3:27 Where, then, is boasting? ¹⁶  It is excluded! By what principle? ¹⁷  Of works? No, but by the principle of faith! 3:28 For we consider that a person ¹⁸  is declared righteous by faith apart from the works of the law. ¹⁹  3:29 Or is God the God of the Jews only? Is he not the God of the Gentiles too? Yes, of the Gentiles too! 3:30 Since God is one, ²⁰  he will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. 3:31 Do we then nullify ²¹  the law through faith? Absolutely not! Instead ²²  we uphold the law.

4:1 What then shall we say that Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh, ²³  has discovered regarding this matter? ²⁴  4:2 For if Abraham was declared righteous ²⁵  by the works of the law, he has something to boast about – but not before God. 4:3 For what does the scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited ²⁶  to him as righteousness.” ²⁷  4:4 Now to the one who works, his pay is not credited due to grace but due to obligation. ²⁸  4:5 But to the one who does not work, but believes in the one who declares the ungodly righteous, ²⁹  his faith is credited as righteousness.

4:6 So even David himself speaks regarding the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:

4:7 “Blessed ³⁰  are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered;

4:8 blessed is the one ³¹  against whom the Lord will never count ³²  sin.” ³³ 

4:9 Is this blessedness ³⁴  then for ³⁵  the circumcision ³⁶  or also for ³⁷  the uncircumcision? For we say, “faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness.” ³⁸  4:10 How then was it credited to him? Was he circumcised at the time, or not? No, he was not circumcised but uncircumcised! 4:11 And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised, ³⁹  so that he would become ⁴⁰  the father of all those who believe but have never been circumcised, ⁴¹  that they too could have righteousness credited to them. 4:12 And he is also the father of the circumcised, ⁴²  who are not only circumcised, but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham possessed when he was still uncircumcised. ⁴³ 

4:13 For the promise ⁴⁴  to Abraham or to his descendants that he would inherit the world was not fulfilled through the law, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. 4:14 For if they become heirs by the law, faith is empty and the promise is nullified. ⁴⁵  4:15 For the law brings wrath, because where there is no law there is no transgression ⁴⁶  either. 4:16 For this reason it is by faith so that it may be by grace, ⁴⁷  with the result that the promise may be certain to all the descendants – not only to those who are under the law, but also to those who have the faith of Abraham, ⁴⁸  who is the father of us all 4:17 (as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”). ⁴⁹  He is our father ⁵⁰  in the presence of God whom he believed – the God who ⁵¹  makes the dead alive and summons the things that do not yet exist as though they already do. ⁵²  4:18 Against hope Abraham ⁵³  believed ⁵⁴  in hope with the result that he became the father of many nations ⁵⁵  according to the pronouncement, ⁵⁶  “so will your descendants be.” ⁵⁷  4:19 Without being weak in faith, he considered ⁵⁸  his own body as dead ⁵⁹  (because he was about one hundred years old) and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. 4:20 He ⁶⁰  did not waver in unbelief about the promise of God but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God. 4:21 He was ⁶¹  fully convinced that what God ⁶²  promised he was also able to do. 4:22 So indeed it was credited to Abraham ⁶³  as righteousness.

4:23 But the statement it was credited to him ⁶⁴  was not written only for Abraham’s ⁶⁵  sake, 4:24 but also for our sake, to whom it will be credited, those who believe in the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. 4:25 He ⁶⁶  was given over ⁶⁷  because of our transgressions and was raised for the sake of ⁶⁸  our justification. ⁶⁹ 

5:1 ⁷⁰ Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have ⁷¹  peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 5:2 through whom we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice ⁷²  in the hope of God’s glory. 5:3 Not ⁷³  only this, but we also rejoice in sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 5:4 and endurance, character, and character, hope. 5:5 And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God ⁷⁴  has been poured out ⁷⁵  in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

5:6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 5:7 (For rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person perhaps someone might possibly dare to die.) ⁷⁶  5:8 But God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 5:9 Much more then, because we have now been declared righteous ⁷⁷  by his blood, ⁷⁸  we will be saved through him from God’s wrath. ⁷⁹  5:10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much more, since we have been reconciled, will we be saved by his life? 5:11 Not ⁸⁰  only this, but we also rejoice ⁸¹  in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received this reconciliation.

5:12 So then, just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all people ⁸²  because ⁸³  all sinned – 5:13 for before the law was given, ⁸⁴  sin was in the world, but there is no accounting for sin ⁸⁵  when there is no law. 5:14 Yet death reigned from Adam until Moses even over those who did not sin in the same way that Adam (who is a type ⁸⁶  of the coming one) transgressed. ⁸⁷  5:15 But the gracious gift is not like the transgression. ⁸⁸  For if the many died through the transgression of the one man, ⁸⁹  how much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ multiply to the many! 5:16 And the gift is not like the one who sinned. ⁹⁰  For judgment, resulting from the one transgression, ⁹¹  led to condemnation, but ⁹²  the gracious gift from the many failures ⁹³  led to justification. 5:17 For if, by the transgression of the one man, ⁹⁴  death reigned through the one, how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ!

5:18 Consequently, ⁹⁵  just as condemnation ⁹⁶  for all people ⁹⁷  came ⁹⁸  through one transgression, ⁹⁹  so too through the one righteous act ¹⁰⁰  came righteousness leading to life ¹⁰¹  for all people. 5:19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man ¹⁰²  many ¹⁰³  were made sinners, so also through the obedience of one man ¹⁰⁴  many ¹⁰⁵  will be made righteous. 5:20 Now the law came in ¹⁰⁶  so that the transgression ¹⁰⁷  may increase, but where sin increased, grace multiplied all the more, 5:21 so that just as sin reigned in death, so also grace will reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.