shall bow all who go down to the dust,
and I shall live for him.[g](G)
30 Posterity will serve him;
future generations will be told about the Lord(H)
31 and[h] proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn,
saying that he has done it.(I)
God’s Covenant with Abram
15 After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, “Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.”(A) 2 But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?”[a](B) 3 And Abram said, “You have given me no offspring, so a slave born in my house is to be my heir.”(C) 4 But the word of the Lord came to him, “This man shall not be your heir; no one but your very own issue shall be your heir.”(D) 5 He brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”(E) 6 And he believed the Lord, and the Lord[b] reckoned it to him as righteousness.
12 As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him.(A) 13 Then the Lord[a] said to Abram, “Know this for certain, that your offspring shall be aliens in a land that is not theirs and shall be slaves there, and they shall be oppressed for four hundred years,(B) 14 but I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.(C) 15 As for yourself, you shall go to your ancestors in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age.(D) 16 And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”(E)
17 When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces.(F) 18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates,(G)
Righteousness through Faith
21 But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed and is attested by the Law and the Prophets,(A) 22 the righteousness of God through the faith of Jesus Christ[a] for all who believe.[b] For there is no distinction,(B) 23 since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God;(C) 24 they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,(D) 25 whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement[c] by his blood, effective through faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over the sins previously committed;(E) 26 it was to demonstrate at the present time his own righteousness, so that he is righteous and he justifies the one who has the faith of Jesus.[d]
27 Then what becomes of boasting? It is excluded. Through what kind of law? That of works? No, rather through the law of faith.(F) 28 For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law.(G) 29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of gentiles also? Yes, of gentiles also, 30 since God is one, and he will justify the circumcised on the ground of faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith.(H) 31 Do we then overthrow the law through this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.