<p>3:8- see on Rom. 9:17.</p><p><i>And the scripture, foreseeing that God would make the Gentiles righteous by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham</i>- Abraham was promised that &quot;all the nations&quot; i.e. &quot;the Gentiles&quot; would be blessed. Paul strains from this so it could seem to those not used to rabbinic exegesis that this blessing was not stated to be in response to any works- so it must therefore have been offered purely on the basis of faith. If they were to be given a blessing not on the basis of works, but on account of Abraham' singular seed, Jesus... then such blessing would involve them being counted righteous, i.e. worthy of blessing, just because they believed this promise.</p><p><i>When it says: In you shall all the nations be blessed</i>- This was 'preached to Abraham'; and he chose to believe it. It was spoken to him before he had done any works of obedience or before he had believed anything. He was told, effectively, that he would be blessed / saved. And he believed it. The Gospel likewise comes to us out of left field, as it were. We are promised that we shall be saved- and if we believe it, we shall be.</p>