For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law.
Parallel translations
- WEB Yes, I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is a debtor to do the whole law.
- BSB Again I testify to every man who gets himself circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law.
- NKJV And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law.
- NASB And I testify again to every man who has himself circumcised, that he is obligated to keep the whole Law.
- NLT I’ll say it again. If you are trying to find favor with God by being circumcised, you must obey every regulation in the whole law of Moses.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Anyone who receives circumcision to be justified is obligated to keep the entire law. Choosing the law as one's path means accepting its full and impossible demands.
Overview
Paul warns that adopting circumcision for righteousness commits a person to the whole law, which no one can fulfill. There is no partial law-keeping for justification; the law demands perfect obedience. This exposes the futility of the legalist path and magnifies the necessity of Christ, who alone kept the law perfectly on our behalf.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Gal 3:10For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.
- Rom 2:25For circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law: but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision.
- Jas 2:10–11For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.
- Deut 27:26Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them. And all the people shall say, Amen.
- Eph 4:17This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,
- Deut 31:21And it shall come to pass, when many evils and troubles are befallen them, that this song shall testify against them as a witness; for it shall not be forgotten out of the mouths of their seed: for I know their imagination which they go about, even now, before I have brought them into the land which I sware.
- Deut 8:19And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the LORD thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish.
- Neh 9:29–30And testifiedst against them, that thou mightest bring them again unto thy law: yet they dealt proudly, and hearkened not unto thy commandments, but sinned against thy judgments, (which if a man do, he shall live in them;) and withdrew the shoulder, and hardened their neck, and would not hear.
- Matt 23:18And, Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty.
- Matt 23:16Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor!
- Luke 16:28For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.
- Acts 2:40And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.
- Acts 20:21Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
- 1 Th 4:6That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified.
- 1 Jn 4:14And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.
- Neh 9:34Neither have our kings, our princes, our priests, nor our fathers, kept thy law, nor hearkened unto thy commandments and thy testimonies, wherewith thou didst testify against them.
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Christ at the center
Christ became a curse for us to redeem us from the law's curse, that we might receive the Spirit and be sons — justified by faith in him, not by works.
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Original language
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