Father Abraham

Read Romans 4:9-12

In Genesis 17:11, God told Abraham, "You must circumcise the flesh of your foreskin to serve as a sign of the covenant between me and you." So circumcision became a marker of Jewish identity, to the point that "the uncircumcised" was a way of referring to non-Jews, or Gentiles. But it was earlier, in Genesis 15, while Abraham was still uncircumcised, that he trusted in God. God credited him with righteousness before he got circumcised. N.T. Wright gives the example of the wedding vow and the wedding ring. The vows usually come before the rings. The vow forms the marriage and the ring authenticates it. In Abraham's case, his faith came first, then circumcision to show his faith was real. John Chrysostom, the fourth-century Archbishop of Constantinople, marveled, "See how the uncircumcised had Abraham as their father before the circumcised came into existence!" There's a reason synagogue leaders kept expelling Paul as a troublemaker. When Paul pointed out that the uncircumcised could claim Abraham as their father before the circumcised could, it reversed everyone's understanding. So what about circumcision? Paul explained, "On the contrary, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart—by the Spirit, not the letter" (Romans 2:29). Abraham's circumcision didn't make him right with God, and it didn't need to. God had already credited Abraham with his righteousness because of Abraham's faith. So the true mark of circumcision is not a cut on the skin but God's work in our hearts. John Stott notes, "For where circumcision divides, faith unites." That's why we can all sing "I am one of them, and so are you. So let's all praise the Lord." We are all dependent on God's grace, so we welcome each other as family, no matter what our backgrounds are. Whether we are Jew or Gentile, the only way to God is through faith in Jesus.