20 | Romans | Romans 2:25–29 | Who is the Circumcision?

CG QUESTIONS

1. Recap together as a group the meaning of Romans 2:25-29.

2. On Sunday Jeremiah drew out two implications from this passage: a warning and a hope.

Warning: External signs of religious belonging are insufficient to give confidence that one belongs to the people of God.

Consider religious participation in such things as a Christian home and heritage, baptism, communion. Have you ever presumed upon these external signs as the means of your confidence rather than their substance, which is Christ.

Hope: Believer, you with circumcised hearts, you belong to the Lord and you are named among his people.

Given that Jesus fulfilled the whole law on our behalf, what does belonging to the people of God mean for you who believe?

INTRODUCTION

Last week we ended our passage in v24.

Here, the Apostle Paul describes how the hypocrites among the Jews are causing the Gentiles to dishonor the name of the Lord.

Surely, this was a difficult word for many to hear in Rome.

But in our passage this morning, Paul presses his point home in a way that was surely shocking.

While there are hypocrites among the Jews who bring God’s name into disrepute and so are no longer worthy to bear the name of Jew …

… there are among the Gentiles those who

… have submitted to the Lord and so have come to bear that name.

My prayer this morning is that the Lord would cause us to hear the both the warning and the hope that this passage has for us.

1) That many hear also are among the religiously initiated.

Many hear too are far beyond any excuse for our hypocrisy …

… and so, though we bear the name of Christ

… we do so only outwardly, but in reality have nothing to do with him.

2) And that we would hear the incredible hope and joy …

… that Jew and Gentile may be brought into fellowship together

… to partake in the blessing of covenant fellowship together because of the righteousness of Christ.

PRAY

3:00

CIRCUMCISION, A MATTER OF THE HEART

Circumcision was a sign given Abraham and his male descendents by which God would mark the whole of the people as set aside for himself.

And this sign would point the people to the covenant that the Lord would be their God and they would be his people.

I want you to hear that again.

Circumcision was a sign given to the people.

It means nothing in and of itself.

The sign finds its meaning and substance in the covenant which it signifies.

Now, there is a pattern in Romans 2.

Romans 2:13 — It is not the hearers of the law, but the doers who will be justified.

Romans 2:21 — We have the Jew who knows himself to be a teacher of the law, and yet is a hypocrite. You then who teach others, do you not teach yourselves?

The very people who boast in God have brought dishonor to God’s name.

The pattern of Romans 2 is of a people who began to identify themselves with the sign of the covenant rather than with its substance.

They began to envision their identity in their religious heritage.

And circumcision is that ancient sign that indicates that these descendents of Abraham belong to God.

6:00

Now, let’s walk through our passage this morning:

READ v25 - Circumcision is of value IF you obey the law

But, circumcision becomes uncircumcision IF you break the law

The law is not merely a set of commandments.

Paul is indicating the whole of God’s covenant purpose for the people to be received with faith-filled obedience.

Paul is not speaking of the abstract possibility of perfect obedience …

… a standard that every human apart from Jesus himself has fallen short of.

Remember that the law includes the instructions for the day of atonement.

That is, the law includes the understanding that the people who follow the Lord with their heart and soul, will still need to come to the Lord to make sacrifice for the forgiveness of sin.

So, to obey the law is not moral perfection …

… but a trust in God’s power to save

… and a love of God’s grace that brings repentance.

This is faith-filled obedience

Circumcision is valuable for those who walk in this way.

But for those who do not, the reality is the sign circumcision is worthless to them.

It is uncircumcision.

That is, they do not truly belong to the people of God.

9:00

READ v26 - If the uncircumcised keeps precepts of law = uncircumcision regarded as circumcision

But what about the one who is not a descendent of Abraham …

… whose ancestors did not have the testimony of the law at work shaping his cultural heritage.

And yet, when he hears the Word, he submits himself to the Lord God in faith and hope.

He conforms his life to the way of the Lord, even as his daily prayer is “have mercy on me, a sinner.”

Has he not kept the precepts of the law?

Is not his faith-filled obedience, which clings to the substance of his hope …

… of greater value than the one who has only the sign and none of the substance?

Is not his uncircumcision of greater value than the one who is circumcised but does not obey?

Though he is uncircumcised he will be regarded as one who belongs to the people of God.

11:00

READ v27 - Physically uncircumcised + keeps law > written code + circumcision and break the law (comparison)

When you hold these two up, will not the one who trusts in the Lord with a life that reflects that trust …

… dwarf the one who has the law and yet is a hypocrite?

Paul is not creating a new category of judge.

The group of uncircumcised believers aren’t going to take a seat in judgement over the circumcised who fail to believe.

The condemnation comes by the mere comparison of the two.

The fact and reality of the faith-filled uncircumcised man is an accusation hurled at the man who knows the truth, and yet fails to walk in it.

13:00

READ v28 - No one is a Jew IF merely outwardly

Circumcision NOT outward and physical

This is a simple summary of Paul’s argument thus far.

To be a Jew is an inward reality.

Circumcision is a matter of the heart (by Spirit not letter)

This is such a powerful sentence! It tells us this powerful reality.

The letter of the law (external adherence) cannot change the heart of mankind.

The law’s demand is powerless to create the repentance that it requires.

This is why it is the kindness of God that is meant to lead to repentance

The Spirit, not the letter of the law, has power to transform from the inside out.

The letter does not have the power to change the inner man.

John Piper (one pastor) The point of verse 29 is that the Holy Spirit is the one who makes uncircumcised Gentiles into circumcised Jews, namely, by circumcising their hearts.

v29b - His praise is not from man but from God.

We’ll come back to this

18:00

APPLY

Romans 8:3–4 (ESV) For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Do you remember Romans 1:5? the obedience of faith

It is from a heart circumcised by Holy Spirit that the disciples of Jesus fulfills the righteous requirements of the law.

We become those who walk not by the letter of the law …

… but by the Spirit of God who works the precepts of the law into our very hearts desires.

For the one who walks by the letter of the law …

… whose effort is to keep the laws demands by an effort of the will alone

… have hypocrisy as their inevitable end

… because the letter of the law is powerless to produce the transformation of the heart that is required to love the Lord and to love our neighbor.

But for the one who walks by faith in the hope of the Messiah …

… Jesus has overcome sin in the flesh by his own righteousness.

Not by the power of the law, but by the power of the Holy Spirit, sin is overcome.

21:00

This is the flow of Paul’s argument in our passage this morning.

What Paul says here is shocking!

Gentiles may be counted among the people of God, regarded as having received the benefits which belong to the covenant people?

What does this mean?

You can see why the next words in chapter 3 are, “Then what advantage has the Jew?”

Paul has shaken the identity what it means to be a Jew!

…

Many in history have caused great confusion, even committed grave error in handling the question of Jewish identity.

Much of the remainder of our time this morning will be spent addressing this error.

22:00

WHO ARE THE PEOPLE OF GOD?

Paul is a circumcised Jew.

He was once zealous for the law, but failing to see faith in Jesus as the fulfillment of the law.

He was a Jew who was lost in unbelief.

And yet, Paul bore not only the mark of circumcision, but zealously taught and led others …

… “having in the embodiment of the law knowledge and truth.”

But, in this very zeal he became a murderer, presiding over the stoning of Stephen (an early disciple of Jesus, and among the first deacons).

He who taught against murder had himself become a murderer.

It was not until seeing the risen Jesus that Paul’s heart was changed.

The Spirit circumcised Paul’s heart so that he submitted to the Lord in faith, receiving both forgiveness of sin and the righteousness of Christ.

Paul was no less filled with zeal, but his praise was no longer from man by from God. Paul had become a Jew.

That is, one who belongs to God in body and soul.

Why do I say this?

Because Paul, the Jew, inside and out, is the one who writes these most difficult words to his kinsmen according to the flesh …

… to his fellow ethnic and religious Jews.

24:00

There is a way of speaking that I read and hear quite often, even in my study for this passage this morning.

It is to summarize passages like what we have before us today …

… as if the Bible is describing how the true people of God became Gentiles rather than Jews.

I am troubled by that sort of summary and conclusion from a passage like what we have before us today.

I find it to be sloppy at best and in dangerous error at worst.

I do understand this passage to mean what it seems to say most clearly …

… that an uncircumcised man, a Gentile by birth

… may experience the circumcision of the heart by the Spirit of God

… and so be counted of Jew

… a true and actual member of God’s forever people

… with all the blessings and fruitfulness

… which God has promised to his covenant people since Abraham.

But listen to the mistaken summary again.

It is to summarize passages like what we have before us today …

… as if the Bible is describing how the true people of God became Gentiles rather than Jews.

Let me give you an example of what I would call a sloppily worded summary.

I don’t think its malicious, just sloppy. “… Gentiles, are actually becoming the true Jews, and will even stand in judgment over the Jews at the judgment day”

— (Piper)

Did you hear it?

Gentiles are becoming the true Jews.

Gentiles (the new true Jews) will stand in judgement over the Jews.

27:00

There is utterly no way that Paul is saying that the Gentiles are becoming the true church since the Jews rejected Jesus.

Why? Because Paul is a Jew …

… inside and out, in the flesh and in the heart, through and through.

Paul, Peter, Matthew, James, Barnabas, all these saints aren’t being replaced by some new Gentile church.

Neither is he advocating for such a transition.

He is actually advocating for the conversion of every heart to take hold of the righteousness of Christ as his only hope.

Some have called such sloppy summaries of Paul’s argument in Romans replacement theology.

It is the erroneous teaching …

… or as I argue in the example above

… a sloppy misrepresentation

… that a New Testament Gentile church has replaced the Old Testament Jewish nation.

But what we have in our passage is not replacement theology.

Romans does not say that the Gentile church has replaced the Jewish people of God.

That’s either a sloppy overstatement or a dangerous error.

30:00

Why do I say sloppy?

Because Gentile believers ARE coming into the people of God!

But they are not replacing the people of God.

1) Remember how Paul keeps saying, to the Jew first and also the Gentile.

Paul is an example of a Jew first.

He, along with all the Jewish believers received the covenant of God …

… beheld Jesus Christ the Son of God

… and experienced the circumcision of the heart by the Spirit.

The Jew is the first to have received all these things

… from the Word of God in the scriptures

… to the gospel of God in Jesus Christ.

None of these Jews have been replaced by anyone.

They are called to belong to Jesus Christ.

31:00

2) And also to the Gentile.

The Word has now come to the Gentiles.

And with the Word, news of the Word fulfilled in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

These who were previously cut off from the people of God and the blessings of his covenant …

… uncircumcised in the flesh and practicing all manner of unrighteousness

… to these the righteousness of God has now been revealed from faith for faith.

Yes, also to the Gentile, he will live by faith having been called to belong to Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 2:11–13 (ESV) Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

33:00

APPLY

You who were once far off have been brought near.

Near to what? Near to the Lord where the faithful Israel has been the whole time.

Yes, our passage presents a sweeping indictment of those Jews who ought to have been near to the Lord …

… but in their hypocrisy have become no Jews at all.

Though they bear in their flesh the sign of their belonging …

… they find themselves cut off from the Lord and his people.

But, there are those, the Jew first and now also the Gentile …

… who by grace through faith have been brought near.

The shocking mystery is that in the end, the purpose of God in the gospel is to make the two one.

There is one Jewish people whose circumcision is inward …

… a matter of the heart by the Spirit.

And the faith-filled Gentile has been truly brought into this one covenant people.

36:00

APPLY

1) External signs of religious belonging are insufficient to give confidence that one belongs to the people of God.

The main idea of this chapter is to defend God’s righteous judgement …

… so that both Jew and Gentile are persuaded to law down every other hope of salvation apart from the righteousness of Jesus Christ received by faith.

v25 continues the argument against hypocrisy.

Sure, circumcision (and external boast) would be of value if you aren’t a hypocrite.

That is, the Jew’s external religious identification would be valuable …

… if he did not simultaneously through away the true meaning of that identity by breaking the law.

In v21-22 the hypocritical Jew is boasting in his knowledge of God’s good way while denying any goodness of that way by turning away from it.

So, he is proud to be identified by his knowledge of the law of God …

… even to the degree that he wears in his flesh the external mark of that covenant.

But he turns away from that same Jewish identity in his behaviors …

… thus revealing a heart that has no true joy in that very covenant that marks his flesh.

The hypocrite’s life reveals his true identity.

His circumcision has become uncircumcision.

The covenant’s external sign in the flesh will serve not to justify him, but to condemn him.

2,000 years have passed since this warning was first written to the church in Rome.

Since then, what it means to be the religiously initiated has shifted.

The word has been preached throughout most of the world …

… and the church has grown up not only in Jerusalem and Judea

… but also in Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

It is not longer the Jews only who have in their heritage the Word of God shaping their ancestral culture so that the truth of God is known to them from the cradle.

Just like the mark of circumcision …

… we in Western cultures have been weaned in at least some measure of biblical reality.

And many, especially among those who are raised in the church …

… have come to bear the various marks of belonging to God not so much as a matter of the heart, but as a matter of culture.

And many of us have played along in our flesh.

Let us be warned today.

Perhaps you were raised in a Christian family.

Thank the Lord for the gift, the value of such a heritage.

But your heritage will become nothing if you do not take hold of what that heritage points to.

It is not enough to participate in a family or culture that has historically been shaped by God’s Word.

The gospel that the Word proclaims must be taken hold of personally by faith.

Perhaps you were baptized.

What a gift, to be publically marked as belonging to the Lord …

… identifying with him in his death and resurrection

… and as belonging to his church.

But your baptism will only stand to condemn you ..

… if your trust is in the sign itself, the mere religious behavior

… instead of in the substance which you must cling to by faith alone.

How many baptized persons are there in the world who do not walk with the Lord whom they claim to belong to?

How many who are baptized fail to fellowship with the church, the very people of God with which their baptism unites them?

Perhaps you partake in communion Sunday after Sunday.

To eat of that bread and drink of that cup …

… is a matter of most serious import.

Is your faith in the substance …

… the broken body and shed blood of Jesus for the forgiveness of your sin?

Or, with no regard for the reality of Jesus’ sacrifice do you drink judgement on yourself (1 Corinthians 11:29)?

If you think those applications are a bit harsh (a little too heavy) …

… make no mistake, the words of Paul in Romans 2 hit the ears of any Jew is the Roman church with the same severity.

42:00

Believer, you with circumcised hearts, you belong to the Lord and you are named among his people.

I said I would come back to the end of v29.

His praise is not from man but from God.

What does it mean to be a Jew?

The name itself comes from the tribe of Judah.

Judah, whose name means “praise.”

To be a Jew means to be a people of praise.

A people who do not seek the praise of this world, but the praise of the Lord.

John 5:39–44 (ESV) You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. I do not receive glory from people. But I know that you do not have the love of God within you. I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?

How can you be a Jew when you seek the glory of self-righteousness?

How can you be a Jew when you seek the praise of man.

Do you not know that the very essence of what it means to be a Jew is to receive the blessing of God!

Now, come all, from ever tribe tongue and nation.

The way has opened by grace through faith in the righteousness of Christ …

… that you too would be brought near to God

… that you too would know the blessings of God’s covenant promises.

And, friends, if this is you …

… the Word of God is yours.

… the gospel of God is yours

… the Messiah of God is yours.

… the people of God are yours.

… the kingdom of God is yours.

Your praise, your joy, your blessing, your hope …

… is not from man but from God.

45:00