Listen to the audio of today’s Reflection:
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Romans 4:1-12
Abraham Justified by Faith
What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, discovered in this matter? 2 If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. 3 What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
4 Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. 5 However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness. 6 David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the one to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:
7 “Blessed are those
whose transgressions are forgiven,
whose sins are covered.
8 Blessed is the one
whose sin the Lord will never count against them.”
9 Is this blessedness only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness. 10 Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? It was not after, but before! 11 And he received circumcision as a sign, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them. 12 And he is then also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also follow in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.
In today’s epistle reading, Paul keeps talking about of the relationship between faith, performing religious rituals, and being ‘saved.’ This is a complicated matter, and one that’s still a little hard for people to wrap their heads around – even after almost 2,000 years of Christian tradition.
We should probably stop and remind ourselves that Paul was addressing these words largely to Roman followers of Jesus who had grown up in the Hebrew tradition. The church included a mix of former Jews and former pagans, and that fact caused some tensions. Those who were of Jewish extraction seem to have thought that they were spiritually superior to gentile Christians, because they had been raised to keep the laws of Moses.
But Paul points out to his fellow Jewish Christians the example of Abraham, with whom God made the covenant that led to the creation of the people of Israel as the chosen people – the “covenant people.” He points out that Abraham didn’t become the father of the chosen people because of anything he did, like performing sacrifices or eating kosher foods or taking ritual baths. Abraham’s special place with God came because he believed the promises God made to him. In other words, Abraham, like the followers of Jesus, was saved by faith, not by any religious “works.”
Among the Hebrews, circumcision was the particular mark of membership in the covenant people. So Paul calls his readers’ attention to the fact that although the practice of circumcision was established with Abraham, that circumcision took place after God saw Abraham’s faith in his promises. Faith came first, then the circumcision as a “sign” and a “seal” of the new relationship Abraham had with God because of his faith.
This is important for a couple of reasons. First of all, what Paul writes here should dismiss the idea that’s still common among some Christians that you’re not saved until you’ve experienced baptism. At least for an adult believer, baptism marks a relationship with God that has already begun. And second, it rejects the idea that when you are baptized, God somehow owes you salvation. Our new life in Jesus is a gift by the grace of God, not something that ‘punches our ticket to heaven.’
In our part of the church, you often hear the phrase “sign and seal” when we are observing the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. That phrase is probably drawn from this passage in Romans. It reminds us of the profound truth Paul is talking about here — that our new life in Jesus comes about because we have faith in him, and not because we’ve done anything. All that’s necessary for our new life in Jesus has already been done for us on the cross. Our baptism symbolizes the new life we lead as followers of Jesus (that’s why it’s a sign), and it makes it real through a concrete, physical action (that’s why it’s a seal).
Of course, when we talk about the idea of being saved through faith, it has to be said that real faith – like Abraham’s faith – isn’t just a matter of saying, “Yeah, OK, I believe.” Abraham’s faith was life-changing. Abraham’s faith moved him to spend the rest of his life following God’s directions for his life – even when those directions seemed objectively crazy. Even when they were hard. That’s what Paul has in mind here when he writes about faith — and that’s the kind of faith God comes looking for from people like us who claim to follow his Son.
Let’s pray: Lord, help us always to remember that when we participate in the sacraments or other rituals of the faith, they are not acts of magic, but rather outward markers of the faith you have caused to grow within us. Let them be reminders as well of your promises to us, and let them reinforce our trust in those promises as we live out our lives of discipleship. Amen.
Grace and Peace,
Henry
(The other readings for today are Psalms 119:73-80; Jeremiah 7:1-15; and John 7:14-36. Our readings come from the NIV Bible, as posted on Biblica.com, the website of the International Bible Society.)
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