Now again comes up the question, never far distant in St Paul's thought, and in his life, what these facts of Justification have to do with Gentile sinners. Here is David blessing God for his unmerited acceptance, an acceptance by the way wholly unconnected with the ritual of the altar. Here above all is Abraham, "justified in consequence of faith." But David was a child of the covenant of circumcision. And Abraham was the father of that covenant. Do not their justifications speak only to those who stand, with them, inside that charmed circle? Was not Abraham justified by faith _plus circumcision_? Did not the faith act only because he was already one of the privileged? [Sidenote: Ver. 9.] =This felicitation therefore,= this cry of "Happy are the freely justified," =is it upon the circumcision, or upon the uncircumcision? For we say that to Abraham,= with an emphasis[50] on "_Abraham_," =his faith was reckoned as righteousness.= The question, he means, is legitimate, "_for_" Abraham is not at first sight a case in point for the justification of the outside world, the non-privileged races of man. [Sidenote: Ver. 10.] But consider: =How then was it reckoned? To Abraham in circumcision or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision;= fourteen years at least had to pass before the covenant rite came in. [Sidenote: Ver. 11.] =And he received the sign of circumcision,= (with a stress upon "_sign_," as if to say that the "_thing_," the reality signed, was his already,) =as a seal on the righteousness of the faith that was in his circumcision,= a seal on the acceptance which he received, antecedent to all formal privilege, in that bare hand of faith. And all this was so, and was recorded so, with a purpose of far-reaching significance: =that he might be father,= exemplar, representative, =of all who believe notwithstanding uncircumcision,[51] that to them righteousness should be reckoned;= [Sidenote: Ver. 12.] =and father of circumcision,= exemplar and representative within its circle also, =for those who do not merely belong to circumcision, but for those[52] who also step in the track of the uncircumcision-faith of our father Abraham.=