Romans
3:25
25
Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law,
you have become as though you had not been circumcised.
26 If those who are not circumcised keep the law's requirements, will they
not be regarded as though they were circumcised?
27 The one who is not circumcised physically
and yet obeys the
law will condemn you who, even though you have the written code and
circumcision, are a lawbreaker.
28 A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision
merely outward and physical.
29 No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is
circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a
man's praise is not from men, but from God.
3:1 What advantage, then, is there in being a Jew, or what value is
there in circumcision?
2 Much in every way! First of all, they have been entrusted with
the oral law.
What is
Paul trying to say here? Again, we
need to take into context the issue that is being discussed. A Jew from
the School of Shammai would not have fellowship with an uncircumcised
Gentile. A Jew from the School of Hillel, however, accepted the Gentile
who was attempting to obey God through observing the seven Noahide laws,
and yet remained uncircumcised. They believed
(as do Jews today) that the “righteous Gentile”
will be saved (have a place in the world to come).
He was
certainly not saying that circumcision was of no value, nor was he
attempting to tell a Gentile that he should not seek conversion.