Uncircumcision Counted for Circumcision Romans 2:26

Paul the apostle wrote, “for circumcision verily profits, if you keep the law: but if you be a breaker of the law, your circumcision is made uncircumcision”, and in chapter two and verse twenty-six of Romans, Paul rhetorically questioned how, “uncircumcision” is “counted for circumcision” where we read:

Therefore if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law,

shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision?

The verse begins, “Therefore if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law,...” Paul began with the word, “therefore” which is a conclusion word that means “then, accordingly, consequently and these things being so” “if the uncircumcision” which means “whether having the foreskin which represented a condition in which the corrupt desires rooted in the flesh were not yet extinct” “keep” or “guard, watch and protect” “the righteousness” which means “that which has been deemed right in act or deed so as to have force of law” “of the law” or “of the rule which make producing a state approved of God”. Paul referred to “the Gentiles” or those nations who did not have God's law who “watched over and protected” the law of God written within them.

The verse goes on to say, “... shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision?” Paul added the words, “shall not” which means “will not” “his uncircumcision” or “the person's condition in which the corrupt desires rooted in the flesh were not yet extinct” “be counted” which means “reckoned, computed, calculated and imputed” “for circumcision” or “the Jews' the act or rite of the cutting away of the foreskin which represents the extinction of passions and the removal of spiritual impurity”. Paul questioned whether the “keeping of the law” within the Gentiles would be “counted and reckoned” as though they had kept the law outwardly.

When we think through these words of Paul, we see how he desired to show the “rite” or “ritual” of physical “circumcision” did not “sanctify” a person. In other words, there was no advantage to having the “rite of circumcision” if the “law of God” was not kept within a person's heart. Religious activities do not save a person no matter how “sacred” they may be. Only a relationship with Jesus Christ is able to “cleanse” a person from “wicked passions” and “spiritual impurities”. God desires everyone to have a relationship with Him through His Son Jesus who paid for the “sins” of the whole world, and all who put their “faith and trust in Jesus” shall know the true “circumcision” of the heart which God is ready and willing to supply.

Next time Paul asks these Jewish people in Rome, “shall not circumcision which is by nature, if it fulfill the law, judge you”, so read ahead, and we shall join together then.

Until tomorrow…there is more…

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