Romans 4:13-25

13God promised to Abraham, and to his descendants, that the world would belong to them one day. God did not promise that because Abraham obeyed any rules. God promised it because Abraham believed in him. That is why God accepted Abraham as right with him.

14People cannot get what God promised because they obey rules. If they could get it like that, then faith in God would be worth nothing. And what God promised would be worth nothing.

15The rules in Moses' Law say that God will punish people who do not obey those rules. But without any rules, there is nothing for people to obey.

16So God gives us his promise as a gift, because he is very kind. We receive it when we trust him. If we believe in God like Abraham did, then God accepts us. That is God's promise to all of Abraham's family. If we believe in God, we can call Abraham our ancestor. We can all receive what God has promised. It is not only for those who have Moses' Law to obey.

17In the Bible, God said to Abraham, ‘I have chosen you to become the ancestor of many different people.’ That is what God himself promises, because Abraham believed in him. God is the one who causes dead people to become alive again. He speaks about things that are not yet there as if they were already there.

18Abraham continued to trust God. He hoped to receive what God had promised. He continued to hope even when he had no good reason to hope. That is why he became the ancestor of many different people. It happened just like God had said: ‘You will have very many descendants.’

19Abraham was about 100 years old. His body was already so old that it was nearly dead. His wife, Sarah, was unable to have children. Abraham understood all that, but he did not stop trusting God.

20He never stopped believing what God had promised. Instead, he believed in God more strongly. He trusted God's great power.

21Abraham was sure that God was able to do what he had promised to do.

22So we see that it is true: Because Abraham believed God, God accepted Abraham as right with him.

23Think about those words, ‘God accepted him as right.’ They are not only speaking about Abraham.

24They are written in the Bible to help us too. If we believe in God, he will accept us as right with him. God raised our Lord Jesus, so that he became alive again after his death.

25God let people kill Jesus on the cross because of the wrong things that we have done. Then God raised Jesus from death, to show that he would accept us as right with him.