{"id":1427,"date":"2009-12-17T21:01:29","date_gmt":"2009-12-18T03:01:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.org\/blog\/?p=1427"},"modified":"2009-12-17T21:01:29","modified_gmt":"2009-12-18T03:01:29","slug":"romans-49-righteous-without-surgery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/romans-49-righteous-without-surgery\/","title":{"rendered":"Romans 4:9 – Righteous Without Surgery"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Romans 4:9<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Does this blessedness then<\/span> come<\/span><\/em> upon the circumcised<\/span> only,<\/span><\/em> or upon the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness.<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Truth to Learn<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

We can receive the same blessedness that Abraham enjoyed through faith.<\/p>\n

Behind the Words<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cBlessedness<\/span>\u201d is from makarismos<\/span><\/em>, which we looked at in verse six, meaning \u201cpossessing the fullness of God\u2019s favor.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCircumcised<\/span>\u201d is from the Greek word peritom\u0113<\/span><\/em>, which is a compound word made up of peri<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201caround\u201d and a form of the verb temn\u014d<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cto cut or to cut off.\u201d Hence, this word refers to a circular cutting off of the foreskin.<\/p>\n

The word \u201cuncircumcised<\/span>\u201d is translated from akrobustia<\/span><\/em>, which is made up of akron<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cthe tip\u201d and a form of the verb bu\u014d<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cto cover.\u201d Therefore, this word refers to someone who has not had his foreskin cut off.<\/p>\n

We can see from these two words, that a literal interpretation would be \u201cround cuts\u201d for those who are circumcised and \u201ctip covers\u201d to refer to those who are not. Though this sounds peculiar to us, it is much the same type of imagery that was used to describe American Indians as \u201cred skins\u201d because of the reddish color of their skin. Given that Paul is specifically talking about the practice of keeping the law with regard to circumcision as it relates to salvation, however, \u201ccircumcised\u201d and \u201cuncircumcised\u201d are the best translations of these words.<\/p>\n

Meaning Explained<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Paul has been quoting from the book of Psalms where David declared the blessedness of the person to whom God will not impute (mark to his account) sin. This blessedness is a characteristic of every person who has saving faith. In Noah\u2019s case it was the belief that God was going to bring a flood. In Abraham\u2019s case is was belief that God was going to give him a son in his old age. In our case it is the belief that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and He died on the cross to pay for our sins. In each of these examples, it is faith that is accounted for righteousness in God\u2019s record book.<\/span><\/p>\n

Paul, referring to the blessedness described by David, now asks the Jewish Christians in Rome a pivotal question. Remember, the Jews of the early church still believed that you had to keep the law and be a devout Jew before you could become a Christian. They believed that all Christian males had to be circumcised and keep the Law, even after salvation. There are many churches today that have established laws, ordinances, and rules for their constituents. They teach that obedience to these rules is necessary to be a Christian and to be a member of their church. Paul doesn\u2019t think so!<\/span><\/p>\n

He asks, \u201cDoes this blessedness<\/em> (that God will not impute sin) apply to those of the circumcision <\/em>(keepers of the Law) only? Or, does this blessedness also apply to those who don\u2019t keep the Law<\/em> (or obey the ordinances of the Church) but who simply believe. After all, in Abraham\u2019s case it was his faith that was accounted to<\/em> him as righteousness.<\/em>\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Application<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t matter who your ancestors are, what church you go to, or even if you occasionally break some of the rules. If you believe the gospel message you are righteous according to God.<\/span><\/p>\n

In God\u2019s service, for His glory,<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"signature\"<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2009 Will Krause. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –<\/p>\n

<\/span>If this message or this link was forwarded to you by a friend and you wish to receive future verses directly to your inbox, you can call the church phone \"\"(618) 614-3070<\/span><\/span><\/span> and leave a message telling us your name and e-mail address or you can send an e-mail to:\"e-mail<\/div>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Romans 4:9 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. Truth to Learn We can receive the same blessedness that Abraham enjoyed through faith. Behind the Words \u201cBlessedness\u201d is from makarismos, which we looked at in verse six, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[612,73,610,204,75,544],"class_list":["post-1427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-abraham","tag-blessed","tag-circumcised","tag-faith","tag-righteousness","tag-uncircumcised"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-n1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1427\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}