Or, What Really Counts to God Romans 2:25-29 January 30, 2022 Lord’s Day Worship Sean Higgins

Introduction

While we talk a lot about circumcision this morning, which is not a frequent sermon topic, remember that sinners excel at missing the point.

There is a lot of iceberg underneath the tip of this paragraph. We see what’s above the surface, we see what Paul actually wrote to the Romans, and the problem isn’t as much which parts Paul left out but how much the Jews had left out. Circumcision wasn’t only a practice in Israel, but the Israelites came to define themselves by it, even more than by their geopolitical boundaries. (Judaizers didn’t push every man to move into the land, but they did pressure every man to be circumcised, see Galatians 6:12.)

Circumcision was a sign, given to Abraham by Yahweh, as a reminder of the LORD’s covenant to Abraham (Genesis 17). All Abraham’s male offspring were to be circumcised (including Ishmael). The law given by God to Israel required it; any uncircumcised male would be “cut off from his people” (Genesis 17:14). It was more than a medicinal and hygienic blessing, it was a covenant blessing.

But it became a sign of sanctimony. There aren’t many synonyms for sanctimony, but it can be defined, and even more so it can be seen. Sanctimony refers to an affected or hypocritical holiness, it means acting as if one were morally superior. It comes from sanctus, a holy thing, but it’s a labored pretense over something sacred, a pietistic posture. Sanctified is good, sanctimonious is acting proud as if one were sanctified.

Paul started poking at Jewish pretense in verse 17. They boasted about their identity, about their possession of the law and how they could give light to those in darkness. But Paul confronted the hypocrisy of how this kind of Jew taught everyone but himself. This kind of Jew boasted in the law that he kept breaking, and God was blasphemed by the pagans who watched the hypocrisy.

In verses 25-29 Paul takes the sign of circumcision, a requirement of the law, and, as with a knife, cuts off their sanctimonious entitlement. Here we see what really counts to God.

The Value Proposition (verse 25)

Circumcision is the subject of the first verse in the paragraph, and it’s referenced ten times in these five verses. Since the subject changes from the standard of the law to the sign of circumcision, a new paragraph is appropriate. At the same time it extends Paul’s confrontation to the man calling himself a Jew (verse 17) and has an additional explanation (beginning with “For”) after the hypocrisy of the law-breakers.

The law commanded every male in Israel be circumcised (Genesis 17:10). Paul doesn’t say who asked about circumcision, but it’s easy to imagine that a Jew could have heard the part about his law-breaking and still felt secure because of his circumcision. This sign was the Jews’ citadel.

For circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision.

Circumcision was a physical act of cutting the foreskin, easiest when a boy was eight days old (Leviticus 12:3), and requiring more recovery when a man was full grown (hence how Simeon and Levi routed a whole town when the men were sore, Genesis 34:13-25). God almost killed Moses for failing to circumcise his son, and Zipporah was none too happy about it (Exodus 4:24-26). Circumcision was a sign of sonship, a sign of belonging to the covenant that God made with Abraham to bless him.

The cutting off of skin was always meant as a reminder about cutting off of sin. That is so much so that circumcision became a metaphor, “Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn” (Deuteronomy 10:16). Physical circumcision wasn’t the end, circumcision was a means to the end.

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