The Cart, The Horse, and The Righteousness of God Text: Romans 4:9-12
Introduction: Getting the Order Right
The modern world, and sadly, much of the modern church, is in a state of profound confusion. It is a confusion that stems from a basic inability to think in a straight line. We want the results without the premises, the conclusion without the argument, and the harvest without the planting. We put the cart before the horse and then wonder why the whole enterprise is stuck in the mud. This is nowhere more apparent, or more deadly, than in our understanding of how a man gets right with God. The Judaizers in Paul's day had this problem, and our contemporaries have simply updated the error. They insisted that to be truly right with God, you needed faith plus a particular ritual, a badge of ethnic identity. For them, it was circumcision. For moderns, it might be a political affiliation, a social justice credential, or a particular set of personal disciplines.
But the gospel is a sword that cuts through all such man-made additions. The gospel puts things in their proper, divinely established order. And in this fourth chapter of Romans, the apostle Paul is a master logician, dismantling the pride of man by showing us God's unassailable logic. He has already established that justification is by faith alone, using the premier example of Abraham. Now, he anticipates the objection. "Ah," says the Judaizer, "but Abraham was our father. He was circumcised. That's the key." Paul takes up this objection and, with the precision of a surgeon, demonstrates that they have the order of events entirely backward. They have put the cart of circumcision before the horse of faith.
What Paul does here is not just an abstract theological exercise. He is laying the foundation for the unity of the people of God. He is showing that the family of God is not defined by bloodlines, or ethnic markers, or ritual observances, but by a shared faith in the promise of God. By getting the order right with Abraham, he demolishes every wall of pride that would divide Jew and Gentile. He establishes that the ground at the foot of the cross is level, and that the entrance into God's family has only one door: faith.
The Text
Therefore, is this blessing on the circumcised, or on the uncircumcised also? For we say, “FAITH WAS COUNTED TO ABRAHAM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.” How then was it counted? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised; and he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while uncircumcised, so that he might be the father of all who believe without being circumcised, that righteousness might be counted to them, and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also follow in the steps of the faith of our father Abraham which he had while uncircumcised.
(Romans 4:9-12 LSB)
The Crucial Question of Timing (v. 9-10)
Paul begins with a sharp, logical question that drives to the heart of the matter.
"Therefore, is this blessing on the circumcised, or on the uncircumcised also? For we say, “FAITH WAS COUNTED TO ABRAHAM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.” How then was it counted? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised;" (Romans 4:9-10)
The "blessing" he refers to is the blessing of justification, the forgiveness of sins he just described by quoting David in the previous verses. The question is simple: who is this for? Is it an exclusive club for the Jews, the physically circumcised? Or is it for everyone? To answer this, he returns to his star witness, Abraham. Everyone agreed with the foundational premise, quoted from Genesis 15:6: "Faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness." The debate was not about whether this happened, but about the circumstances under which it happened.
Paul's logic is devastatingly simple. He asks for the timeline. When did God declare Abraham righteous? Was it before or after he was circumcised? A quick trip back to Genesis settles the matter conclusively. God's declaration of righteousness in Genesis 15 happens when Abraham is about 85 years old. The institution of circumcision in Genesis 17 does not occur until Abraham is 99 years old. There are at least fourteen years separating the two events. The verdict is in: Abraham was justified by faith while he was still, for all intents and purposes, a Gentile. He was uncircumcised.
This chronological fact blows the Judaizers' entire system out of the water. If circumcision were necessary for justification, then Abraham himself was not justified for over a decade after God said he was. This would make God's declaration in Genesis 15 a falsehood. The ritual, therefore, cannot be the cause of the righteousness. It must be something else. The sign cannot precede the reality it signifies. The horse must come before the cart. Abraham was declared righteous by faith alone, and only much later did he receive the sign of the covenant.
Sign and Seal (v. 11)
If circumcision is not the cause of righteousness, then what is it? Paul explains its true function in verse 11.
"and he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while uncircumcised, so that he might be the father of all who believe without being circumcised, that righteousness might be counted to them," (Romans 4:11)
Here we have a crucial definition of a sacrament, what we in the Reformed tradition call a sign and seal of the covenant. First, circumcision was a "sign." A sign points to something. A wedding ring is a sign of a marriage; it does not create the marriage. In the same way, circumcision was an outward, physical sign that pointed to an inward, spiritual reality. What reality? Paul tells us plainly: it pointed to "the righteousness of the faith which he had while uncircumcised." The sign pointed back to the justification he had already received by faith.
Second, it was a "seal." A seal authenticates or confirms something. In the ancient world, a king would press his signet ring into hot wax on a document to certify that it was genuine and that it carried his full authority. Circumcision was God's seal, His official stamp, upon the righteousness that was already Abraham's through faith. It was God's visible confirmation of an invisible grace. It did not make the promise true, but it officially marked Abraham and his descendants as the people of the promise.
This understanding is vital for our doctrine of the sacraments, particularly baptism. Baptism, like circumcision, is a sign and seal. It does not cause regeneration. We are not saved by the water. Rather, baptism is God's sign that points to the washing away of sins by Christ's blood, and it is His seal that confirms and authenticates the promises of the gospel to the believer and his children. To make the sign into the thing signified is to fall into the same error as the Judaizers.
And why did God arrange it this way, with faith first and the sign second? Paul gives the glorious purpose: "so that he might be the father of all who believe without being circumcised." God's plan from the beginning was to create a family that transcended ethnicity. By justifying Abraham before he was circumcised, God was establishing the principle that the true children of Abraham are identified not by what is done to their flesh, but by what is happening in their hearts. They are those who believe. This means that a Gentile in Ephesus who trusts in Christ has a more direct spiritual lineage to Abraham than an unbelieving Jew in Jerusalem who is physically descended from him and circumcised.
Two Kinds of Fatherhood (v. 12)
Paul then clarifies Abraham's relationship to his physical descendants, the Jews.
"and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also follow in the steps of the faith of our father Abraham which he had while uncircumcised." (Romans 4:12)
Abraham is the father of two groups, but in two different senses. He is the father of "all who believe" who are uncircumcised (Gentiles). But he is also the "father of circumcision" (the Jews). However, Paul immediately qualifies this. Abraham is not the father, in a saving sense, of everyone who is merely circumcised. He is the father only to those who possess two qualifications. First, they are "of the circumcision," meaning they are ethnically Jewish. But that is not enough. Second, and indispensably, they must also "follow in the steps of the faith of our father Abraham."
And what faith is that? Paul drives the point home one last time: the faith "which he had while uncircumcised." The standard for a true son of Abraham is not the faith of a circumcised man, but the faith of an uncircumcised man. The defining moment, the paradigm for all who would be saved, is Abraham believing God's promise in Genesis 15, long before any ritual was attached to it. A Jew who rests on his circumcision and his ethnic heritage is not walking in the steps of his father Abraham. He is walking in a different direction entirely. To be a true child of Abraham, one must have the same kind of faith Abraham had, a faith that trusts God's promise before and apart from any work or ritual.
Conclusion: The One Family of Faith
The logic of this passage is a battering ram against all forms of spiritual pride. It tells us that salvation is not a matter of heritage, ritual, or personal effort. The timeline of Abraham's life is God's ordained object lesson. Justification is a gift received by faith, and the signs of the covenant are God's gracious seals upon that gift, not the means of earning it.
This means the family of God is a family of faith. Whether you are a Jew or a Gentile, a man or a woman, a slave or a free man, the entrance requirement is the same. Do you believe the promise of God? Do you trust that God, for the sake of His Son Jesus Christ, counts your faith as righteousness? If you do, then you are a true child of Abraham. You are walking in the footsteps of the faith of your father Abraham, the faith he had while he was uncircumcised.
Therefore, we must never put the cart before the horse. Our good works, our baptism, our church membership, our acts of devotion, these are all good things. But they are the carts. They follow after justification; they do not produce it. They are the signs and seals and fruits of a righteousness already given. The horse is faith, and faith alone, which lays hold of the finished work of Jesus Christ. Let us ensure that our confidence is placed squarely on the horse, and not on the cart that follows behind. For it is the horse of faith that pulls us into the family of God and all the way home to glory.