`A Journey Through Romans

Read Romans 2:12-29

In verse 28 Paul redefines what it even means to be a Jew and to be circumcised. He insists it's not about being born Jewish or even being physically circumcised. True Jewishness, Paul will insist in the following verse, is about the state of a person's heart before God. Specifically, Paul's words here involve Judaism and are directed to people of Israel. However, the broader point is meant to apply to everyone. Religious sacraments, labels, and other forms of good works are not what save us. We must be perfect in order to avoid judgment; since nobody can be perfect, grace becomes our only hope of redemption.

Romans 2:12–29 describes two groups of people, with an emphasis on how their sin relates to their knowledge of God's written Law for the nation of Israel. Here, ''Gentiles'' are those who sin apart from the law, while ''Jews'' are those who sin under the law. Paul shows how, in both cases, God will judge people based on whether they kept the law and were circumcised in their hearts. Even Gentiles who follow the law out of sincerity would be regarded by God as truly Jewish. Meanwhile, God will discount the Jewishness and circumcision of someone under the law who breaks the law and does not have a sincere heart. Paul will show in the following chapter that, in truth, no one can keep the law.

Prejudice is ungodly. It is a divisive stain fuelled by the powers of hell. To view people based on their ethnicity, their skin colour, their tribe, their language, their culture, their education, or their status is to remain trapped in the sin-dominated world that Satan inflicted on us after the fall. Jesus came to tear down the walls that separate people from each other and to bring us together, through the Holy Spirit, into one new body — his body, the church — where he animates and empowers us through the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 2:11-22). So our identity is not determined by our skin colour but by the presence of God's Spirit. We are the cleansed and claimed people of God — spiritually "circumcised" — by the Holy Spirit.

Today's Prayer

Father, we confess that we have allowed petty differences, racial prejudices, tribal conflicts, and regional rivalries to inflict wounds on the body of Christ. We ask — I ask personally — that your Holy Spirit work in each of our hearts to tear down these barriers and help us welcome and cherish each other based on our allegiance to Jesus as Lord and on the presence of your Spirit within us. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.