Romans 2:25 – circumcision and uncircumcision 

For circumcision, indeed, is benefiting if you should be putting law into practice, yet if you should be a transgressor of law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.

The logic of the argument in these verses hardly needs explanation. The idea is that circumcision has no meaning if one does not listen wholeheartedly to the torah. In that case, the circumcision is a reminder of a physical intervention, referring to Jewish descent. Not more than that. An “appearance” symbol, without meaningfully saying anything.

But conversely, when an uncircumcised testifies that the work of the law is written in his heart (: 15) and he does the things of the law by nature (: 14), then specifically he adheres to what “circumcision” should be. Circumcision can be an emblem and crown of the privileges that GOD has given to the Jewish people (3: 1). But it can also be out of place. In other words: is the outside the expression of what lives within or should it serve to mask the evil inside?

Delen: