Without Ordinance. Romans 4:9-12 V.9. The truth is plain; righteousness before God is without human works. They are completely set aside as the basis of being declared righteous. The truth is also that being justified is apart from divine ordinances. The Jews had the ordinance of circumcision that many of them blindly trusted in to make them acceptable before a Righteous God.
Today, many people trust in the ordinance of baptism to make themselves righteous before God. They say the baptism of infants at eight days (or whatever they decide) is the New Testament counterpart of the circumcision of Jewish boys in the Old Testament. Paul, by the Holy Spirit, carefully explains that being justified by God is by faith only, apart from keeping the law and apart from the ordinances that God gave. Those ordinances were to be an outward sign of an inward work. Neither baptism nor the Lord's Supper can give us a righteous standing before a holy God. Outward signs and seals demonstrate inward belief and trust. Our faith is in Christ and His saving work, not in what we do.
V.10. The Gospel message does not tell people to clean up their lives, change their religion, and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved after everything is in order. God justifies the ungodly when he or she believes in the Lord Jesus Christ. Then, as public evidence of what has happened, the believer is identified with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection by the ordinance of baptism by immersion as a true believer.
Abraham believed God long before he was circumcised at 99 years of age. He believed in God when he was in the Ur of the Chaldees and turned to God from idols. He believed God when he obeyed the command to leave his country, relatives, and his father's house. He believed God when he built an altar to worship the Lord in Canaan. He believed God when he separated from Lot. He believed God when he was victorious over the kings. He believed God when he learned through Melchizedek more about God as the "God most high, Possessor of heaven and earth," and rejected men's offer of great riches. He believed God concerning the promise of seed that would bless the whole world and was because of that counted as righteous. All of these acts of faith were before the sign of circumcision. These acts of trusting God to do the impossible were evidence of his faith in God doing what He said before it ever happened.
V.11. Abraham's faith was a living walk with God, trusting Him to do what He said. His works proved the reality of his faith. Works are the results of true faith, not a condition of salvation. God declares a person righteous because our faith focuses on the Lord Jesus Christ only and what He did to save us. God's great grace motivates us to "walk in the light as He is in the light." That light of life is why the person declared by God to be righteous is so desirous to live the separated life of one who believes in Jesus.
V.12. Abraham's life of faith was his response to the love of God to him. He walked with God and learned more and more about God as he experienced God with him. He built altars to God and worshipped Him, calling upon His name. Then, the mark of separation set him apart from all others. To him and us, the blessing of righteousness before God comes without ordinances. "Man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart." Heart-belief is the true circumcision. Righteousness is apart from ordinances, and righteousness is apart from the works of men.