Abraham Our Father – Romans 4:9-12
Bethel Baptist Church – David Rising
Romans 4:9-12; August 2, 2026 Sunday AM (Communion)
Abraham Our Father
We will be celebrating Communion this morning, but before we do let us look together at Romans 4:9-12.
Paul has been talking in Romans about how an individual is made right before God – the message of the gospel. He has established the important truth that justification is not by works but by faith.
To be declared righteous by God is only the result of God’s grace, and He alone brings it to pass. God grants forgiveness to the sinner on the basis of the shed blood of Christ. God counts our faith as righteousness and credits it to our account.
We also learn in the gospel that God, when he declares us righteous by faith, does not count our sin against us but rather takes it away, removing it forever.
What an amazing truth!
To show the reader of Romans that this concept was not something new with him, Paul uses Abraham as an example of one who was also justified by faith. He believed what God said about a nation coming forth from his body, and God justified Him on the basis of his faith.
To help support his point, Paul also quoted from another OT passage – Psalm 32 – where King David speaks about the blessedness of sins forgiven: “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man to whom the LORD shall not impute sin.”
That is where we stopped last week, and so we’ll pick up today in verse 9. Pray.
Notice Paul begins with a question in verse 9:
9 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.
To be justified is to be forgiven. To be forgiven is to be blessed. Paul picks up the language of blessing here in verse 9 and asks the question:
1. Is God’s blessing only for the circumcised? (4:9)
This is an interesting question. Notice how he adds that last part which leads the question to the answer but without answering it yet.
In light Abraham’s justification by faith, he now probes again the issue of circumcision.
Was Abraham blessed ultimately because he was circumcised? I think that points to the question Paul is asking here.
This discussion about circumcision is always odd to us, but to a Jewish audience it was perfectly normal. Remember, much of the original readers of the book of Romans were Jews and there was a major transition in the first century with the church.
No longer was God mainly working with the Jews. Now that the church had begun, His people were now comprised both of Jews and Gentiles. The church was and is one new body in Christ.
What was once considered unclean (Gentiles) is no longer off limits. Read Acts 10.
And while this new reality was, shall we say, easy to put on paper, it was harder to work out in real life. Acts 15 shows us that this was a real struggle for the Jewish believers in the first century.
And so back to the question – Is the blessing of forgiveness reserved for someone like Abraham, and especially someone like him who was also circumcised?
Paul has already made the case in Romans that justification is not reserved just for Jews, but through another discussion about circumcision the issue is probed again.
Perhaps some Jews might agree that Abraham was justified by faith, but they might say that this was true because he was circumcised.
Paul answers that question with a follow-up question in verse 10:
10 How then was it accounted? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised.
Was Abraham justified because he was circumcised? Is God’s blessing only for the circumcised?
2. No. God’s blessing is for both circumcised and uncircumcised (4:10)
Paul makes that statement because Abraham was justified while he was uncircumcised or before he was circumcised.
Practically for Paul’s readers, this means that God’s blessing is for both Jew and Gentile. Physical circumcision is not the issue.
To make his point, Paul brings up the issue of timing. When was Abraham blessed? Was it before or after he was circumcised?
He answers that in verse 10: Abraham was justified while he was uncircumcised.
If Abraham was justified because he was circumcised, then that presents a problem for the Gentiles … unless I suppose they also underwent that same procedure.
But Paul would say: “no, no, no.” to that.
Paul discussed circumcision in chapter 2 and said, yes, there is value in circumcision for the Jew, but only if it reflects an obedient heart (2:25) that has been transformed by the Spirit (2:29).
There in chapter 2 Paul makes the case that simply having the external sign of circumcision does not technically make one Jewish. Being a Jew in the truest sense is a matter of having a transformed heart by the Spirit of God (2:29).
Paul is probing Abraham’s life and seeking to establish how and when Abraham was justified.
Genesis 15:6 tells us that God credited Abraham’s faith as righteousness.
Circumcision was a sign of God’s covenant and it was not established until chapter 17. We understand that to be later in time than the events of Genesis 15.
And so Paul makes the statement in verse 10 based on the chronology of Abraham’s life: Abraham was justified before he received the sign of God’s promise, circumcision.
What, then, is the significance of this order of events? Notice verses 11-12:
11 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, 12 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.
1. Is God’s blessing only for the circumcised? (4:9)
2. No. God’s blessing is for both circumcised and uncircumcised (4:10)
3. Abraham’s life illustrates that God’s blessing is for all who believe (4:11-12)
I understand this can be very confusing, especially to grasp it all in 30 minutes or so. But if you look at the big picture I think it is clear. (I also encourage you to study this further on your own.)
Abraham is the right person to use at this point in the discussion because his life and circumstances illustrate so well the gospel Paul is proclaiming.
Abraham is also important to discuss because of the Jewish audience. Just look up sometime how important Abraham is to the Jews. “Abraham our father” is how Jews speak about Abraham. He is the great patriarch, the founder of the Jewish people.
The life of Abraham is a very fitting illustration for Paul to use.
Notice in verse 11 how Paul describes circumcision. It is “a seal of the righteousness of the faith.” This sounds a lot like what we saw in chapter two. That is, if circumcision was to mean anything, it should point to a transformed heart.
Circumcision was a seal of the righteousness Abraham was given by faith. Physical circumcision illustrated the faith Abraham had before he was circumcised. It was a physical ritual to illustrate a spiritual reality.
Many of our reformed Presbyterian Christian friends draw a line straight from circumcision to baptism, and this is in part why they baptize infants. We don’t make that same connection, but you can see how that argument could be developed.
We believe water baptism is a testimony for the believer showing what God has done in their heart by grace through faith. Infant baptism can only give testimony for what the ritual intends to mean because an infant does not have a personal testimony to tell.
This is a topic for another time, and we’ll say more about baptism when we come to chapter 6.
Verse 11 argues that the order in which these things came about – faith first, circumcision later – makes it possible that Abraham is the father of all who believe even though they are not circumcised.
Translation: Abraham is the father of all Gentiles who believe.
When a Gentile (a non-Jew) comes to Christ by faith, he can truthfully say “Abraham our father.” Avraham Avinu.
Notice at the end of verse 11 Paul explains justification again: “that righteousness might be imputed to them also.” Here is that word “impute” which we saw in verse 6 & 8 – to credit it to our account.
And so verse 11 tells us that Abraham is the father of believing Gentiles.
Verse 12 tells us that Abraham is also the father of “circumcision” (meaning the father of the circumcised – the Jews).
To the Jewish readers, this might be a little offensive as Paul mentions this second (after verse 11 which had a Gentile focus). Of course, Abraham is the father of the Jewish people, but now in the church it is both Jew and Gentile. Ephesians 2 speaks to this very well.
Notice also that Paul squares his words here with his discussion at the end of chapter 2. Abraham is not only the father of those who are physically circumcised, but also of those who “walk in the steps of the faith which our father Abraham had while still uncircumcised.”
This gets to the question we might raise: will every ethnic Jew enjoy everlasting life with God? Are ethnic Jews automatically “in” God’s favor? I think Paul would say “no” because of what he has already taught us at the end of chapter 2 and also through the illustration he gave with Abraham.
Would Abraham have been justified if he never believed God?
Can we be justified if we do not believe what God says?
And by “believe” I mean to believe the truth about Jesus, His person, His work, His words – the gospel.
Sadly, when you attend some funerals today, you get the sense that many people believe in justification by death. That is, many people believe that whenever anyone dies, they automatically are in a better place.
I find it hard to correct that bad theology at a funeral because it is not the setting to preach, but I desperately want to correct that viewpoint when I hear it.
You can’t read Romans and believe in justification by death. Or works. Or circumcision. Or anything other than faith.
The bible teaches us from the time of Abraham to the end that that justification is by faith, and that is all by the grace of God.
Yes, God singled out the nation of Israel uniquely and as a nation they have unique blessings and privileges that we believe remain to this day.
But Paul would still argue that the issue that truly matters, even for Jews, is faith in Jesus. The issue of Israel has a special focus in Romans 9-11 because no doubt the Jewish readers would have been taking mental notes and would want to hear what Paul had to say about their future.
There is much to ponder here today, and we will pick up our study here next time.
Each month we celebrate together a formal practice called the Lord’s Supper or Communion. This is a celebration that our Lord established the week before He died, and it is a celebration that the Apostle Paul explains in 1 Corinthians 10 & 11.
It is a reminder to us of the great sacrifice our Savior made on our behalf. And so may we celebrate this together now.