Romans 4:12

³⁹They answered him, “Our father is Abraham.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham.

⁴⁰But now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham didn’t do this.

²⁰Therefore walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous.

⁸If you don’t know, most beautiful among women, follow the tracks of the sheep. Graze your young goats beside the shepherds’ tents.

¹⁸I exhorted Titus, and I sent the brother with him. Did Titus take any advantage of you? Didn’t we walk in the same spirit? Didn’t we walk in the same steps?

²¹For you were called to this, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving you^[+] an example, that you should follow his steps,

²²For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the servant, and one by the free woman. ²³However, the son by the servant was born according to the flesh, but the son by the free woman was born through promise. ²⁴These things contain an allegory, for these are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children to bondage, which is Hagar. ²⁵For this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answers to the Jerusalem that exists now, for she is in bondage with her children. ²⁶But the Jerusalem that is above is free, which is the mother of us all. ²⁷For it is written, “Rejoice, you barren who don’t bear. Break out and shout, you who don’t travail. For the desolate women have more children than her who has a husband.”

²⁸Now we, brothers, as Isaac was, are children of promise. ²⁹But as then, he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now. ³⁰However, what does the Scripture say? “Throw out the servant and her son, for the son of the servant will not inherit with the son of the free woman.”³¹So then, brothers, we are not children of a servant, but of the free woman.

¹¹He puts my feet in the stocks. He marks all my paths.’

⁶But it is not as though the word of God has come to nothing. For they are not all Israel that are of Israel. ⁷Neither, because they are Abraham’s offspring, are they all children. But, “your offspring will be accounted as from Isaac.”

²³In Hades,^[+] he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far off, and Lazarus at his bosom. ²⁴He cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue! For I am in anguish in this flame.’

²⁵“But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that you, in your lifetime, received your good things, and Lazarus, in the same way, bad things. But here he is now comforted and you are in anguish. ²⁶Besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, that those who want to pass from here to you are not able, and that no one may cross over from there to us.’

²⁷“He said, ‘I ask you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house— ²⁸for I have five brothers—that he may testify to them, so they won’t also come into this place of torment.’

²⁹“But Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them.’

³⁰“He said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’

³¹“He said to him, ‘If they don’t listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if one rises from the dead.’”

⁹Don’t think to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father,’ for I tell you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.