Abraham Justified Before Circumcision

¹ What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has discovered?

² If Abraham was indeed justified by works, he had something to boast about, but not before God.

³ For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”

⁴ Now the wages of the worker are not credited as a gift, but as an obligation.

⁵ However, to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.

⁶ And David speaks likewise of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:

⁷ “Blessed are they whose lawless acts are forgiven, whose sins are covered.

⁸ Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.”

⁹ Is this blessing only on the circumcised, or also on the uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness.

¹⁰ In what context was it credited? Was it after his circumcision, or before? It was not after, but before.

¹¹ And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all who believe but are not circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them.

¹² And he is also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised, but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.