5. But a person cannot do any work that will make him right with God. So he must trust in God. Then God accepts his faith, and that makes him right with God. God is the One who can make even those who are evil right in his sight.
6. David said the same thing. He said that a person is truly blessed when God does not look at what he has done but accepts him as good:
7. “Happy are theywhose sins are forgiven,whose wrongs are pardoned.
8. Happy is the personwhom the Lord does not consider guilty.” 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 God accepted Abraham’s faith, and that faith made him 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. He is the father of all believers who are accepted as being 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 through the law. He received it because he was right with God through his faith.
14. If people could receive what God promised by following the law, then faith is worthless. And God’s promise to Abraham is worthless,