And if the Gentiles obey God’s law, won’t God declare them to be his own people?
Parallel translations
- WEB If therefore the uncircumcised keep the ordinances of the law, won’t his uncircumcision be accounted as circumcision?
- KJV Therefore if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision?
- BSB If a man who is not circumcised keeps the requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision?
- NKJV Therefore, if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision?
- NASB So if the uncircumcised man keeps the requirements of the Law, will his uncircumcision not be regarded as circumcision?
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
If an uncircumcised person keeps the law's requirements, will not his uncircumcision count as circumcision? God values righteousness over ritual.
Overview
Paul presses the logic further: if a Gentile, though uncircumcised, keeps the righteous requirements of the law, God will regard him as if circumcised. This shows that God looks to the heart and life, not merely the outward mark. It anticipates the New Testament truth that true membership in God's people is by faith, not physical descent or ritual.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Col 2:11in whom you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ;
- 1 Cor 7:18–19Was anyone called having been circumcised? Let him not become uncircumcised. Has anyone been called in uncircumcision? Let him not be circumcised.
- Rom 8:4that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
- Matt 8:11–12I tell you that many will come from the east and the west, and will sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven,
- Matt 15:28Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Be it done to you even as you desire.” And her daughter was healed from that hour.
- Rom 3:30since indeed there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith, and the uncircumcised through faith.
- Eph 2:11Therefore remember that once you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “uncircumcision” by that which is called “circumcision”, (in the flesh, made by hands);
- Acts 11:3–18saying, “You went in to uncircumcised men, and ate with them!”
- Acts 10:34–35Peter opened his mouth and said, “Truly I perceive that God doesn’t show favoritism;
- Phil 3:3For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh;
- Acts 10:2–4a devout man, and one who feared God with all his house, who gave gifts for the needy generously to the people, and always prayed to God.
- Isa 56:6–7Also the foreigners who join themselves to Yahweh, to serve him, and to love Yahweh’s name, to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath from profaning it, and holds fast my covenant;
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Christ at the center
Paul unfolds the gospel in full: Christ our righteousness received by faith, the second Adam in whom many are made righteous, in whose death and resurrection we are buried and raised.
How Romans 2:26 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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