Rom. 2:29 ... "He is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God."
After Paul opened the Letter to the Romans with greetings and a prayer, (1:1-15), followed by a statement on the theme and text of the gospel, (1:16-17), he proceeded to establish the fact that not only Gentiles but Jews also were sinners before God, (1:18-3:23). The conclusion is stated in absolute terms in 3:23, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." With all mankind reduced to the same miserable level before God, the need for the salvation offered through the gospel is thus emphasized. Beginning with 3:24 Paul systematically presents the nature of that gospel. The lead text above is a part of the argument that Jews are as guilty of sin as Gentiles and have an equal need for the gospel. For their part, however, they by no means accepted this declaration of their spiritual condition. They prided themselves that they were the chosen people of God, the inheritors of the promises made to the patriarchs, and the stewards of the Holy Scriptures. In their minds they were guaranteed God's special favor and eternal salvation just because they were Jews by race. Even Paul did not deny that there were indeed great racial privileges in being Jewish, (see 3:1-2). But these advantages did not include salvation. This great blessing was available to them on exactly the same terms it was to Gentiles.
In vs. 28-29 the apostle is defining what a true Jew is spiritually rather than racially. Racially, a Jew was a person descended from Abraham according to the promise in Gen. 12:2. But here Paul emphasizes that, spiritually, a Jew is one whose commitment to God is from the heart and not from the flesh. Notice the contrast between "circumcision that is outward in the flesh" and "circumcision that is of the heart." Judaism emphasized external rituals, but the gospel emphasizes the state of the mind and heart. Later in this letter Paul will write, "Be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect," (12:2). These statements echo the constant insistence of Jesus during His ministry among the Jews that a person's character is based in the heart, that one's personality reveals the condition of his heart, and that good and evil flow outward from a person's life according to the good or evil state of his heart. The "letter" of the law addressed the external life, one's visible behavior; but the "spirit" of the law addresses the all-important inner nature. Religion which emphasizes external things has a view toward the praise of men, while religion which emphasizes the inward character is more concerned with the approval of God, for "the Lord looks at the heart," (I Sam. 16:7).
Although the message in vs. 28-29 was directed to Jews, the principle involved is still applicable to Christians. There is always a tendency to place great value upon and confidence in things external, such as rituals, forms and methodology. We can make our religion Pharisaical by emphasizing these externals and forgetting the spirit of the gospel. We must not rest our case in proper terms and names and visible orthodoxy, while we forget that God is interested in the perfection of our hearts as well. As Jesus said in Mat. 23:23, "these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others." Our Christianity must embrace the totality of our being, the inward as well as the outward. We must be Christians both in name and in truth, in letter and in spirit.
