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It is sufficiently known what great stress the Jews laid upon circumcision; they taught, that this alone was enough to procure the favour of God, and to free them from hell: "God having, as they said, promised Abraham, that if his children transgressed, he would remember the odour of the foreskins, and deliver them for the merit of circumcision." But all this was a false and vain-glorious bustle.
Our apostle, therefore, in the words before us, assures the Jews, that circumcision without holiness of conversation, would never free them from condemnation: That a circumcised Jew, who walks not in obedience to the law of God, is in as bad, or worse condition, than any uncircumcised Heathen; yea, the uncircumcision, that is, the uncircumcised person that keeps the law, shall be accepted of God, as well as if he had been circumcised; and be preferred by God before the circumcised Jew that transgresses the law.
The sum is, that the obedient Gentile shall condemn the disobedient Jew, and be sooner accepted by God, with whom there is no respect of persons, but with respect to their qualifications: That no church-privileges, no external prerogatives, nor the highest profession of piety and holiness, without an humble, uniform, and sincere obedience, will be anything available to salvation.
And as, then, an uncircumcised Gentile found better acceptance with God than many circumcised Jews; even so, an unbaptized Heathen, at the great day, will not change place with many baptized Christians. It is a sad, but a certain truth, that the case of the Pagan world will be much easier in the day of judgment, than other that live and die disobedient under the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Heathens have abused but one talent, the light of nature; but we thousands, even as many thousands as we have slighted the tenders of offered grace.
Lord, what a fearful aggravation doth it put upon our sin and misery, when we fall from the height of mercy into the depth of misery? We must certainly be accountable to thee at the great day, not only for all the light we had, but for all that we might have had in the gospel-day; and especially for that light we have sinned under, and rebelled against.