“For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.”
King James Version (KJV)
4:13 The promise, that he should be the heir of the world - Is the same as that he should be the father of all nations, namely, of those in all nations who receive the blessing. The whole world was promised to him and them conjointly. Christ is the heir of the world, and of all things; and so are all Abraham's seed, all that believe in him with the faith of Abraham
Ro 4:13 For the promise. The reference is to the substance of various promises to Abraham for himself and his seed. See Ge 12:7 13:14 15:18. [Was] not . . . through the law. Was not through law, the article being wanting in the Greek. No body of law had been given. The Mosaic law was given many years afterward. The law of circumcision had not been enacted. It was through the righteousness of faith, not of law, or works of law, that Abraham secured the promise.