Study Desk

But God has a way to make people right with him without the law, and he has now shown us that way which the law and the prophets told us about.

God makes people right with himself through their faith in Jesus Christ. This is true for all who believe in Christ, because all people are the same:

and all need to be made right with God by his grace, which is a free gift. They need to be made free from sin through Jesus Christ.

God sent him to die in our place to take away our sins. We receive forgiveness through faith in the blood of Jesus' death. This showed that God always does what is right and fair, as in the past when he was patient and did not punish people for their sins.

And God gave Jesus to show today that he does what is right. God did this so he could judge rightly and so he could make right any person who has faith in Jesus.

A person is made right with God through faith, not through obeying the law.

Is God only the God of the Jews? Is he not also the God of those who are not Jews?

Of course he is, because there is only one God. He will make Jews right with him by their faith, and he will also make those who are not Jews right with him through their faith.

because the Scripture says, "Abraham believed God, and God accepted Abraham's faith, and that faith made him right with God."

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

David said the same thing. He said that people are truly blessed when God, without paying attention to their deeds, makes people right with himself.

Is this blessing only for those who are circumcised or also for those who are not circumcised? We have already said that God accepted Abraham's faith and that faith made him right with God.

So how did this happen? Did God accept Abraham before or after he was circumcised? It was before his circumcision.

Abraham was circumcised to show 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; he is the father of all believers who are accepted as being right with God.

Abraham and his descendants received the promise that they would get the whole world. He did not receive that promise through the law, but through being right with God by his faith.

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

As it is written in the Scriptures: "I am making you a father of many nations." This is true before God, the God Abraham believed, the God who gives life to the dead and who creates something out of nothing.

There was no hope that Abraham would have children. But Abraham believed God and continued hoping, and so he became the father of many nations. As God told him, "Your descendants also will be too many to count."

Abraham was almost a hundred years old, much past the age for having children, and Sarah could not have children. Abraham thought about all this, but his faith in God did not become weak.

He never doubted that God would keep his promise, and he never stopped believing. He grew stronger in his faith and gave praise to God.