Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Romans 4:12
And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which [he had] being [yet] uncircumcised.
12. of circumcision ] Practically = of the circumcision; (see last note on Rom 1:4). Abraham is here said to be the (spiritual) Father of the circumcision; i.e. of the circumcised; and then at once this is limited to the believing circumcised.
to them who ] i.e. “to the benefit of those who, &c.” They inherit the eternal promise made to their great Father.
but who also walk ] There is a grammatical difficulty in the Gr.; but it leaves the sense exactly as in E. V.
in the steps ] Better, by the steps, as rule and model. Cp. Php 3:16. In the Gr. the verse closes with the words “ of our father Abraham; ” thus with an emphasis on the fact and nature of the fatherhood.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And the father of circumcision – The father, that is, the ancestor, exemplar, or model of those who are circumcised, and who possess the same faith that he did. Not only the father of all believers Rom 4:11, but in a special sense the father of the Jewish people. In this, the apostle intimates that though all who believed would be saved as he was, yet the Jews had a special proprietorship in Abraham; they had special favors and privileges from the fact that he was their ancestor.
Not of the circumcision only – Who are not merely circumcised, but who possess his spirit and his faith. Mere circumcision would not avail; but circumcision connected with faith like his, showed that they were especially his descendants; see the note at Rom 2:25.
Who walk in the steps … – Who imitate his example; who imbibe his spirit; who have his faith.
Being yet uncircumcised – Before he was circumcised. Compare Gen 15:6, with Gen. 17.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 12. And the father of circumcision] He is also the head and representative of all the circumcision of all the JEWS who walk in the steps of that faith; who seek for justification by faith only, and not by the works of the law; for this was the faith that Abraham had before he received circumcision. For, the covenant being made with Abraham while he was a Gentile, he became the representative of the Gentiles, and they primarily were included in that covenant, and the Jews were brought in only consequentially; but salvation, implying justification by faith, originally belonged to the Gentiles; and, when the Gospel came, they laid hold on this as their original right, having been granted to them by the free mercy of God in their father and representative, Abraham. So that the Jews, to be saved, must come under that Abrahamic covenant, in which the Gentiles are included. This is an unanswerable conclusion, and must, on this point, for ever confound the Jews.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The former verse tells you he was the father of the believing Gentiles, for the covenant was made with him, for all his believing seed, when he was uncircumcised, which shows, that righteousness is and may be imputed to them also without any outward circumcision: and then he is the father of the believing Jews; especially of as many of them as unto circumcision do add the imitation of his faith; who, besides circumcision, which they derived from him, do also transcribe his divine copy, and follow his example of faith and obedience; who leave their sins, as he did his country; who believe all Gods promises, and adhere to him against all temptations to the contrary.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And the father of circumcision,…. So the Jews call Abraham l, “the head of those that are circumcised”; and m, “the head to them that are circumcised”; but the apostle here says, he is a father
to them who are not of the circumcision only; not to the Jews only, in a spiritual sense, and not to all of them, since some were “of Israel”, who were not Israel, not Israelites indeed, or true believers;
but [to such] also [who] walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had, being yet uncircumcised; that is, who have the same faith he had; imitate and follow him in the exercise of faith; walk by faith, as he did when he was uncircumcised, as they are; and so the Jews say n,
“Abraham is the father of all, , “that go after him in his faith”.”
l Tzeror Hammor, fol. 18. 3. m Juchasin, fol. 5. 2. Midrash Esther, fol. 85. 3. n R. Sol. Hammelech Michlol. Jophi in Mal. ii. 15.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The father of circumcision ( ). The accusative with to be repeated from verse 11. Lightfoot takes it to mean, not “a father of a circumcised progeny,” but “a father belonging to circumcision,” a less natural interpretation.
But who also walk ( ). The use of here is hard to explain, for and both come after the preceding . All the MSS. have it thus. A primitive error in a copyist is suggested by Hort who would omit the second . Lightfoot regards it less seriously and would repeat the second in the English: “To those who are, I do not say of circumcision only, but also to those who walk.”
In the steps ( ). Locative case. See on 2Co 12:18. is military term, to walk in file as in Gal 5:25; Phil 3:16.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Father of circumcision. Of circumcised persons. The abstract term is used for the concrete. See on 11 7.
Who not only are – but who also walk. Apparently Paul speaks of two classes, but really of but one, designated by two different attributes. The awkwardness arises from the article toiv, erroneously repeated with stoicousin walk, which latter word expresses an added characteristic, not another class. Paul means that Abraham received a seal, etc., that he might be the father of circumcision to those who not only are circumcised, but who add to this outward sign the faith which Abraham exhibited.
Walk (stoicousin). See on elements, 2Pe 3:10.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “And the father of circumcision,” (kai patera peristomes) “And a (the) father of circumcision;” the initiator of flesh circumcision and the first example of Spiritual circumcision of the heart which by faith brought God’s righteousness to him and justified him, Col 2:11; Rom 2:28.
2) “To them who are not of the circumcision only,” But to Jews and Gentiles wise and unwise, the religious, and the irreligious, those with circumcision, and those without circumcision, the masses– not the classes.
3) “But who also walk,” (alla kai tois stoichousin) “But also to those who (are) walking;” The blessedness of God on those to whom he has imputed righteousness, to those who walk in obedient paths of service, is available to all who will come to Him, Joh 6:37; Psa 11:1-6.
4) “In the steps of that faith of our father Abraham,” (tois ichnesin tes pisteos tou patros hemon Abraam) “In the steps of the faith of Abraham our father;” who after he was made righteous by faith, received the seal of the covenant (circumcision) obeyed God, living in tents looking for a city not made with hands, Heb 11:8-10.
5) “Which he had being yet uncircumcised,” (eni akrobustia) “Which he possessed in uncircumcision;” the conclusion to be inevitably drawn is that this same justification from sin’s condemnation is available to all men, without respect of person or excuse of any person, circumcised or uncircumcised, no matter where he lives or has lived and irrespective of what his past has been. This justification comes by faith in Jesus Christ at which point the righteousness of God is imputed to him and he is saved, Rom 10:8-13; Eph 2:8-10; Act 16:30-31.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
12. To them who are not, etc. The verb, are, is in this place to be taken for, “are deemed to be:” for he touches the carnal descendants of Abraham, who, having nothing but outward circumcision, confidently gloried in it. The other thing, which was the chief matter, they neglected; for the faith of Abraham, by which alone he obtained salvation, they did not imitate. It hence appears, how carefully he distinguished between faith and the sacrament; not only that no one might be satisfied with the one without the other, as though it were sufficient for justifying; but also that faith alone might be set forth as accomplishing everything: for while he allows the circumcised Jews to be justified, he expressly makes this exception — provided in true faith they followed the example of Abraham; for why does he mention faith while in uncircumcision, except to show, that it is alone sufficient, without the aid of anything else? Let us then beware, lest any of us, by halving things, blend together the two modes of justification.
What we have stated disproves also the scholastic dogma respecting the difference between the sacraments of the Old and those of the New Testament; for they deny the power of justifying to the former, and assign it to the latter. But if Paul reasons correctly, when he argues that circumcision does not justify, because Abraham was justified by faith, the same reason holds good for us, while we deny that men are justified by baptism, inasmuch as they are justified by the same faith with that of Abraham.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(12) And on the other hand, the mere performance of the rite was no guarantee for justification, unless it was attended with a faith like Abrahams. Of the two things, faith itself, and circumcision the sign of faith, the first only was essential, and the second was useless without it.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
12. Father of a spiritual circumcision to the physically uncircumcised Gentile.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham which he had in uncircumcision.’
Nor is Abraham to be seen as the father of all who are circumcised. (As Jesus would point out to the Pharisees who claimed to be sons of Abraham, ‘you are of your father the Devil’ – Joh 8:39-44). He is rather to be seen as the father of those of the circumcised who walk in the same steps of faith as did Abraham, and whose faith therefore is of a kind that results in them being reckoned as in the right before God. It would be wrong therefore to see circumcision as putting a man in the right in the eyes of God.
This, of course, ties in with his previous argument in Rom 2:25-29 where he pointed out that the true circumcision were those whose hears had been circumcised, in other words those in whose hearts God had worked by His Spirit.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Rom 4:12 . The construction carries onward the foregoing . . [1010] : and father of circumcision, i.e. father of circumcised persons (not of all circumcised, hence without the article). And in order to express to what circumcised persons this spiritual fatherhood of Abraham belongs, Paul adds, by way of more precise definition: for those ( dativus commodi , comp Rev 21:7 ; Luk 7:12 ) who are not merely circumcised (comp Rom 2:8 ), but also walk in the footsteps , etc. With this rendering (Chrysostom, Oecumenius, Ambrosiaster, Erasmus, Beza, Calvin, Estius and others; including Ammon, Bhme, Tholuck, Klee, Rckert, Benecke, Reiche, Glckler, Kllner, de Wette, Philippi, and Winer) it must be admitted (against Reiche and Kllner, whose observations do not justify the article) that is erroneously repeated before . Paul unsuitably continues with , just as if he had previously written an . As any other rendering is wholly inadmissible, and as cannot be an inversion for (Mehring), we are driven to the assumption of that erroneous insertion of the article, as a negligence of expression. The expression in Phi 1:29 (in opposition to Fritzsche) would be of the same nature only in the event of Paul having written . , . . . [1013] Others take for (as 37, 80, Syr [1014] Arr. Vulg. Slav. and several Fathers read as an emendation), thus making a distinction to be drawn here not between merely circumcised and unbelieving Jews , but between Jews and Gentiles ( . . [1015] ). So Theodoret, Luther, Castalio, Koppe, Storr, Flatt, Schrader (Grotius is doubtful). But such an inversion is as unnatural (comp Rom 4:16 ) as it is unprecedented (it is an error to refer to Rom 2:27 ; 1Th 1:8 ); and how strange it would be, if Paul should have once more brought forward the fatherhood as to the believing Gentiles, but should have left that relating to the Jews altogether without conditioning definition! Hofmann (comp also his Schriftbew . II. 2, p. 82) understands , after the analogy of . . [1018] , as the genitive of quality (“a father, whose fatherhood is to be designated according to circumcisedness; ” as a circumcised person he has begotten Isaac, etc.); then assumes in the case of the suppressed antithesis to complete it, ; and finally explains . as a supplementary addition, while he takes to mean not but also , but also however. A hopeless misinterpretation! For, as genitive of quality , must have had the article (comp Act 7:2 ; 2Co 1:3 ; Eph 1:17 al [1020] ), and every reader must have understood in conformity with . . [1021] , Rom 4:11 , as a specification whose father Abraham further is. The reader could all the less mentally supply after . a suppressed contrast, since the expressed contrast follows immediately with ; and for that reason , again, it could occur to no one to understand this in any other sense than elsewhere after negations, namely, but also , not also however. (How inappropriate is Hofmann’s citation of Luk 24:22 , where no negation at all precedes!) Wieseler’s attempt (in Herzog’s Encyklop . XX. p. 592) is also untenable, since he imports into . the sense: “ who do not make circumcision the exclusive condition of salvation ,” and likewise renders also however; thus making Paul indicate (1) the Jewish Christians who were not rigid partisans of the law (such as were to be found in Palestine especially), and (2) the Pauline Jewish Christians.
. . [1022] ] who so walk (see on Gal 5:25 ) that they follow the footsteps which Abraham has left behind through his faith manifested in his uncircumcised condition, i.e. who are believers after the type of the uncircumcised Abraham. The dative , commonly taken as local , is more correctly, in keeping with the other passages in which Paul uses the dative with (Gal 5:16 ; Gal 5:25 ; Gal 6:16 ; Phi 3:16 ), interpreted in the sense of the norm .
[1010] . . . .
[1013] . . . .
[1014] yr. Peschito Syriac
[1015] . . . .
[1018] . . . .
[1020] l. and others; and other passages; and other editions.
[1021] . . . .
[1022] . . . .
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
12 And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised.
Ver. 12. Walk in the steps ] That herein personate and express him to the life, as Constantine’s children, saith Eusebius, did their father.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
12. ( ) . ] And (that he might be) father of the circumcision (the circumcised) to those (dat. commodi ‘for those,’ ‘in the case of those’) who are not only (physically) of the circumcision, but also who walk (the inversion of the article appears to be in order to bring out more markedly . and ., who are not only ., but also .) in the footsteps (reff.) of the faith of our father (speaking here as a Jew) Abraham (which he had) while he was in uncircumcision . (The art. would make it ‘during his uncircumcision,’ but the sense is better without it, the word being generalized.)
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
walk. Greek. stoicheo. See Act 21:24.
steps. Greek. ichnos. Only here, 2Co 12:18. 1Pe 2:21.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
12. ( ) .] And (that he might be) father of the circumcision (the circumcised) to those (dat. commodi for those, in the case of those) who are not only (physically) of the circumcision, but also who walk (the inversion of the article appears to be in order to bring out more markedly . and .,-who are not only ., but also .) in the footsteps (reff.) of the faith of our father (speaking here as a Jew) Abraham (which he had) while he was in uncircumcision. (The art. would make it during his uncircumcision,-but the sense is better without it, the word being generalized.)
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Rom 4:12. , of circumcision) The Abstract for the concrete, of the circumcised nation.-) Heb. : see Nold. on this particle, n. 30, 10, 15, 19, 22. Generally, it implies as to [as regards, in relation to]; so , 1Jn 5:16; Luk 1:50; Luk 1:55. LXX. 1Ch 13:1 : . , add to these passages 2Ch 31:2; 2Ch 31:16; Num 29:4.–) Abraham, therefore, is not the father of circumcision to such as are merely of the circumcision, and do not also follow the faith of Abraham.- , of the circumcision) , of, means something more weighty than , in. Circumcision was at least a sign, uncircumcision was not even a sign.[46]- ) so in Rom 4:16.-, in the traces [steps]) The traces of faith are opposed to the traces of outward circumcision; the path is not trodden by many, but there are foot-traces found in it; it is, however, an open way.
[46] Therefore is used with , with .-ED.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Rom 4:12
Rom 4:12
and the father of circumcision to them who not only are of the circumcision,-All who would become the children of Abraham by faith must walk in the same steps which faith led Abraham to take. His faith led him to so trust God as to deny himself all that was dear to him and go forth not knowing whither he went, and to dwell as a pilgrim and a sojourner in a strange land before it was reckoned to him for righteousness.
but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham which he had in uncircumcision.-When men perfect their faith by walking in the steps of the faith of Abraham, then God will reckon that faith for righteousness.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
to them: Rom 9:6, Rom 9:7, Mat 3:9, Luk 16:23-31, Joh 8:39, Joh 8:40, Gal 4:22-31
in the steps: Job 33:11, Pro 2:20, Son 1:8, 2Co 12:18, 1Pe 2:21
Reciprocal: Gen 4:20 – the Gen 4:21 – father Lev 12:3 – General Psa 47:9 – the God Isa 41:8 – the seed Jer 6:16 – Stand Eze 33:24 – but we Mar 7:5 – General Luk 5:39 – General Luk 13:16 – being Luk 16:24 – Father Luk 19:9 – forsomuch Act 15:9 – put Rom 2:25 – circumcision Rom 3:30 – General Rom 4:11 – father Rom 9:24 – not of the Jews Rom 10:12 – there is no 1Co 10:18 – Israel Gal 3:28 – neither Gal 3:29 – Abraham’s Gal 6:16 – the Israel Phi 3:3 – we Col 1:10 – ye Col 4:11 – who Heb 6:12 – but Jam 2:21 – Abraham
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
THE TRIUMPH OF FAITH
That faith of our father Abraham.
Rom 4:12
The Bible has been represented as a picture gallery. Abel, noted for his vicarious devotion; Enoch, for his angelic sanctity; Noah, for his unflagging obedience; Moses, for his gentle meekness; Job, for his wonderful patience; and Abraham, for his triumphant faith.
I. The lofty characteristics of Abrahams faith.
(a) He believed in the being of God. This, in fact, was the prime article of his faith, as it must be of that of every man. He looked to God, therefore, far more than they did who worshipped the orb of heaven, and he relied upon Him more than they did who confided in immediate kindred or powerful tribe. God was verily the all and in all of his creed and belief (Heb 11:6).
(b) He believed in the promise of God. A promise relates to the future. Its aim and tendency is to beget or strengthen confidence in the God Who made it; and this was the effect of the promise on promise Divinely made to Abraham until his faith became so Samsonian and victorious that he believed when there appeared no possibility soever of the fulfilment of any one of them. His faith laughed at every impossibility, because he was absolutely sure that Gods hand would accomplish the word His lips had spoken (Heb 11:8-12; Heb 11:17-19).
(c) He believed in the ordinance of God. Circumcision was enjoined by God upon him when He made His first covenant with him (Genesis 17). And circumcision was the seal of this covenant. Immediately after Abraham woke up and found himself in the possession of a new life. And so baptism, which circumcision prefigured by a sign, is a seal of the covenant of grace (Rom 4:14).
(d) He believed in the heaven of God. He felt in his innermost self that there was another and higher and happier world than this in the deeps of infinite space, and his heart stole away from the desert to the land that is very far offfrom the unsightly and shaky tent to the city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God (Php 1:23).
II. The blessed results of his faith.
(a) He was justified by it. God accepted him because he exercised faith in God. He regarded him as justified; and justification is the non-imputation of sin and the actual imputation of righteousness (Rom 4:3).
(b) He was sanctified by it. The moment he believed, his sanctification commenced. His justification was perfected instantly; but his sanctification progressed throughout his life. Justification gives a title to heaven; santification gives a meetness for heaven.
(c) He was honoured by it. He became not only the father of circumcision, but the father of the Hebrew nation; nay, of all Gods elect, and therefore the father of the future Church of the Redeemer. At first he was a childless man; but at last his seed, both natural and spiritual, became as the dust of the earth and the stars of heaven.
(d) He was at last beatified by it. His faith led Him first to God, and then, finally, to go up to God. God is in heaven, and heaven is His throne, and the place where His throne rests is the final home of all believers in Him. So faith begins, and so faith is consummated. There is no need for faith in heaven, but it certainly conducts to heaven, and is the golden key with which its pearly gates are opened.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
:12
Rom 4:12. That would make Abraham the spiritual father (ancestor) of circumcision (spiritual, chapter 2:28, 29), to those who are not of the fleshly circumcision. That refers to the Gentiles who, though not circumcised fleshly, yet imitate the faith that. Abraham had before he was circumcised.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Rom 4:12. And the father. Father is repeated to take up the line of thought slightly interrupted by the final clause of Rom 4:11. The full idea is: that he might be the father, etc.
Of circumcision. Not of the circumcision as such, but of such as are afterward further defined.
Not only are of the circumcision, but who, etc. The Greek is peculiar, but the sense is easily perceived. Abraham is, indeed, the father of circumcision, but with reference to those Jews who are not merely circumcised, but also believe, as he did. The connection of the last idea with the historical facts respecting Abrahams faith and subsequent circumcision is emphasized in the phrase: walk in the stops of that faith, etc. The sum of the argument is: For Abrahams righteousness through faith was attained, when as yet there was no distinction between circumcised and uncircumcised; and to this mode of becoming just before God, independently of external conditions, Christianity by its righteousness by faith leads back again and continues it (Meyer).
While in uncircumcision. The form of the original closely resembles Rom 4:11; but the order is slightly changed. The emphasis there rests upon in uncircumcision; here on faith.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Vv. 12. There can be no doubt that this verse refers to believers of Jewish origin, who formed the other half of Abraham’s spiritual family. But it presents a great grammatical difficulty. The Greek expression is such that it seems as if Paul meant to speak in this same verse of two different classes of individuals. It appears as if the literal translation should run thus: father of circumcision, in respect of those who are not only of the circumcision, but also in respect of those who walk in the steps of…Proceeding on this translation, Theodoret, Luther, and others have applied the first words: in respect of those who are not only of the circumcision, to Jewish believers, and the following words: in respect of those who walk in the footsteps of Abraham’s faith, to Gentile believers. But why then return to the latter, who had already been sufficiently designated and characterized in Rom 4:11? And how, in speaking of Jewish believers, could Paul content himself with saying that they are not of circumcision only, without expressly mentioning faith as the condition of their being children of Abraham? Finally, the construction would still be incorrect in this sense, which would have demanded … (not only for those who belong to the circumcision) instead of … (for those who not only belong to…). This ancient explanation must therefore certainly be abandoned. There can be here only one class of persons designated by two distinct attributes. The first is circumcision, and the second, a faith like Abraham’s. But in this case the Greek construction seems again faulty in the second member. This is acknowledged by Tholuck, Meyer, etc. Philippi is fain to satisfy himself with the reflection that negligences of style are found in the best writers; which is true, but does not help us here; for the faultiness would be a real want of logic. On the other hand, the expedients recently devised by Hofmann and Wieseler are so farfetched that they do not deserve even to be discussed. And yet the apostle has not accustomed us to inexactness unworthy even of an intelligent pupil; and we may still seek to solve the difficulty. This is not impossible, as it appears to us; we need only take the first to be a pronoun (those who), as it incontestably is, but regard the second not as a second parallel pronoun (which would, besides, require it to be placed before the ), but a simple definite article: the (individuals) walking in the steps of…The meaning thus reached is to this effect: those who are not only of the circumcision, but who are also, that is to say, at the same time, the (individuals) walking in the steps of…This article, , the, is partitive. It serves to mark off clearly within the mass of the Jewish people who possess the sign of circumcision, a much narrower circle: those walking in the faith, that is to say, the Jews, who to circumcision add the characteristic of faith. These latter do not form a second class alongside of the first; they form within this latter a group apart, possessing beside the common distinction, an attribute (faith) which is wanting to the others; and it is to draw this line of demarkation accurately within the circumcised Israel that the article is used. The is here simply an article analogous to the before .
Paul is not satisfied with saying: who also walk in the footsteps of Abraham’s faith; he expressly reminds usfor this is the point of his argumentthat Abraham had this faith in the state of uncircumcision. What does this mean, if not that Abraham was still ranked as a Gentile when he believed and his faith was counted to him for righteousness? Hence it follows that it is not, properly speaking, for Gentile believers to enter by the gate of the Jews, but for Jewish believers to enter by the gate of the Gentiles. It will be allowed that it was impossible for one to overwhelm his adversary more completely. But such is Paul’s logic; it does not stop short with refuting its opponent, it does not leave him till it has made it plain to a demonstration that the truth is the very antipodes of what he affirmed.
We find in these two verses the great and sublime idea of Abraham’s spiritual family, that people which is the product, not of the flesh, but of faith, and which comprises the believers of the whole world, whether Jews or Gentiles. This place of father to all the believing race of man assigned to Abraham, is a fundamental fact in the kingdom of God; it is the act in which this kingdom takes its rise, it is the aim of the patriarch’s call: that he might be the father of…(Rom 4:11), and of…(Rom 4:12). Hofmann says rightly: Abraham is not only the first example of faith, for there had been other believers before him (Hebrews 11); but in him therewas founded forever the community of faith. From this point the continuous history of salvation begins. Abraham is the stem of that tree, which thenceforth strikes root and develops. For he has not believed simply in the God of creation; he has laid hold by faith of the God of the promise, the author of that redeeming work which appears on the earth in his very faith. The notion of this spiritual paternity once rightly understood, the filiation of Abraham in the physical sense lost all importance in the matter of salvation. The prophets, John the Baptist, Jesus (John 8), were already at one in laying down the truth which the apostle here demonstrates: faith as constituting the principle of life, as it were the life-blood of Abraham’s family, which is that of God on the earth. Because, indeed, this principle is the only one in harmony with the moral essence of things, with the true relation between the Creator who gives of free grace, and the creature who accepts freely.
And this whole admirable deduction made by the apostle is to be regarded as a piece of Rabbinical scholasticism!
The apostle has succeeded in discovering the basis of Christian universalism in the very life of him in whose person theocratic particularism was founded. He has demonstrated the existence of a time when he represented Gentilism, or, to speak more properly, mankind in general; and it was during this period, when he was not yet a Jew, but simply a man, that he received salvation! The whole gospel of Paul was involved in this fact. But a question arose: after receiving justification, Abraham had obtained another privilege: he had been declared, with all his posterity, to be the future possessor of the world. Now this posterity could be none else than his issue by Isaac, and which had been put in possession of circumcision and of Canaan. Through this opening there returned, with banners displayed, that particularism which had been overthrown in the domain of justification. Thus there was lost the whole gain of the preceding demonstration. Paul does not fail to anticipate and remove the difficulty. To this question he devotes the following passage, Rom 4:13-16.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
and the father of circumcision to them who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham which he had in uncircumcision. [Now, circumcision was not given to Abraham to justify him, but as a seal, or token, that he had obtained righteousness by faith. Moreover, it was given to him that he might become the father of all believing Gentiles, God having agreed to make him the head or spiritual father of all those saved by Christ on condition of his being circumcised, and Abraham having been circumcised in order to obtain this exalted honor, and thirdly, that he might be the spiritual father of those who are not only circumcised like him, but walk in the steps of that faith of his of which circumcision was the seal. Thus circumcision was the seal that God had made Abraham the father of all who believe in God, and are justified by their belief, whether they belong to the Jews, who, in the earlier ages, had the better opportunity to believe, or to the Gentiles, who had that better opportunity in these latter ages.]
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
12. And the father of circumcision not only to them who walk in the tracks of the faith of our father Abraham which he had in uncircumcision. We see here that the normal attitude of Abrahams children is in uncircumcision, as he was converted twenty-four years before he entered the visible church. Here we have it revealed that salvation is only for those who walk in the steps of Abraham, i. e., get justified by faith alone. These belong to class number one, i. e., the normal children of Abraham. In the second place, provision is made for those who belong to the circumcision, i. e., the visible church, that they may also come into the covenant by faith and become the children of Abraham if they will walk in the steps of that faith which he had in uncircumcision. Hence we see the preeminence in the covenant is given to those who get converted before they join the church. It is a mistake to receive the unconverted into the visible church, lest they may lean on it and stop short of experimental salvation, and in that case lose their souls. I joined the church before I was converted, God showing me mercy and leading me on into an intelligent experience, though Satan did his utmost to get me to rest in church membership.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
4:12 {10} And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which [he had] being [yet] uncircumcised.
(10) An applying of the same example to the circumcised believers, whose father is Abraham, but yet by faith.