Free Grace Baptist Church - April 10, 2019 Bible Study

Genesis 17:15–27 is examined within the framework of the Abrahamic covenant, with particular attention to the declaration concerning Isaac, the obedience of Abraham, and the theological relationship between circumcision and baptism. The study draws a careful distinction between the covenant of circumcision — which governed membership in Old Covenant Israel by a works principle (Genesis 17:14) — and the covenant of grace, arguing with Nehemiah Coxe that the two must not be conflated. Colossians 2:11–12 is then opened to demonstrate that spiritual circumcision (regeneration) is the antitype of physical circumcision, and that baptism is the retrospective outward sign of that inward grace already received through faith — a sign that presupposes faith and therefore cannot legitimately be administered to infants.