Good morning. So Abraham believed God, even though the circumstances appeared to be against it happening. What was the result – therefore it was credited to him as righteousness. It wasn’t a true indwelling righteousness as we experience; that only comes through a relationship with Jesus. Now not for his (Abraham’s) sake only was it written that it was credited to him, but for our sake also, to whom it will be credited, as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification. The king James uses the word ”for” in both cases where this says “because of”. That is sometimes interpreted as: Jesus was raised in order to obtain our justification; i.e. we would not be justified, if He had not been raised. I believe it should be interpreted as: He was delivered over as a result of our transgressions, and was raised as a result of our justification. I believe that what follows in a few verses shows that is the way to interpret it. If He had not been raised, we would not have the Holy Spirit indwelling us; and we could not live the Christian life. Father thank You that not only was Jesus crucified because our sins, He was also raised that we might have the Holy Spirit and live the Christian life.

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