ESOCS Devotional 24 May 2024 – Not by Law, But Obedient Faith
MEMORY VERSE: “Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, you have become as though you had not been circumcised.”Romans 2:25 NIV
TEXT: ROMANS 2:17-29
17 Indeed you are called a Jew, and rest on the law, and make your boast in God, 18 and know His will, and approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law, 19 and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, 20 an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, having the form of knowledge and truth in the law. 21 You, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal? 22 You who say, “Do not commit adultery,” do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? 23 You who make your boast in the law, do you dishonor God through breaking the law? 24 For “the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,” as it is written.
25 For circumcision is indeed profitable if you keep the law; but if you are a breaker of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. 26 Therefore, if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision? 27 And will not the physically uncircumcised, if he fulfills the law, judge you who, even with your written code and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law? 28 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; 29 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.
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The Jews knew God and what He required of them. This knowledge emanated from the revelation of the Mosaic Law to them through Moses. But they too lived under the influence and power of the sinful nature, as the Gentiles. They exuded enormous spiritual arrogance, believing that their physical heritage from Abraham was a special privilege to them in their relationship with God. They erroneously thought they could eat their cake and have it back on a platter of gold, without being reprimanded.
In our text, Paul warns that a true Jew is not the one who was simply a descendant of Abraham. Here, Paul addresses the self-righteous Jews who humiliated the Gentiles and thereby exalted themselves unreasonably (vv. 17-20). Paul’s warnings were meant to reveal the dishonesty of those Jews who boasted themselves of their self-righteousness. Moreover, pointing out this hypocrisy had become necessary, since at the same time, they broke the same laws they condemned the Gentiles for.
In this context, the Jews were intimidating the Gentile believers in Church to be circumcised or miss the Kingdom of God (Acts 15:1; Galatians 2:1-5). He made it clear that God instituted circumcision as a sign of the covenant that He made with Abraham. In error, some had come to believe that unless one was circumcised, he could not be saved (Acts 15:1). But the truth remains that no one can perfectly keep the law, as to justify himself before a perfect God. It follows therefore that circumcision will profit nothing with regard to one’s salvation. In line with the New Covenant of Christ, circumcision is of no value, if one is not keeping the righteous requirements of the law. Furthermore, in the new dispensation, the law’s requirements are that men respond to God by faith, in being obediently led by the law (Romans 3:31).
It is then time that believers should set aside the law, not by disobedience to the law, but by walking according to the letters of the law, mainly by trusting in the free grace made available to us through Christ’s atoning sacrifice (Galatians 6:5-9 James 2:14-26).
- Circumcision of the heart or that of the flesh, which do you subscribe to?
- Lord Jesus, give me the grace to follow you rightly.
Further Reading: Exodus 12:28-51; 2 Kings 5:1-19; Mark 6:13-29
ESOCS Devotional 24 May 2024
