Eternity Daily Bible Study: No. 509 Romans 1-8 - A Righteousness That Is By Faith Verses: Romans 2:25-29 Topic: True Circumcision Is Of The Heart Date: 19th September 2005 [I have returned from a series of important conferences and been very greatly blessed. Eternity-DBS will now resume as normal - John Edmiston.] Romans 2:25-29 HCSB For circumcision benefits you if you observe the law, but if you are a lawbreaker, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. (26) Therefore if an uncircumcised man keeps the law's requirements, will his uncircumcision not be counted as circumcision? (27) A man who is physically uncircumcised, but who fulfills the law, will judge you who are a lawbreaker in spite of having the letter of the law and circumcision. (28) For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, and true circumcision is not something visible in the flesh. (29) On the contrary, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart--by the Spirit, not the letter. His praise is not from men but from God. Is “membership” of the right race, the right religion, or the right denomination important to God? Or is Christianity an internal and spiritual faith which operates regardless of such external factors as the race one belongs to or the church that one goes to? Paul says five very important things that answer this question: a) Disobedience invalidates the ritual “belonging to God” value of circumcision. (v.25) b) Obedience places a person in just as good standing with God as the Old Covenant. (v.26) c) A non-Jew who fulfills the law is better than a Jew who breaks the law. (v. 27) d) True circumcision is of the heart and not of the flesh. (v.28,29) e) Being a Jew is inward and spiritual - not legal and outward. (V.28,29) It is clear that true circumcision and true Jewishness is a “spiritual and inward' reality and not something that can be conferred by man at a ceremony, as important as that ceremony may be, or through inheritance, no matter how noble the ancestry. It is the heart not the membership or the ritual that matters. By analogy we can make exactly the same argument for baptism – that the unbaptised person who obeys God is regarded as baptised, while the baptised person who disobeys God is regarded as unbaptised! Now this is not to invalidate baptism, which is clearly commanded in Scripture (Matthew 28;18-20) but to say that baptism is ineffective unless accompanied by living faith reflected in an obedient Christian life. And the same set of arguments can be made even for confirmation or ordination. Thus true circumcision, baptism, confirmation or ordination is of the heart and by the Spirit, not of the letter or of human externals. Just as a true Jew is one who is inwardly a Jew so a true Christian is one who is inwardly a Christian, and so a truly anointed and conformed Christian is one who has the Spirit within them, and a true minister of the gospel is one who serves Christ from the heart – not one who has merely met the requirements of an ordaining body. This is a radical affirmation of interior spirituality reflected in an obedient life. No laws, rituals or external human factors are required, just simple, loving faithful obedience to God. Membership of a spiritual group – even of the Jewish race and the Old Covenant, is incomplete and insufficient. The heart must be right with God and in tune with the Holy Spirit. Judah means “praise” and Jew comes from the word “Judah” and so means (in spiritual terms) one who lives for the praise of God. So a true Jew is a person who lives to praise God and who brings praise to the name God. Thus a disobedient, unspiritual and unbelieving person cannot be a “true Jew” - no matter how many genealogical records they possess. For a true Jew is always a believer in Christ Jesus. [Now to say that a “true Jew” is spiritual not genetic is not to advocate anti-Semitism, or to deny the Holocaust or to impugn the validity of the State of Israel. I am part-Jewish myself and have studied Hebrew and wish to study in Israel should God give me opportunity to do so.] No one gets into Heaven based on their ancestry or on a ritual performed on them when they are eight days old! Salvation is entirely by faith and is by the grace of God and is entirely independent of race or gender. The question of “membership in a true Church” is an active and vital one for many people. Lets take two cases, Bill goes to a cultist Jehovah's Witness church but is in disagreement with its doctrines and has come to a living and real faith in Christ. On the other hand Jane goes to a good evangelical church but has no living faith evident in his/her life. Which person is more pleasing to God? The one with living faith and an obedient lifestyle! Not the one with the better church! Now this is not to advocate joining a cultist church but to say that organizational membership is relatively unimportant. It is not where we are in the structure but where we are with God that counts. It is indeed possible to be a Christian leader in a major denomination or missions agency and rise to the very top and be acclaimed by men – but be inwardly uncircumcised of heart. Our praise is not from men but from God and political skill in Christian circles is no indicator of divine approval. Instead an obedient and loving life filled with grace and full of the Holy Spirit is the indicator of divine approval. Human nature wants to simplify this, to have clear categories of who is “in” and who is “out' and to have required membership, ceremonies and certificates that denote this. But Paul tells us that this simply will not do. There is no legal standing “of the letter” that can make us right with God (v.28,29) instead our standing with God is inward and spiritual and by faith! It is not a matter of being in the right organization, but it is rather a matter of being in Christ. It is not how many sacred ceremonies you have been through but of how deeply you are in the grace of God. No amount of religious belonging can make up for a hypocritical and disobedient life. On the other hand no lack of ceremony and status can truly harm the saint who walks with the Lord righteously and inwardly in Spirit and in truth. Blessings, John Edmiston (johned@aibi.ph) REFER OTHERS: If this devotional is a blessing to you, maybe you have a friend or family member that would like to start receiving this daily bible study. You can forward this to them, and they can use the following link to subscribe. http://www.aibi.ph/eternity/ or they can just send a blank email to: eternity-dbs-subscribe@strategicnetwork.org BLOG: If you missed a day or would like to read the bible studies online you can catch up using the new Eternity Daily Bible Study Blog at: http://aibi.gospelcom.net/eternity/wordpress/ EBOOKS & ARCHIVES : http://www.aibi.ph/eternity/ - includes free ebooks containing each series of Eternity-DBS bible studies. 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