This morning we're continuing on in our series through Romans 4. We're in chapter 4. We're picking up where we left off after spending some time in Genesis.
And you'll see why here in a second. It feels like we just keep talking about Abraham. And we are because Paul is using him as an example to us all.
So if you have a Bible or you have a bulletin in front of you, we're looking at Romans 4 verses 9 through 15.
Romans 4.
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 have been 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.
For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be the heir of the world did not come through the law.
But through the righteousness of faith.
For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be heirs.
Faith is null and the promise is void.
For the law brings wrath.
But where there is no law there is no transgression.
Let's pray.
Lord we are thankful for your word.
We pray that you might use your spirit in our lives.
To open it to us.
Let us see the beauty of Jesus.
And may we cling to him more tightly.
We ask this in Christ's name.
Amen.
Recently I had lunch with a family from church.
And we were talking about a number of things.
And then the topic of music came up.
And I shamefully and embarrassingly admitted to them.
I don't know anything about music.
I can't play music.
It seems like magic when people are up here beating these wooden things together.
And then sound comes out and it kind of all works together.
They're literally wizards and maybe witches up here that are doing magic to create beautiful sounds.
I have no idea how they work.
And they told me that they have a term for people like me.
And I said well let's hear it.
I'm all ears.
And they said I'm a music appreciator.
Music appreciator.
So as a newly minted music appreciator.
Not just an admirer.
I have to admit that whenever I look through scripture.
I'm constantly reminded of music.
Whenever I walk about my day.
Whenever I do life.
Or I'm talking to my kids or other people.
I am reminded of music.
And if you remember from last week.
Paul is no different.
Where does he go when he needs evidence.
Or when he's reminded of something.
He goes to the Psalms.
Which oh by the way are music.
Right?
They might not be the chart toppers today.
But it's the thing that Paul goes to when he needs evidence.
When he doesn't know what to say.
Or he wants to point back to something.
He goes to the Psalms.
Now as I was looking at this section of Romans 4.
I turned to the great prophet of a couple years ago.
And I couldn't get out of my head the song from little Stevie Wonder.
As some of you might know it.
Signed, sealed, delivered, I'm yours.
That's the perennial refrain.
Right?
And as you look through Romans 4.
I'm not saying that Paul consulted Stevie Wonder.
Or Stevie Wonder consulted Paul when he wrote that song about love.
But those themes are present here.
And those words are repeated over and over.
Just like in the song.
Signed, sealed, delivered.
In fact, you could even look a little closer and say.
Paul actually talks about faith in the same way that Stevie Wonder talks about love.
That righteousness by faith is signed, sealed, and it's delivered.
And as we look at righteousness by faith, we're going to look at those headings.
Signed and sealed, and then delivered.
And we'll see why in a minute.
Now if you're here this morning and you've spent any time around Christianity,
that righteousness by faith, that's kind of a big scary term.
It's familiar to us.
But it's kind of hard to define.
After all, how can anyone, let alone me, be right before God?
Maybe it's the same question that gnaws at you.
And if you're not a Christian here this morning, I'm going to let you in on a secret.
Christians really struggle with that question too.
And that's why Paul is writing this.
To kind of wade through all the feelings about this.
And explain that.
And if you spent any amount of time with us over the summer,
as we walked through the life of Abraham, we saw this again and again.
We asked the question, is Abraham, is he actually trying to wreck this thing?
Does he actually have faith in God?
Because he keeps acting like a knucklehead.
You see, the most pressing issue in Romans 4 is how do we reconcile these people's lives?
They look like train wrecks and they say that they're loved by God.
Or other people say that they're loved by God.
Or they're right before God and they're a mess.
That should resonate with us this morning.
Whether we're Christians or not,
we have to look at our own failings as we fail time and time again.
And say, am I really right before God?
I've done things wrong again.
That's the thing I said I wouldn't do.
And how does that fit with my faith?
I know that Christ died for sin.
But did Christ die for me?
If you remember, so far in Romans,
Paul has been working through this bigger argument
that everybody's guilty.
Everybody.
Alright?
No one is righteous.
No, not one.
And last week we saw these great mountains of men in the faith.
Abraham and David.
And even them were saved by faith.
Even them are made right in the presence of God by faith.
Not by what they had done.
And here in this text,
there's this weird, peculiar fascination
and zeroing in on circumcision.
And so as we look at that,
we have to deal with what did it mean?
It meant to be righteous by faith.
And we'll explain that in a minute.
So first, faith signed and sealed.
If you notice as we read through Romans 4,
it seems like Paul is like actually fighting somebody.
He's debating them,
but we don't know who.
He's responding to some kind of argument.
And if we miss that idea,
and we just read it as Paul talking about what he thinks,
it seems like Paul is going nuts.
And you're like,
Paul, you just said this,
but then you said this again.
These ideas are all mixed up.
Now, Paul might not be actually responding to a person,
but it's kind of like shadow boxing.
And if you were a middle school boy
or a middle school boy once,
you've all shadow boxed on the playground, right?
You're fighting that imaginary person.
It might be even your own shadow,
but they're really there
and you're really slugging it out.
Paul's doing the same thing,
except for he's not slugging out with a shadow.
He's slugging out over theology.
Look with me at verse nine.
We see the battle lines of this argument
are clearly drawn.
And they are this.
He asks this kind of question.
Is this blessing then only for the circumcised
or also for the uncircumcised?
We say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness.
So it's circumcision versus uncircumcision.
And we have to figure out what's going on.
Now that blessing that he's talking about,
he's pointing back to what he just talked about
a few verses earlier.
When we said that blessing,
is it tied to something somebody does
or who they are?
Or is it tied to something different?
Remember, Paul is parroting back the songs of his day
when he says,
blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,
whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man against whom
the Lord will not count his sin.
So blessing or being blessed is tied to those things
and not to who Abraham is
and what he's done,
his actions,
or what David has done.
That might seem obvious to us
if we know the lives of those two men.
I just said Abraham acts like a knucklehead.
David is no better.
We see all of his sin on display.
But these men are righteous
because they put their faith in the Lord.
Now we see this kind of foray into circumcision.
It's both.
It's for both, it says.
Look at verse 10.
How then was this righteousness
or this blessedness counted to him?
So we know that he received it,
but was it before he was circumcised
or was it after?
So the question is,
can circumcision,
can it secure righteousness?
Oh, man.
Abraham was righteous because of his faith,
not because of circumcision.
And we see that in the timing
that Paul is trying to draw out.
He's trying to show us how this works out,
that he was righteous before he was circumcised.
So think back as we walk through Genesis.
He was righteous in Genesis 15.
And he gets circumcision much later.
Paul kind of goes on about this
and he says,
not only does it secure,
not secure righteousness,
but it plays no part in it whatsoever.
It's not even a portion.
It's not even one little iota.
If we think about that in our own faith,
we can understand that.
None of our works,
none of the things that we do
actually secures our right standing before God
or our faith in Jesus.
That we can identify with.
But as we look back to Genesis 15,
we know this,
that Abraham is counted as righteous
and God is the one that's doing the work.
And then after a period of time,
he receives the sign of circumcision.
Now sometimes that's difficult for us to grasp
because when we read the Bible,
we think about,
it seems like maybe not that much time passed.
Like if he's talking in Genesis 15
and then in Genesis 17,
is that the next day
or is that like breakfast the next morning?
Like how do we know how long has passed?
For just for perspective,
in 15 to 17,
he's talking about maybe 10 to 15 years.
So it's not like he put his faith
and is declared righteous
and then he receives the covenant sign the next morning.
Some time elapses.
When we think about that,
we have to think about the fact that
Abraham is called righteous
and then many years later,
receives the sign.
But it's not just a sign.
It does something different.
As Stevie Wonder reminds us, right?
It seals.
What in the world does that mean?
Well, when we think about that,
we have to think through
all the struggles
that the New Testament church had.
And one of those
is the fact that
they get really confused about circumcision.
Think about Paul's own interactions
with some of the other apostles.
They actually kind of duke it out over this.
And they say,
hey, some people are saying,
you got to be circumcised first
and then you come to faith in Jesus
and then you get baptized
and you're good.
Or something like that.
But they're mixing it up
because they're not understanding
this part about sealing.
And up until this point,
the language of sign is obvious to us.
We know that.
We see signs everywhere.
Signs on the highway
that point us to get off on the exit.
Signs that tell us to do stuff
or signs that point us to things.
But seal is a little bit more squishy.
If we think about seal
like sealing an envelope,
not licking the back
over and over again
and then get that nasty taste
in your mouth,
not that seal, right?
But putting a wax on something
to verify that it's true,
to authenticate it.
And then maybe if I'm a king,
I'm putting my ring in it
and sealing it
to make sure nobody
is going to falsify those things.
That's what seal means.
And that's what Paul
is pointing us to here.
Look with me at verse 11.
He, being Abraham,
received the sign of circumcision
as a seal of the righteousness
that he had by faith
while he was still uncircumcised.
The purpose,
which we'll get to in a minute,
was to make him
the father of all who believe
without being circumcised
so that righteousness
would be counted to them as well.
So that sealing is ratifying
and securing in some capacity
what is already true
in Abraham's life.
We're all familiar with that seal,
closing that envelope
and knowing that it's protected
and it's kept.
This seal is ratifying
what Abraham had by faith,
that righteousness.
Now, if you've been around
a Reformed or Presbyterian church,
you know that this section
is what we go to
when we talk about baptism.
So let's just talk about it
there for a second.
It doesn't say the word in here,
but the concept is ever present.
Now, immediately,
I just got puzzled looks
when I said that
because you're like,
hey, I didn't see baptism
in this at all.
Why are we talking about this?
And some of you
are probably thinking,
okay, here goes the shell game
of Presbyterians.
They're going to trick me
and I don't see it in the text.
Just follow along with me, okay?
Yes, it does not say baptism in here.
But what does it say?
It does say circumcision,
which is what?
A sign and seal
of righteousness by faith.
And as we think about that,
what is baptism doing?
It's doing the same exact thing,
signing and sealing
righteousness by faith.
So this is Abraham,
who was righteous by faith,
very clearly,
receiving the sign.
So who's it applied to?
Abraham and who else?
All of his believing children?
Some.
All of his unbelieving children?
Them too.
It's applied to believers
and their children,
whether they believe or not.
Okay?
So the sign of righteousness
by faith,
which is circumcision,
is applied to believers,
people that are righteous
by faith like Abraham,
and then all of their children.
Okay?
That sounds very similar
to baptism.
It's because it is.
If you remember
in places like Colossians,
that connection
is made very clearly.
It's even called something like
the circumcision of Christ.
Okay?
The relationship between
baptism and circumcision
is that they both signal
righteousness by faith.
And when we see that
applied to believers
and their children,
then the consistent thing
is to say baptism
is applied to believers
and their children.
Even though nowhere in this text
does it say baptism.
We're talking about
the same thing.
So often we can fall
into this idea
of a word concept fallacy.
If it doesn't say the word,
it's not talking about the thing.
But we don't do that
with other parts of scripture.
Right?
Think about the Trinity.
It doesn't say the word Trinity,
but we know it's there.
We know it's going on.
The same is true
here in baptism.
The Old Testament sign
of faith is circumcision
and the New Testament sign
of faith is baptism.
It's signifying
and sealing the same thing.
Righteousness by faith
and they're applied
to believers
and their children
just like Abraham
and his children.
Now,
with that,
let's turn our attention
back to
what is he talking about?
That's one practical application
of this text.
But what are we supposed
to do with all of this?
Abraham,
you're righteous by faith,
but how are we supposed
to think about that?
Well,
he's talking to us
about this idea
that both Jews
and Gentiles
have a share
in the kingdom.
Abraham is the father
to both of these people,
whether they have circumcision
or not.
And that last phrase
that we just looked at
is kind of,
in verse 11,
is indicative of this.
Those who walk
in the footsteps
of faith.
He's talking about
anybody that walks
in faith
after Abraham.
Those people
have the sign
and those people
are the people
of faith.
I love college football.
I love it.
It's awesome.
It's really fun
to be all wrapped up
in there.
I get some grins
of some opponents here,
but let me tell you what.
I think college football
is great.
It can be all-consuming
if we're really honest.
And I love nothing more
that when my team,
the Clemson Tigers,
stomp out the people
that are evil,
that are in my family,
the Duke Blue Devils.
I love it.
It makes me so happy inside
and when we stomp them
in football
and in basketball.
But there's some people
that are all consumed
by college football.
My college roommate
was one of those.
He referred to himself
only in the third person,
Mr. Peets.
He just got married.
And Mr. Peets,
not only did he love
the color orange
and did he love
the Clemson Tigers
and did he go to every game?
Yes.
He also only had hair
in the shape of a Tiger Paul
on the back of his head.
He was that committed.
So he might show up
on Saturday.
He might have
a really weird haircut
that got him
no girlfriends.
And he might only obsess
about Clemson football.
He might skip class
to go watch practice.
When he shows up
on Saturday,
he's wearing the jersey.
He has the sign
of being a Clemson
football player.
But nobody mistakes him
for a Clemson football player.
That might be because
he's not wearing the pads
and he's about five nothing.
Right?
He's got no future
in college football.
But he's still wearing
the thing that says
I am a Clemson football player.
But why does nobody think
that he's a Clemson football player?
You see,
it's what's inside of that.
It's not just the sign,
but it's the actual act
of going on the field
on Saturday and playing.
Mr. Peets never became a player.
He never was a player.
But those same people
that wore that same jersey
were on the field.
It makes certain
what's already true
by nature
when they suit up.
That they're playing football.
That is the substance
of the argument
that Paul makes.
Is the sign
doesn't make them
a football player.
The jersey doesn't make them
a football player.
The sign of circumcision
doesn't make them righteous.
It just seals it
and validates it.
But as we think about this,
we have to remember
that it's not unimportant,
but the physical mark
of circumcision
doesn't make us part
of God's family
just like baptism
doesn't make us part
of God's family either.
It doesn't make us righteous,
but it's still important
because it seals us
and it reminds us
of how God has kept us thus far.
We also see the freeness
of the offer of salvation.
Both in the Old Testament,
Abraham got it freely,
and for us,
and even Paul.
Paul reminds us
of that in chapter 3.
We have no room to boast.
We have nothing to boast in,
even circumcision.
It's also showing us
a lot about God,
who he is.
If you joined us
for adult community
over the last couple weeks,
we've been looking
through the minor prophets,
and there's this moment
in Jonah,
you know,
the guy who gets eaten
by the fish,
and he gets all this judgment,
and he's dropping down
into the weeds
and all that kind of stuff
because he doesn't want
to go do what God's
told him to do.
There's a moment in there
when Jonah is really mad,
but he's really mad,
and he confesses
who God is,
and he says back to God
who he is,
and he says,
God, you are merciful,
and I don't like it,
slow to anger,
abounding in love,
you're gracious.
This sign,
both circumcision
and baptism,
shows us
the same thing
about God,
that God is the one
that is working,
that God is the one
that is doing.
This is who God is.
Remember,
that confession
of God about himself
is coming on the heels
of not Israel
doing great things,
but Israel being
really,
really faithless
when they had
stooped so low
that they were going
to worship metal idols,
and God says that
about himself.
That's the same God
who works
through these covenant signs.
That's the same God
who gives us the gospel,
people.
And so when we think
of ourselves,
we have to remember
how God has worked
and how God is the one
who's taken the priority,
that God is the one
who sent his son
to die on our behalf
for our sin.
And when we receive
baptism,
or when Abraham
received circumcision,
that wasn't the thing
that saved him,
that Christ's work
on the cross
that he was looking
forward to,
that is the thing
that secured
his righteousness.
And if we're honest,
that should change us.
That should change
how we think
about ourselves.
We're not boastful anymore.
We look at other people
and we don't get angry
with them,
but we're moved
with compassion
because God,
the one who is gracious
and merciful
and slow to anger
has been merciful to us.
And that should extend
in this room
and beyond the walls
to our neighbors,
to our friends,
to the people
that we work with,
that we are called
to be gracious
and slow to anger,
abounding
in steadfast love
because we've been sealed,
we've been marked
by that same righteousness
that's at work
in our hearts
if we trust in Christ.
Now,
righteousness delivered.
Look with me
at verses 15
or 13 and following,
excuse me.
For the promise
to Abraham
and his offspring
was that he would be
the heir of the world,
did not come
through the law,
but through the righteousness
of faith.
For if the adherents
of the law
were to be heirs,
received it,
faith is null
and the promise is void.
For the law brings wrath,
but where there is no law,
there is no transgression.
Faith is not just
the instrument
of righteousness
as we saw
in the life of Abraham
in our own lives as well.
It does,
we start to see
it's bigger than just Abraham.
It's bigger than just Israel.
That faith is the thing
that delivers this promise.
And what is that promise?
It's that same thing
that was told
to Abraham before,
that he would have
many descendants
and he would have
all this land.
and he would have
it forever.
That came through faith
that could never,
ever come through
the law.
He says that
in verse 14.
That's really clear
to us.
That if it did come
through the law,
then the faith
is worthless
and the promise
doesn't even actually happen.
It's void.
And what he's doing here,
Paul is reminding us
that if we associate
with the law,
giving life to us
when we are sinners,
especially those
who had the law themselves,
not just normal sin,
but full-on transgression,
he calls it.
For Israel,
they had the law
and they should know
this most of all.
And instead of doing that,
they just didn't care about it.
There would be no land.
There would be no descendants.
All of it would be gone.
All of it.
I love showing my kids
videos of dogs
because I love dogs.
And one of my favorite
things to do
is to show them
when dogs behave badly.
Specifically,
when they're left home alone
and they start to pull,
you know,
just a little bit
of stuffing out of something,
right?
It might be a stuffed animal.
And then it goes to,
oh man,
the furniture
and what happens.
You might have seen
one of these videos before
where a dog is left alone
and his owner returns
and he's happy.
He's elated
because he has shredded
that couch.
He's disemboweled that thing
and he is sitting
in all the fluff there.
And he is so happy.
And what is the,
without fail,
the response from the owner
is like something
like bad dog,
right?
But it starts small
with pulling out
a little bit of tufts
of the arm
and then
that dog
will gut
the back
of the couch,
the cushions
and yet they're so happy.
It's a disaster
waiting for the owner.
None of that,
that little,
little pulling
out of the couch
ends up
with this giant disaster.
The same thing
is true
if we think about
relating to the law.
If the law
is the thing
we're looking to,
it feels like
we're just pulling
a little bit
and we might not
think it's a big deal.
But Paul is reminding us
it's such a big deal,
it's not just pulling
a lot of little stuffing,
it's undoing
all of history.
It's undoing
this fact
that God
has promised
them land
and many descendants.
Something small
has become
something better,
bigger,
because they should
know better,
right?
Israel should know better.
That's exactly
what Paul is telling them.
They should know
better than this.
The Jews should
know better
and that's why
it's so bad.
They have the law,
they should know better.
Their sin is more grave
because they have the law.
But it's not just Israel,
it's each
and every
one of us.
The promise
is not just to them,
but it's to us.
Abraham
isn't just a recipient
of righteousness,
so are we
if we put our faith
in Christ?
Why should we
turn again
to the law
which can't do
the thing
that we want it
to do?
We can't
turn back
to it.
We're pulling
the stuffing
out of the arm
of the couch
and we end up
with no couch
at all.
It's completely
undone.
That same God
who's slow
to anger,
abounding in love,
steadfast
in that,
it attacks
when we go
back to the law
and look
for righteousness,
when we go
back to circumcision
and put our faith
in that
and not what
Christ has done,
it's completely
undone.
That's what Paul
is trying to remind
us of.
There's no heirs,
there's no promise,
there's no land,
there's no descendants.
Here's the good news.
It doesn't depend
upon us.
We should be
really comforted
by that.
We are held
and kept
by Christ,
not our own
attempts
to live
through the law.
It doesn't come
through circumcision,
it doesn't come
through us being
Jews or not Jews,
it doesn't come
from our family,
our smarts,
our skills,
our ability,
our toughness,
our righteousness
comes the same way
that Abraham
got it,
through faith
in Christ.
Signed,
sealed,
and delivered.
You belong
to Christ
and he keeps
you there,
not you.
Let's pray.
Lord,
we're thankful
this morning
for the reminder
that we are kept
by Christ
and Father,
the righteousness
that we have
is through faith
in him,
just like Abraham,
just like the saints
of old.
We ask that you
might remind
our hearts
even when we
struggle
to see it clearly
that you would
point us back
again and again
to what Christ
has done on the cross
and not ourselves.
And we pray these things
in Christ's name.
Amen.