Study Desk

First I want to say that I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you. I thank him because people everywhere in the world are talking about your great faith.

I want very much to see you and give you some spiritual gift to make your faith stronger.

I mean that I want us to help each other with the faith that we have. Your faith will help me, and my faith will help you.

The Good News shows how God makes people right with himself. God's way of making people right begins and ends with faith. As the Scriptures say, "The one who is right with God by faith will live forever."

God makes people right through their faith in Jesus Christ. He does this for all who believe in Christ. Everyone is the same.

God gave Jesus as a way to forgive people's sins through their faith in him. God can forgive them because the blood sacrifice of Jesus pays for their sins. God gave Jesus to show that he always does what is right and fair. He was right in the past when he was patient and did not punish people for their sins. And in our own time he still does what is right. God worked all this out in a way that allows him to judge people fairly and still make right any person who has faith in Jesus.

So do we have any reason to boast about ourselves? No reason at all. And why not? Because we are depending on the way of faith, not on what we have done in following the law.

I mean we are made right with God through faith, not through what we have done to follow the law. This is what we believe.

There is only one God. He will make Jews right with him by their faith, and he will also make non-Jews right with him through their faith.

So do we destroy the law by following the way of faith? Not at all! In fact, faith causes us to be what the law actually wants.

So what can we say about Abraham, the father of our people? What did he learn about faith?

But people cannot do any work that will make them right with God. So they must trust in him. Then he accepts their faith, and that makes them right with him. He is the one who makes even evil people right.

Is this blessing only for those who are circumcised? Or is it also for those who are not circumcised? We have already said that it was because of Abraham's faith that he was accepted as one who is right with God.

Abraham was circumcised later to show that God accepted him. His circumcision was proof that he was right with God through faith before he was circumcised. So Abraham is the father of all those who believe but are not circumcised. They believe and are accepted as people who are right with God.

And Abraham is also the father of those who have been circumcised. But it is not their circumcision that makes him their father. He is their father only if they live following the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.

Abraham and his descendants received the promise that they would get the whole world. But Abraham did not receive that promise because he followed the law. He received that promise because he was right with God through his faith.

If people could get God's promise by following the law, then faith is worthless. And God's promise to Abraham is worthless,

So people get what God promised by having faith. This happens so that the promise can be a free gift. And if the promise is a free gift, then all of Abraham's people will get that promise. The promise is not just for those who live under the Law of Moses. It is for all who live with faith as Abraham did. He is the father of us all.

Abraham was almost a hundred years old, so he was past the age for having children. Also, Sarah could not have children. Abraham was well aware of this, but his faith in God never became weak.

He never doubted that God would do what he promised. He never stopped believing. In fact, he grew stronger in his faith and just praised God.