The Devotional - R012

The Devotional

Comment:

Once when it was proper for the military to walk about in the streets of the United States of America in uniform, I was on my way home from the base where the ship was moored. One older gent (of my age now) asked if he could walk with me a few blocks. Sure, was my response. He had been a part of WW1 and 2 and just wanted to share his experience, the only thing we had in common was that we were both military. He was of Italian decent, and me; German. What is the point to this – we were as one, we were military, we were U.S of A Military. I hope this helps in explaining the following.

Challenge: Romans 2:25-29

The subject of circumcision is one of the sub-topics of the apostle in many of his epistles, for example there are roughly 37 verses in the epistles of Paul that speak directly to the law of circumcision and 12 or one third of these are in the epistle to the Romans. In Galatians 5 the apostle in verses 1 through 6 clearly expresses our need to know and understand that Christ is our circumcision. Looking at verse 6 – For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love.

So what profit is there in religiously keeping the law, what if a Jew or a circumcised Gentile breaks the law by stealing or some other sin, will his circumcision save him? As a breaker of the law on one part is condemning, how than can the retained law of the outward appearance be non-condemning? And in the same way if the uncircumcised keeps the righteous requirements of the law, should not his righteousness be accounted to him as being circumcised? In this context, yes it should. And guess what? Will not his righteousness stand tall over the circumcised?

The apostle Paul also speaks of Justification (this is the subject of Jewish circumcision, or faith) in Romans 4 in that Abraham was justified by God before he was circumcised, note verses 9 and 10. Does this blessedness (object/ justification) come upon the circumcised ONLY, or upon the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith (positional/justification) was accounted to Abraham for righteousness. How then was it accounted? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? NOT WHILE CIRCUMCISED, BUT WHILE UNCIRCUMCISED.

Back to our text in Romans 2, verses 28 and 29 are wonderful expressions of our position of Righteousness in the kingdom of God. We do not belong to God by our outward appearance of being a Jew or a Gentile, nor does circumcision of the flesh a necessary credential for a righteous standing before God or man. The Righteous who belong to God is the one who is set-apart, the inward circumcision of the heart; that is in the Spirit of Truth, not in the letter of the law. Therefore the praise of this circumcision is not the praise of man to man, but from God.

Religious ritual and the keeping of the law is not spiritually profitable since no human is purely religious and purely able to keep the law. Therefore God the Father provided His Son who is spoken of by the apostle in Romans 10:4. For Christ is the end of the law for RIGHTEOUSNESS to everyone who believes. All who call upon the LORD must first believe the gospel.