Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible recap.

Today, we continue in Paul's Letter to the Church in Rome.

It's comprised of a diverse group of people, but Paul's Letter primarily focuses on issues

that pertain to the Christians who are ethnic Jews.

He ended yesterday by saying salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, and that

Jews don't have a special advantage just because they have the law.

Today he continues where he left off by saying, case in point, Abraham.

He was the very first Jew, and even he was declared righteous because of his faith in

Yahweh, not by keeping the law, because by the way, the law didn't even exist for another

430 years.

Then he goes on to say, cool, now that we're on the same page, let's talk about how he

got that saving faith.

Did he get it by doing something like being circumcised maybe?

No, because he got the faith before he was circumcised.

If he'd had to do something in order to receive the faith, then faith isn't a pre-gift anymore,

it's something you had to earn.

So if Abraham was given righteousness and faith as an uncircumcised man, then guess what?

The same thing can happen for the Gentiles.

Paul also reminds them that God called Abraham the Father of many nations.

He's the Father of all believers from every nation.

Paul's circumcision was just an outward display of the faith Abraham already had, which means

that if he had died before he was circumcised, his sins would have already been covered.

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