Letters to the Churches

“Their feet rush to shed blood,

in their ways are ruin and misery,

and the way of shalom they do not know.

“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

Moreover, we know that whatever the Torah says, it says to those living within the framework of the Torah, in order that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world be shown to deserve God’s adverse judgment.

For in his sight no one alive will be considered righteous on the ground of legalistic observance of Torah commands, because what Torah really does is show people how sinful they are.

But now, quite apart from Torah, God’s way of making people righteous in his sight has been made clear — although the Torah and the Prophets give their witness to it as well —

and it is a righteousness that comes from God, through the faithfulness of Yeshua the Messiah, to all who continue trusting. For it makes no difference whether one is a Jew or a Gentile,

since all have sinned and come short of earning God’s praise.

By God’s grace, without earning it, all are granted the status of being considered righteous before him, through the act redeeming us from our enslavement to sin that was accomplished by the Messiah Yeshua.

God put Yeshua forward as the kapparah for sin through his faithfulness in respect to his bloody sacrificial death. This vindicated God’s righteousness; because, in his forbearance, he had passed over [with neither punishment nor remission] the sins people had committed in the past;

and it vindicates his righteousness in the present age by showing that he is righteous himself and is also the one who makes people righteous on the ground of Yeshua’s faithfulness.

So what room is left for boasting? None at all! What kind of Torah excludes it? One that has to do with legalistic observance of rules? No, rather, a Torah that has to do with trusting.

Therefore, we hold the view that a person comes to be considered righteous by God on the ground of trusting, which has nothing to do with legalistic observance of Torah commands.

Or is God the God of the Jews only? Isn’t he also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, he is indeed the God of the Gentiles;

because, as you will admit, God is one. Therefore, he will consider righteous the circumcised on the ground of trusting and the uncircumcised through that same trusting.

Does it follow that we abolish Torah by this trusting? Heaven forbid! On the contrary, we confirm Torah.

Then what should we say Avraham, our forefather, obtained by his own efforts?

For if Avraham came to be considered righteous by God because of legalistic observances, then he has something to boast about. But this is not how it is before God!

For what does the Tanakh say? “Avraham put his trust in God, and it was credited to his account as righteousness.”

Now the account of someone who is working is credited not on the ground of grace but on the ground of what is owed him.

However, in the case of one who is not working but rather is trusting in him who makes ungodly people righteous, his trust is credited to him as righteousness.

In the same way, the blessing which David pronounces is on those whom God credits with righteousness apart from legalistic observances:

“Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered over;

Blessed is the man whose sin Adonai will not reckon against his account.”