“For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; 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” (Romans 2:28-29).
Although God conferred the ritual of circumcision upon Abraham, the great Old Testament patriarch, that ceremonial observance did not make him righteous in God’s sight. Instead, it was faith that made Abraham right with God. As mentioned earlier, Genesis 15:6 affirms that truth with the following declaration: “Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.” So, it was Abraham’s faith that led to “right standing” (or righteousness) with God. That faith was evident long before God instructed him to be circumcised.
Unfortunately, a significant transformation had taken place by the dawn of the first century. By that time, the prevailing view among Israel’s spiritual leadership saw the act of circumcision as a practice that guaranteed divine favor. That belief held that a man was considered righteous before God if he could show an ancestral connection to Abraham along with the external mark of circumcision. However, John the Baptist took issue with that mindset in a rebuke that bears repeating…
“Don’t just say to each other, ‘We’re safe, for we are descendants of Abraham.’ That means nothing, for I tell you, God can create children of Abraham from these very stones’” (Matthew 3:9 NLT).
From a 21st-century perspective, this tells us that the act of being born into a particular family (even a “religious” one), or taking part in a ceremony, ritual, or observance does not make one right with God. One Biblical paraphrase of Romans 2:29 explains God’s true objective in a straightforward manner: “…For God is not looking for those who cut their bodies in actual body circumcision, but he is looking for those with changed hearts and minds” (Romans 2:29 TLB).
True circumcision -the kind that God approves- has no relation to an external set of rules. Instead, true circumcision represents a new attitude toward God through a relationship with Him in Christ. In the words of one commentary…
“Paul points out that being circumcised changes the entire orientation of salvation away from God’s grace to one’s own actions. One who is circumcised in an attempt to gain God’s acceptance is obligated to keep the whole law, which history has abundantly demonstrated no one can do (Rom. 3:10–18).” (1)
(1) Radmacher, E. D., Allen, R. B., & House, H. W. (1999). Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Commentary (p. 1526). Nashville: T. Nelson Publishers.