Paul presents Abraham as the great exemplar of faith. God counted his faith as “righteousness” when he was yet uncircumcised, and that means He justified him apart from the “works of the Law.” Therefore, he became the father of all men who are also “from faith.” Circumcision was added after the promise as the “seal” of Abraham’s justifying faith.

Because of his faith, the patriarch became the “heir of the world,” the kosmos, a promise which from the beginning envisioned something far greater than the tiny territory of Palestine or the small nation of Israel.

In Romans, Paul declares there is “now no condemnation” for anyone who is “in Jesus.” This happy condition now exists because the “law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set them free from the law of sin and of death.” And he also links the salvation of believers to the inheritance of Christ and the redemption of the creation itself.

The sin of Adam condemned the entire creation to bondage, sin, and death, not just humanity. Under the Mosaic law, humanity could not liberate itself from bondage to sin and death. That would take something, or, more accurately, SOMEONE else.