Romans 2:25-29

Romans 2:25-29

²⁵ For on the one hand circumcision is profitable if you practice the Law, but if you are a transgressor of the Law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. ²⁶ Therefore, if the uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the Law, will not his uncircumcision be reckoned for circumcision? ²⁷ And the one who by nature is uncircumcised, but fulfills the Law, will judge you, the transgressor of the Law, though having the letter and the circumcision. ²⁸ For it is not the Jew in the open, nor the circumcision in the open in the flesh, ²⁹ but the Jew in the secret and the circumcision of the heart by the Spirit not by the letter who receives praise not from men, but from God.

Now that Paul has shown that the Law, Israel’s boast, works against Israel, because Israel has not fulfilled its appointed purpose, Paul shows that circumcision of the flesh, another great marker of Israel, is not profitable for Israel because of transgression. In fact, for transgressors, circumcision is of no value, because the transgression makes the one with fleshly circumcision to be as uncircumcision. This seems to be similar to what the Lord says through Hosea, that ‘my people’ will become ‘not my people’ (Hosea 1:9).

Not only does transgression show that circumcision is of no profit, but there is a new man, who condemns the transgressor of the Law. Who is this new man? The new man is a new covenant Gentile, that is he fulfills the Law, because though he is uncircumcised in the flesh, he keeps the righteous requirements of the Law. Paul had to have had a smirk on his face has he pen this, for he must have seen the oddity of calling an uncircumcised man a keeper of the righteous requirements, since one of the requirements was to be circumcised. How then does a new covenant Gentile fulfill the Law? He is circumcised of the heart by the Spirit not by the letter. In other words, this new covenant Gentile is in the new covenant because he has the Spirit, who is the promise of the new covenant (Jer 31:33). Thus by being a new covenant Gentile, he fulfills the Law, that is he shows its completion, because he now is a Jew in the secret, the circumcised of the heart, which the prophets promised would come. And because the new covenant has come, the old covenant is fulfilled or completed. This also implies that a Jew, who is one in the open, must become circumcised of the heart, or his praise will simply come from men and not from God. Thus, the Jew in the flesh must become a Jew of the heart, or his fleshly circumcision will become to him as uncircumcision, and thus he will be cut off (Yes, pun intended!) from God.