From another perspective, we have—later in the letter—Paul speaking about Jewish people, even Jewish unbelievers as Jews (3:29). So Paul is not making a ban on any non-believer in the Lord Jesus Christ calling themselves Jewish, on the one hand. And yet, on the other hand, he does make this rather surprising statement that—from this perspective of what he’s just been talking about in terms of the observation of God’s law—you are not doing honour to the title of Jewish person if you are merely one outwardly.
If you have not had his righteousness credited to you, in that sense, though you may call yourself a Jewish person, if you do not believe in Jesus, trust in him, then all of your Judaism counts for nothing towards your salvation. If you are to do honour to what it means to be Jewish, then you must also be inwardly.
If you haven’t experienced that heart circumcision, heart surgery, then your outward circumcision is really of no value. If you are circumcised in the heart, if you are regenerated, if you were given a new heart, if spiritual heart surgery has taken place in you, then God praises you for who you have become, not by warrant of your own good works, but by what he’s done in you. That is a very exciting prospect.
Now, I have known this passage to be preached with Jewish people present, and sadly, it wasn’t treated with enough sensitivity, and so the Jewish people present were very offended by what was said. On the other hand, for people who are Jewish, this is offensive because what Paul is saying is that if you are Jewish and you are not trusting in the Lord Jesus, then you might as well not be called Jewish. That is quite a thing to say, but necessary.
Like I said, we can qualify that. We can say, well, that’s not true from every perspective. It is not wrong to call a non-Christian Jewish person Jewish. But on the other hand, it is right to say of a Jewish person who doesn’t trust in Jesus that if they’re only Jewish outwardly, then we might as well say of you that you are not. That’s what Paul is saying. That’s the power of what Paul is saying. It’s drastic.
But the exciting thing about verses 28 and 29 of Romans 2 is that they mean that we Gentiles can be joined with Jewish believers. We can be joined with the Jewish people (the ones who are inwardly Jewish as well as outwardly Jewish). We can have circumcision performed on our hearts by the Holy Spirit. We can receive praise from God for receiving such a thing, and that is an amazing thing.
