Romans 2:26 Commentary and Bible Study

If those who are uncircumcised Gentiles keep the law – not perfectly, but with heartfelt obedience and love for God – will not their obedience to the law be counted as circumcision? Will they not have reached the goal that the rite of circumcision performed in the flesh was intended to lead to? Most certainly they will have. What is an operation in the flesh, compared to a work of God in the soul? If the thing that really counts is there in the heart, then what does it matter if the sign that was only intended to lead to that change of heart is missing? If a man who has had surgery on his legs learns to walk without a crutch, then what need is there for him to be given a crutch after he has already learnt to walk again? Righteousness is the goal, and if a Gentile gets there without circumcision then he does not need to go back and be circumcised afterwards. The fact that he has never ceremonially been included among the Jews is of little consequence. Will he not be regarded as one of God's children?Of course, in the context of his letter to the Romans, this does not mean that one can earn the favour of God and be acceptable to him by ‘keeping the law’. The constant argument of the book is that nobody can accomplish that well enough to earn a righteousness that justifies before God. To do that he would have to keep it perfectly and continuously in every conceivable respect. Paul will be saying in the verses which follow that all are under judgment; all are condemned by the law and lost, Jews and Gentiles alike. When he speaks of a person keeping the law, what he means us to understand is this: that the person has realised his inability to keep God's law and his sinfulness, and the fact that he is under judgment. The law has spoken to him, and has humbled him, and convicted him, and he has pleaded for the forgiveness of God. He has trusted in the promise that God will provide him with an imputed righteousness, and give him free salvation and free forgiveness. The result of this, and the proof that the man has done this and has been genuinely converted to God, is that he feels so indebted to God for his forgiveness that he has become a willing, voluntary striver after holiness. He is a person who is conscientious and earnest in keeping God's moral commandments, and this is the evidence that he has been saved by grace. That is the general scene, and that is what the apostle means here by ‘keeping the law’. His argument is that without God’s work in the heart we cannot do it, because we are fallen human beings. So if somebody is found keeping the law, it is evidence that they have come to God in repentance and faith, believed in his mercy, experienced the change of life that he gives to all repentant sinners, and become for themselves conscientious people striving to keep the law.