Last year when I decided to preach through a portion of the book of Romans each year for several years, I had to decide on an overall approach to that series of sermons. At one end of the spectrum, I could have followed the example of several pastors who have chosen to preach one or two sermons per chapter and finished the entire book in less than a year. At the other end of the spectrum, Pastor John Piper preached 225 sermons, or an average of 14 sermons per chapter, when he preached through Romans. I concluded that somewhere between those 2 extremes was probably best for us as a body, so I’ve been spending roughly 4-5 weeks on each chapter so far.
But over the past few weeks, I’ve been questioning whether that approach is really the best after all. Since Paul covers the same concepts over and over again from every conceivable angle my concern is that some of you are going to get bored and tune out if we do that, too. By my count this is now the 18th message I’ve preached so far and after his introduction in the first 17 verses of his letter, one could argue that Paul has really only covered two main ideas:
• In Romans 1:18 – 3:20 the message is that everyone – Jews and Gentiles alike – is a sinner who deserves God’s wrath.
• In the section we’re in right now – Romans 3:21 – 4:25 – Paul repeatedly confirms that our justification by God is by faith alone and not as a result of anything we can do.
So it’s real easy to begin to think that Paul is engaging in overkill here and that maybe my sermons are doing exactly the same thing. But as I’ve thought and prayed about that some more, I’m convinced that there is valid reason for Paul’s approach here that we can benefit from his example of examining each of these issues thoroughly. That conclusion seems to be borne out by the evidence we looked at last week that shows that so many in our culture and even many who claim to be born again Christians still fail to grasp these crucial ideas. So since these concepts are so foundational to us as the body of Christ, it’s really not possible to emphasize them too much.
Last week, we saw how Paul used the examples of Abraham and David to prove that my standing with God is not based on what I achieve but rather on receiving the righteousness of Jesus that God gives to me through faith. It would seem to us that Paul has now addressed every single objection that his Jewish readers could possibly have to that idea. But, just like us, their fallen human hearts so deeply embraced the idea that there must be something that we can do to commend ourselves to God that Paul feels the need to address that idea from a couple more angles. The last two millennia have certainly proven that he was justified in doing so. Every single religion that has developed during that time, including many of the large ones which call themselves “Christian”, teach that, at least to some degree, we are made right with God by keeping religious rituals and/or by doing good deeds.
So even if we’ve been in the church for a long time and been taught otherwise, there is always the potential that our culture will drag us back into that way of thinking. Therefore, it won’t hurt one bit to make sure we have this settled in our hearts. So with that in mind, open your Bibles and follow along as I read in Romans chapter 4, beginning in verse 9:
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)
Paul is dealing here with an issue that had supposedly been settled many years earlier. After Paul and Barnabas had preached the gospel in Galatia, a group of zealots known as “Judaizers” confronted them and taught that one first had to become a Jew and be circumcised before becoming a Christian. So Paul and Barnabas eventually travelled to Jerusalem to discuss this issue with the apostles and the elders of the church there. Acts 15 records what occurred in what has become known as the Jerusalem Council.
There the decision was made there that circumcision was not a prerequisite for becoming a Christian. However, although the matter seemed settled, Paul finds that for many of the Jews in Rome there is still a great deal of misunderstanding about it, so he addresses this critical doctrinal issue once again.
For the last several weeks, we have focused on the idea that salvation is by faith alone and not based on good works. While Paul’s main purpose is to affirm that truth once again in this passage, Paul is also going to answer an important question about the operation of the gospel:
If works are not required for justification, then what role, if any, do they play in the life of a disciple of Jesus?
This morning we’ll use this passage to try and answer that question. But before we do that, let’s go back to the beginning of Paul’s letter where Paul already set the stage for his teaching here in chapter 4.
…Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations,
(Romans 1:4-5 ESV)
Notice the progression here.
• As we have seen repeatedly grace is a gift that I receive from God though faith in Jesus and not as a result of anything I do.
• When I receive God’s grace, I also receive the task of apostleship. When we looked at that term last year, we determined that means that grace is not a gift to be hoarded just for my own benefit, but it is a gift to be shared with the unbelieving world in which I live. With the gift of grace comes the responsibility of being God’s ambassador here on earth.
• As an ambassador for Christ I am tasked with bringing about the “obedience of faith”. The implication here is that genuine faith produces obedience.
• The goal of that obedience is that Jesus’ name would be proclaimed and glorified among the nations. So the purpose of my obedience is not that it earns favor with God or even that it brings blessing to my life, although that certain is a byproduct of obedience. Rather the primary purpose of my obedience is to point people to Jesus
Paul is clearly not, as some of his detractors had accused him of doing, completely throwing out the importance of obedience and works. What he is doing is to making sure that his audience understands their proper place. Here’s how we can summarize what Paul is teaching here:
My good works are to be
a response to God’s grace
for the purpose of pointing people to Jesus
Here in chapter 4, Paul is going to confirm that idea by reminding his fellow Jews of the history of Abraham’s life, particularly the role of circumcision in his life. One more time, Paul is going to prove to the Jews that their circumcision, which they viewed as an act of obedience that made them right with God, was designed by God from the very beginning for a completely different purpose.
The role of circumcision in Abraham’s life
1. Abraham’s circumcision was a confirmation of his faith
This was Paul’s main argument here. In the last part of verse 9, Paul once again quotes from Genesis 15 and reminds his audience that it was Abraham’s faith that resulted in God counting righteousness to him. As we saw last week, at that point God had revealed enough of the gospel to Abraham that he was able to understand it and respond with complete confidence that God would fulfill the promise he had made to Abraham about blessing the whole world through one of his descendants.
It is not until two chapters later, in Genesis 17, that God establishes the practice of circumcision for Abraham and his male family members and descendants. There were at least 14 years from the time that God declared Abraham to be righteous as a result of his faith until that time that Abraham is circumcised in obedience to God’s command. Therefore, Paul concludes, circumcision had absolutely nothing to do with Abraham’s righteousness. It was merely a physical act that confirmed the faith that had already been credited to him as righteousness over a decade earlier.
In essence, when God declared Abraham to be righteous, he was an uncircumcised Gentile with an idolatrous background. So the point Paul is making here is clear. The Jews who claim to be righteous because they have been circumcised are still in the same boat that Abraham was prior to the moment he responded to God’s promise to him in faith. Therefore they needed to respond to the gospel by faith in Jesus just as much as the pagan Gentiles.
2. Circumcision was a sign that pointed to the Messiah
In verse 11, Paul refers to the “sign of circumcision”, which echoes the words God spoke when he commanded Abraham to be circumcised:
You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you.
(Genesis 17:11 ESV)
The purpose of a sign is to point to a reality. Every day when I leave my house and drive down Oracle Road, I see a sign that reads “Road construction – next 8 miles”. That sign is not the reality – it only points to it. It is not until I actually drive those eight miles that I actually experience the reality.
For the Jews, circumcision was given by God as a sign to point ahead to the fulfilment of God’s promise to Abraham to bless all the nations of the earth through his seed, the Messiah. For every Jewish man it was a permanent sign that he belonged to a people through whom the Messiah would come. So when Jesus came and fulfilled that promise, its significance as a sign ended. So today circumcision is merely a medical procedure that no longer carries any religious significance.
Unfortunately the Jews had lost sight of the fact that circumcision was merely a sign that pointed ahead to the reality so they had come to view it as an end in itself. Therefore, instead of trusting in God to count them as righteous because of their faith in the promise, just like He had done with Abraham, they trusted instead in the sign itself. But Paul makes it clear here that faith is the only way to be counted righteous by God and that is true for both the circumcised and the uncircumcised.
3. Circumcision was a seal that guaranteed that God would be faithful to His promise
Paul also describes circumcision as “a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith”.
In Paul’s day, a seal was used to authenticate or validate or attest to the certainly of something. Letters and official documents were sealed with the distinctive wax seal of the author that guaranteed that the document was authentic.
We do something very similar to that today. Many legal documents require that a signature be notarized. When you go to a notary public, that person seals the document with a special stamp that guarantees that the notary has verified your identity and that you actually signed that particular document in his or her presence.
Circumcision was to serve that purpose for the Jews. Every time a male Jew looked at his own body, he was reminded of the promise that God had made to Abraham and his descendants. That physical mark was to point to the faithfulness of God and His promises, not to bestow some special favor on the one who bore that mark.
So Paul has proven here that the “work” of circumcision is just like any other work in our lives:
Circumcision, like any “good work”, was to be
a response to God’s grace
for the purpose of pointing people to Jesus
What are the implications of Paul’s teaching here for those of us who are disciples of Jesus? Let me share three that I think are the most important:
Implications for us
1. Rituals without reality are worthless
Paul clearly demonstrated that the physical act of circumcision did not justify Abraham. It was only his belief in the promise of God which had occurred 14 or more years early that resulted in God justifying him. So that physical act without the underlying reality that gave rise to it was totally worthless when it came to Abraham’s justification.
As disciples of Jesus, we have also been given signs that point to the Messiah. Both baptism and the Lord’s Supper are signs that point to a reality:
• Baptism testifies to the reality that through faith in Jesus I have been completely immersed with Him in his death, burial and resurrection. So baptism is merely a sign that points back to what Jesus has done for me. Baptism itself won’t make me righteous or earn favor with God.
That is confirmed by that fact that in the Bible every single example we have of baptism occurred after the person had first received the righteousness of Jesus through faith in him in much the same way that Abraham was circumcised only after he expressed his belief in the Messiah. That is why as a church we don’t practice infant baptism because that would merely be a religious ritual that had no underlying spiritual reality associated with it.
• In a similar way, the Lord’s Supper is intended to be a sign that both points back to the sacrificial death of Jesus on the cross and points ahead to His return. But, as Paul makes quite clear in 1 Corinthians 10 and 11, if we participate in that ritual without having first placed our faith in Jesus alone as the means for our salvation, then the ritual itself is without any value whatsoever. In fact, participating without recognizing the underlying reality actually results in some very serious consequences.
Unfortunately, we live in a culture where many people, even those who call themselves Christian, are trying to find satisfaction in the sign itself, rather than the reality that the sign points to. So they end up thinking that their salvation rests upon some ritual – things like infant baptism, or confirmation, or church membership, or adult baptism or participation in communion. But it is clear from the Scriptures that no religious rite or ceremony or practice ever conferred righteousness on anyone. The only way to receive God’s righteousness is by accepting that gift through faith in Jesus.
Paul certainly confirms that in verse 12 when he writes that it is not the physical act of circumcision that counts, but rather walking in the footsteps of the faith that Abraham exhibited in his life long before he ever engaged in that practice.
So does that mean that we shouldn’t participate in the kind of religious rituals that I’ve mentioned? Am I saying that there is no value in being baptized or participating in the Lord’s Supper? Absolutely not! In the case of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, in particular, Jesus commanded His followers to participate in those religious rites. And I’m pretty sure He wouldn’t command us to do things that were of no value. That leads us directly to our second implication:
2. Rituals that reflect reality are valuable
Circumcision was of great value to Abraham because it was a reflection of the underlying reality of his faith. But over the years, the Jews had lost sight of the purpose of circumcision. I think it’s instructive here that Paul never commanded his fellow Jews to discontinue the practice of circumcision. He merely points out that if that practice is going to have some value it will only occur if they recognize that it is merely a sign to remind them of the righteousness that they have received by the operation of God’s grace in their lives.
There are some religious rituals that by their very nature can never have value because they violate clear Biblical principles. For instance, praying a rote prayer that is centered on the veneration of Mary and which is accompanied by what is essentially an idol does absolutely nothing to point to faith in Jesus as the basis for our righteousness before God.
But there are others that are either commanded by Scripture or which are consistent with Biblical principles. But that alone does not guarantee that they will have any value in my life. As I pointed out a minute ago, Jesus would not have commanded us to be baptized or to participate in the Lord’s Supper if those rituals did not have the potential to be of great value in our lives. But that value is only realized when our participation is accompanied by an inner surrender of the heart to faith in Jesus.
Perhaps an illustration will help. On the fourth finger of my left hand I wear a wedding ring. This is actually my second wedding ring since I lost the first one in the ocean in San Diego many years ago. This ring serves as a public sign that I am a married man.
If I were to take that ring off would I still be married? Of course. Taking the ring off wouldn’t make me a single man. I am just as married without the ring on my finger as I am with it on. So why do I wear it? Because it is a sign – a visible public symbol – that reflects the fact that I have pledged to love Mary for the rest of our joint lives. I wear this ring because I am proud of my wife and I want the world to know that I am 100% committed to her.
Now let’s suppose that some other man took this same ring off my finger and put it on the fourth finger of his left hand. Would he then be married to Mary? Of course not! Without the underlying commitment the ring itself is meaningless. Although it may have some financial value just because it is made from gold, its real value to me, to Mary and to others is that it reflects the underlying reality of the relationship I have with Mary as a result of the commitment I’ve made to her.
The same is true for our religious rituals, traditions and activities. To the extent that they reflect the underlying reality of my relationship with God because of the commitment I’ve made to follow Jesus, they have great value. But without that commitment and relationship they are completely hollow and worthless.
3. We point people to Jesus by living lives that are distinct, but not exclusive
We’ve touched on this idea a bit so far in our study of Romans, but I want to spend a bit more time on it this morning since this is such an important concept.
Even though Paul doesn’t focus a lot on it here, one of the purposes of circumcision was to identify the Jews as God’s distinct people and to remind them of the fact that they were God’s chosen people. Think about it, every time a Jewish man would look at his body, he would see a physical mark that reminded him that he belonged to a nation that God had chosen to be a blessing to the entire world.
Circumcision was the first, but certainly not the last way that God would call His people to be unique. Some years later He would give the Law to Israel through Moses. And while the Law had many purposes, some of which we’ll see in the next few weeks here in Romans, at least one important purpose of the Law was to encourage the Israelites to live lives which were distinct from the other nations around them.
While following the law was certainly beneficial for the Israelites, God’s larger purpose was that in living that kind of distinct lifestyle they would be a witness to the other nations around them. That was certainly consistent with the promise that God had made to Abraham to bless the entire world through the nation that God was going to create from Abraham’s descendants.
Unfortunately the Jews had forgotten that long before Paul wrote his letter to the churches in Rome. Instead of seeing their role as God’s chosen people from God’s perspective, they became proud and viewed circumcision and the law as a source of national pride and as a means of excluding others from a relationship with God rather than, as God intended, being the people through whom people would be attracted to God.
As a result, God did exactly as He had said He would do if His people disobeyed Him. Because of their disobedience, the northern ten tribes of Israel were conquered by the Assyrians in 722 BC and scattered among the surrounding nations. Then the southern tribes of Judah were conquered by the Babylonians in 587 BC and taken captive. During that captivity, the prophet Ezekiel spoke of a time when God would restore Israel and they would once again fulfill his purpose of being a witness to the surrounding nations by their distinctive lifestyle:
“Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Lord GOD, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes.
(Ezekiel 36:22-23 ESV)
That sounds a lot like Romans 1:5 that we looked at earlier. For the sake of His name, God will one day restore Israel to the distinctive lifestyle that will point people to Him.
That is still God’s purpose for His people. His desire is that as a response to His grace, my obedience to Him would produce the kind of “good works” that would result in a distinctive lifestyle that would point people to Jesus. But as I do that, I need to be careful that I don’t fall into the same trap as the Jews and make my obedience a source of pride that I use to keep others from Jesus rather than pointing people to Him. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, that means I need to make sure that I don’t come off as “holier than thou” and give off the impression that I am somehow “superior” to the unbelievers in my life. I need to remember that, just like them, I am a sinner in need of God’s grace.
My good works do have a place. They will never be adequate to earn favor with God or be justified before Him. But, as we said earlier…
My good works are to be
a response to God’s grace
for the purpose of pointing people to Jesus
