Title: IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S GRACE

Focus: In response to God’s covenant grace, Christians keep covenant by embracing and living under the sign and call of the covenant.

Function: To encourage the people to embrace God’s covenant promises in Christ, by living under the sign of the covenant and by responding to its call.

Text: Genesis 17:1-27

For more than 450 years, the Protestant Church has lived with disagreement when it comes to the sacrament of baptism. To be sure, there is almost unanimous agreement on the Bible’s teaching that adult believers in the Lord Jesus Christ must be baptized. There is disagreement, however, on whether the children of believers must be baptized.

Some say, “Infant baptism is optional.” They think that infant baptism is a matter of personal preference. Other say, “Oh no, Christian parents should dedicate their children to the Lord and do so liturgically in a church service. Let there be a dedication ceremony.” And again, other Christians, including the CRC say, “No, the children of Christian parents should be baptized. For Christians live under the sign and call of God’s covenant of grace.”

Why is it that sincere Christians on either side of this debate can’t come to agreement on this important matter? I think it is because in the Western world, Christians are moving away from seeing life and God’s grand story of salvation from a covenantal perspective. We tend to think individualistically. We tend to think that our relationship with God depends on our own initiative.

I’m inclined to think that if Abram would have lived today in America with its fierce, rugged individualism, Abram might have said to God: “Lord, I welcome your covenant promise to me and my offspring; but I can’t accept your command to have my 8^-days-old son be marked by and live under the sign of the covenant. For surely, circumcision is a procedure and matter of choice to be made by adults who can express faith and trust in you and your covenant promises. So Lord, here’s what I would like to do: I’ll dedicate my newborn child to you. Surely, such sign of trust on my part must be pleasing to you.”

Of course, that’s not how the story goes in Scripture. From Scripture we learn that in response to God’s covenant grace, believers keep covenant by embracing and living under the sign and call of the covenant. In Abram’s days that was the sign of circumcision; in our days, it’s the sign of baptism.

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As we explore God’s teaching found in Genesis 17, I want to make two observations from the text. They are: (1) God reveals his sovereign power to Abram and Sarai (and to us) by emphasizing to Abram that Abram’s heir or offspring would come by way of barren Sarai. (2) God confirms his covenant promises by giving Abram and Sarai new names and a new, covenant sign. After these two observations, I will apply the message in the context of baptism and Christian living.

First, then, let’s consider God’s sovereign power of saving grace in the midst of barrenness and infertility. The story begins with God Almighty entering the stage of history, appearing to Abram who is 99 years old. “I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless. I will confirm my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.”

Abram falls facedown before the Lord. His posture is one of adoration and prayer and reverence. And God speaks to him again (vs. 4-9), reassuring Abram that God would keep his promise to make him a father of many nations, to be his God and the God of his descendants after him, to give him an inheritance such as the Land of Canaan, and to make Abram’s Seed the means by which God’s salvation would come to the nations of the world.

Abram has heard this before. But surely, God’s promise is already coming true because Abram has a son already by Hagar, Sarai’s slave girl. So why is God talking about barren Sarai giving birth to a son? Thus Abram, in reverence pondering God’s Word to him, said to himself (vs. 17) “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?” Thus Abraham responds to God; he laughs and says: “If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!”

Infertility, in the entire Scriptures, is a very important theme. Barrenness means that the future is closed for the family; no offspring, no hope for an enduring future for the family. Barrenness is a dead-end road.

But God uses barrenness to teach us a huge lesson, which we often fail to take to heart: if there is going to be a future, an inheritance, if there is going to be salvation and a life with God on the new heavens and new earth, if there is going to be a blessing for the nations of the world, then we need a miracle of grace. For Abram and Sarai are barren; and apart from the Lord Jesus, (who is Abram’s “SEED”) we are “dead in sins and trespasses.”

Look at God’s grand story of salvation. In the days of Abram, barren Sarah conceives a child at the age of 90. And God’s promise carries through Isaac.

Isaac marries Rebecca; but she is barren; so Isaac prays to God, and God opens Rebecca’s womb. And she gives birth to Esau and Jacob. God’s promise carries through Jacob.

Jacob marries Rachel (she is barren). It is in competition with Leah that Rachel conceives by the grace of God. And God’s promises carry through Jacob’s children. In the days of the judges, when God’s people inherited the Land of Promise, God opened the womb of Manoah’s wife; and she gave birth to Samson, who delivered God’s people from Philistine oppression.

In the days of the Kings of Israel, God opened the womb of barren Hannah, and she gave birth to Samuel. And God called his people to repentance through Samuel, the prophet. In the fullness of time, God opened the barren womb of Elizabeth, and she gave birth to a son—John the baptizer. He announced the coming of God’s Son, the Lord Jesus.

At that time God gave the world his greatest gift—not a child born from a barren woman; not a child conceived by human means. But God gave Mary a child from heaven. The Holy Spirit brought about conception in the womb of a virgin, and the eternal Son of God dwelt in her womb and took on our flesh. Abram’s seed—in Mary’s womb—a gift from God.

You see? Barrenness points to the miracle of God’s grace. And that grace leads to the coming and birth of the Savior of the world. Salvation is not about you or me; it’s about God’s gracious covenant promises fulfilled in Jesus Christ. That’s why I say: In response to God’s covenant grace, Christians keep covenant by embracing and living under the sign and call of the covenant.

Here is my second observation from the text: Genesis 17 is about God confirming his covenant promises by giving Abram and Sarai new names and a covenant sign. Listen: “You (Abram) will be the father of many nations. No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations.” By giving Abram a new name, God confirms his promise to Abram and Abram remembers his purpose or mission: namely to be the patriarch of many nations.

Listen again: “As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah. I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.” By giving Sarai a new name, God confirms his promise and Sarah, too, will remember by virtue of her new name that she lives under the umbrella of God’s covenant promise to be the queen matriarch of many nations, out of whom would come the Savior of the world.

A new name and also a new covenant sign. In the days of Noah it was the rainbow. In the days of Abraham and God’s people Israel, it’s circumcision; in the fullness of time until the end of time—our time-- it’s baptism. Ask yourself: what is it about circumcision—which is the surgical procedure of cutting away some foreskin of the male member—why did that sign of circumcision carry so much importance in God’s covenant relationship with his people? Here are some biblical insights:

1. The circumcision of the male sex organ points to procreation and fertility. God would make Abraham “very fruitful.” In fact, says the Lord, “I will make nations of you and kings will come from you.” Circumcision reminds Abraham and his offspring that the power to generate offspring does not lie in Abraham’s sexual prowess or in the sexual potency of his descendants. Rather, that power originates with the Lord of the covenant. When an Israelite couple would marry, the husband’s circumcision would be a visual reminder that the begetting of children lies with God.

That’s also why 90 year old Abraham must be circumcised. The cutting away of Abraham’s foreskin places the marriage of Abraham and Sarah in a brand new light—the light of God’s covenant. Barren Sarah and fruitless Abraham cannot produce any offspring on their own. If they are going to be patriarch and matriarch of many nations, it will have to be God’s doing.

2. Circumcision is the seal of righteousness of faith. God has tied himself down to his covenant promise to Abraham, and Abraham clings by faith to God’s promise that numerous offspring would come forth from his loins. And God counts Abraham’s faith as righteousness. Listen to Romans 4:18-22) “Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’ Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why ‘it was credited to him as righteousness.’” Circumcision, then, is the seal of righteousness of faith

3. Circumcision helps Abraham to live covenantally before God. God has bound himself to his promise; Abraham is to bind himself to God’s covenant by living in faith and obedience before God. It may sound crass to you, but face it: whenever Abraham or his circumcised offspring go to the bathroom, they are reminded by their circumcision of God’s covenant promise and their relationship with God: “I shall be your God; you shall be my people.”

4. Circumcision is a reminder to Abraham and his descendants that they are to be a blessing to the nations. It may never be used to built a wall of pride between Israel and the Gentiles (cf. Matt.3:9). As Paul says in Romans 4 “So then, Abraham is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them. And he is also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.” Circumcision, then, left no room for personal pride or credit. God’s people are to be a blessing to the nations.

5. Circumcision is a painful procedure. And the pain related to circumcision contains a message or sign in itself: it is through dying to the flesh that Abraham and his offspring are to be instruments of blessing in God’s hand. Abraham must break with the old way of life. Abraham’s offspring must live by faith in God’s covenant promises. This is called the “circumcision of the heart” (cf. Lev. 26:41; Deut. 10:16; Is. 6:10; Ezek. 44:7-9)

Circumcision as a physical procedure concerns the human heart in its relationship with God. Submission to circumcision calls for consecration of the heart to God. This is why the apostle Paul speaks of circumcision in the context of Jesus Christ as the One who fulfills circumcision through his death, burial, and resurrection.

Note, for example, Col. 2:11,12 “In Christ you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.”

Clearly, Genesis 17 is about God confirming his covenant promises by giving Abraham and Sarah new names and a covenant sign. That sign of the covenant calls for a response from Abraham and all his offspring—including you and me who believe in Christ Jesus as the Savior of the world. That’s why I say: in response to God’s covenant grace, Christians must keep covenant by embracing and living under the sign and call of the covenant, which today is the sign and seal of baptism.

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Here are my two applications: First of all, live your life as a follower of Christ under the umbrella of God’s covenant of grace. Christians live by God’s grace; we are saved by grace through Jesus Christ, who is the SEED of Abraham. God’s covenant promises to Abraham are realized in Jesus Christ, and they will be fulfilled completely when Jesus comes again.

All Christians, then, live under the umbrella of God’s covenant grace. It’s necessary to acknowledge that umbrella in our daily living. That’s why the Lord Jesus has given us the sign of his covenant—the sign of baptism.

That leads me to my second application: be baptized--you who come to faith in Christ as an adult, and you who are born in the household of adult believers—be baptized and live out of your baptism. Take note of God’s command to Abraham and his offspring: “Walk before me and be blameless.” In the O.T. days, that’s the call to those who are circumcised; it’s the same call that comes to us today in our baptism. That’s why I say, live out of your baptism. Live a life that shows you are in a covenantal relationship with God in Christ.

But there’s more here: God says to Abraham: “My covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting covenant. Any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.” Covenant breakers are those who ignore God’s covenant sign, or who consider it a matter of personal choice. God said emphatically to Abraham: “You must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come. This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised….”

In light of Scriptures, I believe that keeping God’s covenant means that we do not treat circumcision (or in our case today, baptism) as a personal choice, something to be postponed, or ignored, or optional.

If you wonder how I can make the connection between circumcision and baptism, I invite you to simply study Colossians 2; and Galatians 3, and listen to Paul’s teaching in Ephesians 4:4-6: “…remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called ‘uncircumcised’ by those who call themselves ‘the circumcision’ (that done in the body by the hands of men)—remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. (Here is the linkage) But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ…This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus….There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called—one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”

This is why I say to all Christian believers: in response to God’s covenant grace in Christ, keep covenant by embracing and by living under the sign of the covenant.

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.