Study Desk

By no means! If God is not just, how can he judge the world?

no one who is wise or who worships God.

All have turned away from God; they have all gone wrong; no one does what is right, not even one.

nor have they learned reverence for God."

God puts people right through their faith in Jesus Christ. God does this to all who believe in Christ, because there is no difference at all:

God offered him, so that by his blood he should become the means by which people's sins are forgiven through their faith in him. God did this in order to demonstrate that he is righteous. In the past he was patient and overlooked people's sins; but in the present time he deals with their sins, in order to demonstrate his righteousness. In this way God shows that he himself is righteous and that he puts right everyone who believes in Jesus.

For we conclude that a person is put right with God only through faith, and not by doing what the Law commands.

Or is God the God of the Jews only? Is he not the God of the Gentiles also? Of course he is.

God is one, and he will put the Jews right with himself on the basis of their faith, and will put the Gentiles right through their faith.

If he was put right with God by the things he did, he would have something to boast about—but not in God's sight.

The scripture says, "Abraham believed God, and because of his faith God accepted him as righteous."

But those who depend on faith, not on deeds, and who believe in the God who declares the guilty to be innocent, it is this faith that God takes into account in order to put them right with himself.

This is what David meant when he spoke of the happiness of the person whom God accepts as righteous, apart from anything that person does:

Does this happiness that David spoke of belong only to those who are circumcised? No indeed! It belongs also to those who are not circumcised. For we have quoted the scripture, "Abraham believed God, and because of his faith God accepted him as righteous."

He was circumcised later, and his circumcision was a sign to show that because of his faith God had accepted him as righteous before he had been circumcised. And so Abraham is the spiritual father of all who believe in God and are accepted as righteous by him, even though they are not circumcised.

When God promised Abraham and his descendants that the world would belong to him, he did so, not because Abraham obeyed the Law, but because he believed and was accepted as righteous by God.

For if what God promises is to be given to those who obey the Law, then faith means nothing and God's promise is worthless.

as the scripture says, "I have made you father of many nations." So the promise is good in the sight of God, in whom Abraham believed—the God who brings the dead to life and whose command brings into being what did not exist.

His faith did not leave him, and he did not doubt God's promise; his faith filled him with power, and he gave praise to God.

He was absolutely sure that God would be able to do what he had promised.