How then has it been reckoned? when he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision.
The whole weight of Paul's argument here rests on a date. He asks when God counted Abraham's faith as righteousness. The answer comes from Israel's own records, and it decides whether God's blessing belongs to one nation or to everyone who believes.
Paul is not raising a technical point about ancient history. He is answering a claim about who gets in.
The question raised in verse 9 is this: is this blessedness for the Jew only, or is it also for the Gentile who believes? The Apostle knew very well how firmly the bigoted Jew tried to put all the condemnation on the Gentile and keep all the blessing for himself. The answer is that the case of Abraham, in whom they so much boasted, proves that it is for ALL. Abraham was justified before he was circumcised. If the order had been reversed, the Jew might have had some ground for that claim. As things stood, he had none.
The sequence was not an accident of timing. God could have done it the other way, and chose not to.
So when the Jew pointed to Abraham, the scriptural record forced him to admit something. This case shows the grace of God in justifying the nations more strongly, if that is possible, than in the case of his own circumcised descendants. God could have brought Abraham under circumcision first and justified him afterward, if He had wished. But He chose to do the exact opposite.
The gap between the two moments was not days but years.
God counted Abraham's faith to him as righteousness (Gen. 15:6) 14 years before He gave him circumcision as a sign of separation from the world to God.
Because righteousness came first, circumcision can only confirm what was already there. It cannot produce it.
God justified Abraham without law, and also apart from that great sign of putting the flesh to death. Circumcision began with Abraham, yet it clearly had nothing to do with his righteousness. At best it was only the seal of the righteousness of faith which he already had while uncircumcised. So it could not be the source or the means of his righteousness.
The verse asks how God counted it. The word does not mean a quantity of merit moved into Abraham's account.
A person is counted to be in a state he is not actually in. But imputed righteousness does not mean that some amount of righteousness lying outside him is credited to him. It means the state before God of the person who is counted righteous. Righteousness imputed to a man is the same as the man being counted righteous.
Circumcision cut flesh away. The sign carried its own message about the flesh.
Circumcision meant this: if God justifies a man by faith, that is the end of the flesh before God. The flesh has no standing in His presence. Circumcision is the end of the flesh. This is what really took place at the cross. There God's judgment brought the flesh to a complete end, and circumcision was a picture of this. It showed that God could not put Himself in relationship with the flesh. If He was to take up Abraham, justify him and place him in relationship with Himself, the mark of death had to be in the flesh. It had to be set aside.
The same principle covers more than circumcision. It covers every ceremony people trust for salvation.
He was uncircumcised, practically a Gentile, and circumcision was a sign and seal of the righteousness of faith. All this shows the wisdom of God. God arranged it so that Abraham would be the father of all who believe without being circumcised, that is, of Gentiles, so that righteousness would be counted to them too. … Here we have the best possible argument that ordinances, or sacraments as people call them, have no part in giving salvation to anyone.
The result is that Abraham himself becomes father to believers who were never circumcised.
So in Abraham, of all people, we have an uncircumcised man justified by faith. Circumcision was only a seal of the righteousness he already had while uncircumcised. So he became the father of all who believe, even those who are not circumcised, like believing Gentiles, so that they too might be counted righteous through faith.
- Timing — God counted Abraham's faith as righteousness fourteen years before He gave him circumcision. He chose that order on purpose.
- Seal — Circumcision came later, as a seal on righteousness Abraham already had. A seal cannot be the source of what it seals.
- Counted — Imputed righteousness is not a measured amount of merit handed over. It means God counts the person righteous.
- Flesh — The sign itself declared the end of the flesh before God. It pictured what took place at the cross.
- Reach — No ceremony gives salvation. Abraham is father of all who believe, circumcised or not.
And he received [the] sign of circumcision [as] seal of the righteousness of faith which [he had] being in uncircumcision, that he might be [the] father of all them that believe being in uncircumcision, that righteousness might be reckoned to them also;
Genesis says God counted Abraham righteous the moment he believed. Paul now asks what the later mark of circumcision added, and he answers by pointing at the calendar.
The whole argument turns on a date. Abraham had righteousness before he carried any mark in his body. God could have arranged it the other way.
If He had pleased, God could have justified Abraham only after bringing him under the rite of circumcision. But He chose to do the exact opposite. God reckoned faith to Abraham as righteousness, and beyond dispute He did it while Abraham was still uncircumcised. Circumcision was in no way a means of the grace that justifies. It was a seal of the righteousness God reckoned to him long before He gave that sign.
The gap was not a matter of days.
God reckoned Abraham's faith to him for righteousness (Gen. 15:6). That was fourteen years before He gave him circumcision as a sign of separation from the world to God.
Circumcision was no reward for achievement. The cutting away of flesh carried its own message about human effort.
Circumcision was a sign, though — and only a sign. He received it as an identifying seal of the righteousness of faith he already had. It meant the cutting off of the flesh, and it taught that this righteousness was not mixed with any activity or merit of the flesh. On all such effort circumcision put the outward stamp of death.
Another writer sets out what God was saying to Abraham through that mark.
God says, in giving Abraham circumcision, "You must carry in your body the sign that your flesh is worthless. You must have in yourself the sign that the sentence of judgment is on the flesh. You must accept a mark that means this: faith is the principle on which you stand in relationship with Me."
A seal goes on a document that is already valid. That order matters far beyond Abraham.
In Romans 4 Paul gives special attention to one point. God credited righteousness to Abraham before he received the ordinance of circumcision. This is the great principle of Scripture. Ordinances follow justification and rest on it. They never lead to it, for that would reverse God's order.
So can a religious rite save anyone? People still argue about it.
Here we have the best possible argument that ordinances — or sacraments, as people call them — have no part in giving salvation to anyone. Baptism is called "a sacrament," and ritualistic Christians hold that it is necessary to receive the blessing of forgiveness.
The sign added nothing to Abraham's justification, but it did open a closer place with God.
Here is something remarkable: a fuller revelation of God follows immediately after circumcision (Genesis 17). Abraham did not need to be circumcised first to receive mercy in forgiveness or grace in God's decree. But he did need it to walk with God as a friend, to be trusted with God's plans, and to pray for others as a priest.
The verse states God's purpose. Abraham was to be the father of everyone who believes without being circumcised.
God gave this sign and seal to Abraham as a man who already had the righteousness of faith. It made him the father of all who believe — the pattern man of faith. He is the pattern and example of all believers, whoever they are and wherever they are found. So just as God reckoned righteousness to him by faith, He reckons it to them also.
Abraham was the man the Jewish people boasted in. That boast now turns against them.
So the Jew could not appeal to Abraham without the scriptural record forcing him to admit one thing. This precedent shows the grace of God in justifying the nations even more strongly, if that is possible, than in justifying his own circumcised, direct descendants.
Abraham and believers today do not believe exactly the same thing.
Even in the matter of justification by faith, Romans 4 makes this difference between Abraham and us. He believed that God was able to perform His promise. We believe on Him who raised our Lord Jesus from the dead, after He accomplished His work in death for our offence. The Old Testament had promise; we rest on accomplishment.
- Sequence. Righteousness came first. The sign came fourteen years later. Reverse that order and you reverse God's way of blessing.
- Sign. The mark said the flesh is worthless and under sentence of death. It was never the merit people later took it for.
- Seal. A seal confirms what is already true. Circumcision confirmed a righteousness Abraham already had. So no ordinance, baptism included, can produce forgiveness.
- Purpose. God timed it so Abraham would be the pattern for every believer, whatever their background. Righteousness comes to them on the same terms it came to him.
- Result. The nation's own ancestor is now the clearest proof that God justifies the outsider. And our faith rests on a finished work, not on a promise still waiting.