Grafted-In Ministries

Messianic Jews and the Law, Part 4
By Michael Schiffman

Sha’ul’s (Paul’s) discussion on circumcision is reconsidered.

In Romans 2:17-29, Paul expands on this topic [the law] by addressing a self-righteous attitude of those who rely on the law. Verses 17-24 detail this wrong attitude. The problem is not the law, but the wrong human attitudes people hold toward it.

In verses 25-29 Paul discusses the issue of circumcision in relation to the law. Circumcision for Paul has no value if a person is not living faithfully by the law. Again, as in verses 12-16, Paul’s contention is that circumcision, like knowing the law, is of no benefit if it is not coupled with the accompanying actions growing out of an inward faith. A parallel passage is Galatians 5:3-6. The point is made

if you let yourselves be circumcised, Messiah will be of no value to you at all…every man who lets himself be circumcised…is obligated to obey the whole law. You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Messiah; you have fallen away from grace…for in Messiah Yeshua neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

Paul’s difficulty here was not with circumcision in and of itself. If that were the case, he would not have had Timothy circumcised. Paul’s concern was with those who were trying to be justified by the law (which circumcision actually predates, going back to Abraham). Circumcision does not carry the burden of adherence to the law. However, the pretense that seeks justification by circumcision also requires adherence to the other commandments. Those seeking justification before God through their actions ceased to rely on God’s grace through the finished work of the Messiah. Ernest Burton rightly wrote,

The acceptance of circumcision is in principle the acceptance of the whole legalistic scheme. The reasons that can be urged in favor of circumcision apply equally to every statute of the law.(1)

Paul may have been responding to the attitude held by some within Judaism that circumcision, the sign of the Abrahamic covenant, would indeed insure a Jewish person’s redemption in eternity. One passage of the Talmud says,

Abraham’s activity did not cease with his death. As he interceded in this world for the sinners, so will he intercede for them in the world to come. On the day of judgment, he will sit at the gate of hell, and he will not suffer those who kept the law of circumcision to enter therein.(2)

While it would be inaccurate to suggest that Rabbinic Judaism teaches trust in circumcision for salvation, this belief may have been present in Paul’s time. Paul may have reacted in Galatians against Jewish zealots, or, more probably, Gentile believers who had themselves circumcised and were making much of it.

Paul is not speaking against circumcision itself when he wrote,

For in Messiah Yeshua, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love (Galatians 5:6).

His point is not that circumcision is meaningless, but that in regard to one’s standing before God it gives no special place. Circumcision is the sign of the Abrahamic, not the Mosaic covenant. The Abrahamic covenant is unconditional, having no requirements upon man, only upon God. It is an unconditional covenant of God’s promise. Galatians 3:17-18 says,

The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. For if inheritance depends on law, then it no longer depends on a promise; but God in His grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.

Circumcision is a sign of God’s grace to Abraham’s descendants through His promises. Seeking justification through circumcision is seeking grace through works. Paul speaks against the attitude of those who seek to justify themselves by the law and its ordinances. In Romans 3:19-20, Paul says,

Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore, no one will be declared righteous in His sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.

The purpose of the law, according to Paul, is not that people be declared righteous by it, but rather to give people a consciousness of their own sinfulness. It serves as an indicator of where we are in relation to where we should be in regard to the will of God. This makes the law a blessing rather than a burden. This was expressed in Romans 5:20,

The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more.

The law does not increase our sinful deeds, but it does bring a consciousness of sinfulness, which, in turn, brings a realization of God’s grace, making us aware of how much we have been forgiven. This is not the law’s sole purpose, but one of its purposes. It is clear, that, from Paul’s perspective, the law is insufficient to bring justification before God.