January 24 , 2001

Reading: Romans 2:25-29

 

“For he is a Jew who is one inwardly” (29)

 

“Then He who sat upon the throne said, ‘Behold, I make all things new’” (Rev: 21:5. This is the scripture I think about when I read this passage in Romans 2. The old circumcision of the flesh is replaced by circumcision of the heart. The old national set up of Jew and Gentile is replaced by one new nation, that of Jew and Gentile as “one new man” (Eph: 2:15). We are now dealing with the things of the Spirit, not of the flesh – “In the Spirit, not in the letter” (29). How difficult it is to move away from the flesh, the physical into the realm of the Spirit.

God is Spirit (John 4:24), and we must begin thinking and operating in the realm of the spiritual. The spiritual plain is so much different than that of the physical; it is not conditioned or controlled by time. It is the realm of God where He dwells and reigns in glory.

The Holy Scriptures are God’s means of revealing spiritual things to those who abide in time and are surrounded by the physical. He puts spiritual things in physical examples to give us a glimpse of true reality, that which is in the realm of His existence.

The Holy Spirit also speaks to us and guides us into the truth. He is our Teacher of spiritual things. He is the One who lifts us up above the physical into the realm of the spiritual. He does not teach us that 1 + 1 = 2, but that “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in Spirit and in truth” (John 4:24.

Physical circumcision was a picture, a physical example of a spiritual truth. All along, God was interested in the spiritual circumcision, that of the heart. This is a spiritual reality the Jews never comprehended. The revelation through Paul of this great truth was new to their way of thinking because they were so taken up with the letter of the law. In their eyes, the physical mark on their bodies separated them from all others and identified them as belonging to God, but Paul told them that their physical circumcision meant nothing if they broke the law! Is there any wonder they hated him and wanted to put him to death?

The Jews were so proud that they were Jews. Their hatred of the gentiles was forever boiling in their hearts and minds, and now Paul tells them, “he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, …but he is a Jew who is one inwardly” (28,29). The Jew and the gentile are the same in God’s eyes! What an immensely distasteful concept to the proud and pious Jew! But, no matter how or what they felt or believed, this is God’s viewpoint; it is the New Covenant, it is the new way.

God has always marked His people (Ezek: 9:4-6), and today, His mark is the circumcision of the heart. It is a spiritual mark, one notched by God Himself. “Mark the blameless man, and observe the upright; for the future of that man is peace” Psalm 37:37. Observe that man and see his spiritual mark. The Beast marks (physical) well his followers (Rev: 13:16) and they are identified as such upon their condemnation (Rev: 14:1). Saints are identified by the absence of the mark of the Beast (Rev: 20:4) and by the circumcision of the heart (spiritual). This was a new concept, a new thought. Revolutionary.

“Father, thank you for Your mark on my heart. Thank you that I am identified as belonging to You by the operation of the Holy Spirit. Blessed be Your name.”