Romans 4:12 And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised.
This is one of many verses and contexts that remains so overlooked by the singular Gospel crowd.
The sentiments in favor of believing in a singular Gospel throughout, thus being forced by that former gospel message, which demanded the work of water baptism for the remission of sins, and then trying to intermix that with righteousness through faith, and thus saved by grace (unmerited favor), that is a paradoxical dichotomy...given that Abraham never, at any time, practiced nor taught water baptism.
Faith, apart from any work, as it applies to us today who are under the Gospel of Grace, works play not one solitary part in our salvation through the shed Blood of Christ Jesus, His burial and resurrection on the third day. Water baptism, although a very nice outward showing of something that has already happened, is not going to remit anyone's sins in any way. Believing that it does is a diminishment of the Blood of Christ for us. That is not true of those who were under the Kingdom Gospel, and will be under it in the tribulation and the Millennial Kingdom, but it is not at all binding upon us today.
The Law was in full force, even after the resurrection of Christ:
Acts 21:20 And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord, and said unto him, Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe; and they are all zealous of the law:
The Judaizers simply did not understand nor know the mystery revealed through Paul. They too were singular Gospel followers. They thought they were doing good service unto the Lord, but were working against the Lord and against Paul as it turned out.
In addition to myself, my Messianic brothers in the Lord Jesus Christ know precisely what this is saying, reading it in the non-Alexandrian Greek texts. We are not so Westernized that we are blinded by this Westernized form of Christianity that dabbles so deeply, and is therefore greatly infected, with the pathetic and feeble sentiments of replacement theology throughout. It's my hope that more who follow the corruptions of Westernized Christianity will break free of that warped mindset that the enemy of our souls has worked so hard to foist upon so many within the body of Christ.
MM