In verses 7 and 8, Paul had just referred to the blessing of forgiveness that we as believers enjoy, as described by David. Now Paul confronts, and challenges the Jews on their belief that they are better off than the Gentiles because of the heritage.
Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised?
Paul asks the Jews if they really think that God's forgiveness is only available to them, or to all people of all nations. Paul, himself a former Jewish persecutor of Christians, knew exactly what they believed. They believed that those who were circumcised, in obedience to Jewish law, (along with the many other Old Testament laws, and the hundreds of extra ones they had added along the way to make sure they didn't trespass the Old Testament ones...), were the ones who had a right standing with God.
How could the Gentiles be accepted by God if they didn't even know all of the laws, let alone try to keep them. This had to be so hard for the Jews to accept - they were passionate about keeping the laws they had been taught from childhood - circumcision was a huge part of their identity - and Paul was not only dismissing this, but preaching something completely opposite as Truth.
There is a reason that Paul was so serious about explaining to the Jews that their obedience to their laws and Jewish traditions, their works, had nothing to do with salvation. It wasn't that they were "evil" people in comparison to the pagans around them. It wasn't that they weren't passionate about what they believed - Paul described himself as "zealous" in Acts when describing his passion for what he believed to be truth.
The problem was that the Jews were serving a false god, not the God of Abraham.
This is a very serious situation - a people who think they are saved but are serving a god of their own creation, based on what they have been taught from childhood. We see the same thing in other countries, with people so passionate about what they believe that they are willing to blow themselves up in service to their god. We see cults where people are willing to do crazy things out of passionate service to what they believe is truth.
This is why it is crucial that each of us know exactly why we believe what we believe, based on God's Word ALONE!
I pray that none of us would fall into the grave situation of the Jews Paul was addressing here - so passionate about serving their god, the god they had been taught to serve, that they are blinded to the God of the Bible, the God who sent His Son to fulfill the law they were trying valiantly to keep.
We say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness.
Here, we again come across the promise of God that our works have nothing to do with our salvation. Abraham, the father figure of God's children, was himself counted as righteous because of his faith, not anything he did - and especially not due to his circumcision (which the Jews held so strongly to).
Abraham's faith, itself a gift of God, was counted to him as righteousness. Faith in what? Faith that God was who He said He was. This same faith - faith that God is who He says He is, faith that Jesus Christ is who He said He is, faith that He accomplished what He said He accomplished - this faith reveals a heart that has been converted by the power and grace of God!
This faith is amazing, producing many good works as proof of its existence within the hearts of the children of God. It produces obedience - obedience like that of Abraham as he prepared to sacrifice his son as commanded by God. This faith is accompanied by following, trusting, and submitting to God as Lord, the ultimate authority over our lives - thankfully so!
This is saving faith, that is counted to each one of us 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.
Paul repeats his question, again asking the Jews if they believed that circumcision had something to do with Abraham's salvation - or theirs. Then Paul answers his own question - very simply and clearly - Abraham was counted as righteous, by faith as explained previously, before he was circumcised. Thus, circumcision had absolutely nothing to do with salvation.
What a disastrous thing to be confronted with for the Jews who did not accept Christ as their Saviour. This must have created quite the identity crisis in their mind - to the point that many of them refused to accept this teaching. How do you turn your back on something so engrained into your thoughts and actions?
We must learn from this example that it is possible to be led astray as teachings and ideas are handed down from generation to generation - to the point that what is thought to be truth is not what it seems. This is just as dangerous to the Body of Christ as the corrosion that comes from churches watering down the gospel in order to remain "relevant" in a world that is trading morals for fleshly lust more and more.
These are Satanic
attacks that can be battled through prayer and
meditation with God, accompanied by much time in His Word.
"do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world." 1 John 4:1
- by taking everything we believe back to the Word of God, so that we may be sure that what we believe is Truth, as breathed out by the God of Abraham, the God of the Bible, we destroy Satan's opportunity to cause confusion about what is Truth.
Then we, as John put it in 1 John 5:13, may know that we have eternal life. Amen and Amen!
Next Post: 4.14.13
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