#31 - Piper - Who is a true Jew - Romans 2:25-29

Romans 2:25–29

For indeed circumcision is of value if you practice the Law; but if you are a transgressor of the Law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. 26 So if the uncircumcised man keeps the requirements of the Law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? 27 And he who is physically uncircumcised, if he keeps the Law, will he not judge you who though having the letter of the Law 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 which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.

 

The essence of the Christian life is to have your heart changed in such a way that you obey by faith the moral law that God gave to us. 

 

Here is what Piper says:

In other words, behind this language of “letter” and “Spirit” is Paul’s whole understanding of the Christian life as an expression of the “new covenant.” In the promises of the new covenant, which Jesus bought with his own blood (Luke 22:20), God promises to take out the heart of stone and give us a new heart and put his Spirit within us and cause us to walk in his Law. Listen to Ezekiel 36:37b: “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances” (see also Ezekiel 11:19–20).

 

This promise shows that keeping the Law and fulfilling the Law are something that God promised when the Holy Spirit was given to his people in the fuller measure of the new covenant. So when verse 26 says, “If the uncircumcised man keeps the requirements of the Law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision”?, we should understand this of the Christian Gentile who has been given the “Spirit” and has stopped treating the Law as a dead “letter” that kills. Rather, the Law now has become the expression of God’s good moral will for life that grows like fruit from a circumcised heart of faith that the Holy Spirit has brought about. In other words, keeping the requirements of the Law is a free gift of the Spirit.

 

Piper also makes clear that our heart should be changed so as to desire to obey the law:

This makes it clear that the idea of fulfilling the Law is a Christian experience and that it really does happen, and that it happens in the lives of those who walk according to the Spirit. Christ died for us and purchased for us the new covenant blessings of the Spirit, and now He is at work in our lives enabling us to live out—not perfectly, but enough to show we trust him—the moral law of God.

 

So, Paul is saying that we need to become like Jews, and though that sounds a bit weird, he clarifies with an interesting thought:

One Person knows who we are. God. He made us. He defines us. If we are ever going to know who we are in our essence, we will learn it from God or not at all. Therefore it is a great gift to us that he should tell us that an essential part of our identity is that we are true Jews if we fulfill the obedience of faith. Don’t reject God’s good gift because you can’t see the benefits of being a true Jew. That’s the first thing I would say: God is telling you who you are. Pay attention. Receive the gift. Don’t assume you know a better thing to be than what God says you are.

And finally, I would say, you ought to want to be a true Jew because “salvation belongs to the Jews” (John 4:22), and all the promises of God are yours if you are a true Jew (see Romans 11:17–18). What a great thing it is to be able to go to the whole Bible, Old and New Testament, and know that “this is my book.” I am a Jew. These are my promises. This is my story. This is my Messiah. This is my God (Jeremiah 31:33). You can say that today—Jew or Gentile—if you will trust in the all-satisfying mercy of God in Christ Jesus and repent of your sins.