Romans 2:29Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

He does this to make the victory indisputable. Once the Apostle's statement is acknowledged, circumcision of the flesh is necessarily rejected.

It becomes clear that life is needed everywhere. When a Greek is saved without these rites, while a Jew is punished even with them, Judaism is rendered void.

By "Greek" the Apostle does not mean an idolater, but a pious and virtuous man, freed from the rites of the law.

Indeed, by this does he not persuade them finally to pass to other views concerning circumcision? Does he not wish them to think that circumcision was given to the forefather Abraham only as “the seal of the faith which he had while uncircumcised” (Rom 4:11), but also to understand in it something greater and spiritual? Therefore we must inquire and examine carefully what this circumcision in the spirit is. We must ask what is symbolized by circumcision performed in the flesh, and why a man is circumcised not on any given day, but only on the eighth.

Certainly no one will doubt that, if our appointed purpose is to strive for union with God through Christ, then those who ascend through faith to union with the all-holy Master must first be purified and sanctified in every way. As the best pattern of this, let us take what God said to holy Moses: “Go down, testify to the people, and sanctify them today and tomorrow. Let them wash their garments and be ready for the third day, for on the third day the Lord will come down upon Mount Sinai” (Ex 19:10-11). By the preliminary sanctification He shows His desire that we strive to acquire a good character. By the washing of garments He indicates the purification of the body itself, for the body is, as it were, the garment and clothing of the soul.

Therefore, since those who strove for communion with the holy God, to return to the first and most important subject of the discourse, had to be sanctified beforehand in every way, according to His word, “Be holy, for I am holy” (Lev 19:2), the ancients were given a symbol of sanctification through circumcision of the flesh. But how? Let us speak of this. If we carefully examine the nature of our moral experiences, we shall find that pleasure precedes every sin. Some burning desire summons us to sin. It always precedes the action and anticipates the reason of the soul. Thus it finally compels one to take the beaten road toward carrying out the intention.

The disciple of Christ reveals the truth of this reasoning when he cries out: “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted by God,’ for God is not tempted by evil, and He Himself tempts no one. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own desire. Then desire, having conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin, when accomplished, brings forth death” (Jas 1:13-15). Do you see how the first conception of vice occurs in desires, and how the first seeds of sin are conceived in shameful pleasures?

For this reason the Lawgiver and God commands the circumcising iron, the knife, to be applied precisely to that part of the body in which and through which the begetting of desire occurs. By this, as through a riddle, He teaches you that we can never appear pure unless we receive into the heart the keenest operation of the divine word, and receive into the mind the sword of the Spirit (Heb 4:12). We must put far away from ourselves desire for everything shameful. We must do nothing according to our own desires, even if they seem to offer us the sweetest delight. Instead, we must obediently perform and love what is pleasing to God.

If true circumcision has this meaning, then it will rightly be said to those accustomed to boast in the flesh alone: “Circumcise yourselves to God, and circumcise the hardness of your heart, men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem” (Jer 4:4). Truly, he who circumcises his flesh is circumcised for the flesh alone. But he who has received circumcision in the spirit through faith in Christ is truly circumcised for God alone.

We receive circumcision in the spirit, which leads us up to communion with God, on the eighth day, that is, on the day of the Savior’s Resurrection. We set this forth as a sign that circumcision in the spirit is the cause of life. In a certain way, through the act itself, we consent to live together with Christ, according to Paul’s word: “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory” (Col 3:3-4). Indeed, is it not right to say that he who renounces the pleasures of the world for God must die to the world? The divine Paul shows himself to be such when he says: “But I do not wish to boast except in the Cross of Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Gal 6:14).

Having become a partaker of Him through the Spirit, Who circumcises in us without hands every impurity, we must die to the world and live a better life for God. Therefore circumcision is performed on the eighth day for the sake of Christ’s Resurrection, and not before the eighth day. For the gift of the Spirit is not given before the Resurrection, but after it, or at the very time of the Resurrection, when He breathed on His disciples and said: “Receive the Holy Spirit” (Jn 20:22).

Thus circumcision by iron is entirely fitting for the Jews, for they are still slaves and under a chastising law; and iron is a symbol of chastisement. But for us, as free and spiritual, there is purification through the Spirit. It destroys every defilement of our souls and brings in the perfect purity of piety through faith.

That the highest degree of perfection in piety is attained through true and spiritual circumcision can again be confirmed by considering what is written about the patriarch Abraham. It is written of the forefather Abraham that, when he was ninety-nine years old, God deemed it useful to establish the law of circumcision. He made this the clearest sign that circumcision is, as it were, a doorway and preliminary entrance into the perfection of virtue. More precisely, by this He clearly indicates that no one will ever attain it unless he has the purification foreshadowed through circumcision. Indeed, the number one hundred is a symbol of perfection. Thus circumcision is given before perfection. Since it precedes perfection, it easily leads us up to it.

Yet the benefit of circumcision for us, I mean circumcision in the spirit, is not limited to this alone. We shall find it necessary even for those who are free in Christ. Without doubt, the man free in Christ is he who has cast off slavery to the devil and the yoke of sin, “bursting their bonds,” as it is written (Ps 2:3). He has put on the glorious praise of righteousness, free from tyranny. I mean the righteousness of faith in Christ.

Here, however, he means circumcision within Judaism itself.

The Apostle wants to say that, if even in Judaism circumcision had meaning only with fulfillment of the law, then in Christianity it has no meaning at all.

For in Christianity justification is attained by other means.

So also an uncircumcised pagan may be better in life than a Jew. Therefore he may deserve praise from God, like good Jews who correspond to their calling and election.

Such men are true Israelites in the spirit of faith and life.

Having shown earlier what the Hebrews were like, the Apostle Paul now indicates what they ought to be like in order to be worthy of the Kingdom of God.

They must acquire "circumcision in the heart." According to Bishop Theophan, "a circumcised heart is a pure and blameless heart, free from everything sinful and filled with holy feelings and dispositions."

But who can have such a heart outside Christianity?

Thus the Apostle Paul disposes both pagans and Jews alike to accept the Gospel teaching. He first shows the insufficiency of their moral and religious state.

Then he shows their great responsibility for it before God.

He does not merely perform the outward works of the law, but also nourishes the heartfelt feelings and dispositions corresponding to them. He is merciful, compassionate, ready for every help to a brother, yielding, patient, faithful in word, and chaste not only in body, but also in eye and heart. In general, he is adorned with every virtue in his heart. Behold the true Jew.

Accordingly, true circumcision is not only that which is in the flesh. It is that in which, together with circumcision of the flesh, circumcision of the heart is also accomplished by the spirit. Holy Moses wrote that God chose the Jews for Himself and set circumcision as the seal of election. Yet there he also added: “Circumcise the hardness of your heart” (Deut 10:16). By this he raised circumcision to the fullness of its perfection. Circumcision of the heart means cutting away from it all passions: anger, lust, envy, pride, vainglory, love of gain, and all their offspring. A circumcised heart is a pure and blameless heart, free from everything sinful and filled with holy feelings and dispositions. Whoever has such a heart is truly circumcised.

What does “circumcision of the heart in spirit, not in letter” mean? Since the Apostle here contrasts the inward with the outward, “in spirit” will mean “in the spirit,” as it also stands in Greek, έν πνεύματι. That is, it is inward, hidden from sight, the same as “in secret.” “Not in letter,” ού γράμματι, means not according to the letter, not as the letter of Scripture gives one to understand. In the law concerning circumcision, Scripture speaks exactly only of circumcision of the flesh. That is, true circumcision is not the one that, according to the letter of Scripture, is visibly performed in the flesh.

At the same time, one may understand that the Apostle deliberately added “in spirit,” indicating that true circumcision can be performed only by the Holy Spirit. The Old Testament Scripture required inward circumcision together with the outward. But since this inward circumcision could be accomplished only by the Spirit, and the Old Testament rites did not give the Spirit, by this very fact the Jew ought to have been disposed to await a new institution. In it he could receive the Spirit and through Him be circumcised in heart. Therefore all our interpreters say that by the word “spirit” the Apostle “prepares a way for the Jew to the Christian way of life and shows the necessity of faith” (Chrysostom). For true circumcision of the heart from sins and what is sinful is accomplished only in believers, and it is accomplished by the Spirit. The one so circumcised in heart from every impurity is truly a Jew, fulfilling the law as he ought; see Oecumenius.

This thought accords with the Apostle’s purpose, toward which he directs his discourse. His aim is to convince not only the Gentile, but also the Jew, of the necessity of the special grace of the Spirit from God. “Whose praise is not from men, but from God.” The Apostle completes the discourse, stops the Jew’s mouth, and humbles his thought. The Jews were outwardly correct. They saw this correctness in one another, praised one another for it, and rested their hopes on it. Having turned their attention from the external to the internal, the Apostle certainly shook this confidence strongly. But when he now placed them before the face of God, this ought to have burned away in them every exalted thought about themselves. However highly someone may think of himself, when he places himself before God, Who searches hearts, he can no longer remain in the same self-conceit. Not only is God a consuming fire, but even the thought of God consumes every exaltation.

The Jews knew that the one praiseworthy is not the one who praises himself, or whom men praise, but the one whom God praises. Having been convinced by the Apostle’s words that before God only inward goodness has value, and that they could not boast in it, they should at the same time have been assured that they could not expect approval from God. For God sees what is hidden in a way that man himself does not see it. “Whose,” that is, whose praise? Circumcision’s, or the Jew’s? Both: the Jew with a circumcised heart, and the circumcised heart in the true Jew.