Romans 2:17-29 - True Circumcision

Paul now imagines himself addressing a Jew. Now the Jews were very proud of their heritage and would react to what Paul was had been saying. They would react to him equating them with Gentiles, and would react to being told that they were not righteous. They saw themselves as superior to the rest of the world, indeed as a light to the world. They had the truth from God, they knew how to live, and the rest of the world needed to learn from them. This was the mindset of the self-righteous Jew. So Paul asks such a person the pointed question, "why do you not teach yourself?". Whenever we judge others we should take a close look at ourselves first. Jesus taught this very point when He told the parable of taking specks and logs out of our eyes. The picture conjured up by this is ridiculous, but so are we when we get judgemental, for it always ends up highlighting the shortcomings in our own lives.

The Jews were reviled by the rest of the world. Indeed, God's name was blasphemed because of them, and their own Scriptures said this (Isaiah 52:5; Ezek 36:20,22). 

They boasted about circumcision. Now note that Paul does not condemn circumcision outright, but says that it is of no value unless they kept the law. The quality of their lives was what mattered. This was not a new concept, for Deuteronomy speaks of the circumcision of the heart (Deut 10:16, 30:6). Then he points out that if those who are uncircumcised physically obey the Law, will they not be counted as circumcised (ie counted as part of God's people).

The chapter finishes with the conclusion that having the Law and trappings of the Law was of no value. What matters is the life a person lives. Circumcision of the heart by the Holy Spirit is what matters.

So where does all this lead us? The very clear message of the chapter is that what we do with our lives matters. Now Paul emphatically is not saying that we can earn salvation. What he is saying is that how we live does matter, and any "religious system" that is any good has to result in transformed lives. Right at the end he says that this can happen only through the Spirit, but more of that later.