Romans – A Treatise
Chapter Two
A JEW INWARDLY
Scripture Reading: verses 28, 29
FOR HE IS NOT A JEW, WHICH IS ONE OUTWARDLY; NEITHER IS THAT CIRCUMCI-SION, WHICH IS OUTWARD IN THE FLESH: BUT HE IS A JEW, WHICH IS ONE INWARDLY; AND CIRCUMCISION IS THAT OF THE HEART, IN THE SPIRIT, AND NOT IN THE LETTER; WHOSE PRAISE IS NOT OF MEN, BUT OF GOD.
As we weigh these words, let us not forget the truth of this entire context relates to the guilt of both Jew and Gentile. First, the Gentile is brought under condemnation because he had the testimony of God in the visible creation, yet he refused it and bowed down to images in idolatry. On the other hand, the Jew enhanced his position by all the tradition of enlightenment that had come to him from his acquaintance with Holy Scriptures, likewise turned his back on God, and the indictment against him is that he also went into the abomination of idolatry, making the Name of his God blasphemed among the nations around.
As these charges are brought against Gentile and Jew by the case for the prosecution (as we have been calling it), the intelligent mind is likely to ask, “What advantage did all this enlightenment bring to the Jew?” In other words, did God just give him the law in order to condemn him, thus leaving him in the dark valley of despair? Tragically, in view of the Jewish situation in our age, this is an important question. Today, a godly Jew finds himself as the psalmist did in Psalm 73, where he put in the balances his own righteousness – his own devotion to God – the poverty, trial, persecution and misery that went with it, and on the other side of the balance he placed the ungodliness of those around him and the prosperity, wealth and happiness of those with whom there was no fear of the Lord. For a solution to his dilemma, he came into the sanctuary of God and there saw their end. Today, being so occupied with the way we travel, we are likely to judge everything by the trials encountered, forgetting there is an end to God's dealings with each one of us. If He is putting us through a time of sorrow, trial and privation, it is so that we might profit by it. If the lot of an unbeliever is cast amid treacherous circumstances, it is, as Job says, that God might withdraw man from the pit; that man might turn to God.
If one is unsaved and having a difficult time, then hear God's voice: “Turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die?” You see, everything is judged by the end. “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” We must take account of our present course. Are we going on in the evil world, dominated by sin, serving Satan? If so, then the end is destruction, yet our loving God speaks to us in the midst of our mad career, saying: “Deliver him from going down to the pit, for I have found a ransom.” These are the pleadings of God to the hearts of unbelieving men that they might turn aside and call on the Lord while He may be found.
On the other hand, the hard circumstances of the believer are for a totally different reason. The privation and suffering through which a saint of God goes are for the purpose of getting rid of the dross of fleshly interest, to bring him out pure and burnished as gold. But what is the end in view? The end is the glory of God in which “the righteous shall shine forth as the stars in the firmament.”
Thus, we see God’s dealings with Israel, but we must judge those dealings by the end. Israel has had a sad career. What is the purpose of it all? It is that each one individually might be turned from evil, and might find the eternal salvation of his/her soul in God through Christ. Thus, in these two closing verses of Romans 2, the sterling truth is presented that the advantage on the side of the Jews today or at any time is not merely a traditional advantage. It is a spiritual advantage. He is a Jew which is one inwardly and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God.
It is difficult for all of us to discern God’s ways and purposes in our lives. The people of whom these verses speak are viewed in two different aspects. They are viewed racially as sons of Abraham, and nationally as children of Israel or the sons of Jacob. Now let us give serious consideration to all this. The entire question is fully taken up in the Epistle to the Galatians, and in unequivocal language the Spirit of God presents a potent reminder that primarily the true seed of Abraham is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. The promise given to Abraham was: “In Isaac shall thy seed be blessed.” The Galatian Epistle points out that the word “seed” is singular, not plural, and Paul indicates the seed is the Lord Jesus Christ.
