Passage: Genesis 17

The Big Idea

How can anyone tell that you really believe? Thirteen years after the Hagar detour, God appeared to Abram as El Shaddai, the All-Sufficient One, renewed His covenant, and changed his name to Abraham. Then He gave him a sign: circumcision. It wasn’t Abraham’s half of the deal; it was a sign that he believed and received God’s covenant. Today, Christ circumcises our hearts, and the sign of a believer is a life that trusts Him, abides in Him and bears His fruit.

How Can I Tell?

You might say you’re a Christian, a child of God, a believer. But how can anyone tell? We don’t wear armbands. We don’t all have the same haircut. We don’t share a secret handshake. So how do we show we believe?

In the early centuries of the church, when persecution came, some believers denied Christ under pressure. They were called “the lapsed.” When they wanted to come back, church leaders often required long periods of penance: doing hard things or suffering to prove they were sorry. But penance never fixed what was wrong in their hearts, and it wasn’t biblical.

For most of church history, that idea has been a snare: thinking we can fix our lives through more effort, suffering or sacrifice, instead of through the spiritual work of Jesus in our hearts.

Abraham believed God. But there had been real mistakes, actions that didn’t line up with his faith, times he didn’t trust the Lord and tried to get things done in his own strength. The most obvious was trying to produce the promised child through Hagar. Now Ishmael was thirteen years old.

By this time, Abram may have thought God was done speaking to him and had left him to his own devices. He needed to be reminded of a few things. When we drift from God, we always come back when we remember how much we need Him, and how willing He is to be everything we need.

El Shaddai (Genesis 17:1-2)

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty; walk before Me and be blameless, and I will make My covenant between Me and you and multiply you greatly.”

“I am God Almighty,” El Shaddai. The All-Sufficient One. The God of all ability and all power to get things done. The God who says, “I know how to make it happen.”

“Walk before Me and be blameless.” “Aha! I knew there’d be requirements somewhere! I have to be perfect. That’s what I figured. I’m out of here!”

But “blameless” here means wholehearted. God wanted Abram’s wholehearted trust, no double-mindedness.

“In all your walking, walk with Me. Don’t stop walking with Me. Trust Me fully. I can make it happen, and I will.”
“Stay close to Me. Walk before Me, where I can see you and reach you, and where you can see and reach Me.”
Any distance between you and God will just get you into trouble.

“I will make My covenant.” “I haven’t forgotten My promise.”

God always brings us back to His Word!
How many times have we read this promise? God keeps repeating Himself. Why? Because it’s simple. He’s growing Abram into a man of faith, a man who hears God’s simple promises and believes them.
Jesus said, “Apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). Do you believe that?

Abram Fell on His Face (Genesis 17:3-8)

Then Abram fell on his face. Humility! When we believe and receive God’s promises, it puts our hearts in the right place.

And God said, “My covenant is with you, and you will be the father of many nations. No longer will your name be Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you very fruitful; nations and kings will come from you. I will establish My covenant as an everlasting covenant with you and your descendants, to be your God and theirs. And I will give you and your descendants all the land of Canaan, where you are now a foreigner, as an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.”

God changed Abram’s name to Abraham. Finally!

Abram means “exalted father.” A name without the reality, like a glove without a hand. A form of godliness without its power.
Abraham means “father of a multitude.” The real deal. Actually fruitful. A truly spiritual man bearing real fruit for God.

Abraham’s new name speaks of his true identity, flowing out of a real relationship with God. God was actually changing who he was, his very nature.

If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and the new has come (2 Corinthians 5:17).

As we come to Jesus in faith, believing in His power and sacrifice, He does a creative work in us, just as when He created the world out of nothing. He produces a new life and a new identity in our hearts.

The Sign of the Covenant (Genesis 17:9-14)

God told Abraham that he and his descendants must keep the covenant in this way: every male among them must be circumcised. It would be the sign of the covenant between God and them. Every male, eight days old, born in the household or bought from a foreigner, must be circumcised. Any uncircumcised male would be cut off from his people, having broken the covenant.

This is the first thing Abraham is ever told to do regarding the covenant. But it isn’t his “half” of the covenant. It’s a sign that he believes and receives it.

Remember, God already made the contract. He set the terms, signed it in blood (Genesis 15), and promised to fulfill every part.
Abraham only needed to believe to enter in.
Now God asked for a sign of that belief, probably to give Abraham an outward reminder of his inward trust. Much like baptism for us today.

What did the sign mean?

It made them outwardly different, set apart from the world.
It made them more sensitive.
It had to do with procreation, a constant reminder of the promised Son, the Savior, through whom life would come.
It cut away the flesh, a picture of cutting off Abraham’s dependence on fleshly efforts to please God or inherit the promises, like when he tried to get the promise through Hagar.
It was a shadow of realities that would come in Jesus.

Paul says that in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but a new creation (Galatians 6:15). Every benefit pictured by this sign is fully accomplished today by believing and following Jesus:

Different: we’re set apart in Him.
Sensitive to the Spirit: all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God (Romans 8:14).
Life comes forth: Christ lives in us and through us. Paul says he’s been crucified with Christ, and it’s no longer he who lives, but Christ lives in him (Galatians 2:20).
The flesh cut off: the flesh is crucified. We never trust it again; our own efforts accomplish nothing. What the Law couldn’t do, weakened by the flesh, God did by sending His Son and condemning sin in the flesh (Romans 8:3). So we put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh (Romans 13:14).

We aren’t a shadow of Jesus. The real Jesus lives in us! The mystery hidden for ages is this: Christ in you, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27).

Sarah (Genesis 17:15-16)

God told Abraham that Sarai’s name would now be Sarah. He would bless her and give Abraham a son by her; she would become the mother of nations, and kings would come from her.

There’s just a subtle difference in the names. Both mean “princess.” But now she would be a princess not just of one family, but of nations.

This was still the same promise. God was saying, in effect, “You never should have looked for fulfillment apart from your wife! She’s the one I chose for you.”

A word about marriage

Many marriages today head toward divorce because people stop believing God is in it anymore. They look at their spouse’s faults and can’t imagine God wants them to stay. Or they think about how they got together, maybe in sin, maybe not the way it should have been, and wonder if they were ever meant to be together.

Let me answer that as clearly as I can: when you got married, your marriage became God’s will for you.

The fastest way for a marriage to go down the tubes is to start believing God might have someone else out there for you. He doesn’t! Every other man or woman is not God’s will for you. If you seek fulfillment outside your marriage, you’ll be fighting against God’s will for your life. They’re all Hagars. They might be attractive, exotic, even believers, but they’ll bring heartache and a curse on your soul.

(This isn’t about staying in danger. If you’re being abused, get to safety and get help. God’s heart is for your protection.)

I understand your spouse might not make you happy right now. Maybe it’s really hard. That’s okay. Is it suffering, you say?

Peter says that since Christ suffered in the flesh, we should arm ourselves with the same mindset, living the rest of our time not for human passions but for the will of God. We’ve spent enough time in the past living like the world. The end of all things is near, so be serious and watchful in prayer. And above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:1-8).

Abraham Laughed (Genesis 17:17-18)

Abraham fell on his face and laughed, saying to himself, “Will a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Will Sarah have a child at ninety?”

Isaac is the Hebrew word for laughter.
Abraham was blown away. He believed, but he was a bit shocked that God would wait until circumstances were this impossible to fulfill the promise.

And Abraham said to God, “Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!”

“Oh yeah, I already have a son.”

Abraham really loved Ishmael. But no matter how much he wanted his little work of the flesh to be blessed as the promised one, it couldn’t be. Ishmael wasn’t the fulfillment of the promise. He wasn’t born by the power of God.

Nothing we do in our own strength can produce what only God’s power can. It’s hard to hear, and it isn’t how much of our culture thinks, but it’s biblical.

Like Abraham, we love our self-efforts! We’ve been trained to love them ever since our parents first said, “Great job, sweetie pie!” We grow fond of our self-made products. “My own… my precious…” (What’s Gollum’s favorite bird? A Sméagull!)

Isaac, the Son of Promise (Genesis 17:19-22)

God said, “No, Sarah your wife will bear you a son, and you will name him Isaac. I will establish My covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.”

Isaac would be the line through which God set apart a people to carry His message, and from whom the Messiah would come.

Why couldn’t it be Ishmael? Because God was protecting a very important picture for the future. It has to be by the Spirit. We can’t have victory any other way! Abraham had to wait for God to fulfill His promise; he couldn’t do it himself.

Walk by the Spirit, and you won’t carry out the desires of the flesh. If we live by the Spirit, let’s keep in step with the Spirit (Galatians 5:16, 25).
There’s now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, so that the righteous requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit (Romans 8:1, 4).

It seems impossible that we must walk in trust of an invisible Spirit to have victory, just as Abraham had to believe invisible promises to see them literally fulfilled.

“As for Ishmael, I’ve heard you. I will bless him and make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He will father twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation.”

Another promise fulfilled.
Another gracious blessing from God.

“But My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this time next year.” Then God finished speaking and went up from Abraham.

Finally, a date! So Abraham was invincible until then. I bet he went skydiving and bungee jumping! (Well, we know he spent some time with Sarah…)

Abraham Obeyed (Genesis 17:23-27)

That very day Abraham circumcised Ishmael and every male in his household, as God had said. Abraham was ninety-nine, and Ishmael was thirteen.

Abraham acted in line with his faith.
He performed the outward sign of an inward faith.
He took God at His word and showed his faith was real.
Whenever he looked back on it, he’d remember the promises he believed.

Aren’t you glad our outward sign of faith is baptism?

Circumcision of the Heart

Some say Old Testament circumcision was just a ritual, a bloody task that got you into God’s nation, like getting a gang tattoo on your forehead: once it’s done, you’re in.

But circumcision never gained anyone entrance into God’s kingdom.

Moses told Israel to circumcise the foreskin of their hearts and stop being stubborn (Deuteronomy 10:16).
“Wait, how can I do that?” By faith, like Abraham, trusting God and cutting away dependence on self.
And God promised that He would circumcise their hearts, so they would love Him with all their heart and soul, and live (Deuteronomy 30:6).

When you trust God, He does the work for you, because you can’t do it yourself.

So how can you show you believe? Be circumcised by Jesus. What will that look like?

Your heart will trust the Lord.
Your life will honor God.
You’ll confess the Lord.
You’ll be baptized.
You’ll remain in Him.
You’ll bear fruit.

In Him you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with Him in baptism and raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead (Colossians 2:11-12).

Put off the body of the flesh. Like a prisoner whose chains have been unlocked, just throw them off. That’s how we treat our old sinful habits and desires. (Or hold them under the baptismal water until they stop struggling; then they come off easily!)

Abide in the death of Jesus. When you struggle with sin, fix your eyes on the cross. All sin was killed there, nailed to the cross.

It only works “by the circumcision of Christ.” His work in you. His power at work in you. His Spirit does the cutting in our hearts, working in us both to will and to do His good pleasure (Philippians 2:13). You abide, and He works!

Baptism is a one-time event that pictures a daily lifestyle: dying to ourselves and living in Jesus. We were buried with Him through baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4).

Grace Takeaway

You can’t prove your faith with penance or fix your heart with effort. God is El Shaddai, the All-Sufficient One. He renamed Abram by grace and gave him a sign of a covenant God Himself would keep. Jesus circumcises your heart, cutting away trust in the flesh. Your part is to believe, walk wholeheartedly with Him, and let His life show.

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