Romans 4

All 25 verses in the Clear Bible Translation. Tap a verse to compare the KJV and read what it means.

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1. 1What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found?
2. 2If Abraham was justified by works, he would have something to boast about — but not before God.
3. 3What does Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness."
4. 4Now to the one who works, wages are not counted as grace but as something owed.
5. 5But to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness.
6. 6David also speaks of the blessedness of the person to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:
7. 7"Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.
8. 8Blessed is the person whose sin the Lord will never count against them."
9. 9Now, does this blessedness come only to the circumcised, or to the uncircumcised as well? For we say that faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness.
10. 10How then was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? It was not after, but before.
11. 11He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. This was so that he would be the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be credited to them as well,
12. 12and the father of the circumcised — not only those who are circumcised, but also those who walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had while he was still uncircumcised.
13. 13For the promise to Abraham and his descendants that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
14. 14For if those who rely on the law are the heirs, then faith is made empty and the promise is made worthless.
15. 15For the law brings wrath, because where there is no law, there is no transgression.
16. 16Therefore the promise is by faith, so that it may be by grace, and so that the promise may be guaranteed to all his descendants — not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who share the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.
17. 17As it is written, "I have made you a father of many nations." He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed — the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that do not exist as though they do.
18. 18Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed, so that he would become the father of many nations, according to what was spoken: "So shall your descendants be."
19. 19Without weakening in faith, he considered his own body as good as dead — since he was about a hundred years old — and the deadness of Sarah's womb.
20. 20He did not waver in unbelief at the promise of God, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God,
21. 21fully convinced that what God had promised, he was also able to do.
22. 22Therefore it was credited to him as righteousness.
23. 23Now the words "it was credited to him" were not written for his sake alone,
24. 24but for us also, to whom it will be credited — we who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.
25. 25He was delivered over because of our transgressions and was raised for our justification.