NOTES for Rom 4:9-11
9 Cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also? for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness. |
10 How was it then reckoned? when he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. |
11 And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also: |
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Paul draws attention to a fact repeatedly discussed in the rabbinic debates of his era: Abraham heard God, came to know Him, and believed Him before the giving of the Torah and even before the day when he was circumcised. Circumcision was a most important moment: for Jews in those times (and for Orthodox believing Jews today as well) the world is divided into the circumcised and the uncircumcised, one's own and strangers, Jews and Gentiles. In connection with this, rabbinic circles argued a great deal about the exact moment when Abraham becomes the "father of all who believe."
The apostle affirms that Abraham became such at the very moment when he trusted God. The Torah and circumcision came afterward. This is understandable, for the Torah is ultimately not an end in itself, but only a means on the path of righteousness - the very path that, according to Paul, is now possible after Christ's coming only together with Him.
Therefore faith is the main thing. The issue, of course, is not what we often call faith today: not dogmatics whose correctness we are convinced of, not creeds we are ready to defend, and not even a worldview we regard as the most correct and adequate. The issue is faith in the biblical sense of the word, faith as trust and as the relationships that flow from such trust. And relationships are always dynamic and exist in the present - always here and now.
The Torah merely helps us build our life (inner and outer) in such a way that relations with God, relations with Christ, always remain for us the center around which everything else is gathered. And the "works of the Torah," including even such an important work as circumcision, are already the third, external level of human existence. It is also significant, of course, but it does not determine a person's relations with God and people. This is how the apostle builds the hierarchy of levels of existence (or, as a modern philosopher might say, existential layers) without which full Christian life will be at least difficult, if not altogether impossible.
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