When Did God Count Faith As Righteousness?
Passage: Romans 4:9-12
Is this blessing only for the circumcised or also for the uncircumcised? Vs. 4.9.
Is this blessing? What blessing? Remember the blessings from last week.
Remember the blessings of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works.
Their lawless deeds are forgiven. Their sins are covered. Their sins are not counted against them. All four of these are now combined into one singular blessing.
So to whom is this blessing given? To the circumcised or the uncircumcised? To those who have the mark of the covenant of God as God’s people or those who don’t? To the Jews or to the Gentiles?
You know how the Jews answered this question, the blessings are for the children of Abraham. Why?
In Genesis 12 God told Abraham to leave his own country and go to the land He was calling him to, and Abraham rose up and went, he obeyed God, believing in the promise. In Genesis 15 God promised Abraham his descendants would be like the stars in the sky and Abraham believed God and God credited his faith to him as righteousness. Then in Genesis 17 God confirmed His promise by establishing a covenant with Abraham, the sign and seal of which was circumcision.
This was the beginning of the people of God, the racial, ethnic group called Jews. The Jews were the special, set apart people who had Abraham as their father. For the Jews identity was everything, who their father was separated them from everyone else.