Romans 2.29b-Authentic Circumcision is the Work of the Spirit in Regeneration and Baptism
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday September 26, 2007
Romans: Romans 2:29b-Authentic Circumcision is the Work of the Spirit in Regeneration and Baptism
Lesson # 72
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 2:28.
This evening we will complete our study of the twelfth and final principle of divine judgment that is contained in Romans 2:17-29, namely, that God judges according to reality and without regard of racial background or religious profession.
Sunday morning we studied Romans 2:28, which teaches that authentic Jewishness and circumcision are not based upon externals such as being a biological descendant of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob or receiving the surgical procedure of circumcision as an eight day old infant.
Romans 2:28, “For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh.”
Last evening we studied Romans 2:29a, which teaches that authentic Jewishness is internal and is based upon faith in Jesus Christ as one’s Savior.
This evening we will note Romans 2:29b, which teaches that authentic circumcision is the work of the Holy Spirit in regeneration and baptism.
Romans 2:29, “But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.”
“By the Spirit” refers to the exercise of God the Holy Spirit’s omnipotence at the moment a person trusts in Jesus Christ as his Savior since we have the figure of metonymy where the Holy Spirit is put for the exercise of His divine omnipotence.
Authentic circumcision takes place the moment a person trusts in Jesus Christ as his Savior, which results in his being regenerated by the Holy Spirit and thus receiving the nature of Christ called the new creation, or new spiritual species.
Galatians 6:15, “For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.”
“Regeneration” is a ministry performed by the Holy Spirit on behalf of a person the moment they believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior where He creates a human spirit for the person so that they might receive the imputation of eternal life.
Titus 3:5, “He (God the Holy Spirit) saved us, not on the basis of deeds (human works) which we have done in (human power) righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit.”
This act of regeneration makes the believer a new spiritual species, which is the nature of Christ that can never sin and that is described in Scripture by many phrases such as the “new self, new man, newness of life, new creation.”
2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new spiritual species; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”
According to Colossians 2:11-12, authentic circumcision is the result of the “baptism of the Spirit” where the believer in Jesus Christ is identified with Christ in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session.
Colossians 2:11-12, “and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.”
The “baptism of the Spirit” takes place exclusively during the dispensation of the church age and is accomplished at the moment of salvation when the omnipotence of the Spirit places the believer in a eternal union with Christ, thus identifying the believer positionally with Christ in His death, resurrection and session.
1 Corinthians 12:13, “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.”
“Baptized” is the verb baptizo (baptivzw), “to cause the believer to be identified with the Lord Jesus Christ.”
At the moment of salvation, the omnipotence of God the Holy Spirit causes the believer to become identical and united with the Lord Jesus Christ and also ascribes to the believer the qualities and characteristics of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Baptism of the Spirit results in the “sanctification” of the believer, which is a technical theological term for the believer who has been set apart through the baptism of the Spirit at the moment of salvation in order to serve God exclusively and is accomplished in three stages: (1) Positional (2) Experiential (3) Ultimate.
“Positional sanctification” is the believer’s “entrance” into the plan of God for the church age resulting in eternal security as well as two categories of positional truth (1 Cor. 1:2, 30; 1 Pet. 1:2; 1 Thess. 5:23; Eph. 5:26-27; Heb. 2:11; 10:10; Acts 20:32; 26:18; Rom. 6:3, 8; 2 Thess. 2:13).
“Retroactive” positional truth is the church age believer’s identification with Christ in His death and burial (Romans 6:3-11; Colossians 2:12).
“Current” positional truth is the church age believer’s identification with Christ in His resurrection, ascension and session (See Ephesians 2:4-6; Colossians 3:1-4).
“Positional sanctification”: (1) What God has done for the church age believer. (2) His viewpoint of the church age believer. (3) Sets up the potential to experience sanctification in time. (4) Provides the believer with the guarantee of receiving a resurrection body.
“Experiential sanctification” is the post-salvation experience of the church age believer who is in fellowship with God by confessing any known sin to the Father when necessary followed by obedience to the Father’s will, which is revealed by the Spirit through the Word of God.
2 Thessalonians 2:13, “But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.”
This obedience constitutes obeying the commands to be filled with the Spirit and letting the Word of Christ richly dwell in your soul.
Ephesians 5:18: “And do not permit yourselves to get into the habit of being drunk with wine because that is non-sensical behavior, but rather permit yourselves on a habitual basis to be influenced by means of the Spirit.”
Colossians 3:16, “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”
This obedience enables the Spirit to reproduce the character of Christ in the believer.
Galatians 5:22-23, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”
Experiential sanctification is only a potential since it is contingent upon the church age believer responding to what God has done for him at the moment of salvation, therefore, only believers who are obedient to the Word of God will experience sanctification in time.
“Ultimate sanctification” is the guarantee of a resurrection body and will be experienced by every believer regardless of their response in time to what God has done for them at salvation (1 Corinthians 15:51-52).
Sanctification is experiencing the holiness.
1 Peter 1:14-16, “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, ‘YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.’”
Therefore, circumcision of the heart takes place at the moment of salvation when a person trusts in Jesus Christ as their Savior, which results in the Holy Spirit regenerating the believer, giving him the nature of Christ and also identifying Him with Christ in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session.
All of this gives the believer the capacity to obey the commands of God and reflect the holiness of God in his life.
1 Corinthians 7:19, “Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but what matters is the keeping of the commandments of God.”
One of the symbolic meanings of the act of circumcision where the cutting of the foreskin spoke of a surgical removal spoke of a complete separation, from the sins of the flesh so widely prevalent in the world around Abraham and his descendants.
The nations and tribes around Abraham were involved in sins largely centered in the misuse of the male organ in adultery, fornication and sodomy.
Circumcision symbolized to the Jewish man that he was a member of an elect nation, a peculiar people, distinctly holy before God, in relation to sexual conduct, so it came indirectly to speak of holiness in every phase of life.
Leviticus 20:7, “You shall consecrate yourselves therefore and be holy, for I am the LORD your God.”
This surgical procedure of circumcision was to cut away flesh that could hold disease in its folds and could pass the disease on to wives.
It was important for the preservation of God’s people physically but this was also symbolic of the need of their hearts to be cleansed from the spiritual disease of sin.
The Lord chose the male reproductive organ, the penis as the location of the symbol for man’s need being freed from the sin nature since it is the instrument that passes down the old Adamic sin nature.
Therefore, we can see that authentic circumcision involves regeneration resulting in a new nature and the baptism of the Spirit resulting in sanctification and reflecting the holiness of God.
In Romans 7:1-6, Paul teaches that the Christian serves in newness of the Spirit rather than in the oldness of the letter, i.e. the written code of the Mosaic Law since no one can serve God properly without the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit.
The believer is freed from the power of the old Adamic sin nature through his identification with Christ in His crucifixion, death, and burial so that he might live in eternal life (Romans 7:1-6).
Philippians 3:2-3, “Beware of those dogs, beware of those evil workers, beware of the mutilation because we are the circumcision those who are serving (God the Father) by means of the Spirit of God, who are priding themselves in the nature of Christ Jesus, who have no confidence in the flesh.”
The apostle Paul taught that the work of the Holy Spirit made him a servant of God rather than the letter, which he teaches kills (2 Corinthians 3:1-6).
Romans 2:29, “But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.”
The expression “not by the letter” means that authentic circumcision is never accomplished by means of the mechanical observance of the command to circumcise a Jewish boy as an eight day old infant but rather by means of the Spirit in the person who exercises faith in Jesus Christ (Leviticus 12:3; Genesis 17).
Israel was commanded to circumcise their hearts, which means to turn to the Lord in faith so that they might be able to obey His commands (Jeremiah 4:4).
Deuteronomy 10:16, “So circumcise your heart, and stiffen your neck no longer.”
Israel was promised by God that He would remove their heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh and give them the Holy Spirit so that they might obey His commands (Ezekiel 36:25-27).
An “uncircumcised heart” means a will that is rebellious and negative to God’s commands and is another way of saying the person is stubborn.
It refers to possessing an old Adamic sin nature that needs to be crucified with Christ through faith in Christ.
Therefore, the command to Israel to circumcise their hearts assumes that human hearts are naturally rebellious and need correction.
Addressing unsaved Jews, Stephen called them “uncircumcised in heart” meaning they were arrogant and had not accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior (Acts 7:51).
The nation of Israel will have circumcised hearts at the Second Advent of Christ and subsequent millennial reign meaning they will accept Jesus Christ as Savior and as a result will be regenerated by the Holy Spirit so that they will have a nature that will obey the commands of God (Deuteronomy 30:1-6).
Romans 2:29, “But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.”
“Praise” is the noun epainos (e&paino$), which means that the authentic Jew receives the approval of God rather than men since he has a new nature through regeneration that enables him to experience eternal life and gives him the capacity to obey the commands of God in order to receive God’s approval.
He also has been identified with Christ in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session, which also enables him to experience eternal life, thus giving him the capacity to obey the commands of God and receive approval from God.
The unregenerate, self-righteous Jews in the first century sought the approval and praise of men rather than God (Matthew 6:5; 23:1-12; John 5:39-47; 12:42-43).
The apostle Paul teaches the Corinthians that praise from God is what is important (1 Corinthians 4:6; 2 Corinthians 10:18).
In Romans 2:29, the word epainos, “praise” is a play on the term “Jew,” which as we noted in our study of the word in Romans 2:17 comes from the Hebrew “Judah,” which means, “praise.” (See Genesis 29:31-35; 49:8)
Therefore, in Romans 2:29, Paul’s point to the unsaved Jew is that it is God who ultimately determines what an authentic Jew is rather than men.
The external ritual of circumcision did not constitute an authentic Jew in the eyes of God but rather an authentic Jew is made one by God through faith in Jesus Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit in baptism, sanctification and regeneration.