New Testament Plan

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

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

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

⁴Now to the one who works, pay is not credited as a gift, but as something owed.

⁵But to the one who does not work, but believes on him who declares the ungodly to be righteous, his faith is credited for righteousness.

⁶Just as David also speaks of the blessing of the person to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:

⁷Blessed are those whose lawless acts are forgiven and whose sins are covered.

⁸Blessed is the person the Lord will never charge with sin.

⁹Is this blessing only for the circumcised, then? Or is it also for the uncircumcised? For we say, Faith was credited to Abraham for righteousness.

¹⁰In what way then was it credited — while he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? It was not while he was circumcised, but uncircumcised.

¹¹And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while still uncircumcised. This was to make him the father of all who believe but are not circumcised, so that righteousness may be credited to them also.

¹²And he became the father of the circumcised, who are not only circumcised but who also follow in the footsteps of the faith our father Abraham had while he was still uncircumcised.

¹³For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would inherit the world was not through the law, but through the righteousness that comes by faith.

¹⁴If those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made empty and the promise nullified,

¹⁵because the law produces wrath. And where there is no law, there is no transgression.

¹⁶This is why the promise is by faith, so that it may be according to grace, to guarantee it to all the descendants  — not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of Abraham’s faith. He is the father of us all.

¹⁷As it is written: I have made you the father of many nations. He is our father in God’s sight, in whom Abraham believed — the God who gives life to the dead and calls things into existence that do not exist.

¹⁸He believed, hoping against hope, so that he became the father of many nations according to what had been spoken: So will your descendants be.

¹⁹He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body to be already dead (since he was about a hundred years old) and also the deadness of Sarah’s womb.

²⁰He did not waver in unbelief at God’s promise but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God,

²¹because he was fully convinced that what God had promised, he was also able to do.

²²Therefore, it was credited to him for righteousness.

²³Now it was credited to him was not written for Abraham alone,

²⁴but also for us. It will be credited to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.

²⁵He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

¹Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

²We have also obtained access through him by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

³And not only that, but we also rejoice in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance,

⁴endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope.

⁵This hope will not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

⁶For while we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.

⁷For rarely will someone die for a just person — though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die.

⁸But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

⁹How much more then, since we have now been declared righteous by his blood, will we be saved through him from wrath.

¹⁰For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, then how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life.

¹¹And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received this reconciliation.

¹²Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way death spread to all people, because all sinned.

¹³In fact, sin was in the world before the law, but sin is not charged to a person’s account when there is no law.

¹⁴Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who did not sin in the likeness of Adam’s transgression. He is a type of the Coming One.

¹⁵But the gift is not like the trespass. For if by the one man’s trespass the many died, how much more have the grace of God and the gift which comes through the grace of the one man Jesus Christ overflowed to the many.

¹⁶And the gift is not like the one man’s sin, because from one sin came the judgment, resulting in condemnation, but from many trespasses came the gift, resulting in justification.

¹⁷Since by the one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive the overflow of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

¹⁸So then, as through one trespass there is condemnation for everyone, so also through one righteous act there is justification leading to life for everyone.

¹⁹For just as through one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so also through the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.

²⁰The law came along to multiply the trespass. But where sin multiplied, grace multiplied even more

²¹so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace will reign through righteousness, resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

¹What should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply?

²Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it?

³Or are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

⁴Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life.

⁵For if we have been united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of his resurrection.

⁶For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin,

⁷since a person who has died is freed from sin.

⁸Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him,

⁹because we know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will not die again. Death no longer rules over him.

¹⁰For the death he died, he died to sin once for all time; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

¹¹So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

¹²Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey its desires.

¹³And do not offer any parts of it to sin as weapons for unrighteousness. But as those who are alive from the dead, offer yourselves to God, and all the parts of yourselves to God as weapons for righteousness.

¹⁴For sin will not rule over you, because you are not under the law but under grace.

¹⁵What then? Should we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? Absolutely not!

¹⁶Don’t you know that if you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of that one you obey  — either of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness?

¹⁷But thank God that, although you used to be slaves of sin, you obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching to which you were handed over,

¹⁸and having been set free from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness.

¹⁹I am using a human analogy because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you offered the parts of yourselves as slaves to impurity, and to greater and greater lawlessness, so now offer them as slaves to righteousness, which results in sanctification.

²⁰For when you were slaves of sin, you were free with regard to righteousness.

²¹So what fruit was produced then from the things you are now ashamed of? The outcome of those things is death.

²²But now, since you have been set free from sin and have become enslaved to God, you have your fruit, which results in sanctification  — and the outcome is eternal life!

²³For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.