Righteousness, Circumcision, and Abraham’s Faith

“Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well, and to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised” (Romans 4:9-12, ESV). 

All people (whether Jew or Gentile) are justified according to the same kind of faith-response to the Lord, not reliance on ritualistic ordinances of the old law but on God’s righteous work in Christ, trusting him to do what he promised to do when we step out in faith and do what he directs us to do. 

Circumcision, as a highly valued “work of the law” among Jews and Judaizers at the time Paul composed Romans, was being promoted as a requisite of divine favor and blessings excluding so many ethnically diverse disciples and causing unnecessary division (cf. Rom. 2:25-29; 3:1, 30; 15:8).¹ Circumcision is thus highlighted here to distinguish between what had become a meritorious work of the flesh, on one hand, and the kind of faith that enabled Abraham to be justified, on the other. “Circumcision and the Law were separate in time and in origin. But from the moment of the institution of the Law they were co-extensive in their operation: for those under the Law were under Circumcision.”²

God pronounced Abraham righteous (Gen. 12:1-3; 15:6) prior to his circumcision (Gen. 17:10-11, 24), so Abraham has become “the father of all” (both Jew and Gentile) responding to the Lord with the same kind of faith. The phrase rendered in English, “all who believe” (ESV), with two pronouns and a verb, is actually pántōn tōn pisteuóntōn (an adjective and articular participle) that should be translated, “all the believing [ones].” Paul is not telling non-Christians to get saved by merely believing without repentance and baptism; he is writing to penitent baptized believers whose faith-response has already included repentance and baptism (6:1-18). “Faith in Christ and baptism were, indeed, not so much two distinct experiences as parts of one whole. Faith in Christ was an essential element in baptism …”³

To “walk” [stoichoûsin – presently and continuously]⁴ “in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had” is not reliance on Jewish rituals (like circumcision) but living a life of obedient faith.

--Kevin L. Moore

Endnotes:

     ¹ Cf. Acts 15:1-5; Gal. 2:12; 5:1-6; 6:12-13, 15; Tit. 1:10.

     ² J. B. Lightfoot, Notes on Epistles of St Paul 280.

     ³ F. F. Bruce, Romans 129.

     ⁴ Cf. Gal. 5:25; 6:16; Phil. 3:16; compare peripatéō in Rom. 6:4; 8:1, 4; 13:13; 14:15.

Related Posts: Questions About Baptism, Abraham Believed God (Rom. 4:3), Justification, Peace, Hope (Rom 5:1-2), Baptism: Death, Burial, Resurrection (Rom 6:1-4) 

Image credit: https://gladtidingsmagazine.org/father-of-the-faithful/