Section 4:13–25

God considers/calls people righteous who believe in Jesus

In this section, Paul showed that God’s promise of blessing to Abraham and his descendants was made because Abraham believed God. God did not promise blessing because Abraham obeyed the law of Moses. Paul then described how Abraham believed and why God called him righteous. Paul then explained that God also calls the people who believe in God (and his Messiah, Jesus) righteous.

Here are other possible headings for this section:

God counts people as righteous through faith, not through the Law Of Moses
-or-
God also called us (incl.) righteous because we believe
-or-
The lesson/model of God calling Abraham righteous applies to us/believers

Paragraph 4:13–15

4:13a

For: This word introduces an explanation of some things Paul said in 4:11–12.

the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world was not given through the law: The Greek begins with “not through the law.” This emphasizes that phrase. Consider how to indicate that contrast in your language. For example:

It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world (New International Version (2011))
-or-
the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world certainly did not come through the law

offspring: The Greek word here is “seed.” Here it refers to descendants. It implies the same people to whom he is called “father” in 4:12a (“of the circumcised,” that is, the Jews). For example:

descendants (Revised Standard Version)

heir of the world: Here the word heir refers to someone whom another person gives him something as promised. It does not imply here that someone received something because someone died. Here are other ways to translate this phrase:

he would inherit the world (NET Bible)
-or-
the world would belong to him (Good News Translation)

the law: The word law probably refers to the Law of Moses. For example:

God’s law (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
the Law that God gave to Moses

4:13b

the righteousness that comes by faith: Here this phrase indicates that Abraham’s faith is the way in which he became righteous. If that is true in your language, translate the correct meaning. For example:

he believed and was accepted as righteous by God (Good News Translation)
-or-
the righteousness which had its root in faith (Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English)
-or-
God’s approval of his faith (God’s Word)

© 2020 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.