The Value of Faith

Series on Romans

V The Gospel in the Old Testament

A Justification without Circumcision

Text: 4:1-15

Introduction

First of all we are hereby informed that being justified by faith did not begin with the advent of Christ. Old Testament saints were justified and they were justified exactly as we are. They were justified in prospect of Christ’s life and death, and we are justified in retrospect of the same. They looked forward and we look backward but we are all looking in the same place and that is at the righteous life and atoning death of Jesus. It is the lives of two Old Testament saints, Abraham and David, that provide the pattern for Paul’s discussion of justification in Romans 4:1-15. The primary point is to say that being circumcised won’t justify anyone in the sight of God. First century Jews would insist that circumcision was essential. To be circumcised meant that you were under the law as a true Israelite. Their thinking was if there was no circumcision, there was no law, and therefore no chance of pleasing God. Paul’s argument here is that Abraham was not a Jew by their definition until after he was saved. First came the justification and afterward the sign and seal of circumcision. He mentions David because he lived midway between Abraham and Christ and because he he was the greatest King of Israel and the progenitor of the Messiah, but mostly because David believed the same thing as Abraham. Both Abraham and David were sinners who broke the law of God, but both were justified with an alien righteousness that they themselves did not possess. It was the righteousness of God Himself. Consider first Abraham’s poverty, then his path and finally the promise.

I The Poverty

Abraham was a wealthy man. He had flocks and herds, silver and gold according to Genesis 13:2. But he was lacking that which was vital in God’s world, righteousness. Thus it was that although Abraham actually turned down gifts, and made others richer, when it came to righteousness he was a debtor. This is what Paul is telling us in verses 1-8, What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, discovered in this matter? If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. What does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness. David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: “Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.” We understand debt and credit. When you do not have enough capital you seek credit. Of course then you are a debtor. While he was rich Abraham realized he was poor. He knew he could not earn God’s approval, and so the Apostle tells us he “discovered” a truth. He discovered that God justifies the wicked and he trusted in God. David is mentioned here because in Psalm 32 he reflects the same understanding. David was a wealthy and powerful king, but he could not buy and he could not earn God’s approval because he was a sinner as we are. Thus he writes in the penitential Psalm 32 of the blessedness of the man “to whom God credits righteousness apart from works.” Clearly he believed, like Abraham that God was the creditor the one who forgives, and the one who covers our sin. No wonder Jesus begins with the beatitude, Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of God.

II The Path

The path of Abraham is described in verses 9-12 with special reference to the sign given him by God, circumcision, Is this blessedness only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness. Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? It was not after, but before! And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them. And he is also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised. Paul’s point is that the path of Abraham reveals an important truth and that truth is that the law had nothing to do with his salvation. We know that circumcision was given to Abraham long before the covenant of law was made with Israel at Mount Sinai in the time of Moses, so the law which was so highly regarded by the Jewish people came after the institution of circumcision. But, more importantly, Paul’s point here is that the sign and seal was given to Abraham after he believed, which means that he believed when he was still uncircumcised. Wouldn’t that mean that others like the Gentiles could be saved and justified without the sign? Paul’s main point is to show that no religious affiliation and no ceremony guarantees we are saved. Justification is the product of God’s free grace given at his discretion. In Deuteronomy 26:5 Israel is reminded that their sainted father, Abraham, was a Babylonian or Syrian, Then you shall declare before the LORD your God: “My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down into Egypt with a few people and lived there and became a great nation, powerful and numerous. If it wasn’t for the mercy of God they would have been no different than the peoples around them.

III The Promise

And so in verses 13-15 Paul reminds us that they and we are heirs not because of any effort on our part but because of the promise or covenant solemnly and sovereignly made by God, It was not through law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. For if those who live by law are heirs, faith has no value and the promise is worthless, because law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression. This section revolves around the ground of God’s promise to Abraham. God made three promises to Abraham and they are that his seed would be as numerous as the stars of heaven; that all nations of the earth would be blessed in his seed; and that he would receive the land of Canaan as an everlasting inheritance. Our attention is here directed to the last of these promises, that he would be heir of the world. The only promise that corresponds to this is the promise of the land. This is, of course, the most debated and from my understanding, the most misunderstood of the promises. Salvation has never been about a little piece of real estate in the Middle East. When we read the account of Abraham in the New Testament in the book of Hebrews, chapter 11, we are told in verses 8-10, By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. Abraham was looking beyond the land of Canaan to a new heavens and new earth, and this is confirmed when the author speaks of all the people like Abraham in the Old Testament, all the heroes of faith in verses 13-16, All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. Jesus taught the same thing in the Beatitudes in Matthew 5:5 when He said, Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Paul is reminding us here that if the promise could be fulfilled by keeping the law then no one would receive the promise and there would be no heirs, because blessedness cannot come to those who fail to keep the law. However, if faith in the promise is how you become an heir then both they and we may receive it. You cannot have it both ways. If the inheritance comes by keeping the law, then the act of faith and the promise are invalidated. The inheritance comes, Paul states unequivocally, through trusting in the merciful and gracious promise of God. We call this the covenant of grace.