As we examine baptism, it is helpful to first look at an outward covenant sign that Paul discusses at length: circumcision. Paul is using circumcision as a case study to demonstrate something much bigger about righteousness before God.
Romans 2:25–29 shows God's brilliance in how He evaluates the relationship between an outward religious act and the inward spiritual reality it represents.
Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, you have become as though you had not been circumcised. So then, if those who are not circumcised keep the law’s requirements, will they not be regarded as though they were circumcised? The one who is not circumcised physically and yet obeys the law will condemn you who, even though you have the written code and circumcision, are a lawbreaker.
A person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a person’s praise is not from other people, but from God.
Paul makes two remarkable observations.
1.The Outward Act Does Not Establish Credit with God; the Inward Reality Does
Paul begins with the outward sign:
“Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, you have become as though you had not been circumcised.”
Romans 2:25
The point is striking. A person could be circumcised outwardly and yet, because the reality represented by that sign was absent, God could regard him as though he were not circumcised.
The physical act itself did not establish righteousness.
But Paul then turns the situation around:
“So then, if those who are not circumcised keep the law’s requirements, will they not be regarded as though they were circumcised?”
Romans 2:26
Now the person does not possess the outward sign, yet Paul says that person can be regarded as though circumcised.
This creates a remarkable symmetry:
Circumcised + lawbreaker = regarded as though uncircumcised.
Uncircumcised + obedience in the heart = regarded as though circumcised outwardly.
Paul is showing that God does not ultimately evaluate a person according to possession of the outward sign. What matters is the spiritual reality of the outward act.
That becomes even clearer in verses 28–29:
“A person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart…”
The physical sign was not meaningless. But the physical sign was never the thing that God ultimately wanted by itself.
The outside does not create the inside.
And, remarkably, Paul says that the inside is credited as the completeness signaled by the outside act, even when the outside act is absent.
That is an important principle.
God can recognize the inward reality even when the outward sign is not present. Conversely, the outward sign does not guarantee the inward reality.
2. The Mechanism Is the Spirit, Not the Written Code
But Paul does not stop with the distinction between outside and inside. He tells us how the inward reality is produced:
“Circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code.”
Romans 2:29
This is crucial.
Paul identifies the mechanism for regeneration: the Spirit.
The written code could tell a person what God required. But the Spirit comes within to enact the transformation God desires, without us first satisfying His code.
So Paul's argument is not simply about having access to God's written commands. The deeper issue is what God is doing inside the person.
The inward work of the Spirit does not merely give meaning to the outward sign. It constitutes the spiritual reality that God regards as fulfilling the reality of the outward sign.
And that brings Paul's argument back to the two sides of the case study:
The outward sign without the inward reality is insufficient.
But the inward reality produced by the Spirit is recognized by God even without the outward sign.
Why This Matters
God is not ultimately impressed by the presence of an outward religious marker when the inward reality is absent. And the inward work of the Spirit is powerful enough that God ratifies that reality even when the outward marker is absent.
That gives us an important principle to carry into our discussion of baptism:
We should not automatically assume that the outward act itself creates the inward spiritual reality. We must first ask what Scripture says the outward act represents, and what Scripture says actually produces spiritual status with God.
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