δικαιοῖ : justifieth. The present tense is used because justification by faith, though not revealed to the Gentiles till Christ came, was an eternal truth of God's dealings with man, to be revealed in due time. There were in Genesis anticipations of this truth, and Abraham himself, the father of the faithful, was a kind of firstfruits of the Gentiles (Romans 4:10-12). The quotation here given contains the substance of promises recorded in Genesis 12:3; Genesis 18:18 with slight verbal alteration. These were an earlier Gospel, but not (as our versions intimate) the Gospel.

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Old Testament