Study Desk

The Lord blesses people whose sins are erased from his book."

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.

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.

God becomes angry when his Law is broken. But where there isn't a law, it cannot be broken.

Everything depends on having faith in God, so that God's promise is assured by his great kindness. This promise isn't only for Abraham's descendants who have the Law. It is for all who are Abraham's descendants because they have faith, just as he did. Abraham is the ancestor of us all.

Abraham's faith never became weak, not even when he was nearly a hundred years old. He knew that he was almost dead and that his wife Sarah could not have children.

But Abraham never doubted or questioned God's promise. His faith made him strong, and he gave all the credit to God.

that will never disappoint us. All of this happens because God has given us the Holy Spirit, who fills our hearts with his love.

But there is more! Now that God has accepted us because Christ sacrificed his life's blood, we will also be kept safe from God's anger.

Even when we were God's enemies, he made peace with us, because his Son died for us. Yet something even greater than friendship is ours. Now that we are at peace with God, we will be saved by his Son's life.

Don't you know that all who share in Christ Jesus by being baptized also share in his death?

For example, the Law says that a man's wife must remain his wife as long as he lives. But once her husband is dead, she is free

But the Law no longer rules over us. We are like dead people, and it cannot have any power over us. Now we can serve God in a new way by obeying his Spirit, and not in the old way by obeying the written Law.

The Law of Moses cannot do this, because our selfish desires make the Law weak. But God set you free when he sent his own Son to be like us sinners and to be a sacrifice for our sin. God used Christ's body to condemn sin.

Yet God raised Jesus to life! God's Spirit now lives in you, and he will raise you to life by his Spirit.

Only those people who are led by God's Spirit are his children.

God's Spirit doesn't make us slaves who are afraid of him. Instead, we become his children and call him our Father.

God's Spirit makes us sure that we are his children.

His Spirit lets us know that together with Christ we will be given what God has promised. We will also share in the glory of Christ, because we have suffered with him.