Delving into the Scriptures

Romans 4:9-12
Does this blessedness then come upon the circumcised only, or upon the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness. How then was it accounted? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised. And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they are uncircumcised, that righteousness might be imputed to them also, and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of the faith which our father Abraham had while still uncircumcised.

Welcome back to Delving into the Scriptures! My apologies for the delay if you read this through email or the RSS – I am in the process of moving back to Australia, and it has been crazy! All is going well however, and we will be back in Australia in about 2 weeks.

I think there are two clear messages in this passage from Romans. The first is the obvious message on circumcision. The Jews at the time that Romans was written held circumcision as the physical sign that they were holy and justified – and therefore Paul covers this not only here but also in other letters of his, as the Jews claimed that you had to be circumcised to be saved – and this was a stumbling block for many for obvious reasons!

Circumcision came as a seal upon of Abraham’s righteousness. If you think of a document, the ’seal’ of that document comes last – it is the ‘certification’ that something is right and true. That certification comes after the document is written and signed – in other words, complete. So this circumcision of Abraham came after he was accounted as righteous! You will see as we go to the next passage, that he was also accounted righteous before the law was ever given too – which basically continues to back up our messages of before – righteousness comes first.

Going a little further though – these days circumcision is understood to be ‘old covenant’ and not many people push that guys get circumcised for salvation, and those that do have some scriptural issues…. But – we still have different things that people have said, and some still claim fervently. And this is where the second message of this scripture is.

An example is the claim ‘you must be baptized before you are saved’ – There are quite a few people who hold to this doctrine. I can see where they come from in this belief – there is a lot of scripture in this area, and a quick reading may well bring you to believe this. But if you look at the Bible closer, and take into account not just one verse but the whole message of the Bible, and this section in Romans is just one example – righteousness comes before the ’seal’ of that righteousness. You are first saved – you can be saved for 3 seconds and die and you will still meet God forgiven of your sins. But then baptism is something that you should do through obedience – it is an act of obedience to God that you would then go and get baptized – it is not a requirement of salvation.

This isn’t the only distortion around – it’s just one of the more common ones. Remember – you are first saved, righteousness comes first – and then the rest may follow.

They key here is ’scripture interprets scripture’. You cannot take one passage, verse or word from the Bible and take it out of context. It must first be read in the context it was written (for example, a letter, a historical account, poetry, etc), and then it must work with the rest of scripture, as God does not contradict Himself. You need to take that verse with the understanding of all of scripture, and then apply it. I’d love to take some time here to cover this, but maybe one day I will dedicate some posts to the study of scripture. In the meantime though, if you have some time, I’d recomend the ‘Bible School’ series at Generation Word, which has an excellent set of audio teachings!

We will finish of Romans 4 hopefully in the next post – but the summary remains the same – it is through faith that we are saved – not through anything else! It is Faith in Jesus alone that will get us there. I hope to see you next time!

Lord Jesus, give us revelation to your Word through the Holy Spirit. Without you these are just words on paper that we could take and twist to our own purposes – reveal to us Your message, show us your Grace and Will in Jesus Name, Amen.