Romans 2:25-29, 25 For circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law: but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision. 26 Therefore if the uncircumcised keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision? 27 And shall not uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfill the law, judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision dost transgress the law? 28 For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: 29 But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not of the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.
In v.25, the outward cutting of the flesh identified as circumcision means nothing...it will be counted as though you were not circumcised...if you are a breaker of the law of God. Obeying the outward requirement of Judaism is fine and dandy if you obey inwardly and from the heart the very spirit of the law. But if you are disobedient to the spirit of what the Lord teaches you, no outward observance of the principles of the law will be able to save you or call you righteous. An example of this is how the scribes and Pharisees would not take back the money from Judas for the temple because it was the price of blood, but used it to purchase the field Aceldama...They obeyed the letter of the law but this does not change the fact that they had crucified the Lord of glory.
In v. 26, we find that the opposite is also true. If there is a Gentile that does not observe the outward requirement of the law but obeys the Holy Spirit from his heart...his uncircumcision shall be counted for circumcision. An example of this is the good Samaritan in Jesus' story...he may not have been a Levite or a Pharisee concerning his outward observance of keeping the law, but he did what the Levite and Pharisee didn't in obeying the spirit of the law, which is love...he helped the man who had been overtaken by thieves; he took his own money and helped the man to recover.
Therefore, love is the fulfilling of what the law is truly all about...and if you fail to keep it according to some minute requirement according to the letter, but are living a life exemplified by the love of Jesus Christ, then God is well-pleased with you.
Of course, if someone is basing their salvation on the letter of the law, the letter of the law will most certainly point out to them their lack of love in failing to keep it.
In v. 27, Uncircumcision is by nature, it is the way that we are made. Circumcision was to identify a covenant that God had made with the descendants of Abraham. It required a cutting of the flesh...an operation to be made on the eighth day of a child's life. It represents the cutting away or "putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh" (Colossians 2:11) that takes place when a man is truly born again. If someone is uncircumcised and is obedient to the Holy Spirit, will he not be the judge of the one who has circumcision but is disobedient? If someone is born again but disobedient, he may indeed have salvation in the forgiveness of past, present, and future sin...but he will not be able to stand with a clear conscience before the person who does not have forgiveness but is obedient to the requirement that God has given to him. Now of course this is a hypothetical situation, since the reality is that everyone who is truly born again is in fact a new creature in Christ and therefore ideally they are obedient Christians...and those who are not born again are still identified by the old nature...that of lust and hatred, Titus 3:3...and therefore everything that they pride themselves on to get themselves into heaven will not profit them on their day of judgment...Isaiah 57:12, 1 Corinthians 4:5...because their heart was not right and they did what they did out of wrong motivations...they thought that somehow the Lord would accept them because of their own righteousness...which the Lord says is filthy rags...instead of trusting the Lord Jesus Christ to fill them with all the fulness of His love and not only impute to them, but impart to them His righteousness...which is perfection...and anything short of it cannot and will not save a man.
In v. 28, So then, the outward appearance is not what matters to the Lord. A person all decked out with tattoos but has his heart right will stand righteous over the one who has no tattoos but is unrighteous on the inside. The person with tattoos may have gotten them at a time in his life when he was not right with the Lord, but the Lord apprehended him and he could do nothing to change them. Or, someone who is unaware of the fact that greatness in the kingdom (though certainly not entrance into the kingdom) is predicated on whether one does and teaches the Old Testament requirement (Matthew 5:17-20) may have gotten a "Christian" tattoo in order to be a witness to others. And I would say that if that is done out of the love of the Lord being shed abroad in the heart, that the action fulfills the spirit of what the law requires even though it is in violation of the letter. God looks on the heart. If we obey and teach the requirement of the Old Testament as a schoolmaster to lead men to Christ, then our reward may indeed be great...but if we obey the law and teach that salvation is through law-keeping, then we are teaching a false gospel and not only will there be no reward, but condemnation will be the end result of all those who teach that a man can be saved through the righteousness of the law. Salvation is through the righteousness that comes through faith in Jesus Christ...and law-righteousness will be the result because there is no law that will condemn a man who bears the fruit of the Spirit because of faith in Jesus Christ. However many stumble at that stumblingstone concerning the pathway into this righteousness; thinking that somehow if they do their best to do what is right, that they will be saved thereby...however such will not only have a righteousness that is tainted by pride and self-exaltation (and therefore it is as filthy rags...Isaiah 64:6); but they have not received forgiveness of sins through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and what He did for us on the Cross of Calvary...and no amount of good works is going to suffice for them to be able to enter into the kingdom of the Lord, because their sins are not forgiven. If someone who does charity work is found to be a mass murderer, he must still pay the penalty for his crime...the charity work that he has accomplished will not outweigh his sins so that he does not have to be punished. If the same mass murderer came to faith in Jesus Christ and was truly forgiven of all his sins...then the fact is that Jesus took the penalty and wrath for all of that wickedness and the same person who committed all of those atrocities will be found "not guilty" on his day of judgment...his sins are forgiven and his heart washed clean so that God does not identify him as a mass murderer but as a blood-washed saint. In our hearts we recoil against such a theology...but it remains that if we want to be forgiven for the sins that we have committed against the Lord, we must also be willing for others to be forgiven by the same standard that we have been forgiven by. Thus if Hitler would have truly repented and received Christ as his Lord and Saviour, he will be allowed into heaven; but if Mother Theresa, with all of her charitable works, did not have faith in Jesus Christ and did not receive the forgiveness that He offers, she will be cast into outer darkness.
It remains that those who have put their faith in Jesus Christ will live holy lives, while those who do not have a living faith in Jesus Christ may outwardly appear righteous before men, but in all reality the inward workings of their character is that they remain unholy.
See Ezekiel 18 and Ezekiel 33.
In v.29, we again find that outward righteousness is not the thing that identifies a righteous man, but it is obedience to the spirit of the law that makes a person Jewish on the inside and circumcised on the inside. Jeremiah 4:4 comes to mind. Related to circumcision of the heart is the breaking up of our fallow ground, in Jeremiah 4:3-4 and Hosea 10:12.
In v.25, the outward cutting of the flesh identified as circumcision means nothing...it will be counted as though you were not circumcised...if you are a breaker of the law of God. Obeying the outward requirement of Judaism is fine and dandy if you obey inwardly and from the heart the very spirit of the law. But if you are disobedient to the spirit of what the Lord teaches you, no outward observance of the principles of the law will be able to save you or call you righteous. An example of this is how the scribes and Pharisees would not take back the money from Judas for the temple because it was the price of blood, but used it to purchase the field Aceldama...They obeyed the letter of the law but this does not change the fact that they had crucified the Lord of glory.
In v. 26, we find that the opposite is also true. If there is a Gentile that does not observe the outward requirement of the law but obeys the Holy Spirit from his heart...his uncircumcision shall be counted for circumcision. An example of this is the good Samaritan in Jesus' story...he may not have been a Levite or a Pharisee concerning his outward observance of keeping the law, but he did what the Levite and Pharisee didn't in obeying the spirit of the law, which is love...he helped the man who had been overtaken by thieves; he took his own money and helped the man to recover.
Therefore, love is the fulfilling of what the law is truly all about...and if you fail to keep it according to some minute requirement according to the letter, but are living a life exemplified by the love of Jesus Christ, then God is well-pleased with you.
Of course, if someone is basing their salvation on the letter of the law, the letter of the law will most certainly point out to them their lack of love in failing to keep it.
In v. 27, Uncircumcision is by nature, it is the way that we are made. Circumcision was to identify a covenant that God had made with the descendants of Abraham. It required a cutting of the flesh...an operation to be made on the eighth day of a child's life. It represents the cutting away or "putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh" (Colossians 2:11) that takes place when a man is truly born again. If someone is uncircumcised and is obedient to the Holy Spirit, will he not be the judge of the one who has circumcision but is disobedient? If someone is born again but disobedient, he may indeed have salvation in the forgiveness of past, present, and future sin...but he will not be able to stand with a clear conscience before the person who does not have forgiveness but is obedient to the requirement that God has given to him. Now of course this is a hypothetical situation, since the reality is that everyone who is truly born again is in fact a new creature in Christ and therefore ideally they are obedient Christians...and those who are not born again are still identified by the old nature...that of lust and hatred, Titus 3:3...and therefore everything that they pride themselves on to get themselves into heaven will not profit them on their day of judgment...Isaiah 57:12, 1 Corinthians 4:5...because their heart was not right and they did what they did out of wrong motivations...they thought that somehow the Lord would accept them because of their own righteousness...which the Lord says is filthy rags...instead of trusting the Lord Jesus Christ to fill them with all the fulness of His love and not only impute to them, but impart to them His righteousness...which is perfection...and anything short of it cannot and will not save a man.
In v. 28, So then, the outward appearance is not what matters to the Lord. A person all decked out with tattoos but has his heart right will stand righteous over the one who has no tattoos but is unrighteous on the inside. The person with tattoos may have gotten them at a time in his life when he was not right with the Lord, but the Lord apprehended him and he could do nothing to change them. Or, someone who is unaware of the fact that greatness in the kingdom (though certainly not entrance into the kingdom) is predicated on whether one does and teaches the Old Testament requirement (Matthew 5:17-20) may have gotten a "Christian" tattoo in order to be a witness to others. And I would say that if that is done out of the love of the Lord being shed abroad in the heart, that the action fulfills the spirit of what the law requires even though it is in violation of the letter. God looks on the heart. If we obey and teach the requirement of the Old Testament as a schoolmaster to lead men to Christ, then our reward may indeed be great...but if we obey the law and teach that salvation is through law-keeping, then we are teaching a false gospel and not only will there be no reward, but condemnation will be the end result of all those who teach that a man can be saved through the righteousness of the law. Salvation is through the righteousness that comes through faith in Jesus Christ...and law-righteousness will be the result because there is no law that will condemn a man who bears the fruit of the Spirit because of faith in Jesus Christ. However many stumble at that stumblingstone concerning the pathway into this righteousness; thinking that somehow if they do their best to do what is right, that they will be saved thereby...however such will not only have a righteousness that is tainted by pride and self-exaltation (and therefore it is as filthy rags...Isaiah 64:6); but they have not received forgiveness of sins through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and what He did for us on the Cross of Calvary...and no amount of good works is going to suffice for them to be able to enter into the kingdom of the Lord, because their sins are not forgiven. If someone who does charity work is found to be a mass murderer, he must still pay the penalty for his crime...the charity work that he has accomplished will not outweigh his sins so that he does not have to be punished. If the same mass murderer came to faith in Jesus Christ and was truly forgiven of all his sins...then the fact is that Jesus took the penalty and wrath for all of that wickedness and the same person who committed all of those atrocities will be found "not guilty" on his day of judgment...his sins are forgiven and his heart washed clean so that God does not identify him as a mass murderer but as a blood-washed saint. In our hearts we recoil against such a theology...but it remains that if we want to be forgiven for the sins that we have committed against the Lord, we must also be willing for others to be forgiven by the same standard that we have been forgiven by. Thus if Hitler would have truly repented and received Christ as his Lord and Saviour, he will be allowed into heaven; but if Mother Theresa, with all of her charitable works, did not have faith in Jesus Christ and did not receive the forgiveness that He offers, she will be cast into outer darkness.
It remains that those who have put their faith in Jesus Christ will live holy lives, while those who do not have a living faith in Jesus Christ may outwardly appear righteous before men, but in all reality the inward workings of their character is that they remain unholy.
See Ezekiel 18 and Ezekiel 33.
In v.29, we again find that outward righteousness is not the thing that identifies a righteous man, but it is obedience to the spirit of the law that makes a person Jewish on the inside and circumcised on the inside. Jeremiah 4:4 comes to mind. Related to circumcision of the heart is the breaking up of our fallow ground, in Jeremiah 4:3-4 and Hosea 10:12.
Last edited: