{"id":272,"date":"2007-12-10T06:00:42","date_gmt":"2007-12-10T12:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/1002things.com\/?p=272"},"modified":"2022-03-10T10:52:41","modified_gmt":"2022-03-10T16:52:41","slug":"romans-225-29","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/?p=272","title":{"rendered":"Romans 2:25-29"},"content":{"rendered":"

25\u00a0<\/sup>For circumcision is indeed profitable if you keep the law; but if you are a breaker of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

26\u00a0<\/sup>Therefore, if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision?<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

27\u00a0<\/sup>And will not the physically uncircumcised, if he fulfills the law, judge you who, even with your\u00a0written code and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law?<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

28\u00a0<\/sup>For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh;<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

29\u00a0<\/sup>but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

Circumcision was the seal of God’s covenant.<\/h3>\n

Circumcision didn’t<\/u> justify, but it did profit if<\/em> a person kept the law (in the sense of endeavoring to keep it, not perfection). But since nobody does perfectly keep the law, so circumcision doesn’t help save.<\/h3>\n

To be a Jew, one had to be (1) born of Abraham through Isaac and (2) spiritually in good standing with God (circumcision of the heart).<\/h3>\n

Righteousness of the law (v.26) \u2014 an effort to obey one’s conscience<\/h3>\n

Inwardly (v.29) = literally “in secret” \u2014 not obeying the Law for show<\/h3>\n

Don’t be circumcised (in an attempt to obey the Law) unless you plan to follow the entire Law. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law (Galatians 5:3<\/a><\/span>).<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

But instead … We are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh (Philippians 3:3<\/a><\/span>).<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

In the spirit, not in the letter (v.29) \u2014 The NKJV capitalizes “Spirit,” making it a reference to the Holy Spirit. But Old Testament believers weren’t indwelled with the Spirit\u2014He only came upon certain people for certain lengths of time to perform certain tasks. I think it’s possible that “spirit,” here, refers to the motivation of the person obeying the law\u2014whether they do it by faith, or as a checklist. Although that still leaves a question about what Jesus was talking about to Nicodemus in John 3:3-6<\/span><\/a> (My notes on that passage are not particularly helpful) :<\/h3>\n

3\u00a0<\/sup>Jesus answered and said to him, \u201cMost assuredly, I say to you,<\/span> unless one is born<\/span>\u00a0again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

4\u00a0<\/sup>Nicodemus said to Him, \u201cHow can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother\u2019s womb and be born?\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

5\u00a0<\/sup>Jesus answered, \u201cMost assuredly, I say to you,<\/span> unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

6\u00a0<\/sup>That which is born of the flesh is<\/span> flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

25\u00a0For circumcision is indeed profitable if you keep the law; but if you are a breaker of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. 26\u00a0Therefore, if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-verse-study"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=272"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6349,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272\/revisions\/6349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}