Romans 2:28 Cross References

Romans 2:28

28: For you are not a true Jew just because you were born of Jewish parents or because you have gone through the Jewish ceremony of circumcision.

It doesn't make any difference now whether we have been circumcised or not. What counts is whether we really have been changed into new and different people.

Don't just say, 'We're safe--we're the descendants of Abraham.' That proves nothing. God can change these stones here into children of Abraham.

"I know about your suffering and your poverty--but you are rich! I know the slander of those opposing you. They say they are Jews, but they really aren't because theirs is a synagogue of Satan.

Well then, has God failed to fulfill his promise to the Jews? No, for not everyone born into a Jewish family is truly a Jew!
Just the fact that they are descendants of Abraham doesn't make them truly Abraham's children. For the Scriptures say, "Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted," though Abraham had other children, too.
This means that Abraham's physical descendants are not necessarily children of God. It is the children of the promise who are considered to be Abraham's children.

"Listen to me, O family of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel and born into the family of Judah. Listen, you who take oaths in the name of the LORD and call on the God of Israel. You don't follow through on any of your promises,
even though you call yourself the holy city and talk about depending on the God of Israel, whose name is the LORD Almighty.

If the LORD Almighty had not spared a few of us, we would have been wiped out as completely as Sodom and Gomorrah.
Listen to the LORD, you leaders of Israel! Listen to the law of our God, people of Israel. You act just like the rulers and people of Sodom and Gomorrah.
"I am sick of your sacrifices," says the LORD. "Don't bring me any more burnt offerings! I don't want the fat from your rams or other animals. I don't want to see the blood from your offerings of bulls and rams and goats.
Why do you keep parading through my courts with your worthless sacrifices?
The incense you bring me is a stench in my nostrils! Your celebrations of the new moon and the Sabbath day, and your special days for fasting--even your most pious meetings--are all sinful and false. I want nothing more to do with them.

And this is a picture of baptism, which now saves you by the power of Jesus Christ's resurrection. Baptism is not a removal of dirt from your body; it is an appeal to God from a clean conscience.

As they approached, Jesus said, "Here comes an honest man--a true son of Israel."

But how did his faith help him? Was he declared righteous only after he had been circumcised, or was it before he was circumcised? The answer is that God accepted him first, and then he was circumcised later!
The circumcision ceremony was a sign that Abraham already had faith and that God had already accepted him and declared him to be righteous--even before he was circumcised. So Abraham is the spiritual father of those who have faith but have not been circumcised. They are made right with God by faith.
And Abraham is also the spiritual father of those who have been circumcised, but only if they have the same kind of faith Abraham had before he was circumcised.

Yes, I realize that you are descendants of Abraham. And yet some of you are trying to kill me because my message does not find a place in your hearts.
I am telling you what I saw when I was with my Father. But you are following the advice of your father."
"Our father is Abraham," they declared. "No," Jesus replied, "for if you were children of Abraham, you would follow his good example.

If you are a Jew, you are relying on God's law for your special relationship with him. You boast that all is well between yourself and God.

the Egyptians, Edomites, Ammonites, Moabites, the people who live in distant places, and yes, even the people of Judah. Like all these pagan nations, the people of Israel also have uncircumcised hearts."

Soon Gomer became pregnant again and gave birth to a daughter. And the LORD said to Hosea, "Name your daughter Lo-ruhamah--`Not loved'--for I will no longer show love to the people of Israel or forgive them.
But I, the LORD their God, will show love to the people of Judah. I will personally free them from their enemies without any help from weapons or armies."
After Gomer had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she again became pregnant and gave birth to a second son.
And the LORD said, "Name him Lo-ammi--`Not my people'--for Israel is not my people, and I am not their God.

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