Will Not Circumcision Ensure That The Jew Is Treated Differently By God? (2:25-29).
The Jew then goes on to his second argument. If the possession of the Law and the benefits described above will not ensure that the Jew is treated differently by God, what then about the fact that he is circumcised? Is that not the mark of God's special covenant relationship with him? In reply Paul would have agreed that circumcision was the sign of a special covenant relationship. What he would have disagreed with was the idea that God would as a result soften His attitude towards sin, something for which he would find good support in the Old Testament, especially in Lamentations. Indeed, he would argue that the covenant relationship makes greater demands on the Jew because he has thereby committed himself to obeying the covenant. The Gentiles had not committed themselves to anything. The Jew therefore has a greater responsibility to observe the Law, and if he fails to do so then he is liable to be ‘cut off from Israel'. There are a host of citations from Jewish tradition that suggest that Jews did see circumcision as affording special privileges regardless of behaviour. Paul condemns such an attitude outright.
Some reader may be saying, ‘well that is fine as regards the Jew, but what has it to do with us?' One answer lies in the fact that to many baptism is seen as parallel to circumcision, thus in their case the same arguments can be applied to baptism. Baptism profits for someone who is truly responsive to God, but is of little value for someone who is not obedient to God. (As 1 Peter 3:21 says, its purpose is not a washing away of defilement, but the answer of a good conscience towards God). So in what follows we can read ‘baptism' for ‘circumcision'. But it is of equal importance in bringing out that the Jew has no special position before God unless he is fully living in accordance with the covenant. As he will point out, the true Jew is the person, whether Jew or Gentile, who is truly circumcised in heart.