Romans 2:25 For circumcision is indeed profitable if you keep the law; but if you are a breaker of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. 26 Therefore, if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision? 27 And will not the physically uncircumcised, if he fulfills the law, judge you who, even with your written code and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law? 28 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; 29 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. (NKJV)
External Religion cannot replace righteous living
Circumcision is of no avail or the impossibility of rituals pleasing God
Paul starts to remind his readers that religion without a heart change is useless
Many today think that because they were baptized as an infant or an adult, take communion, have been through confirmation, do good deeds, done more good than bad, or many other things the Bible does not say, they are going to heaven
v-25 Every male Jew was circumcised as an infant.
Gen 17:10-14 It was a sign that one was of the covenant community
Romans 4:11 shows that circumcision was a sign of righteousness
Paul's credentials or resume is in Phil 3:3-7
Profitable- it was profitable if done as an act of obedience and as a reminder of the covenant relationship with God.
Uncircumcision - If a Jew continued to break the law had no more of a saving relationship than an uncircumcised Gentile. It was no more than an outward symbol if there was no heart relationship with God
Circumcision went from being a rite or solemn religious ceremony practiced in the home to a ritual or practice that had no meaning. It was done because it was required not because of the love for GOD
V28-29
Deuteronomy 10:16 "Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff-necked no longer.
Colossians 2:11 In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,
The true mark of God’s child is not an outward symbol, such as circumcision, but a godly condition of the heart.
Ga 5:6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love.
Ga 6:15 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation.
The Gospel of Christ demands an inward change: “You must be born again” (John 3:7). It is not obedience to a religious system that will allow one to pass the test when Christ judges the secrets of men’s hearts. It is the Gospel of Christ that is God’s power unto salvation, both to Jew and Gentile (Rom. 1:16). If a person has never believed the Gospel and received Christ, then he or she stands condemned. The Jews, with all their religion and legalism, were (and are) just as much under sin as the Gentiles—and more so, because to them were given greater privileges and opportunities to know the truth
Lessons
It is possible to think you are okay with God by what you say
PEACE IN THE MIDST OF THE STORM
JOHN 20:8-9 THEN THE OTHER DISCIPLE, WHO CAME TO THE TOMB FIRST, WENT IN ALSO; AND HE SAW AND BELIEVED
GET IN THE BOAT! Mark 4:39
30 SECOND DEVOTIONAL RESPONDING TO GODS WORD
JOHN 20:1-7 FROM FEAR TO FAITH (MARY SAID TO THEM, "THEY HAVE TAKEN AWAY THE LORD OUT OF THE TOMB, AND WE DO NOT KNOW WHERE THEY HAVE LAID HIM)
JOHN 19:38-42 SO THERE THEY LAID JESUS, BECAUSE OF THE JEWS' PREPARATION DAY, FOR THE TOMB WAS NEARBY
30 SECOND DEVOTIONAL HAVE YOU REDEDICATED ALL YOU ARE AND ALL THAT YOU HAVE TO HIM?
JOHN 19:28-37 SO WHEN JESUS HAD RECEIVED THE SOUR WINE, HE SAID, "IT IS FINISHED!"
30 SECOND DEVOTIONAL SETTING ASIDE TIMES TO REMEMBER HOW GOOD GOD HAS BEEN TO YOU
JOHN 19:24-27 JESUS, KNOWING THAT ALL THINGS WERE NOW ACCOMPLISHED, THAT THE SCRIPTURE MIGHT BE FULFILLED, SAID, "I THIRST!"
30 SECOND DEVOTIONAL WHAT DO YOU THINK IT TAKES TO GO TO HEAVEN?
JOHN 19:17-23 NOW PILATE WROTE A TITLE AND PUT IT ON THE CROSS. AND THE WRITING WAS: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS
30 SECOND DEVOTIONAL GOD DIDN'T STUTTER WHEN HE GAVE US HIS WORD THE BIBLE
JOHN 19:7-16 JESUS ANSWERED, "YOU COULD HAVE NO POWER AT ALL AGAINST ME UNLESS IT HAD BEEN GIVEN YOU FROM ABOVE.”
30 SECOND DEVOTIONAL WE NEED TO USE THE GIFT OR GIFTS GOD GAVE US
JOHN 18:39-19:6 PILATE SAID TO THEM, "YOU TAKE HIM AND CRUCIFY HIM, FOR I FIND NO FAULT IN HIM."
JOHN 18:31-38 JESUS ANSWERED, "YOU SAY RIGHTLY THAT I AM A KING. FOR THIS CAUSE I WAS BORN, AND FOR THIS CAUSE I HAVE COME INTO THE WORLD, THAT I SHOULD BEAR WITNESS TO THE TRUTH.
JOHN 18:28-30 PILATE THEN WENT OUT TO THEM AND SAID, "WHAT ACCUSATION DO YOU BRING AGAINST THIS MAN?
JOHN 18:12-27 JESUS ANSWERED HIM, "IF I HAVE SPOKEN EVIL, BEAR WITNESS OF THE EVIL; - JESUS NEVER SINNED
JOHN 18:1-11 JESUS SAID TO THEM, "I AM HE."
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