Romans 4

http://www.esvbible.org/Romans+4/

Even if we look back as far as Abraham, we can see the effects that faith have had on God's Approval. When Abraham received God's promise, he did so through faith. He believed what God promised him. Through this promise, God bestowed His Approval upon Abraham. There is nothing about Moses' Law coming into it (because Moses hadn't lived yet) or any other set of rules for that matter. Abraham had faith in God. At the time, he was not even circumcised. People in the time that Paul wrote this letter were very hung up on circumcision because that had previously been what marked a Jewish man different from a gentile man. In the times before Jesus, the Jewish people were the ones who could have God's Approval, and the gentiles could not. If we looked to Moses' Teachings as the only way to Heaven, then faith would mean nothing. God would practically be taken out of the equation because it would come down to people doing works. This system would also be very bad for people who are not from a Jewish heritage because under Moses' Teachings, only Jewish people go to Heaven. David even knew God as the God who desired faith (probably one of the reasons God called him the "Man after God's own heart"). He wrote that the man whose sins are forgiven is blessed. He didn't say anything about the man who knew all the right things to do and always did them is blessed. We have already seen in romans that is an impossible feat. Abraham believed in God's promise that he would have a great many descendants even when he was one hundred years old and had yet to have a child, and his wife was considered barren. He still held on in faith to God's promise, and eventually, God blessed him with a son. Finally, when Paul says that Abraham's faith was regarded as God's Approval of him, that applies to us too. This is an example of the Bible indirectly talking about being a Living Word that can be prevalent to our lives thousands of years after it was written. The whole reason Jesus died was so that if we had faith in Him, we would have God's Approval. If we got to Heaven based on works, He would have died and been raised to life for no reason.