Romans 2:25 - The Value of Circumcision

Romans 2:25 - For indeed circumcision is of value if you practice the Law; but if you are a transgressor of the Law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.

Message: The value of circumcision or how the inner much match the outward.

Time: Romans was probably written during Paul’s third missionary journey from Corinth to a Jewish/Gentile church in Rome (around 56-57 AD).

What the Lord is Saying:

At its most basic level, we can substitute the word "circumcision" for any sacrament in the church. Circumcision was the identifying mark of being a Jew. Often for the Christian, it seems the identifying mark is someone that goes to church or prays or reads their Bible or tries to practice what they preach. It could even be baptism or receiving Jesus into your heart.

That said, the point of this text is a message to the Jewish people. Since verse 13 the message has been the Jew that believes hearing the Law or being associated with the Law or being taught by it or informing others of it, give people a special pass or exemption before God and His acceptance of them. Paul is over and over eradicating this notion and letting the Jew know that if their desire is to focus on the Law above all then they must in their life obey the Law above all. Obedience can't simply be a partial thing or a part time thing, but it must be complete.

And here with circumcision is something the Jews felt like every Jew must have, despite the kind of Jew that they are. Circumcision resulted in justification.

Paul takes the two things that for every Jew they felt like if they have they were accepted by God: the Law and Circumcision. 

But Paul shows that circumcision must be coupled with complete practice of the Law and if that doesn't occur then it nullifies the circumcision from ever having occurred. If our quest is legalism then it must be total obedience and anything else completely nullifies in righteous deed that may have been performed.

Paul is stating that once we sin we are sinners then no amount of goodness in us can nullify this fact. More clearly, he is seeing that the outward has no meaning if their has been no inward change. How quickly do I want to put on a good show often in my faith and have people be impressed with my outward piety, when inward I may be living a different life. If we have no inward change then our outward changes don't mean anything. 

Some of the hardest people to reach with the Gospel are those that think they already have the answers. Religious people already are prodigy's of religion. They already possess the acumen of their faith. Whether they be Catholic, Mormon's, Jehovah Witnesses, Islam, Hindu, or even Protestants, they have tenure in their religion and they think through their deeds and beliefs they are safe.

For the Jew, circumcision was the golden ticket. For Catholics, it is baptism. For Christians, it is a sinner's prayer. For the Mormon's and JW's, it is belonging to a church. All faiths think that if I just get this one thing, then I am safe.  

Promise: None of us is saved unless personal trust in Christ resides in our hearts.