In the midst of a lengthy discussion of the nature of justification by faith alone, Paul asks a vital question in Romans 4:9ff.: “Does this blessedness (i.e. justification by faith alone) come upon the circumcised only, or upon the uncircumcised also?” Or, must a person be Jewish in order to enjoy the blessedness of the forgiveness of sins? His answer is clear and straightforward. No, this gift is granted to all who believe in Jesus Christ, regardless of their ethnicity and possession of the outward sign. This is similar to the more extensive comments he makes in Galatians 4:21-31. Paul makes this abundantly clear through the figure of the bondwoman and the freewoman. David Kingdon points out that, “[Paul] tells us that the children after the flesh (vv. 23 and 29) possessed the land, and were marked off from the nations round about them by the covenant sign of circumcision in their flesh, but they were not all born “after the Spirit” (v. 29). Indeed the children of the flesh opposed the children born after the Spirit. The principle that the children of the flesh inevitably persecute the children of the Spirit, Paul says, was operative then, and is operative now. So those who were born after the flesh, although they had an interest in the earthly blessings promised in the covenant, had no interest in the spiritual and eternal inheritance that God declared would be the lot of his own people. They belonged in a physical sense to the seed of Abraham but they were not the seed of Abraham by faith.”[1]
This is very much the point of Romans 4:9-12. Abraham believed many years before he received circumcision, and this is explicitly why he can be the father of uncircumcised believers. Paul argues based on the chronology of the important events of Abraham’s life recorded in Genesis: the call of the gentile Abraham from Ur of the Chaldees in Genesis 12; the covenant revealed and believed in Genesis 15; and the covenant of circumcision described in Genesis 17. A comparison of these texts reveals that at least thirteen years passed between the events of Genesis 15 and Genesis 17. Some rabbis apparently believed that twenty-nine years occurred between them. [2] Whether thirteen or twenty-nine does not matter for the passage of at least more than a decade of the patriarch’s life is central to Paul’s argument. What is important is that Abraham was justified by faith long before he was circumcised, so it must be said that faith preceded circumcision, and this circumcision could not have been the basis of his relationship with God.
The Abrahamic covenant must be understood on two levels: spiritual identity and national identity. National identity was forefront in the consciousness of the Scribes and Pharisees. This is recorded in texts such as John 8:31-41 and Acts 15:1. The religious leaders of Israel collapsed these two things together so that circumcision was considered the distinguishing sign of God’s people. They believed that Israel was in fact a peculiar nation before God and in the world. They missed, however, the true nature of spiritual identity, which is what Paul describes in Romans 4. Justification has no relation to circumcision.
This fact makes Abraham the father, not only of the Jews, but of everyone who believes. For many years, Abraham was an uncircumcised believer, which makes him the true father of all uncircumcised believers as well as the father of all circumcised believers. Physical descent brought earthly promises and blessings to Abraham’s earthly seed. But spiritual descent brings eternal blessings, received by faith. Abraham is the true spiritual father of all who believe – and this is a more lasting legacy than any of the Scribes and Pharisees could have imagined.
He is our father Abraham.
The issue is not the sign/seal of circumcision, but the prior presence of faith. In fact, Paul jumps right over the whole notion of circumcision in order to assert the relationship between Abraham and believing Gentiles. They are his “children” by faith, and the outward sign is utterly irrelevant to their status as his children. So long as they possess faith, they are his. To move from circumcision to baptism is to miss this point entirely. Faith, not circumcision, is what constitutes his children.
[1]David Kingdon, Children of Abraham (Sussex: Carey Publications, 1973) 32.
[2]See John Stott, Romans: God’s Good News for the World (Downers Grove: IVP, 1994) 129.
