1. So what can we say that Abraham, the father of our people, learned about faith?
2. If Abraham was made right by the things he did, he had a reason to brag. But this is not God’s view,
3. because the Scripture says, “Abraham believed God, and God accepted Abraham’s faith, and that faith made him right with God.”
4. When people work, their pay is not given as a gift, but as something earned.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. “Blessed are theywhose sins are forgiven,whose wrongs are pardoned.
8. Blessed is the personwhom the Lord does not consider guilty.”
9. 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.
10. So how did this happen? Did God accept Abraham before or after he was circumcised? It was before his circumcision.