Romans 4:14

If we think that it is those who obey God’s laws who will receive what he has promised, it is useless for us to trust in him. And what he promised is worthless. Remember that it is stated in God’s law [PRS] that he will punish people who do not perfectly obey them, and remember that wherever [MTY] laws exist, people disobey them [LIT].

Translation for Translators

In The King James Version

For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect:

In Context

13God promised Abraham and his descendants that they would receive the blessings that he promised to give to the people in the world. But when he promised that, it was not because Abraham obeyed the laws that God later gave to Moses. Instead, it was because Abraham believed that God would do what he promised that he would do. As a result, God erased the record of his sins.

Read all of Romans 4

Cross References

Numbers 30:12But if he hears about it and does not allow her to do that, she does not need to do what she promised, and Yahweh will forgive her for not doing it.

Psalms 119:126Yahweh, now is the time for you to punish people because they have disobeyed your laws.

Jeremiah 19:7In this place I will ruin the plans of you people who live in Jerusalem and in other places in Judah. I will allow your enemies who want to kill you to kill many of you with their swords. Then I will allow your corpses to remain on the ground to be food for vultures and wild animals.

Romans 4:16So it is because we trust in God that we will receive the things that he has promised. It is not because we perfectly obey God’s laws. He wants ◄to erase the record of our sins/to declare us no longer guilty► without our earning it. As a result, what God now promises, he guarantees to give to all people who are Abraham’s spiritual descendants. He promises to do that not only for us Jewish believers, who have God’s laws and trust in him as Abraham did, but also for those non-Jews who do not have God’s laws but who trust in him as Abraham did. Abraham is the spiritual ancestor of all of us believers.

Galatians 3:18Remember that if it is because we obey God’s laws that he gives to us what he has promised to give to us, then it is not just because he has promised that he would give those things to us. God freely gave to Abraham what he had promised to give to him, just because God had promised that he would give it to him. Similarly, it is not because we obey God’s laws that God gives to us what he has promised to give to us.

Philippians 3:9and in order that I may completely belong to him. It was not as a result of my obeying the laws he gave Moses that God erased the record of my sins. Instead, it is because I have trusted in Christ that God has declared that I am no longer guilty for my sins, and he enables me to act righteously. It is God himself who has erased the record of my sins, and he enables me to act righteously, only because I have trusted in Christ.

Matthew Henry on Romans 4:10-23

The Case of Abraham. ( a. d. 58.) 9 Cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also? for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness. 10 How was it then reckoned? when he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. 11 And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not… Read the whole commentary →

This Verse In Other Editions

Study Romans 4:14