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Preacher: Ross Macdonald
Scripture: Genesis 17:1-14
This morning we continue on in Genesis chapter 17, and we really begin probably three weeks at least, this being the first of three, maybe the first of four, depending on what we get through, where we're considering the Abrahamic covenant.
And of course we want to keep in mind that we've been pursuing the larger themes, the forest more than the trees as we've made our way through Genesis, we haven't spent too much time looking at the detail of any given narrative, but the biggest forest there is when it comes to Genesis is the covenants that we've considered so far, and the Abrahamic covenant will take us through the rest of Genesis indeed, through the rest of the Bible.
It is foundational for our understanding about what God has done in His great plan of redemption, what He's doing in history, who we are as His people, the way that He has brought about salvation by grace, through faith, all of this hinges upon the Abrahamic covenant.
And I do hope for those of you who have been here among us that you keep in mind that we have followed so far the covenants as we've found them. We began with God's creation covenant with Adam, the Adamic covenant, and then the renewal of that with all of creation with Noah, the Noahic covenant, and in chapter 12 we saw the promise given to Abram which was confirmed in chapter 15, the covenant God made with Abraham, which through the rest of Genesis God will confirm again with Isaac and with Jacob.
And where we're going, to give you a little glimpse of not only this morning but the next few weeks, we want to consider this week what the Abrahamic covenant is and we're going to do four considerations on that.
First, we want to consider how the Abrahamic covenant is singular. It's one covenant and only one covenant, a point that has been made already but it's so significant that we all grasp this. So the first point will be that the Abrahamic covenant is singular.
Secondly, we're going to talk about the scope of the Abrahamic covenant. Who's a part of it? Who is not?
Who does it apply to?
Who is its object? The scope of the Abrahamic covenant. Third, the sign of the Abrahamic covenant. Every covenant has a sign. What is the sign of the Abrahamic covenant? And then lastly this morning, the seed, the seed of the Abrahamic covenant.
So singular, scope, sign, seed. That's what we're going to do this morning. Next week, we're going to spend a little more time in Galatians. We'll touch on Galatians today but we're going to spend significant time next week in Galatians 3 and Galatians 4.
When we do that, we're going to be considering how the Abrahamic covenant relates to the Mosaic covenant, the covenant that God makes with Israel through Moses. And then if we don't get to it next week, then the week after we'll consider how the Abrahamic covenant and the Mosaic covenant relate to the covenant that God makes with David, the Davidic covenant.
And that all together brings us to the new covenant, the covenant made in the blood of Christ in which we stand. And so these are the six great covenants of the Bible. You can understand the whole flow of Scripture, the whole plan of redemption according to these six covenants.
The covenant with Adam, with Noah, with Abraham, with Moses, with David and the new covenant. And so that's what we're going to try to do over the next several weeks. The last thing we'll do before we leave Genesis 17, and this one's very close to my heart, is we'll consider a little more detail about the circumcision of God.
What is circumcision in chapter 17? How does that relate not only to Abraham and his descendants, but to Christians and specifically our little stream of Christianity as Baptists? So you'll have to wait a few weeks for that, but it's very important.
Chapter 17 is what sets us apart, not only as Reformed covenantal believers, but as Baptists as well, Reformed Baptists. And so that's what's ahead, Lord willing, in the weeks to come. Well this morning, let's begin with our first consideration.
The Abrahamic covenant is singular. It's been said, and this is a very famous argument, let me just say this before we begin. This little series, the next few weeks, it'll be a triumph for notetakers.
And it's an opportunity, if you're not a notetaker, to become a notetaker. That might mean that you have to write with nail polish or something this morning, but next week, plan to use up the bulletin insert or bring a notepad or something.
It would be good for you to take notes. Let me also say as a caveat, we're all at different levels of our understanding of these things, and I realize some of the language, some of the concepts might be hard to understand.
Do not be discouraged. Do your best not to tune out. Don't be afraid if one of those cars on the train goes past you. Don't then turn around and say, well, forget it. Dig in, glean as much as you can.
I think over the next several weeks, we'll be overlapping so much that things will become.
Clearer.
So, whatever you miss today will probably be in a holding pattern for a few weeks. You're going to hear a lot of the same concepts again and again with different angles, different explanations. So, pay attention.
Take notes if you can. I think the concepts will become clearer, and if they do, you will be greatly blessed by it. So, that's my encouragement. The singular Abrahamic covenant. It's been said, a famous argument by Paul R. Williamson, who was a commentator on Genesis.
It's been famously said that there were two covenants that God made with Abram. He argued that there was an unconditional covenant, which is Genesis chapter 15. Remember, God passed through the slaughtered carcasses unilaterally.
This was something that God did and Abram did not do. There was no condition placed upon Abram. Rather, God took all the condition upon himself. And then also, Williamson argued, there's a conditional covenant, which is Genesis 17.
And the condition is embedded within circumcision.
We're going to see that in a moment.
So Paul R. Williamson and others that follow him say there's really two covenants that God makes with Abram. The first is this unconditional, unilateral covenant from chapter 15. And the second covenant is conditional.
It's all about circumcision and what you must do. And that's the conditional covenant of chapter 17. This is not correct. This is wrong. There are not two covenants that God makes with Abram. Some have even argued that there are three, and they bring in Genesis 12.
Remember, what God said in Genesis 12 was a great promise. The call upon Abram's life began with this great commitment and promise of God. Genesis 12, 2 and 3. I will make you a great nation.
I will bless you.
I will make your name great. You shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you. I will curse him who curses you. And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. So this is part of the great promise that God gives to Abram when he calls him in chapter.
12.
The call of Abram is not a covenant. The promise that God gives is not the covenant. It is rather what becomes established by the covenant in chapter 15. And as we've mentioned a few times already, there's only one covenant that God cuts with Abram, and that is the language of making a covenant.
You cut a covenant. Our translations always say he made a covenant, but literally in the Hebrew you cut a covenant, and you can see the significance of cutting those animals in half. You cut a covenant.
And so the only covenant that is cut, as far as Abram is concerned, is in chapter 15. All that follows chapter 15, one way or another, corresponds to the promise that was established, which reaches all the way back to chapter 12.
So promise given, promise established by the covenant, and then reaffirmed, reaffirmed sometimes with more promise, with more detail, or with further instruction. But there's only one covenant. And the best example, the best argument I can make for this comes out of Genesis 22, beginning in verse 15.
Remember Genesis 22 is when Abraham must take his only beloved son, the one who was given to him by promise, and he's called to sacrifice him. And of course, God at the last moment stops Abraham from sacrificing his son, can't wait to get to that chapter in 22.
And then we read, beginning in verse 15, the angel of the Lord called out to Abram and said, by myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing, please note this conditional language, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son, blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants to be like the stars of the heaven.
And as the sand which is on the seashore, and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies, in your seed all of the nations of the earth shall be blessed. Does that sound familiar to you? It sounds like the promise in chapter 12.
It sounds like the vision that is reiterated in chapter 13. It sounds like the covenantal language of chapter 15. It sounds like what God is saying here in chapter 17. In other words, every time God reveals his purpose to Abram, we have this unfolding promise, all of it was established by the covenant God makes in chapter 15.
But notice here how conditional it is. Because you have obeyed my voice. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice. So as Orin Martin says, excellent work on the promised land, Orin Martin.
Genesis 22 deals a decisive blow to Williamson's proposal that there are two covenants, one in 15 and one in 17. This verse specifically connects the promise that Abraham's seed will be like the stars of the sky and the sand on the seashore with Abram's obedience.
So you can't just say, well, 15 is unconditional, 17 is conditional. This is all held together, as we'll see. There is only one covenant, and one cannot simplistically say this covenant is unilateral, unconditional.
You have to be a little more detailed than that. One must pay careful attention to the flow of the plot with Abram. Jim Hamilton, another commentator, I'm not going to quote too many people this morning, but Jim Hamilton, who did a wonderful biblical theology, always with any work like that you want to quibble here or there, see things slightly different, you take certain things with a grain of salt, but on the whole it's a tremendous book.
And he goes through every book of the Bible and traces this theme, and it's the title of the book, God's Glory in Salvation Through Judgment. And so he takes that theme and he runs through every book of the Bible pursuing it.
And this is what he has to write about this two covenant proposal. The narrative in chapter 17 is not a duplicate of chapter 15. It's rather a reconfirmation by God to Abraham of his promise, especially on the heels of the less than happy results of his time with Hagar in chapter 16.
Whenever Abraham disobeys or sins or gets himself into trouble, we always find God reconfirming a promise with him. We'll see it again with Abimelech. This reassuring word given to Abraham after this debacle recalls another reassuring, reconfirming word to Abraham.
Remember, after Egypt, God comes to him again in chapter 13. There is more here, however, than just a reconfirmation. Two new things have entered this covenant promise in chapter 17. In the first place, Abram becomes Abraham.
Only one verse, verse 5, is devoted to this significant shift. Abram has a new name now. Abraham universalizes his experience with God. He is to be the father of many nations, not the father of many, the father of many nations.
The second new item is the introduction of circumcision. This particularizes Abraham's experience with God. He will be a father of Israel, a father of the Jews. So notice that in 17, we have almost these two aspects.
On the one hand, Abraham, father of many nations, now we're getting universalized understanding of the promise, but also we're getting something very particular and narrow. Circumcision of his physical descendants.
Now one point before we move on about this. Some astute Bible student might point out, well, wait a minute, Ross. In Acts chapter 7, when Stephen is just about to be martyred and he gives his great speech, the longest speech in the book of Acts, he references the covenant that God made with Abram and he calls it the covenant of circumcision.
Acts 7, verse 8, then he gave him, that is God gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision. Wouldn't that be an example of two covenants? The covenant of circumcision, there's no circumcision in 15, isn't this another covenant then?
But this is not how circumcision or how God's covenant with Abraham is ever handled anywhere in the Bible. Stephen's phrasing when he mentions the covenant of circumcision, he's just referring to God's covenant by its sign, which is often a way that you can talk about a covenant.
We see that, for example, in Exodus with the Sabbath. As Jeffrey Niehaus explains, in Stephen's case, he evokes circumcision in the speech as a reminder of Israel's great privilege and the nations simply as an allusion as a part of the whole to the Abrahamic covenant.
And so the covenant of circumcision, that's the sign of the covenant, he's just referencing the whole Abrahamic covenant. The significant thing is this, whenever the Bible refers to God's covenant with Abraham, it is always a covenant, the singular covenant, it is never covenants, there's never more than one, it's always the covenant God made with Abraham.
So there's only one covenant that God made with Abraham and that's true even when God reaffirms it with Isaac or with Jacob. It's not a new covenant with Isaac, there's not a covenant with Isaac or a covenant with Jacob distinct from Abraham, it's the covenant, the one covenant, God made with Abraham, reaffirmed to Abraham in 17 and in 22, also reaffirmed with Isaac and with Jacob and with his fathers.
I'll give you an example from Acts chapter 3. Peter is preaching in Acts 3 and he says this in verse 25, he's speaking to the men of Israel, you are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant, that's singular, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, that's plural, fathers, the patriarchs, saying to Abraham, and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
So you see there's one covenant but that covenant is made with Abraham and it's the covenant that is given to all of the fathers, all of the patriarchs of Israel. I love that word patriarch, never let that word die.
It's been under attack now for a few decades, the patriarchs of Israel. So the first point as we move on is simply this, the Abrahamic covenant is singular. Now you should have a lot of ones written in your notes, the number one, singular one covenant, now immediately you're going to have to start writing the number two because the second point, the scope of the Abrahamic covenant is that although the covenant is singular, it does not have a singular accomplishment, it does not have a singular object.
It has an immediate historical fulfillment and an ultimate fulfillment, in other words the singular Abrahamic covenant is actually two-fold in scope. It's dual, it's dichotomous, all of these are appropriate words, it's a two-fold covenant.
Next week we're going to camp out on this point, I'm just going to lay the foundation for it briefly, we're going to really emphasize the dual nature of God's covenant with Abraham when we talk about the Mosaic covenant with Israel.
The duality of God's covenant with Abraham becomes the rest of the storyline of the Bible. To understand this point is to understand how Israel, Jesus, and the church all come together. The Abrahamic covenant is the umbrella that unites all of these things.
I was talking to our brother Kenny on Thursday night and I said something like, if I could only pick one chapter out of the entire Old Testament to best grasp and explain who I am as a Christian, what the church is, what the kingdom of God is, who Jesus is, what our relationship to the law is, what our relationship to Israel is, if I could only pick out one chapter to try to get my handle on all of that, it would be Genesis chapter 17.
And I hope over the next month you'll agree with me that this is the best chapter to explain all of these things. As we'll see, duality is a very important component of God's covenant with Abraham. It emphasizes all of his redemptive work in the immediate fulfillment, which is typical, in other words it's symbolic, it's a shadow, it's a type, we'll see that next week.
But then in its ultimate fulfillment, in its blossoming, in its true form, its concrete reality. And so we see this duality across these lines. There's something unconditional within it, but also something conditional.
There's something international about it, but also something national. There's something regional about it, the land, but there's also something global about it, the world, Paul says in Romans 3. There's something temporal about it, but there's also something eternal.
So this is the duality that's embedded within the Abrahamic covenant. Now you'll notice the language shifts. This is already a little red flag to our mind, given all of the way that God has revealed himself to Abraham so far.
We see a sort of tone change, beginning in verse 9, but let me begin by verse 4. See if you can pick up on the difference of tone. As for me, says the Lord, behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations.
No longer shall your name be called Abraham, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful. I will make nations of you. Kings shall come from you.
I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your descendants after you, and your generations for an everlasting covenant to be God to you and to your descendants after.
You.
And I give to you and to your descendants the land in which you're a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession, and I will be their God. Verse 9, and God said to Abraham, as for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout your generations.
This is my covenant which you shall keep between me and you and your descendants after you. Every male child among you shall be circumcised, and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins.
It shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. Do you notice the language begin to shift? Verse 14, and the uncircumcised male child who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people.
He has broken my covenant. In the first part of chapter 17 up to verse 8, we see the certainty of God's promise. This is going to be His activity, His purpose revealed in the life of Abraham and his progeny.
Again and again we find these words, I will, I will, I will. We already know from chapter 15 that God believes these, Abraham believes these I will statements of God, and because he believes them, it's counted to him as righteousness.
So the foundation of this covenant, as always, is the promise by the faithfulness of God. In this way, the promises are certain. In this way, the promise is unconditional to the one who receives it by faith.
But, then we come to verses 9 -14 and we find all this language of conditional requirements. As for you, and here comes this stream of conditions, for the first time we see the real possibility of a physical seed being cut off, of breaking the covenant, being separated from the people of God.
The language has shifted from I will to you shall, you must, it's a command. The agency has turned from God alone unilaterally to Abram and Abram's physical seed, and so this is where we have this duality.
It enters into the narrative at chapter 17. Jeffrey Johnson, very important book, he wrote a dichotomous covenant, we're talking about dual covenant, right, one covenant but it's twofold, it's dichotomous, a dichotomous covenant is a single covenant with two separate dimensions, spiritual and physical, eternal and temporal, unconditional and conditional.
The important thing to note is that Abraham's physical seed belongs to the conditional side of the Abrahamic covenant. We're going to flesh all this out in Galatians 3 and 4. But Abraham's spiritual seed belongs to the unconditional side of the Abrahamic covenant.
So it's one covenant but there's two objects in view, there's a twofold scope. All of the conditionality will unfold via circumcision, via the law, through the fleshly seed which is Israel, Israel according to the flesh.
All of the unconditional elements, that which is given by promise in the hope of the Spirit unfolds through Israel according to the Spirit, the true Israel, which is Abraham's spiritual.
Seed.
If that's not clear yet, if it's not even clear within the next half hour, it will be clear next week. Why is this important? It's very important to understand this duality because if you fail to understand this dual nature in the Abrahamic covenant, you'll not properly understand what continues and what discontinues.
There's both, because of this dual nature in the covenant, there's both continuity and discontinuity. Most of the various theological traditions are various theological traditions because of how they understand that relationship of continuity and discontinuity.
So where we are on the spectrum of our understanding of the purpose and plan of God from the Old Testament to the New and how that relates to me as a Christian today in the church of Jesus Christ today, all of that hangs on how I understand the covenants relating to what continues and what stops, what has passed away and what hasn't.
That's why this is important, to give a hint of what we'll trace out next week and in the coming weeks. Some would argue that the Abrahamic, along with the Mosaic and the New Covenant, are all administrations, you know, dispensing a period of God's uniform, overarching covenant.
Of grace.
Now, you could quibble if you really want to be accurate and detailed here. This is language that you'll hear from certain Presbyterians. They're not all on this point. You'll hear something like, well, that was an administration of the covenant of grace, you know, as it was under Moses, as it was under David and the New.
These are all administrations of the covenant of grace. We're going to quibble with the language of even covenant of grace, better to say program of grace or purpose of grace, because it's not actually a covenant, all these things hobbled together, but this has become part of how we speak about it.
It's embedded in confessional language, so as a technical term, we can use it. So some have said all of these covenants, you know, after you get the covenant with Adam, which is a covenant of works, and then that's reaffirmed with Noah, and then you have these covenants of grace, beginning with Abraham and then Moses and the New Covenant.
These are all administrations of this one overarching covenant of grace. Some Presbyterians say that. Some would hold to that. Others, some Baptists, some Presbyterian, have argued that only the Abrahamic and the New Covenant are administrations of this single uniform covenant of grace, but when you get to Moses, the covenant with Israel, that is the covenant of works that God makes with Adam republished, and so it's a covenant of works, and so they want to put parentheses about Moses and say, no, Abraham's grace, New Covenant's grace, but Moses, that's law, and that must be what God did with Adam.
He's doing it again at Mount Sinai. Oh boy, that sounds persuasive too. So where are we going to land? What are we going to flesh out? We're going to land somewhere between the two. We can appreciate the points of both, but then we can also say a plague on both of your.
Houses.
You're both missing something. This is what makes us Reformed Covenants, but also Baptists. Our approach to covenant theology certainly views the Mosaic covenant as a republishing of the covenant of works.
Certainly, it views the New Covenant as a covenant of sheer, unconditional grace, but both the Mosaic covenant and the New Covenant are born out of the conditional and unconditional dimensions of God's covenant with Abraham.
Again, this is how significant this dual scope is for the covenant with Abraham. The unconditional within that covenant corresponds to the new. The conditional within that covenant corresponds to the Mosaic, and all these things together come together.
So the second point, the Abrahamic covenant is a singular covenant, dual in scope. If that just was sipping from a fire hydrant and you're like, what? Wait till next week, you know? Chew on that for a while, write down the notes, question marks, one, two, what was all that?
These things will become clearer as we press on. Third point, the sign of the Abrahamic covenant. The sign of the Abrahamic covenant is circumcision. It's very hard for me to restrain myself in talking about the way circumcision connects to baptism, but we have to wait at least three weeks to get there, can't wait to get there.
The sign of the Abrahamic covenant is circumcision. The dual scope of the Abrahamic covenant is embedded within this sign. The sign of circumcision is both a promise and a threat. It's a promise to God's people, speaking spiritually of the physical seed of Abraham.
It's a threat, certainly a threat to the physical seed of Abraham. God's requirement of circumcision is for all a condition of this covenant. It's a symbol. It demands more than just a simple act outwardly, as though all of a sudden you receive all of this grace, no matter who you are or what you do, where you've been, where you go, simply because you were circumcised on the eighth day.
That's what it becomes in the theology of the Jews in the second temple period. But rather it, from the very beginning, even within the Old Testament, symbolizes full obedience to the law from the heart.
And so it's not an external symbol, but rather something that's internal, and the internal flows to the external. And we see that, for instance, in Deuteronomy chapter 30, verse 6. The Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants to love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all your soul that you may live.
Jesus summarizes this as the first and great core of the law, the heart of the law. And so the circumcised heart is what's embedded in this covenantal sign. The relationship of the sign to God's law is revealed in its fullness at Sinai.
The Jews, of course, were in this Abrahamic covenant, so they continued to circumcise themselves, but now they're under this law of Moses. They're in this Mosaic economy, this Mosaic covenant. And this is what Paul has to say about that situation, Galatians 5 .3.
I testify to every man who accepts circumcision that he's obligated to keep the whole law. Remember, in Galatians, he's dealing with Gentile believers who want to Judaize. There's been false teaching, false apostles that have come in, and they've taught that you can only be right with God, you Greeks and you Romans, if you're circumcised.
And so, yes, it's wonderful that you're studying the Scriptures. Yes, we believe the Gospel too, but you know you'll always be on the outside of God's circumcision. Don't you want to be in good standing?
Don't you want to be a part of the covenant that God made with Abraham? And Paul says, what is circumcision and what does it bind you to? Do you not understand the logic, as we'll see it next week? I testify to every man.
You want to be circumcised?
You're obligated to keep the whole law.
That's what circumcision obligates you to do. Romans 2 .25, for circumcision is indeed a value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision.
Do you see?
It was always a matter of the heart. This connection between circumcision and perfect obedience to the law is not just what the New Testament understands about it, it's what the Old Testament always understood.
It's a condition of the covenant that God makes with the physical seed of Abraham. Genesis 18, beginning in verse 17. Here's the condition. How is this promise going to be realized? By the reality of that sign, the reality of that symbol.
In other words, by one receiving that sign, that symbol of perfect obedience to God, a heart fully circumcised to God, and then never breaking God's law. That's the way that the promises of Abraham made by covenant will come to pass.
So again, I hope some of you are tracking where I'm going with this. You have this dual nature, something physical, something earthly, physical Israel, but something spiritual too, all within this one covenant.
But wait a minute, God passed through. God said He would receive the curse if this covenant was to be broken, and now you break the covenant when you're not circumcised, meaning when you break the law.
That's when you're cut off. That's when you're separated from the people of God. Do you see some of these puzzle pieces slowly moving together?
I hope so.
Circumcision put the physical seed of Abraham. All those born by the blood of Abraham, as we see in this chapter emphasized, and this is a picture of the gospel going much wider than Israel, everyone in his household, even foreigners, slaves, they're all circumcised.
So that's an image, sort of a preview of what God's grace is going to do in this fulfillment. But don't miss the threat. Don't miss where we're going toward Moses. Every Israelite is by circumcision bound to a law that binds them to perfection.
The condition of the Abrahamic promise rests on perfect obedience. Who will receive the promise of Abraham? The Israelite who perfectly obeys the law because he's been circumcised, and that's what the sign commits him to.
You who would be circumcised, you're obligated to keep the whole law. The problem is this, for every Israelite until one, the law is an unbearable demand that they can never meet a perfection that they've already fallen short of from the very beginning, a yoke that neither we nor our fathers are able to bear, as was said in Acts 15.
But yet Israel is still looking for the grace of God, and they still trust they'll find it because of all this unconditional language that God gave to Abraham, so they still have this hope of salvation in the midst of their disobedience.
As they go to the temple and they sacrifice, they know the conditionality rests on the perfect law keeper, but they break the law generation after generation. The law embedded in circumcision demands perfect obedience, but it also is a promise of the gospel to come, because remember what Paul says in Galatians 3, the gospel was preached to Abraham beforehand.
So how does circumcision apply? Romans 4, beginning in verse 9, does this blessedness come upon the circumcised? What is the blessedness? Paul's just quoted from Psalm 32. David talks about the blessed man whose sin, whose guilt is not imputed to him, it's not counted to him, but rather by faith it's the righteousness of God which is counted to him.
So as a sinner, David says, I'm a blessed man because my guilt's not counted against me, my sins are not held against me. I'm blessed because God's righteousness has been credited to me. So Paul picks this up in verse 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. Genesis 15, 6, you remember it. How then was it accounted?
While he was circumcised? Or uncircumcised? If you thought that circumcision made you righteous, you're missing what circumcision's about. Circumcision is the sign that demands righteousness, lest you be cut off.
Not while circumcised, Paul reasons. He didn't receive that righteousness when he was circumcised.
It was before, while uncircumcised.
It was only later that he received the sign of circumcision. And that circumcision to him, to a believer of God, is a seal of the righteousness of the faith he had while still uncircumcised. So that he would be the father of all those who believe, though they're uncircumcised.
So that righteousness might be imputed to them also. And the father of circumcision, to those who are not only of the circumcision, but also walk in the steps of the faith which our father Abraham had while still uncircumcised.
So you see, whether circumcised or not, what makes you righteous is believing God. In that sense, circumcision avails for nothing, as Paul goes on to say. Abraham's physical seed, here, can, like Abraham, receive the gospel promise and have a righteousness credited to them.
How?
Not by keeping the law, which the sign obligates them to do, but like Abraham, receiving that unconditional promise, taking it by faith. That's how they become blessed like David, righteous like Abraham, by faith.
God credits them righteousness. That's what the Abrahamic covenant is preaching to them. But as we see, and as we'll see next week, this call for righteousness becomes a stumbling stone for them. Do you notice what Paul says in Romans 4?
Circumcision is not the sign of a different covenant with Abraham. It's not the sign of something else, there's only one covenant. It's a sign of the faith that he had, before he was circumcised. So by faith, Abraham enters into this one and only Abrahamic covenant, cut in Genesis 15.
He's the mediator of the covenant. He's justified by faith, apart from circumcision. But now in 17, there's this conditionality put upon it. These promises, this blessing to the whole world will only come when this condition is met.
This symbol of circumcision binds you to perfect obedience, and without the fulfillment of that, none of these promises will be ultimately fulfilled. Abraham's physical seed, the Israelites, could, like the Gentiles, become Abraham's spiritual seed, by having the same faith that the Gentiles needed to have, which is granted by the Holy Spirit.
Not according to an outward circumcision, but the true circumcision, the inner circumcision, being regenerated, given faith in God. The New Covenant, as we're going to see at the end of the month, the New Covenant takes up this language.
It's not going to be engraved upon the flesh by hand. It's going to be engraved in the heart, a new heart, a heart of flesh, a circumcised heart. That's what God promises by His Spirit in the New Covenant.
So even though Abraham's physical seed, even though Israel is now given the symbol of a requirement of perfect obedience, and established by law at Mount Sinai, held to a covenant of works as the fleshly Israelites, they receive the blessing of a gospel preached to them, of a way of being justified by faith alone apart from works, of a covenant that will be given to them, that God will establish by Himself, for He alone passed through the animal parts.
All of that is embedded together. So what advantage has the Jew? What profit is circumcision, Paul asks in Romans 3? Much in every way. It's a good thing for them to have this requirement on their flesh.
It's a good thing for them to be confronted by the reality of what this bound them to.
Why?
Because it was preaching the gospel to them of their own inability, of their utter dependence upon the grace of God, of their hope in what He has promised, their hopelessness in themselves. Salvation wouldn't come by grace because salvation always comes by grace, through faith, apart from works of the law, apart from circumcision.
This is how Jews and Gentiles alike become the children of Abraham, righteous in Christ. Listen to how Paul explains this in Romans 3, beginning in verse 19. Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law.
How are you under the law? Circumcision.
That every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in His sight. For by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now, the righteousness of God, apart from the law, is revealed.
The righteousness which we saw in Genesis 15, 6. That little blossom that has now flowered with the coming of Christ in the fullness of time. The righteousness of God, apart from the law. It was witnessed to by the law and the prophets, right?
All of Scripture was witnessing to this great righteousness of God to come. Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all, and on all who believe. And you remember the whole argument from Romans 1 -3, how he says the Jew is guilty, the Gentile is guilty.
None are righteous, no, not one. The righteousness of God has now been revealed through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. For there's no difference, all have sinned. Circumcised or uncircumcised, Israelite or Gentile, all have sinned.
But now a righteousness of God is revealed to all who believe. To bring salvation and the promised blessings to the nations, the law had to be satisfied. This is the condition of the Abrahamic covenant, given to the physical seed.
The circumcision, the sign of the covenant, demands that all of the heirs, all the recipients of the great promises of Abraham, walk in perfect obedience to his law. The problem is, as we know, the physical seed does not.
They break the covenant at every turn. It was a covenant of works to them. They should have walked by faith, not in confidence in the flesh. They should have known it was impossible to fulfill the law.
Many of them came to know that grace within the old covenant. They came to despair of hopelessness within themselves and walk with God by faith alone in the sacrifices that they made, which pointed forward to Christ.
We know that when Jesus came, most of the Pharisees, most of the people, they viewed the law as only some external conformity. Be circumcised, don't touch things that are unclean. Do these behaviors and you're in.
You're in like Flynn, as they would say. So the problem, we might say, the problem was a lack of obedience. That's what the law requires. That's what circumcision requires. The real problem was lack of faith.
The problem was not lack of obedience so much as the lack of faith. The awareness to say, I'm lost, I'm hopeless, I cannot be right with God. God, you must provide a way for me to be right with you. I have to depend completely upon your grace.
Israel failed to believe because they took pride in the fact that they were circumcised. They had the completely wrong understanding of circumcision. Hey, we're right with God, you know, salvations of the Jews.
We're children of Abraham. God made these covenants to Abraham. We're in it now. We're circumcised. We're walking in these ways as best we can. It's good enough, good enough for God. And Jesus says in Matthew 3, God can raise up children from Abraham from these stones.
You completely misunderstand the grace of God. And so this duality is always a presentation of salvation by grace apart from works of the law. And that brings us then to the true seed of Christ. Because as we said, the Abrahamic covenant, it's given to the physical fleshly seed in time.
They're born under the law, born with this perfect requirement, under it as a covenant of works, and they fail and they fail and they fail and they fail. And so the promise cannot come. The Spirit cannot be given.
God cannot fulfill what He promised to do, which He undertook to do Himself in chapter 15. So how is this going to be fulfilled?
Who is the seed of Abraham?
Who is born under the law?
Who can fulfill it? Who can keep it?
Who can unlock the scrolls that have been sealed, the promises of God? Well, the true seed is Jesus Christ. And so this is what Paul reasons in Galatians 3, beginning in verse 10. For as many as are of the works of the law, he's speaking of a people group.
You want to be circumcised? You want to be of the works of the law rather than of grace? As many as are of the works of the law are under the curse. You're under it as a covenant of works.
You're under the curse of it.
Oh, you've done it now? Can you fulfill it? You're under the curse then. You'll be cut off. You'll be separated from the people of God.
For it is written,.
Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. Cursed are you when you receive the sign of circumcision, of perfect obedience to God, inward and outward, and you fail to complete it.
Cursed are you. That's what Paul says. That's what circumcision binds you to. But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident.
For the just shall live by faith. Habakkuk 2 .4.
Yet the law is not of faith,.
Because the man who does them shall live by them. Only the man who keeps the law perfectly can live by the law. Life and salvation is held out for the law keeper. And so you must do it in order to live by it.
But if you cannot live by it, you're under the curse of it. The law is not of faith, but the man who does them shall live by them. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. How? By becoming a curse for us.
Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.
Why was the one born under the law, the one circumcised in perfect obedience, the one who kept the law and therefore was able to live by the law, why did he receive the curse of the law? Why was he cut off from his people, cut off from the land of the living according to Psalm 22?
So that he could redeem us from the curse of the law. Now Paul immediately connects all of this to Abraham. He doesn't go to Isaiah 53, he goes to Genesis 15. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, so that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
Who unlocks the promise? It's Jesus Christ. Who's the Israelite who receives the sign of the Abrahamic covenant and fulfills it and therefore warrants all of the promises to flow?
It's Christ Jesus.
That is why God himself can pass through the carcasses alone,.
Without Abraham.
He himself will do it, but it also must be one who is born according to the flesh, under the law, under that yoke and burden. It must be both. It must be both God himself who will do it by grace and an Israelite born under the law, born circumcised to keep the law perfectly both inwardly and outwardly.
This is the only way this covenant can be satisfied. And so Paul continues to reason.
Verse 15,.
Brethren, I speak in the manner of men. Though it is only a man's covenant, yet if it is confirmed, no one annuls or adds to it. Things aren't shifting around. God has one covenant, one purpose. Even for men, even among business contracts, Paul reasons.
Now to Abraham and his seed. If you're reading along in your study Bible, you'll notice that that S is capitalized, as it should be. Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. The promises in chapter 12.
The vision confirmed in chapter 15. The promises elaborated in chapter 17, held out in 22. All of the promises of God. The hope of the Spirit to come. The promise of a land in which we'll dwell with God eternally.
All of this is bound up. And the promise is not given to Abraham and his seed as to many, Paul says, but as of one. And to your seed, singular, who is Christ. So Paul sees in Galatians 3, that this covenant, the unconditional aspect, the flowering fulfillment of God's sheer unilateral grace received by faith alone, all of that comes to us.
Because the conditional,.
The burden of the law, the curse of the law,.
That aspect of the covenant is made with his seed, Christ. The promised seed was Christ. And so the promise and the condition and the binding of circumcision and the threat of the curse all rests ultimately upon Christ.
As we'll see next week, the true Israel of God.
The true seed of Abraham.
Typically, Abraham's physical descendants, the Israelites, they were not given any unconditional guarantee that they would not be cut off from the covenant. And so when we get to Romans chapter 9, this is why Paul begins to understand there's really only one seed of Abraham.
There's really only one people that these promises apply to. There's really only one hope, one salvation, which is by grace alone through faith. And he says in Romans 9, 6, they're not all Israel who are of Israel.
If you're thinking Israel's just according to the flesh, no, you're misunderstanding it. Paul says one becomes a descendant, a seed, a child of Abraham by faith.
For he's the father of those who have faith.
And so even Israel is not Israel. Every physical descendant of Abraham, Christ himself ultimately was placed under that legal condition of obedience to unlock the fulfillment of the covenant. And that's why God commands in Genesis 18, 19, keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what He has promised Him.
This is the only way the Lord can bring to Abraham.
What He has promised.
The tension that we find in this dual scope, and we're going to unpack it more next week, is that God Himself unilaterally, unconditionally guarantees that the promises will be fulfilled. He Himself does it.
He passes through the curse. But then He goes on beginning in chapter 17 to demand a perfectly obedient son. And that demand, that condition is only met in the true seed of Abraham, which is Jesus Christ.
Thankfully, that true seed did fulfill the righteous demand of the law. Paul says, I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised. He was born under the law.
Born of a woman.
In order to show God's truthfulness. In order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs. In order that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy. That's Romans 15. That's Abrahamic language. Why?
Why did Christ become a servant to the law? Bound to the law? Circumcised to the law? In order to show God's truthfulness with what He had promised. I'm going to do this. I will bring this about. This is the promise that God had given to all of the patriarchs.
The promise that takes us all the way to the New Covenant. The promise that Jesus Christ is the yes and the amen of God's redemption and mercy. That the Gentiles in every nation of the world will be blessed through Him.
And even Abraham himself in his failure and disobedience and his inability to keep the covenant that is symbolized by his own circumcision.
Rejoices to see the day of Christ.
He knows his seed will sake him. His seed will bring about the promise. And so he can live in Canaan and live in a tent. I'm not living for this. The promise isn't coming through me. I've seen Isaac.
It's not coming through him.
I know Jacob.
He looks afar off to Jesus. So that Jews and Gentiles alike,.
So that all who believe.
Can be saved by grace alone, through faith alone. Brothers and sisters, as we come to a close, I hope this has given at least some introductory foundation for where we're going to be going. Hopefully you can trace or sketch out where we're going.
Let me just say this.
It's a very important point.
That will be reiterated.
When we get to what makes us Baptists. The true children of Abraham, the true seed of Abraham are those who are united to the singular seed of Abraham by faith. You must understand that. How are you in the covenant of grace that God makes with Abraham?
How do you receive all of the unconditional free-flowing mercy of that covenant, of that aspect of the covenant? It's by having faith and being united by faith to the true seed. The one who kept the conditional aspects of the covenant, and therefore unlocks the whole.
And bestows the whole.
Romans 2, 28 and 29. No one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical.
It's not.
Paul once thought that when he was a Pharisee. And he thought he was good. He thought, I'm right with God, and this is great, and all I'm going to do is drag off and kill and imprison these Christians who say otherwise.
And he gets to the point where he's writing to this church full of Gentiles in Rome, and he's planning to go to Spain to be able to preach this gospel. And shortly after that, he'll be taken quickly to his death.
And he says, no one is a Jew outwardly. Circumcision isn't even physical. Think of how radical Paul's theology has been transformed, and it's a result of understanding what God has promised to Abraham.
A Jew is one inwardly. A circumcision of the heart,.
By the Spirit,.
Not by the letter. Paul says, we tried the letter. We always failed.
There are no righteous, not one.
No one could do the righteousness and the justice that the prophets were constantly yearning if you had done this, Jeremiah 4. If you had done this, all of the blessings would have flowed to you. Even in the Old Testament, not all of Israel was spiritual Israel.
Romans 9, 8. It is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God. The children of the promise are counted as the seed. Brothers and sisters, if you have faith in Christ Jesus, you are counted as the seed.
You are those on whom all of the grace, all of the unconditional mercy of the covenant flows to, because Christ, the true seed, has completed and fulfilled all the demands. We are the true seed who is Christ Jesus.
And I close with this verse. Put this on your refrigerator. Memorize this verse. This is the reality of what we've been talking about. Galatians 3, 29.
If you are Christ's,.
Then you are Abraham's seed.
And you are heirs.
According to the promise.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank you for the beauty, the majesty of your perfect plan of redemption. Lord, we see so clearly it was from the very beginning about your Son, from the time you gave that promise in Genesis 3, 15 of the seed of the woman, the seed that would come and undo all of the corruption and tyranny of sin.
The seed that would come and crush the skull of the serpent who's been our enemy from the beginning. The seed that would come and unfold all of the mercy and fullness of God. The seed who was promised to Abraham.
The one who would bring about the Spirit and bless all of the nations of the world. The seed that came in the fullness of time and was born under the law. And though he kept that condition perfectly, he received the curse, the penalty due for sin.
So that by faith in him, we might become the righteousness of God.
We praise you.
That this was your single purpose.
From the very beginning.
Unfolding and that now we stand by grace in this mighty covenant in the fulfillment of the promises in a new covenant made in the blood of Christ. Lord, I pray, in the midst of many details and much verbosity, I pray that Your Spirit's witness has shined through clearly.
Has shown us all in this room the hopelessness of keeping Your law. The foolishness of stumbling at that stumbling stone. But that we might live.
By Your grace through faith.
And therein receive.
The righteousness credited to us.
Because Christ,.
Though He accomplished all,.
Was cut off at Golgotha.
That we might be brought in here.
That He is the yes and the amen of all that You've promised, Lord.
That because of that,.
We are brought to a place where we see Your laws holy,.
Just, good.
We're saved from lawlessness.
To be desirous of Your law.
To see Your perfections manifest in Your law. To seek to order our lives according.
To Your royal law of liberty. Thank You, Lord,.
That You give us all this unconditional grace and a new heart and a new desire and a new spirit to walk in obedience to You. What have we to do, as was said last week,.
But walk before You in sincerity.
Let that sincerity abound in our love for Christ.
The true seed.
In Him is all of our hope.
And in His name we pray.
Amen.