The Significance of Circumcision in the Bible

In the 1984 NIV Bible, the verb circumcise occurs 60 times, the noun circumcision 21 times, the adjective uncircumcised 38 times, and the noun uncircumcision four times. Why is the Bible interested in circumcision, and what is the significance of circumcision as a religious practice? How can we explain the Bible’s interest in the strange custom of the cutting away the foreskin of the penis?

The Bible’s concern with circumcision goes back to the covenant of circumcision that God made with Abraham in Gen 17. This covenant required that Abraham and each of his male descendants should be circumcised (see Gen 17:10–14). Circumcision was the sign of God’s covenant with Abraham (Gen 17:11), according to which he would greatly increase the number of Abraham’s descendants (see Gen 17:2, 4–6).

But what is the link between circumcision and the promised population increase of Abraham’s descendants? Even though recent scientific studies have identified a number of health benefits associated with circumcision, circumcision was not given by God to Abraham for reasons of hygiene, but for three main reasons.

The first main reason is that circumcision functioned as a sign that individual (male) members of the family of Abraham were in covenant with God in accordance with God’s command to Abraham in Gen 17:10 that the covenant of circumcision was to be kept by “every male” within Abraham’s family by “every male” being circumcised, and also in accordance with the teaching in Gen 17:14 that “any uncircumcised male … shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.” Circumcision was a sign of being in covenant with God and belonging to God’s people. Not to be circumcised was to reject membership within God’s people. So when it came to circumcision, it was either be cut or be cut off.

Circumcision also functioned as a sign distinguishing the Israelites from some of the surrounding nations who did not practise circumcision. Although circumcision was also practised among the Egyptians, Edomites, Ammonites, and Moabites (see Jer 9:25–26), uncircumcision was considered within Israel to be a mark of being a foreigner (Ezek 44:7, 9; see also Eph 2:11). The Philistines, for example, were commonly characterized in a derogative way as being “uncircumcised” (1 Sam 17:26, 36; 2 Sam 1:20). From the instructions concerning the eating of the Passover in Exod 12:43–49, it can be seen that circumcision functioned to nationalize foreigners. Once a foreigner had been circumcised, he was considered to be “as a native of the land” (Exod 12:48), as part of “the congregation of Israel” (Exod 12:47).

The third main reason for circumcision its spiritual significance. The spiritual significance of circumcision has three aspects: physical circumcision and uncircumcision symbolize the state of a person’s heart with respect to God; physical circumcision symbolizes purity and dedication to the service of God; and physical circumcision symbolizes humility and dependence on God.

Concerning the first aspect, a parallelism exists in the Scriptures between circumcision in the flesh and the circumcision of the heart. Circumcision in the flesh was meant to be a symbol of circumcision of the heart. In Israel, therefore, both forms of circumcision were required (compare Paul’s argument in Rom 2:28–29). Physical circumcision counted for nothing without spiritual circumcision (see Jer 9:25–26; see also Rom 2:25). In Deut 10:16 Moses calls upon Israel to circumcise the foreskins of their hearts. In the middle of the prophecy of Deut 30:1–14, Moses speaks of the new covenant restoration of Israel in terms of Yahweh circumcising the hearts of the people of Israel, so that they would “love Yahweh [their] God with all [their] heart and with all [their] soul” (Deut 30:6). The Mosaic call for spiritual circumcision was later echoed by Jeremiah in Jer 4:4: “Circumcise yourselves to Yahweh; remove the foreskins of your hearts.” Physical circumcision was meant to symbolize a heart that was clean and dedicated to the service of God, a heart from which uncleanness had been removed.

The second aspect to the spiritual significance of circumcision is that physical circumcision symbolizes the removal of spiritual uncleanness. This aspect underlies the aspect described above. The fact that being uncircumcised is paralleled with being unclean in Isa 52:1, and that allowing uncircumcised foreigners into the temple was equivalent to “profaning [God’s] temple” in Ezek 44:7, suggests that uncircumcision was viewed in the Old Testament as being symbolic of uncleanness. This symbolism was most likely derived from the view that the foreskin is an unclean part of the body. This is confirmed in Col 2:11 where Paul links the Christian’s spiritual circumcision in Christ with “the putting off of the body of the flesh.” This equates to putting off “the old self with its practices” (Col 3:9). The removal of the foreskin, therefore, symbolizes the removal of uncleanness, which allows the individual in question to be dedicated to the proper service of God. The idea that circumcision also symbolizes the proper service of God is backed up in Phil 3:3, where Paul speaks of Christians as those who are the true circumcision, who serve God through his Spirit as a result.

The third aspect to the spiritual significance of circumcision that is found in Scripture is that physical circumcision is also symbolic of humility and dependence upon God. This aspect derives from the historical context in which the covenant of circumcision emerged. When we consider the point in time when God commanded Abraham to get circumcised, it is significant that the establishment of the covenant of circumcision (Gen 17:1–14) occurred just after the incident of Abraham sleeping with Sarah’s slave, Hagar (Gen 16). God had promised that Abraham and Sarah would have a son, but they had been in the promised land for ten years (compare Gen 12:4; 16:16), and no children had been born to them, so Sarah came up with the idea of Abraham sleeping with her maid, Hagar (Gen 16:2). Hagar functioned as a surrogate so that Sarah could have a child. Ishmael was born as a result of this union of Abraham and Hagar (Gen 16:15). But this child was not the promised seed (Gen 21:12; see also Gen 17:18–21). God’s plan was that the promised child would come through the union of Abraham and his wife, Sarah (Gen 17:16). By arranging for Hagar to be a surrogate, Sarah and Abraham had sought to “help” fulfill God’s plan for Abraham to sire offspring. But in doing this, Abraham and Sarah had overstepped the mark. In order, therefore, to teach Abraham a lesson, when Ishmael was thirteen (on the point of becoming an adult), God told Abraham that he and the male members of his household had to be circumcised (see Gen 17:10, 12–13, 25). The fact that the institution of the covenant of circumcision is recorded in Genesis straight after the incident of Abraham sleeping with Hagar suggests, therefore, that God was teaching Abraham a lesson. In effect God was saying that the fulfillment of his plan was not dependent on the initiative and action of ordinary human beings. Abraham and Sarah had basically decided that Abraham could use his sexual organ to obtain the promised blessing. But to remind them and their descendants of the fact that the fulfillment of God’s plan is not ultimately up to human schemes—salvation is not by human effort but by the gift of God—God commanded that the sexual organ of each of the males in Abraham’s household be circumcised. In effect, Abraham and his male descendants would carry around in their bodies the mark of this lesson in spiritual humility. It is true that Abraham would have to use his sexual organ later on to help fulfill God’s promise by impregnating Sarah. Consistent with this, God did not command for Abraham’s sexual organ to be completely chopped off. Physically circumcision is only a snip (albeit a painful one), but symbolically it represents the removal of the male sexual organ in toto. Circumcision is a sign that speaks, therefore, of the need for humility in relation to God and of total dependence on God for his own fulfillment of his plan of blessing and salvation.

The fact that circumcision parallels not stiffening one’s neck in Deut 10:16 (where stiffening one’s neck is a Hebrew idiom for being obstinate and disobedient), and that an uncircumcised heart needs to be subdued or humbled according to Lev 26:41 (see also Acts 7:51 where being “stiff-necked” is paralleled with being “uncircumcised in heart and ears,” and being resistant to the Spirit), supports the idea stated above that physical circumcision symbolizes spiritual humility. It is also significant that the Apostle Paul views true circumcision as involving boasting in Christ rather than placing confidence in the flesh (Phil 3:3). Sarah asking Abraham to sleep with Hagar was a case of Sarah and Abraham putting confidence in the flesh (i.e., in human effort) rather than trusting in God to provide. The fact that Abraham received circumcision as a sign and seal of the righteousness that he had before God as a result of his faith (Rom 4:11) also links circumcision to faith, which itself implies both humility and obedience.

Overall, therefore, the significance of physical circumcision under the Abrahamic and Mosaic covenants was that it symbolized membership within the covenant with God, and the ideal spiritual state associated with this: an attitude of humility and trust in relation to God, which involves the removal of all forms of spiritual impurity, and total dedication to the service of God.

The Covenantal Logic and Meaning of Paul’s Argument in Romans 4:15–17a

In Rom 4:13–17a, Paul gives a succinct explanation as to why the promise of the blessing of life must ultimately come through faith rather than through the Mosaic faith of obedience to torah. This further strengthens his argument in Rom 4:1–12 that the example of Abraham proves that the blessing of justification comes through faith rather than through the works of the law of Moses. The fact that Abraham was right with God even before he was circumcised proves that justification is not limited solely to bona fide members of the Mosaic covenant, contrary to what Paul’s non-Christian Jewish opponents and the Christian Judaizers were advocating; but this needed further explication.

Therefore, in Rom 4:13, Paul considers the issue of how the promise that God made with Abraham (for him and all of his spiritual descendants to inherit the world) would be realized. The promise was not “through the law … but through the righteousness of faith” (Rom 4:13). It is very important to realize that the word law in Rom 4:13 refers specifically to the law of Moses. The word law in Rom 4:13 is not law in general, but specifically the law over which Paul and his Jewish opponents were arguing, i.e., the law of Moses. We need to recognize at this point that the divine promise of blessing given to Abraham in Gen 12:2–3 is grammatically, and therefore logically, dependent on the command of Gen 12:1 (see “The Inheritance of Eternal Life through Faith instead of Law in Romans 4:13” for a more detailed explanation of this). But the law of command given to Abraham in Gen 12:1 is not law in the sense of being Mosaic law. As Paul points out in Gal 3:17, the law of Moses did not arrive on the scene until 430 years afterwards. In other words, the promise of the blessing of life that God graciously made with Abraham was not subject to the Mosaic covenant when it was first made. Even though this promise would effectively come under the regulation of the Mosaic covenant after Sinai, the promise was larger than the law of Moses. The Abrahamic covenant was not a subset of the Mosaic covenant; rather, the Mosaic covenant was a subset of the Abrahamic.

The significance of the promise being realized through the righteousness of faith for Abraham in the beginning is that, if the giving of the law some 430 years later were to change that original condition, then God would have shown himself to be inconsistent and unfaithful to his word. If the giving of the Mosaic law changed the original condition regarding the realization of the promise, then this would be to render faith useless, and the covenant of promise itself would end up being annulled (Rom 4:14). Implied in Paul’s argument in Rom 4:14 is that God would not do such a thing as this. Having entered into an agreement with Abraham concerning how Abraham and his descendants would be blessed, God could not rightly change this commitment midstream.

This then prompted the question (particularly to Paul’s Jewish opponents) concerning why the Mosaic covenant was given in the first place. If the Mosaic covenant is not the ultimate regulator of the realization of the promise, then why was the Mosaic covenant made in the first place? Why save Israel out of Egypt to place the nation under the law? Paul answers this question very succinctly in Rom 4:15: “For the law produces wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there transgression.” What Paul is really saying here is that the primary function of the law in old covenant Israel was to bring about God’s wrath against the people. This is not to say that obedience to the law was not the way of life for the small minority of Israelites who had the law written in their hearts during the old covenant age. Paul is speaking in Rom 4:15 in terms of the broad sweep of salvation history during the old covenant age. Romans 4:15 is not an abstract theological statement, but a statement explaining the function of covenant failure in salvation history. The law of Moses, far from being the solution (as Paul’s Jewish opponents were advocating), was part of the problem. The main purpose in God giving Israel the law was so that God’s anger would be revealed against sinful Israel, i.e., that Israel would be rendered guilty before God, without excuse (Rom 3:19–20).

In Rom 4:16 Paul explains the deeper purpose behind the primarily negative purpose in God giving the law. He identifies two main reasons. Firstly, the law was given to Israel so that God’s dealing with humanity might be “according to grace.” If Israel had kept covenant with God, and received blessing as a result, that would still be the work of God; but Israel initially failing, only to be restored later on, makes for a better story in the sense that the gracious side of God’s character has an opportunity to be revealed. It is almost as if God, wanting to prove his greatness and humanity’s total dependence on him, has deliberately set things up for humanity in Adam, and Israel in Moses, to fail, “in order that every mouth might be stopped, and the whole world come under the judgment of God” (Rom 3:19–20), in order that his gracious response might be seen and appreciated. Simply put, the fact that the promise of eternal life ultimately comes through faith in Jesus rather than through submission to the Mosaic covenant serves to highlight God’s grace. Secondly, justification by faith also means that salvation is not just limited to Israel, but every believer (regardless of ethnic origin) can participate in the promise. Didn’t God say in Gen 17:5 that Abraham would be “the father of many nations” (Rom 4:17)? In fact, that is the meaning of the name Abraham! “No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations” (Gen 17:5).

Paul’s Jewish opponents found it hard to accept, but Paul argues strongly in Rom 4 for the primacy of the new covenant in Christ over against the old covenant in Moses. That, in the salvation historical purposes of God, the Mosaic covenant would be superseded by a new covenant in Christ Jesus serves to highlight God’s grace and to open up salvation to the Gentiles in fulfillment of God’s promise of Gen 12:3.

The Faith of Abraham in Hebrews 11

The biblical concept of emunah (אמונה) or faith (as it is explained in the Old Testament) basically means saying amen (אמן) to the word of God. Faith is an acceptance of divine revelation. Faith says yes to whatever God says, whether that word be command, promise, or warning. The concept of faith in Hebrews is consistent with this definition, but the core component of faith for the author of Hebrews is directed to God’s promise. For the author of Hebrews, faith is not mainly an eschatological concept in the sense that it is viewed as operating primarily in the eschatological age à la Paul. Rather, in Hebrews, faith is a necessary historical constant that applies throughout salvation history, but which nevertheless possesses a very strong eschatological orientation whereby the faithful look to God for salvation and reward at the time of the realization of God’s promise at Christ’s second coming (Heb 10:35-39; 11:6). I have discussed this previously in my post “The Concept of Faith in Hebrews.”

This eschatological orientation is linked by the author of Hebrews in with the concept of realization. This is particularly evident in the author’s discussion of faith in Heb 11. A number of times in this chapter, faith is spoken of as being that which believes that God can make something either out of what is not or what is not yet. “Faith is the substance of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen” (Heb 11:1). By saying that faith is the substance of what is hoped for, the author means that faith believes that what is hoped for (which emerges a response to God’s promise) will one day be realized. Likewise the idea that faith is the proof of what is not seen. Here the reality of what God has promised is viewed as being not seen, i.e., before the realization of the eschatological elements of God’s promises, we do not yet experience what will ultimately be. But faith takes what is not yet seen as certain one day to be seen. Faith is the conviction that the future will be as God has said it will be. This actually means that faith can only exist so long as God has not yet brought about the things that he has promised. By definition faith can only flourish in a hostile environment, where what God has promised has not yet come true (at least in totality).

The kind of faith that accepts that the ultimate realization of what currently is not yet is the same kind of faith that belives in a Creator God. As the author to the Hebrews writes: “by faith we discern that the world has been formed by the word of God, so that what is seen has come into being not from things visible” (Heb 11:3). Faith accepts the idea that God can create something out of nothing, that God can make the invisible visible.

The clearest example of a person with the kind of faith that believes in the ultimate realization of what is currently unrealized (at least according to the literary structure of Heb 11) is Abraham. “By faith Abraham obeyed when was called to go forth to the place that he was going to receive as an inheritance” (Heb 11:8). God’s words to Abraham in Gen 12:1–3 contained command and promise. Abraham accepted both. Accepting the reality of a promised land, Abraham accepted the reality of need to set out according to God’s command. The link between faith and obedience is very strong in Heb 11:8. Faith and obedience necessarily go together. This obedience on Abraham’s part is all the more remarkable, given that “he went forth not knowing where he was going” (Heb 11:8). But for faith to be faith there cannot currently be full knowledge. For faith to be faith, there must remain an element of mystery.

Faith by definition can only operate in an environment where what has been promised has not yet been realized, and often this means that faith will be lived out in an environment where virtually the opposite of what God has promised is our current reality. This too is something that Abraham experienced. “By faith [Abraham] sojourned in the land of promise as in an alien land” (Heb 11:9). Canaan was the promised land, but when Abraham arrived there it was already possessed by others (see Gen 12:6). Abraham’s land by deed of promise was currently the Cannanites land by deed of possession. Yet Abraham believed that one day all of that would be his. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were fellow heirs of God’s promise regarding the land; but the fact of the unrealized nature of the full reality of God’s promise meant that Abraham and his son and grandson lived in the land as nomads “in tents” (Heb 11:9). In the midst of this time of promise not yet fulfilled Abraham looked forward in expectation at “the city that has foundations [i.e., a city that is stable and endures] whose builder and creator is God” (Heb 11:10). In other words, the current unrealized aspects of God’s promise made Abraham look to the future for an eternal and eschatological realization of what had been promised.

The idea of faith as involving the belief that God can make the invisible visible and the impossible possible is seen in the birth of Isaac to the elderly Sarah and Abraham. Despite her inclination to disbelieve (see Gen 18:12), “by faith” Sarah “considered faithful him who had promised” (Heb 11:11). “So also from one man, and he moreover as good as dead, [descendants] were born, like the stars of heaven for multitude, and like the innumerable sand of the seashore” (Heb 11:12). Elderly Sarah and Abraham’s infertility was an important component of the “hostile environment” in which faith by definition must exist.

But the testing of Abraham’s faith did not stop with the problem of siring an heir. The testing of his faith reached its climax when God ordered him to offer up Isaac as a sacrifice (see Gen 22:1–2). In calling for Abraham to do this, God was in effect telling Abraham to end the life of the one through whom the promise would be realized. It was akin to destroying the promise. Despite this, “by faith Abraham offered up Isaac … his only son, of whom it was said, ‘Through Isaac shall your seed be called’” (Heb 11:17–18). Abraham’s reasoning at that time must have been: Even though God has called upon me to destroy the promise by sacrificing my son, if he is the one through whom the promise will be fulfilled, then God will have to raise him from the dead. Hence, the words of the author in Heb 11:19 that Abraham “considered that God was able even to raise [Isaac] from the dead.” The faith that believes that God has the power to make the nonexistent existent, the invisible visible, and the unrealized realized is the same kind of faith that believes that God has the power to make the dead live. Faith believes in the possibility, indeed the future reality, of resurrection.

The Inheritance of Eternal Life through Faith instead of Law in Romans 4:13

In Rom 4:13 the Apostle Paul says that “the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith.” It is often concluded on the basis of this verse that Abraham would inherit eternal life solely through faith in God’s promise and not by obedience.

But this is to misunderstand Paul’s meaning. The law in question in the phrase through the law in Rom 4:13 is not law in general but specifically the law of Moses. What Paul is saying is that the revelation in which God promised life to Abraham was not the law of Moses. He is saying that God promised life to Abraham and his seed before the Mosaic law came into existence. Romans 4:13 is a shorthand form of the argument that Paul makes in Gal 3:17-18: “the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void. For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise.” In other words, while Abraham was still uncircumcised (i.e., still a Gentile), he was already an heir of the promise of eternal life.

Paul is not saying in Rom 4:13, therefore, that Abraham solely inherited life through faith apart from obedience. To interpret Paul in this manner is to make him contradict the plain teaching of the Old Testament. Nowhere in the Abraham narrative in Genesis do we see faith spoken of in a way that is exclusive of obedience. In fact, I will show in the next few posts that the Abraham narrative clearly states in a number of places that obedience was necessary for Abraham and his seed to inherit the blessing.

To start off with, please consider Gen 12:1-3:

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Looking at the clause structure of the Hebrew of vv. 2-3, it is clear that v. 2 contains three sequential imperfect clauses and one sequential imperatival clause. Verse 3 contains another sequential imperfect clause, a disjunctive imperfect clause, and a modal perfect clause. These clauses are all dependent on the imperative go in v. 1.

The function of the sequential imperfect clause in Hebrew is most frequently to indicate purpose or result. In other words, Abraham was commanded to leave his country in order that God might bless him. Abraham had to pack up his bags and leave. The blessing would not come without Abraham obeying God.

The Hebrew clause structure of Gen 12:1-3 is clear evidence, therefore, that right from the start of God’s relationship with Abraham, obedience was necessary in order for Abraham to be blessed. How many times do we hear people say that God's blessing of Abraham was unconditional? I sometimes wonder if the people who say that have ever read Gen 12:1-3, or at least read it carefully.

Genesis 12:1-3 also clearly shows that God’s revelation of promise to Abraham was not pure promise as many Protestants are inclined to think. In terms of linguistic categorization, Gen 12:1 is command, and Gen 12:2-3 is promise. This goes to show that Paul’s use of the term promise in Rom 4 cannot be a category of linguistic or literary genre. Rather, Paul’s idea of promise is a salvation-historical category. That is to say, by the term promise Paul designates the totality of the revelation that God gave to Abraham. Paul’s promise versus law contrast is a contrast of Abrahamic revelation (promise) with Mosaic revelation (law). To interpret the term promise in Rom 4:13 as indicating pure (i.e., command-less) promise is to contradict the reality of what exists in Gen 12:1-3, where promise is linguistically and logically dependent on command.

In a similar way, to say that Paul viewed eternal life as being inherited by faith alone apart from obedience is to make Paul contradict Gen 12:1-3. On the basis of the principle of the analogy of Scripture, Paul must be understood in a manner that is consistent with what God has already revealed. God is not a God of contradiction. The Old Testament functions as the Spirit-inspired foundation and framework upon which New Testament revelation, including that of Paul, is built. The remainder of the house must be consistent with the foundation and basic framework that has already been erected.

In sum, therefore, Paul is not saying in Rom 4:13 that eternal life is inherited by faith alone as if such faith did not include obedience as part of its meaning. If that were true, then Abraham could have stayed in Ur. But because command was an integral part of the promise of God in Gen 12:1-3, Abraham’s faith necessarily included obedience as part of its meaning.

Please consider the following question: If Abraham had simply said to God: “I believe in your word of blessing” (as contained in Gen 12:2-3), but did not leave Ur, would he inherit the blessing? This is not possible in terms of the Hebrew sense of Gen 12:1-3. God told Abraham to go in order to inherit the blessing! This means he had to obey in order to inherit the blessing. Abraham going is Abraham accepting the word of God, and accepting the word of God is saying amen to the word of God, and saying amen (אמן) to the word of God is faith (אמונה). In Gen 12:4, Abraham’s faith is clearly portrayed as being the faith which obeys God’s commands and which believes his promises. Abraham’s faith was the faith of obedience.

To say that eternal life is inherited by faith apart from obedience logically requires that the Apostle Paul either did not know or did not accept the plain meaning of Gen 12:1-3. I find it difficult to accept that a Hebrew of Hebrews would have failed to understand and accept the import of the Hebrew of Gen 12:1-3.

A Summary of Paul's Understanding of Salvation History

The table below is a summary of the major epochs in salvation history according to the Apostle Paul, and how he characteristically described the key soteriological aspects related to these epochs.

A salvation-historical covenantal approach to Paul suggests that Paul used different terms to describe the word of God, and the required response of covenant faith, in different salvation-historical epochs; but that underlying the differing terminology, salvation has always been through faith, i.e., through the reception of God’s word into the heart thanks to the work of the Holy Spirit.

In effect, Paul has reserved the language of faith solely to the faith of “Gentile” Abraham (on the basis of Gen 15:6) and to faith in the new covenant proclamation of the gospel (on the basis of Isa 28:16 and Hab 2:4). For the faith of godly people under the Mosaic covenant, he uses the term the works of the law instead of faith. He does this, reflecting the predominant way in which faith was denoted in the Pentateuch (i.e., it was spoken of in a holistic way as doing torah), in order to highlight how Mosaic faith was a temporary stage in salvation history, and that salvation in the new covenant age is opened up to the Gentiles, the implication being that it is not right for non-Christian Jews to reject Jesus Christ in the name of faithfulness to Moses, nor for Christian Judaizers to force Christian Gentiles to be circumcised (if male) and to keep the law of Moses, as if only Jews could be saved.

The point of Paul’s argument in Galatians and Romans is that the Mosaic covenant compounds the problem of sin and death in Adam, but the fullness of blessing and life is made available only in the new covenant in Christ. The faith response in the new covenant age mirrors that of Gentile Abraham, meaning that in the new covenant age Gentiles can participate in salvation as part of the people of God, just as Gentile Abraham could. In other words, the new covenant doctrine of justification by faith means that the Mosaic doctrine of justification by the works of the law no longer applies. This means that salvation in the new covenant has nothing to do with following Moses, but with submission to the lordship of Christ.

The pattern of salvation history according to Paul is basically:

abAB

where a = disobedience and death through Adam, b = obedience and life through Abraham, A = disobedience and death through the old covenant, and B = obedience and life through the new covenant.

It also needs to be pointed out that abA has been turned into B only through the righteousness and obedience of the one man, Jesus Christ (Rom 5:18-19), so perhaps the pattern of salvation history is best written as:

abACB

where C = the cross of Christ.

SALVATION-HISTORICAL EPOCH	PAULINE TERM FOR THE WORD OF GOD	PAULINE TERM FOR FAITH RESPONSE	HISTORICAL RESPONSE	HISTORICAL RESULT
Adam in the garden	the commandment	obedience	disobedience	death for Adam and for all humanity born of Adam
“Gentile” Abraham	promise	faith	faith	inaugurated partial blessing
Israel under law	the law	the works of the law	disobedience on the part of Israel as a whole	death for the nation as a whole
the church under grace	the gospel	faith	faith on the part of mainly Gentiles but more Jews after the fullness of the Gentiles has come in	inaugurated fullness of blessing and life now leading to consummated fullness of blessing and life for believers at the return of Christ