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What shall we say, then, of Abraham, the father of our race? What was his experience?
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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.
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The scripture says, "Abraham believed God, and because of his faith God accepted him as righteous."
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A person who works is paid wages, but they are not regarded as a gift; they are something that has been earned.
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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.
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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:
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"Happy are those whose wrongs are forgiven, whose sins are pardoned!
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Happy is the person whose sins the Lord will not keep account of !"
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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."
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When did this take place? Was it before or after Abraham was circumcised? It was before, not after.
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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.
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He is also the father of those who are circumcised, that is, of those who, in addition to being circumcised, also live the same life of faith that our father Abraham lived before he was circumcised.
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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.
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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.
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The Law brings down God's anger; but where there is no law, there is no disobeying of the law.
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And so the promise was based on faith, in order that the promise should be guaranteed as God's free gift to all of Abraham's descendants---not just to those who obey the Law, but also to those who believe as Abraham did. For Abraham is the spiritual father of us all;
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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.
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Abraham believed and hoped, even when there was no reason for hoping, and so became "the father of many nations." Just as the scripture says, "Your descendants will be as many as the stars."
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He was then almost one hundred years old; but his faith did not weaken when he thought of his body, which was already practically dead, or of the fact that Sarah could not have children.
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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.
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He was absolutely sure that God would be able to do what he had promised.
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That is why Abraham, through faith, "was accepted as righteous by God."
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The words "he was accepted as righteous" were not written for him alone.
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They were written also for us who are to be accepted as righteous, who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from death.
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Because of our sins he was given over to die, and he was raised to life in order to put us right with God.
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Now that we have been put right with God through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
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He has brought us by faith into this experience of God's grace, in which we now live. And so we boast of the hope we have of sharing God's glory!
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We also boast of our troubles, because we know that trouble produces endurance,
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endurance brings God's approval, and his approval creates hope.
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This hope does not disappoint us, for God has poured out his love into our hearts by means of the Holy Spirit, who is God's gift to us.
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For when we were still helpless, Christ died for the wicked at the time that God chose.
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It is a difficult thing for someone to die for a righteous person. It may even be that someone might dare to die for a good person.
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But God has shown us how much he loves us---it was while we were still sinners that Christ died for us!
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By his blood we are now put right with God; how much more, then, will we be saved by him from God's anger!
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We were God's enemies, but he made us his friends through the death of his Son. Now that we are God's friends, how much more will we be saved by Christ's life!
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But that is not all; we rejoice because of what God has done through our Lord Jesus Christ, who has now made us God's friends.
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Sin came into the world through one man, and his sin brought death with it. As a result, death has spread to the whole human race because everyone has sinned.
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There was sin in the world before the Law was given; but where there is no law, no account is kept of sins.
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But from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, death ruled over all human beings, even over those who did not sin in the same way that Adam did when he disobeyed God's command. Adam was a figure of the one who was to come.
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But the two are not the same, because God's free gift is not like Adam's sin. It is true that many people died because of the sin of that one man. But God's grace is much greater, and so is his free gift to so many people through the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ.
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And there is a difference between God's gift and the sin of one man. After the one sin, came the judgment of "Guilty"; but after so many sins, comes the undeserved gift of "Not guilty!"
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It is true that through the sin of one man death began to rule because of that one man. But how much greater is the result of what was done by the one man, Jesus Christ! All who receive God's abundant grace and are freely put right with him will rule in life through Christ.
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So then, as the one sin condemned all people, in the same way the one righteous act sets all people free and gives them life.
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And just as all people were made sinners as the result of the disobedience of one man, in the same way they will all be put right with God as the result of the obedience of the one man.
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Law was introduced in order to increase wrongdoing; but where sin increased, God's grace increased much more.
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So then, just as sin ruled by means of death, so also God's grace rules by means of righteousness, leading us to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
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What shall we say, then? Should we continue to live in sin so that God's grace will increase?
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Certainly not! We have died to sin---how then can we go on living in it?
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For surely you know that when we were baptized into union with Christ Jesus, we were baptized into union with his death.
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By our baptism, then, we were buried with him and shared his death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from death by the glorious power of the Father, so also we might live a new life.
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For since we have become one with him in dying as he did, in the same way we shall be one with him by being raised to life as he was.
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And we know that our old being has been put to death with Christ on his cross, in order that the power of the sinful self might be destroyed, so that we should no longer be the slaves of sin.
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For when we die, we are set free from the power of sin.
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Since we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
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For we know that Christ has been raised from death and will never die again---death will no longer rule over him.
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And so, because he died, sin has no power over him; and now he lives his life in fellowship with God.
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In the same way you are to think of yourselves as dead, so far as sin is concerned, but living in fellowship with God through Christ Jesus.
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Sin must no longer rule in your mortal bodies, so that you obey the desires of your natural self.
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Nor must you surrender any part of yourselves to sin to be used for wicked purposes. Instead, give yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life, and surrender your whole being to him to be used for righteous purposes.
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Sin must not be your master; for you do not live under law but under God's grace.
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What, then? Shall we sin, because we are not under law but under God's grace? By no means!
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Surely you know that when you surrender yourselves as slaves to obey someone, you are in fact the slaves of the master you obey---either of sin, which results in death, or of obedience, which results in being put right with God.
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But thanks be to God! For though at one time you were slaves to sin, you have obeyed with all your heart the truths found in the teaching you received.
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You were set free from sin and became the slaves of righteousness.
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(I use everyday language because of the weakness of your natural selves.) At one time you surrendered yourselves entirely as slaves to impurity and wickedness for wicked purposes. In the same way you must now surrender yourselves entirely as slaves of righteousness for holy purposes.
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When you were the slaves of sin, you were free from righteousness.
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What did you gain from doing the things that you are now ashamed of ? The result of those things is death!
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But now you have been set free from sin and are the slaves of God. Your gain is a life fully dedicated to him, and the result is eternal life.
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For sin pays its wage---death; but God's free gift is eternal life in union with Christ Jesus our Lord.
