A Living Sacrifice: Studies in Romans (2:25-29)

Romans 2:25-29

For circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law. For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.

Many Jewish Christians of Paul's day insisted that Gentile converts must be circumcised and keep the law in order to enjoy full fellowship within the Christian church. It is Paul's task in Romans to debunk this idea. The unity of believers in Christ is Paul's main agenda. Paul insists that his Gentile converts have as much right to full fellowship in the church as Jewish Christians. There are two barriers that the Judaizers have erected between Jewish and Gentile Christians: circumcision and law-keeping. Paul is getting ready to knock both of them down.

Here is Paul's argument: Circumcision is worth something if you keep the law. In other words, the Judaizers are right in asserting that circumcision and law-keeping go together. But they have missed the startling implications of this fact: their circumcision is meaningless because they have not kept the law. If a Jew breaks the law, Paul says, he is no different than a Gentile. In fact, he is worse than a Gentile because he knows the truth and suppresses it. Moreover—and this is where it gets really controversial—if a Gentile keeps the law he is no different from a Jew. He should be regarded as circumcised. This is because circumcision is "a matter of the heart" (v. 29). And, as we shall see, Paul understands "keeping the law" in terms of fulfilling the law in the Spirit by grace through faith. In this sense, the Gentile Christians are keeping the law while the Jewish Christians are breaking it by refusing to see its fulfillment in Christ.

So, those who break the law should be considered uncircumcised even if they are circumcised physically, and those who fulfill the law should be considered circumcised even if they are not circumcised physically. In one deft stroke Paul has turned Jews into Gentiles and Gentiles into Jews! This must have left their heads spinning. Paul yanked the rug of superiority from under their feet and left the Jewish Christians no basis for their proud condescension toward Gentile Christians. Indeed, Paul insists that the faithfulness of the Gentiles in Christ will condemn the faithlessness of Israel. Even though Israel has the gramma of the law, the "written code," only those who fulfill "the Spirit of the law" truly keep the law.

Paul's radical theology is built upon a simple idea: "For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter" (v. 28, 29). However, this simple idea is not original with Paul. Moses made it clear that circumcision of the heart is the reality that physical circumcision signifies (Deuteronomy 10:16; 30:6). The prophets echoed this theme, particularly Jeremiah (Jeremiah 4:4; 9:26). Paul is simply extrapolating what Scripture says in light of the new reality inaugurated in the death and resurrection of Christ. This is Paul's theology of the Spirit that undergirds everything he will say throughout the rest of Romans.