Bible Gateway passage: Romans 4 - New King James Version (2024)

Abraham Justified by Faith^(A)

4What then shall we say that ^(B)Abraham our ^(C)father^[a] has found according to the flesh? ²For if Abraham was ^(D)justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. ³For what does the Scripture say? ^(E)“Abraham believed God, and it was ^[b]accounted to him for righteousness.” ⁴Now ^(F)to him who works, the wages are not counted ^[c]as grace but as debt.

David Celebrates the Same Truth

⁵But to him who ^(G)does not work but believes on Him who justifies ^(H)the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness, ⁶just as David also ^(I)describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works:

⁷“Blessed^(J) are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,
And whose sins are covered;
⁸Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin.”

Abraham Justified Before Circumcision

⁹Does this blessedness then come upon the circumcised only, or upon the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness. ¹⁰How then was it accounted? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised. ¹¹And ^(K)he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still uncircumcised, that ^(L)he might be the father of all those who believe, though they are uncircumcised, that righteousness might be imputed to them also, ¹²and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of the faith which our father ^(M)Abraham had while still uncircumcised.

The Promise Granted Through Faith

¹³For the promise that he would be the ^(N)heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. ¹⁴For ^(O)if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of no effect, ¹⁵because ^(P)the law brings about wrath; for where there is no law there is no transgression.

¹⁶Therefore it is of faith that it might be ^(Q)according to grace, ^(R)so that the promise might be ^[d]sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, ^(S)who is the father of us all ¹⁷(as it is written, ^(T)“I have made you a father of many nations”) in the presence of Him whom he believed—God, ^(U)who gives life to the dead and calls those ^(V)things which do not exist as though they did; ¹⁸who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, ^(W)“So shall your descendants be.” ¹⁹And not being weak in faith, ^(X)he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), ^(Y)and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. ²⁰He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, ²¹and being fully convinced that what He had promised ^(Z)He was also able to perform. ²²And therefore ^(AA)“it was accounted to him for righteousness.”

²³Now ^(AB)it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, ²⁴but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe ^(AC)in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, ^25(AD)who was delivered up because of our offenses, and ^(AE)was raised because of our justification.