Jesus is the Only Saviour for Jews and Gentiles
Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, you have become as though you had not been circumcised. So then, if those who are not circumcised keep the law’s requirements, will they not be regarded as though they were circumcised? The one who is not circumcised physically and yet obeys the law will condemn you who, even though you have the written code and circumcision, are a lawbreaker. A person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a person’s praise is not from other people, but from God. Romans 2:25-29
Having just explained that possessing and knowing the law did not exempt any Jew from God’s judgement, (2:17-24), Paul is explaining that circumcision would not either. Circumcision itself was the God-given sign and seal of God’s covenant with Israel. But the Jews had elevated this sign as a guarantee of immunity from judgement and used it as further reason to judge Gentiles and stand aloof from them.
Paul now takes this reversal of roles where the Gentile condemns the Jew instead of the Jew condemning the Gentile. The definition of what makes a true Jew has changed. Negatively, ‘a person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly [in the open, visibly] nor is circumcision merely outward [same word] and physical [in the flesh]’ (2:28). Positively, ‘a person is a Jew who is one inwardly [in secret]; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart’ (2:29). We don’t first hear of circumcision of the heart in Paul’s writings. Moses called on the people of Israel to ‘circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer’ (Deuteronomy 10:16; cf. 30:6; Leviticus 26:41).
What Paul is describing is a circumcision of the heart that completely replaces the physical rite, a circumcision ‘by the Spirit, not by the written code’ (2:29). It would be an inward work of the Holy Spirit accomplishing what the law as an external code could never achieve. The contrast between the ‘written code’ and the ‘Spirit’ sums up for Paul the difference between the old covenant (an external law) and the new (the gift of the Spirit).
‘Such a person’s praise is not from other people, but from God’ (2:29). Paul might be writing in Greek but he’s thinking like a Hebrew. This is probably a Hebrew play-on-words because Jews were named after their forebear Judah and Judah’s name in Hebrew meant ‘praise’ (Genesis 29:35; 49:8).
In his radical redefinition of what it means to be a Jew, an authentic member of God’s covenant family, Paul has drawn a fourfold contrast:
(1) the essence of being a real Jew (someone who may ethnically be a Gentile) is not something outward and visible, but inward and invisible
(2) true circumcision is of the heart and not of the flesh
(3) true circumcision is brought about by the Spirit and not the law
(4) true circumcision wins God’s approval whether anyone else approves or not
Human beings are comfortable with what is outward, visible, physical and superficial. By contrast, what matters to God is a deep, inward, secret work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts.
How should Christians understand the Jews today? This is explored in Romans 11 particularly but we can pre-empt that discussion a little. Two claims must be rejected by Christians:
(1) that anyone can find eternal salvation within the boundaries set down by Abraham, Moses, the prophets and the Torah. Paul is unequivocal. Neither circumcision, the sign of the covenant, nor the law, the centre of that covenant, can rescue a Jew from God’s wrath
(2) following this, Christ and Christ alone is the only Saviour (Acts 4:12). He alone rescues from the wrath to come. Refusing Christ is trusting in our own righteousness and no one can be declared righteous before God (essential for salvation) by any personal attempts at righteous behaviour (Romans 3:20).
Jesus is the Jewish Messiah, the only Saviour of the Jews and the only Saviour of the Gentiles.