2. Indeed, if Abraham was justified on the basis of his works, he has reason to boast; but this was not so in the sight of God.
3. For what does the scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
4. A worker’s wage is credited not as a gift, but as something due.
5. But when one does not work, yet believes in the one who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.
6. So also David declares the blessedness of the person to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:
7. “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgivenand whose sins are covered.
8. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not record.”
9. Does this blessedness apply only to the circumcised, or to the uncircumcised as well? Now we assert that “faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness.”
10. Under what circumstances was it credited? Was he circumcised or not? He was not circumcised, but uncircumcised.
11. And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal on the righteousness received through faith while he was uncircumcised. Thus he was to be the father of all the uncircumcised who believe, so that to them [also] righteousness might be credited,
12. as well as the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised, but also follow the path of faith that our father Abraham walked while still uncircumcised.
13. It was not through the law that the promise was made to Abraham and his descendants that he would inherit the world, but through the righteousness that comes from faith.
14. For if those who adhere to the law are the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void.
15. For the law produces wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation.
16. For this reason, it depends on faith, so that it may be a gift, and the promise may be guaranteed to all his descendants, not to those who only adhere to the law but to those who follow the faith of Abraham, who is the father of all of us,