Romans 4:1-12

1Abraham was the ancestor of all of us who are Jews. Think about what he discovered.

2God did not accept Abraham as right with him because Abraham had done good things. If God had done that, then Abraham would have been able to boast about himself. But he could not boast to God.

3Remember what the Bible tells us. It says: ‘Abraham believed God. As a result, God accepted Abraham as right with him.’

4When a person works to get money, it is right for him to receive his money. That money is not a gift. It is what that person ought to receive as a result of his work.

5But someone may believe in God. He does not work to cause God to accept him. God accepts that person because of their faith. God says that people who have turned away from him are right with him, if they trust him. That is God's gift to them.

6David also wrote about the same thing. He describes those people that God has accepted as right with himself. God has not accepted them because they have done good things, but as his gift to them. David tells us how happy people like that are.

7David says: ‘The people that God has forgiven are really happy. They have done wrong things, but he has forgiven them.

8A person is really happy when the Lord accepts him. The Lord does not think about that person's sin any more.’

9God does this for all people, both Jews and Gentiles. All people can be really happy like this, when God accepts them. As we have said, Abraham believed God. As a result, God accepted Abraham as right with him.

10They circumcised Abraham to show that he was a Jew. Think about the time when God accepted Abraham. Did it happen before they circumcised him, or after that? We know that it was before they circumcised him!

11Some time after that, God told Abraham that someone should circumcise him. That would be a mark on his body to show that God had accepted him. God had already accepted Abraham because Abraham believed in him. God did not accept Abraham because they had circumcised him as a Jewish man. This shows that Abraham is like a father to everyone that God has accepted. Like Abraham, God has accepted them because they have believed in him. It is not important that nobody has circumcised them.

12But Abraham is also like the father of all Jews who believe in God. Someone has circumcised those Jews, but they have copied Abraham's example. They have believed in God, as Abraham believed before anyone had circumcised him.