9Therefore, [is] the blessing upon the circumcision or also upon the uncircumcision? For we are saying the faith was counted to Abraham into righteousness. 10Therefore, how was it counted, being in circumcision or in uncircumcision? [It was] not in circumcision but in uncircumcision, 11and he received a sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of faith, being in uncircumcision, into him to be a father of many of the ones believing through uncircumcision into to be counted to them righteousness, 12and [he was] a father of circumcision not only to those out of circumcision but also to ones walking in the footsteps of the faith of our father Abraham in uncircumcision.
I have the same problem here I had in the first eight verses. It seems like the truth here presented is so obvious, I want to move on to something I personally find more “helpful.” Yet, I do want to slow down and ponder my way all the way through this book of Romans. As I discovered in the first eight verses, while the immediate truth of the passage seemed obvious, yet the larger truth behind it is utterly profound. I’ll see if the same thing happens here.
Once again, if someone wants a verse by verse commentary on this passage, the world is full of very detailed and often excellent commentaries which will do exactly that. Since the immediate truth seems obvious to me, I want to look past it to the larger truths we can observe.
Basically, Paul is addressing the whole question of Jews versus Gentiles. The Jews are “the circumcision” while us Gentiles are “the uncircumcision.” In the ancient world, apparently it was mainly the Jews who circumcised their boys, while the rest of the world did not. The Jewish people considered it their badge of honor, their mark of identity, the rite that secured to them their special relationship with God. And of course, they derived the idea from the Scriptures themselves, going all the way back to Abraham (Gen. 17:9-14), when the Lord gave to him the rite of circumcision as the seal of the Covenant.
While I’m on it, I think it is worth admitting that this is actually very strange to us. We circumcise our baby boys today but that is, I understand, mainly a health thing. But it is frankly an uncomfortable subject to discuss in open public forums (like church services!). It is an awkward thing for us to discuss, but then it also seems strange to me to designate it as the sign of the covenant. You’d think it would be better to use a red dot on our foreheads like the Indian people do. At least you could “see” it! It seems strange to designate something as a “sign” and then have it be something no one ever “sees.” In the Bible, as far as I can find, God never addresses why He chose this odd, obscured rite of circumcision as the sign of the covenant.
I would like to suggest it has everything to do with the fact that the Lord loves babies. He told us from the beginning to “be fruitful and multiply,” but of course it goes far beyond just reproducing like rabbits. What He desires is “a godly offspring” (Mal. 2:15). He instructs fathers to “bring them up in the training and the instruction of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4). I would like to suggest the Lord chose circumcision as the sign of His covenant so that literally every time a man urinates, he is reminded that his reproductive capabilities belong to Someone else. For any Jewish man to engage in sexual sin, he had to do so with the very body part bearing the sign that all he was and all he did was with a body dedicated to a holy God. So the “sign” is actually for the man himself to see. The red dot would be for others, but the Lord wanted circumcision to be a sign a man could never escape. Observing that sign literally several times every single day ought to have been a powerful and constant reminder to men that they, their wives, and the children they bore ought to be consecrated wholly to the Lord. It should have kept “family” always before a man’s mind. Once again, the Bible itself, as far as I’ve ever observed, doesn’t address this question at all, so all of this is at best just my opinion, but, since we’re on the subject I wanted to write it down for anyone else’s interested consideration.
The force of the passage, of course, is that Abraham was “declared righteous” already in Gen. 15:6, before the Lord gave him this sign of circumcision in 17:9-14. Paul’s point is that Abraham was already accepted as a man of faith even before he was circumcised. For Jews this would be similar to a debate Christians might have regarding baptism. Many teach one has to be baptized to be saved. Yet, the rest of us will point to the thief on the cross who believed, was told by Jesus Himself, “Today, you will be with Me in Paradise,” and yet could not have been baptized. We will assert that salvation is by faith alone, and that baptism, as important as it might be, is only a sign “after the fact,” just as circumcision was to Abraham. Paul’s larger point, of course, is that uncircumcised Gentiles have just as much of a right to salvation as any circumcised Jew.
Probably anyone reading this would say with me, “That’s pretty much obvious,” and I think it is—to us living today. It was, however, revolutionary in the first century, so Paul has to address it. For most of us, our minds would go quickly to passages like, “So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, …There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus (Gal. 3:26-28). In Christian circles, I think it safe to say we all understand faith is unconditionally available today to Jew and Gentile alike.
That leads me to two observations from the Bixby mill: The first is a huge “why?” I don’t know I’ve ever heard this pointed out, so I will here. Why? Why is it so important that faith should leave Judea and spread to the uttermost parts of the earth? You might offer a number of (very good) reasons, but consider what the Father says to the Son in Isaiah 49:6, “It is too small a thing for You to be My servant to restore the tribes of Jacob…I will also make You a light for the Gentiles, that You may bring My salvation to the ends of the earth.” Notice: “It is too small a thing…” The Father thinks it is “too small a thing” for His Son Jesus to only redeem the Jewish people! Do you see what I’m seeing? Jesus is too great to only save the Jews! He is so great, His salvation must be extended to “the ends of the earth!” The fact that salvation is provided for us who live in the “ends of the earth” is actually not because we so desperately need it (which we do), but because Jesus is such a great Savior! Like I said, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone else make that observation, but I think it’s cool.
The second thing I want to observe from this passage is that we do see here “the circumcision” and “the uncircumcision,” Jew and Gentile. I touched on this back in chapter 2 but I want to note it again here. As in the passage from Galatians 3 above, Christians today like to quote that there is no longer “Jew nor Gentile,” that we have all become “one” in Christ, with the implication that there is no longer any distinction between us. To those verses in Galatians 3, we could add many other passages that seem to imply the same thing – like Eph. 2:14,15, “For He Himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility…His purpose was to create in Himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace…”
However, I think we must recognize that, while all of this is true—that, in fact, in this Church Age, we are all one in Christ—we also need to note that throughout the New Testament, we still see the Lord acknowledging that the Jews still exist as a distinct people in His eyes. This isn’t terribly hard to embrace as the passage in Galatians 3 also said there is no longer male or female. Does anyone want to suggest that, since the Cross, there is no difference between men and women? Obviously, His “oneness” is a spiritual reality, not something that obliterates real physical differences. Men are still men. Women are still women. Slaves are still slaves and masters are still masters, and Jews are still Jews and we are still Gentiles. Consider that, as late as Rev. 7, when the Lord would raise up 144,000 witnesses, they are “from all the tribes of Israel.”
We will see this matter addressed at length in Romans chapters 9-11, but I want to point it out here as I think it very dangerous to read and understand our Bibles ignoring the reality that the Jewish people are still a distinct group in God’s eyes. People for centuries have tried to “spiritualize” the Jewish people, then claim they have become the Church. That may be theologically convenient for some, but I would suggest you cannot honestly read the New Testament and deny that the Jewish people are, in fact, still a distinct people group. What that distinction means exactly is still somewhat of a mystery to me. I related many of my questions back in chapter 2 but can’t say I’ve come up with any answers since then. That is a subject I’ll have to keep pondering on.
One last thing I’d like to point out from this passage is to observe the much larger truth behind it all, and that is that what God does is to bring people together. In our universe, Satan is a murderer and his presence always divides, always separates. If he can’t literally kill people, he murders their relationships. Where God is, He can even let people be very different—like men and women or Jews and Gentiles—and yet still make them one. This is precisely why it’s always been true that the more a husband and wife love God, the more they’ll love each other. It’s why real Christian families seem to treasure each other. It’s why, when America owned the Bible we could be basically a unified nation, but now, having cast it behind us, we only get more and more divided. Obviously all of this could bear a much lengthier discussion, but suffice it here to observe that, once again, the truth of the Gospel actually informs the realities of our existence. Jesus invites us into a salvation that not only delivers us from hell but will actually create for us a world where love infuses our relationships and where people are drawn together, not driven apart.
No comments:
Post a Comment