Romans 4:14

THE MESSAGE

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
If those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made empty and the promise nullified,

King James Version (1611)
For if they which are of the law be heires, faith is made voide, and the promise made of none effect.

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

English Standard Version
For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void.

New American Standard Bible
For if those who are of the Law are heirs, then faith is made void and the promise is nullified;

New Century Version
If people could receive what God promised by following the law, then faith is worthless. And God's promise to Abraham is worthless,

Amplified Bible
If those who are [followers] of the Law are [the true] heirs [of Abraham], then faith [leading to salvation] is of no effect and void, and the promise [of God] is nullified.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
For if those who are of the Law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise is nullified;

Legacy Standard Bible
For if those who are of the Law are heirs, faith has been made empty and the promise has been abolished;

Berean Standard Bible
For if those who live by the law are heirs, faith is useless and the promise is worthless,

Contemporary English Version
If Abraham and his descendants were given this promise because they had obeyed a law, then faith would mean nothing, and the promise would be worthless.

Complete Jewish Bible
For if the heirs are produced by legalism, then trust is pointless and the promise worthless.

Darby Translation
For if they which [are] of law be heirs, faith is made vain, and the promise made of no effect.

Easy-to-Read Version
If people could get God's promise by following the law, then faith is worthless. And God's promise to Abraham is worthless,

Geneva Bible (1587)
For if they which are of the Lawe, be heires, faith is made voide, & the promise is made of none effect.

George Lamsa Translation
For if they had become heirs by means of the law, then faith would have been empty and the promise made of no effect.

Good News Translation
For if what God promises is to be given to those who obey the Law, then faith means nothing and God's promise is worthless.

Lexham English Bible
For if those of the law are heirs, faith is rendered void and the promise is nullified.

Literal Translation
For if those of Law are heirs, faith has been made of no effect, and the promise has been annulled.

American Standard Version
For if they that are of the law are heirs, faith is made void, and the promise is made of none effect:

Bible in Basic English
For if they who are of the law are the people who get the heritage, then faith is made of no use, and the word of God has no power;

Hebrew Names Version
For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void, and the promise is made of no effect.

International Standard Version
For if those who were given the lawthose of the law">[fn] are the heirs, then faith is useless and the promise is worthless,Galatians 3:18;">[xr]

Etheridge Translation
For if they who are of the law were heirs, faith would be vain, and the promise be abolished.

Murdock Translation
For if they who are of the law were heirs, faith would be made void, and the promise of no force.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
For yf they which are of the lawe be heyres, then is fayth but vayne, and the promise of none effect:

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

World English Bible
For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void, and the promise is made of no effect.

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
For if they who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void, and the promise of no effect.

Weymouth's New Testament
For if it is the righteous through Law who are heirs, then faith is useless and the promise counts for nothing.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
For if thei that ben of the lawe, ben eiris, feith is distried, biheest is don awey.

Update Bible Version
For if those that are of the law are heirs, faith is made void, and the promise is made of no effect:

Webster's Bible Translation
For if they who are of the law [are] heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of no effect.

New English Translation
For if they become heirs by the law, faith is empty and the promise is nullified.

New King James Version
For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of no effect,

New Living Translation
If God's promise is only for those who obey the law, then faith is not necessary and the promise is pointless.

New Life Bible
If those who obey the Law are to get the world, then a person putting his trust in God means nothing. God's promise to Abraham would be worth nothing.

New Revised Standard
If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
For, if they who are of law are heirs, made void is faith and of no effect is the promise.

Douay-Rheims Bible
For if they who are of the law be heirs, faith is made void: the promise is made of no effect.

Revised Standard Version
If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void.

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
For yf they which are of the lawe be heyres then is fayth but vayne and the promes of none effecte.

Young's Literal Translation
for if they who are of law [are] heirs, the faith hath been made void, and the promise hath been made useless;

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
For yf they which are of the lawe be heyres, the is faith vayne, and the promes of none effecte,

Mace New Testament (1729)
for if they only who are of the law have right of possession, faith is made useless, and the promise becomes of no effect.

Simplified Cowboy Version
If God only did this for those who obeyed the Code, the faith would be useless.

Contextual Overview

¹⁰Now think: Was that declaration made before or after he was marked by the covenant rite of circumcision? That's right, before he was marked. That means that he underwent circumcision as evidence and confirmation of what God had done long before to bring him into this acceptable standing with himself, an act of God he had embraced with his whole life. ¹² And it means further that Abraham is father of all people who embrace what God does for them while they are still on the "outs" with God, as yet unidentified as God's, in an "uncircumcised" condition. It is precisely these people in this condition who are called "set right by God and with God"! Abraham is also, of course, father of those who have undergone the religious rite of circumcision not just because of the ritual but because they were willing to live in the risky faith-embrace of God's action for them, the way Abraham lived long before he was marked by circumcision. ¹³That famous promise God gave Abraham—that he and his children would possess the earth—was not given because of something Abraham did or would do. It was based on God's decision to put everything together for him, which Abraham then entered when he believed. If those who get what God gives them only get it by doing everything they are told to do and filling out all the right forms properly signed, that eliminates personal trust completely and turns the promise into an ironclad contract! That's not a holy promise; that's a business deal. A contract drawn up by a hard-nosed lawyer and with plenty of fine print only makes sure that you will never be able to collect. But if there is no contract in the first place, simply a promise—and God's promise at that—you can't break it. ¹⁶ This is why the fulfillment of God's promise depends entirely on trusting God and his way, and then simply embracing him and what he does. God's promise arrives as pure gift. That's the only way everyone can be sure to get in on it, those who keep the religious traditions and those who have never heard of them. For Abraham is father of us all. He is not our racial father—that's reading the story backward. He is our faith father.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

For if: Romans 4:16, Galatians 2:21, Galatians 3:18-24, Galatians 5:4, Philippians 3:9, Hebrews 7:19, Hebrews 7:28

made: Romans 3:31, Numbers 30:12, Numbers 30:15, Psalms 119:126, Isaiah 55:11, Jeremiah 19:7

Reciprocal: Genesis 22:16 - General Luke 10:26 - General Romans 9:31 - hath Galatians 3:12 - the law Galatians 3:17 - that it Galatians 3:29 - heirs

Cross-References

Genesis 4:6
God spoke to Cain: "Why this tantrum? Why the sulking? If you do well, won't you be accepted? And if you don't do well, sin is lying in wait for you, ready to pounce; it's out to get you, you've got to master it."

Genesis 4:13
Cain said to God , "My punishment is too much. I can't take it! You've thrown me off the land and I can never again face you. I'm a homeless wanderer on Earth and whoever finds me will kill me."

Genesis 4:15
God told him, "No. Anyone who kills Cain will pay for it seven times over." God put a mark on Cain to protect him so that no one who met him would kill him.

Genesis 4:16
Cain left the presence of God and lived in No-Man's-Land, east of Eden.

Leviticus 26:36
"As for those among you still alive, I'll give them over to fearful timidity—even the rustle of a leaf will throw them into a panic. They'll run here and there, back and forth, as if running for their lives even though no one is after them, tripping and falling over one another in total confusion. You won't stand a chance against an enemy. You'll perish among the nations; the land of your enemies will eat you up. Any who are left will slowly rot away in the enemy lands. Rot. And all because of their sins, their sins compounded by their ancestors' sins.

Numbers 35:19
"In such cases the avenger has a right to kill the murderer when he meets him—he can kill him on the spot.

Psalms 143:7
Hurry with your answer, God ! I'm nearly at the end of my rope. Don't turn away; don't ignore me! That would be certain death. If you wake me each morning with the sound of your loving voice, I'll go to sleep each night trusting in you. Point out the road I must travel; I'm all ears, all eyes before you. Save me from my enemies, God — you're my only hope! Teach me how to live to please you, because you're my God. Lead me by your blessed Spirit into cleared and level pastureland.

Proverbs 14:32
The evil of bad people leaves them out in the cold; the integrity of good people creates a safe place for living.

Proverbs 28:1
The wicked are edgy with guilt, ready to run off even when no one's after them; Honest people are relaxed and confident, bold as lions.

Jeremiah 52:3
The source of all this doom to Jerusalem and Judah was God 's anger. God turned his back on them as an act of judgment. Zedekiah revolted against the king of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar set out for Jerusalem with a full army. He set up camp and sealed off the city by building siege mounds around it. He arrived on the ninth year and tenth month of Zedekiah's reign. The city was under siege for nineteen months (until the eleventh year of Zedekiah).

Gill's Notes on the Bible

For if they which are of the law be heirs,.... That is, if the Jews who are under the law, and are seeking for righteousness and life by the works of it, should, on the account of their obedience to it, be heirs of the grace of life and of glory,

faith is made void; for if the right to the inheritance is by the works of the law, there is no room for faith; that can be of no use or service;

and the promise made of none effect: if salvation is by works, it is to no purpose for God to promise, or men to believe; for the thing promised depends not upon God's promise, but upon man's obedience to the law; and if that is not perfectly observed, as it cannot possibly be, then the promise of God stands for nothing, and is in course made void. The apostle here argues from the absurdities which follow upon the doctrine of justification by works, as he does from the different effects of the law, in the following verse.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For if they which are of the law - Who seek for justification and acceptance by the Law.

Faith is made void - Faith would have no place in the scheme; and consequently the strong commendations bestowed on the faith of Abraham, would be bestowed without any just cause. If people are justified by the Law, they cannot be by faith, and faith would be useless in this work.

And the promise ... - A promise looks to the future. Its design and tendency is to excite trust and confidence in him who makes it. All the promises of God have this design and tendency; and consequently, as God has given many promises, the object is to call forth the lively and constant faith of people, all going to show that in the divine estimation, faith is of inestimable value. But if people are justified by the Law; if they are rendered “acceptable” by conformity to the institutions of Moses; then they cannot depend for acceptance on any promise made to Abraham, or his seed. They cut themselves off from that promise, and stand independent of it. That promise, like all other promises, was made to excite faith. If, therefore, the Jews depended on the Law for justification, they were cut off from all the promises made to Abraham; and if they could be justified by the Law, the promise was useless. This is as true now as it was then. If people seek to be justified by their morality or their forms of religion, they cannot depend on any promise of God; for he has made no promise to any such attempt. They stand independently of any promise, covenant, or compact, and are depending on a scheme of their own; a scheme which would render his plan vain and useless; which would render his promises, and the atonement of Christ, and the work of the Spirit of no value. It is clear, therefore, that such an attempt at salvation cannot be successful.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Romans 4:14. For, if they which are of the law be heirs — If the Jews only be heirs of the promise made to Abraham, and that on the ground of prior obedience to the law, then faith is made void-is entirely useless; and the promise, which was made to faith, is made of none effect.