Message: Romans 4 continues a lot of back and forth ideas about the law and about circumcision. Paul was showing them why it was wrong to expect the new Gentile converts to be circumcised by reminding them that Abraham, the father of all was called righteous long before God required him to be circumcised and certainly before the law even existed. It’s also important to note here that Abraham was called the Father of many nations, but Israel was the only nation that was given the law and that God required to be circumcised. It was a sign to them because he also gave them special favor. Because of this Jesus came to them first and when they rejected him he came to the Gentiles. Since we aren’t fighting about circumcision we can’t relate to this topic, so what I really pulled from it is the fact that we all have different experiences even though we walk with the same God. The children of Israel came out of slavery and a land of idolatry. God led them through the wilderness to teach them how to follow and obey him. He required them to cut their own flesh to symbolize that they belonged to God and in turn he gave them favor. What was physical for them was a spiritual example to us. We don’t cut our flesh physically, we do this spiritually by cutting away the fleshly desires that would distract us from following him. He is also teaching us to follow him exclusively and he gives us favor when we do.
