Study Desk

Jesus was kind to me and chose me to be an apostle, so that people of all nations would obey and have faith.

First, I thank God in the name of Jesus Christ for all of you. I do this because people everywhere in the world are talking about your faith.

I want to see you and share with you the same blessings that God's Spirit has given me. Then you will grow stronger in your faith.

What I am saying is that we can encourage each other by the faith that is ours.

I am proud of the good news! It is God's powerful way of saving all people who have faith, whether they are Jews or Gentiles.

The good news tells how God accepts everyone who has faith, but only those who have faith. It is just as the Scriptures say, "The people God accepts because of their faith will live."

It is true that some of them did not believe the message. But does this mean that God cannot be trusted, just because they did not have faith?

God treats everyone alike. He accepts people only because they have faith in Jesus Christ.

God sent Christ to be our sacrifice. Christ offered his life's blood, so that by faith in him we could come to God. And God did this to show that in the past he was right to be patient and forgive sinners. This also shows that God is right when he accepts people who have faith in Jesus.

What is left for us to brag about? Not a thing! Is it because we obeyed some law? No! It is because of faith.

We see that people are acceptable to God because they have faith, and not because they obey the Law.

There is only one God, and he accepts Gentiles as well as Jews, simply because of their faith.

Do we destroy the Law by our faith? Not at all! We make it even more powerful.

The Scriptures say, "God accepted Abraham because Abraham had faith in him."

But you cannot make God accept you because of something you do. God accepts sinners only because they have faith in him.

Are these blessings meant for circumcised people or for those who are not circumcised? Well, the Scriptures say that God accepted Abraham because Abraham had faith in him.

Abraham let himself be circumcised to show that he had been accepted because of his faith even before he was circumcised. This makes Abraham the father of all who are acceptable to God because of their faith, even though they are not circumcised.

This also makes Abraham the father of everyone who is circumcised and has faith in God, as Abraham did before he was circumcised.

God promised Abraham and his descendants that he would give them the world. This promise wasn't made because Abraham had obeyed a law, but because his faith in God made him acceptable.

If Abraham and his descendants were given this promise because they had obeyed a law, then faith would mean nothing, and the promise would be worthless.