THE GOSPEL OF GOD
Meditations in the Epistle to the Romans
CIRCUMCISION OF THE HEART
Romans 2:25-29

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ONE OF the most dangerous deceptions humanity is prone to with regard to our relationship with God, is to imagine that the soul is safe if we fulfil outward religious duties. It is always easier to satisfy outward religious duties than to purify the heart. Further, in our secular society, we are not concerned with how a person thinks, but just in what he does. If a person behaves correctly and does not transgress the law in action, then a person is pronounced in secular law as righteous. There is no enquiry as to what a person thinks or desires. This is not sufficient before God. God requires truth in the inward parts that is in thought and desire. Jesus made this clear when he preached his sermon on the mount, recorded for us in Matthew 5, 6 and 7. Before God we are committing murder if we hate someone, and we are committing adultery if we lust after someone, and so on.

Paul deals with this problem of defective thinking in humanity. He does it in his discussion over the Jews relationship with God. The importance of this section of Paul's argument is that the deception of the Jews is the deception all religious people are prone to. Paul's words are as relevant today, as they were when he wrote his letter to the Romans.

The Jew kept the rite of circumcision meticulously. Every baby boy was circumcised on the eighth day. God gave this rite to Abraham when God established his covenant with Abraham and all his posterity. Circumcision was the seal of that covenant, that God would be the God of his covenant people, and they would be his people. God laid it on the line in Genesis that if the rite of circumcision was neglected, then the people had broken his covenant and ceased to be his people. From this had risen the idea that circumcision made the Jews God's people and that by virtue of circumcision they were God's people and he would always be their God to save and protect them.

The Jew believed that circumcision made him a child of God, and the way he behaved did not make any difference to this. In other words the Jew was depending on this religious rite for his acceptance with God, whereas God demands righteousness for our acceptance before him. Paul had already shown the Jew that they sinned, like the Gentiles, and that they were guilty before God. In addressing the question of circumcision Paul was addressing the Jews fall-back position. The Jew would argue - well, I accept that I have sinned, but I am still accepted by God because I am circumcised. I have in my body the covenant sign of God's love and acceptance. They depended on this religious rite, and in practice depended on it as some almost magical action that secured acceptance with God for them.

Paul tells the Jew that this reliance on circumcision will not do. Paul tells them that the important thing with God is that a person is righteous, and that only righteousness will bring a person into favour with God. He presses this home by saying that the Gentile, if he is righteous, that is keeps the law of God, then even though he is not circumcised, he will be treated by God as if he were. Further that if the Jew, who is circumcised, does not keep God's law, then God will treat him as if he were not circumcised.

This has a powerful message to people today. Many depend on Baptism in the same way. Because they were baptised as infants, they believe that, having received the covenant sign and seal of salvation in baptism, they are now Christians by virtue of the sacrament, and can't be lost from God's favour whatever there life is like.

The Jew would argue against what Paul is saying here by asking what circumcision is for. Why did God make the Jew observe the rite of circumcision if it does not achieve God's favour. Today the question could be asked that if baptism does not secure our acceptance with God, then what is it for and why be baptised.

Circumcision, though not securing acceptance, pointed to the promise of God that in the Seed of Abraham, our Lord Jesus Christ, all the nations of the world would be blessed. Circumcision was the seal of this promise of a Saviour. It was God's assurance that he was providing the Saviour through whom we may obtain by faith the forgiveness of our sins and the gift of righteousness. As Paul tells us in chapter 4 of Romans, circumcision was the seal of the righteousness which is by faith. Circumcision was God's assurance that he would keep his promise to provide a Saviour from sin, and that all who trusted in that Saviour would be saved. Baptism has precisely the same meaning. We receive baptism as God's assurance that placing our faith in Christ as Saviour we will be saved. The rite itself has no magical power. Just because we have water sprinkled upon us in the name of the Trinity, this does not mean necessarily that we are saved. However as we put our trust in Jesus for salvation, baptism is God's seal and assurance, that in and through Christ, we receive eternal and perfect righteousness as a gift, and we are restored to new life so that God lives in us by his Spirit. Baptism, and circumcision in the Old Testament, is God's assurance to us that Christ has won for us eternal life and acceptance forever, and that God accepts what Christ has done for us in our place, and so looks on us as righteous in his sight for Christ's sake. Baptism is such assurance only to those who have rested their souls on Jesus by faith as their Saviour.

Parents are called and commanded by God to seek baptism for their children, so that they may have this same assurance, as they believe in Jesus, for their children, and may expect that, not only will they be given grace to bring up their children to know and love Christ, but that God in due time will bring their children to faith in Jesus, making their baptism as infants effective.

Paul speaks in our text that circumcision was not to be just an outward and physical thing, but there must be circumcision of the heart. True circumcision is something that effects and changes the heart. True circumcision is when the heart is changed and renewed by regeneration, that is spiritual new birth.

Circumcision in the Old Testament and Baptism in the New Testament speaks of, and points to, new birth. Paul says that a Jew was not a Jew unless there is this inward circumcision, and the heart is changed by the Spirit of God, so that the Jew loves righteousness and seeks to be righteous. The same is true of the Christian. We are not Christians unless there is new birth so that we have a heart, an inward disposition, that seeks after God and longs to please God. The outward rite of baptism points to this, and is only real when this inward baptism of the Spirit renewing the heart is a reality.

The truth is that our sin is not washed away by the water of baptism. It is only washed away by the water of the Spirit which applies the blood of Jesus to our souls and gives a new life which loves God and his righteousness. Baptism is an outward sign of this inward spiritual grace, and points to Christ where this grace is given. Baptism points us to Christ and assures us that as we believe and trust in Christ alone for righteousness and life, this inward spiritual grace is bestowed.

Paul's purpose in these verses concerning the Jews attitude to circumcision is the same as for all the rest of this opening section of his letter to the Romans. Paul's concern is to bring the Jew and all who read his letter to understand how much they need Christ. When pressed concerning their standing before God, the Jew fell back on their religious pedigree and their fulfilment of religious duty. God had commanded them to circumcise, and had promised to be their God. Their mistake was to suppose that the promise was a reward for their obedience in circumcising, whereas circumcision was God giving them a sign so that his promise in Christ, the Messiah, may have strong assurance in them. The same is true of baptism. People feel that if they baptise their infants, God will reward this devotion by granting his everlasting favour. However baptism is not a work we do to gain a reward, but is a sign from God that his promise of life in Christ will be honoured. By baptism we show our faith and dependence on the promise of God, that in Christ we are forgiven and accounted righteous in his sight.

Fallen human nature is always turning to some work or other to establish favour with God. We feel that we must earn that favour, and we believe we are able to earn it. Also we find it very difficult to accept the humble position of the suppliant for mercy alone, and to have to rest alone on the work of another, even Jesus Christ, to be accepted and forgiven. We must be brought to see that in ourselves we are lost, hopeless and helpless. We must not only be brought to see how greatly we have fallen short of God's glory, but be brought to realise that we have no means of putting right this failure or atoning in any way for our sin. It is only when we are brought to this low point, and cry simply "God, be merciful to me a sinner" that there is any hope for us.

The work Paul is doing here in bringing us low before God seems at first to be so discouraging and cruel. However it is not so. It would only be cruel if God had not in deep love given the Lord Jesus to die for us and bear our sin in his body on the cross. Now that Christ has died and risen again, it is an act of greatest love to bring us low, for until we are low before God we will not cry for mercy. For until we cry for mercy, Christ can do nothing for us. When we come to the end of our own resources, and realise that there is nothing we can do to win favour and salvation; and when we realise that we are lost because we have fallen short of God's glory, and hell yawns ready to engulf us; it is then that we look earnestly for a way of escape. In this condition we are ready to listen to the Holy Spirit, and when Christ is preached to us as the lover of our souls, and our sin bearer, we reach out and take the hand of Jesus, trust in him alone, and praise him for his great love for us.

Paul speaks in our text of the need of a heart that seeks after God and loves his law. The only way we can have a clean, pure heart and one that seeks after God, is to be given new life and thus a new heart. New life is only possible through Jesus. It is only when the sentence of death is removed by the atonement of Jesus for us, that God will raise us to new life. So again we see how the preaching of Paul to destroy all trust in ourselves and our own doing, and show us that we can do nothing to save ourselves, is so important. Christ is our only hope. We must be brought to see the depth of our sin and lost condition, so that we may embrace Christ, the only Saviour.

Let us look at our lives honestly. Are we trusting in our performance of outward religious duties? Have we faced the fact that outward religious duty does not cleanse the heart, and that God looks on the heart and requires truth and purity in our inner being? Have we faced the fact that however good we are in our outward living, and even if we are pillars of the church and great workers in the church, this cannot cleanse us from our sin, or purify the heart? Have we faced the fact that baptism is no magical formula that saves us, and that it becomes null and void if our hearts are not pure before God? It is only as we are real in this way and confess all our doings are of no value when it comes to atoning for our sin, will we then listen to Christ when in tender love he calls us, and says come unto me all you are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. How blest we are when we rest our souls on Jesus; what peace fills our hearts; for we know in Christ forgiveness of all our sins, and a new heart given us.