5. But people cannot do any work that will make them right with God. So they must trust in him. Then he accepts their faith, and that makes them right with him. He is the one who makes even evil people right.
6. David said the same thing when he was talking about the blessing people have when God accepts them as good without looking at what they have done:
7. “It is a great blessing when people are forgiven for the wrongs they have done, when their sins are erased!
8. It is a great blessing when the Lord accepts people as if they are without sin!” Psalm 32:1-2
9. Is this blessing only for those who are circumcised? Or is it also for those who are not circumcised? We have already said that it was because of Abraham’s faith that he was accepted as one who is right with God.
10. So how did this happen? Did God accept Abraham before or after he was circumcised? God accepted him before his circumcision.
11. Abraham was circumcised later to show that God accepted him. His circumcision was proof 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. They believe and are accepted as people who are right with God.
12. And Abraham is also the father of those who have been circumcised. But it is not their circumcision that makes him their father. He is their father only if they live following the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.
13. Abraham and his descendants received the promise that they would get the whole world. But Abraham did not receive that promise because he followed the law. He received that promise because he was right with God through his faith.
14. If people could get God’s promise by following the law, then faith is worthless. And God’s promise to Abraham is worthless,
15. because the law can only bring God’s anger on those who disobey it. But if there is no law, then there is nothing to disobey.
16. So people get what God promised by having faith. This happens so that the promise can be a free gift. And if the promise is a free gift, then all of Abraham’s people will get that promise. The promise is not just for those who live under the Law of Moses. It is for all who live with faith as Abraham did. He is the father of us all.
17. As the Scriptures say, “I have made you a father of many nations.” This is true before God, the one Abraham believed—the God who gives life to the dead and speaks of things that don’t yet exist as if they are real.