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NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Rom_2:25-29
25For indeed circumcision is of value if you practice the Law; but if you are a transgressor of the Law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. 26So if the uncircumcised man keeps the requirements of the Law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? 27And he who is physically uncircumcised, if he keeps the Law, will he not judge you who though having the letter of the Law and circumcision are a transgressor of the Law? 28For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. 29But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God. 2Great in every respect. First of all, that they were entrusted with the oracles of God.
Rom_2:25 "circumcision" Paul is still using diatribe. Someone will raise the statement that, well at least we are circumcised (cf. Gen_17:10-11). We are in the line of Abraham. Paul plainly and boldly dismantles this cherished Jewish claim (cf. Mat_3:7-10; Joh_8:31-59).
All of Israel's neighbors except the Philistines were circumcised. It was not the act itself that was significant; it was the continuing faith of the recipient (cf. Rom_2:26-27; Deu_10:16; Deu_30:6). This is true of all religious rituals. Religious people often want the blessings of God's covenant but without the responsibilities.
Rom_2:25-26 "if. . .if. . .if" These are three third class conditional sentences which refer to possible future action. Obedience (cf. Deuteronomy 27-30) is the key in Paul's argument in Romans 2, but not in Rom_3:21-31 (cf. Galatians 3). Obedience is the result of salvation but grace is the basis (cf. Eph_2:8-10).
Rom_2:26-27 These verses hold out hope that some Gentiles have responded to the light they have (grammar expects a "yes" answer in Rom_2:26). The only possible biblical example of this would be Cornelius of Acts 10. Yet he does not quite fit this verse because he was a God-fearer and worshiped at the local synagogue.
These verses are in reality a counterpoint to Paul's argument about the need of salvation for the Jews. Rom_3:23 is the summary that all humans are spiritually lost without Christ. If there are Gentiles who live up to the light they have from creation and an inner moral sensitivity, God will provide an opportunity for them to respond to Christ- somehow, someway, sometime.
Rom_2:28-29 "For he is not a Jew. . .he is a Jew" This is an extremely important discussion because some modern theological groups attempt to separate or capsulize the OT people of God from the NT people of God. There is only one covenant and one people (cf. Rom_9:6; Gal_3:7-9; Gal_3:29; Gal_6:16; 1Pe_3:6). The new covenant is a development and fulfillment of the old. The people of God have always been so by faith, not lineage. They are a "heart people" not ritual or racial people. Faith, not the parent, is the key. Covenant mind, not covenant sign, is the mark.
▣ "flesh" See Special Topic at Rom_1:3.
Rom_2:29 The covenant sign of circumcision (cf. Gen_17:14) was a metaphor in the OT for one's openness to God. It developed metaphorically in several ways
1. heart circumcision (cf. Deu_10:16; Deu_30:6; Jer_4:4; Jer_9:24-25)
2. ear circumcision (cf. Jer_6:10)
3. lip circumcision (cf. Exo_6:12; Exo_6:30)
The Law was never meant to be an external code, but a life transforming daily relationship with YHWH that revealed His character and promises to all the children of Adam. See Special Topic: Paul's Views of the Law at Rom_13:9.
NASB "that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter"
NKJV "that of the heart, in the Spirit, and not in the letter"
NRSV "a matter of the heart -- it is spiritual and not literal"
TEV "which is the work of God's Spirit, not of the written Law"
NJB "in the heart - something not of the letter but of the spirit"
This phrase is ambiguous in Greek. Some translations take it to refer to the spiritual versus the literal (cf. NRSV, the Twentieth Century New Testament, the Knox translation, the Lamsa translation of the Peshitta, the Williams translation and the New Berkeley Version). Other translations see the contrast as between the Holy Spirit (cf. Rom_7:6; 2Co_3:6, where a similar construction occurs) and the written text (cf. NASB, NKJV, NEB, NIV and TEV). The Jerome Biblical Commentary, p. 299, gives the suggestion that based on 2Co_3:6 it was Paul's metaphorical/literary way of referring to the Old Covenant and the New Covenant; the first characterized by an external code and the second by an internal new mind and new spirit given by the Holy Spirit in the new age of the Spirit.
Paul has been discussing the fact that some Gentiles might act pleasing to God apart from the Law. If this is true then the children of God included more than those who had been only physically circumcised (cf. Galatians). God's family is wider than racial Jews (cf. Gen_3:15; Gen_12:3; Exo_19:5); Job, Melchizedek, Jethro, Caleb, Rahab, and Ruth were not racially Jewish. Even the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh were half Egyptian (cf. Gen_41:50-52).
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