The life and work of St. Paul

470 THE LIFE AND WORK OF ST. PAUL.
From this impassioned strain he descends in a manner very characteristic
of his style into a calmer tone. " But" some Jew might urge, in accordance
with the stubborn prejudices of theological assumption, which by dint of
"
assertion, has passed into invincible belief but we are circumcised I Surely
you would not put its on a level with the uncircumcised the dogs and sinners
of the Gentiles?" To such an implied objection, touching as it does on a
point wholly secondary, however primary might be the importance which the
Jew attached to it, St. Paul can now give a very decisive answer, because with
wonderful power he has already stripped them of all genuine precedence, and
involved them in a common condemnation. He therefore replies in words
which, however calm and grave, would have sounded to a Jerusalem Pharisee
like stinging paradox.
" Circumcision is indeed an advantage if thou keepest the Law but if thou art
;
as I have generically shown that thou art a violator of the Law, then thy circumcision
has become uncircumcision. 1
If, then, the circumcision of the disobedient Jew
is really uncircumcision, is it not conversely plain that the ' uncircumcision of the
obedient Gentile is
2
virtually circumcision,' and is even in a position to pass judg-
ment upon Jewish circumcision ? God (strange and heretical as you may think it)
loves the man who does Ms duty more than the man who bears a cutting in his
flesh. You praise literal circumcision ; God praises the unseen circumcision of the
heart. Offensive as the antithesis may sound to you, the faithless Jew is but a
Gentile ; the faithful Gentile is, in God's sight, an honoured Jew ! Though none
may have told you this truth before though you denounce it as blasphemous, and
dangerous, and contrary to Scripture yet, for all that, the mere national Judaism
is a spiritual nonentity ;
the Judaism of moral faithfulness alone is dear to God." *
IV
OBJECTIONS AND CO NFIEM ATION8.
" The stars of morn shall see Him rise
Out of His grave, fresh as the dawning light ;
Thy ransom paid, which man from death redeems.
His death for man, as many as offered life
Neglect not, and the benefit embrace
Of faith, not void of works." MILTON, Par. Lost, xii. 422.
So far then, both by fact and by theory, he has shown that Jews and Gentiles
are equal before God ; equally guilty, equally redeemed. But here a Jew
might exclaim in horror, " Has the Jew then no superiority ? Is circumcision
wholly without advantage p " Here St. Paid makes a willing concession, and
1 This is reluctantly admitted even in the Talmud. The Rabbis hold generally that
" "
no circumcised man can see hell (Midr. Tittin, 7, 2) ; but they get over the moral
danger of the doctrine by saying that when a guilty Jew comes to Gehenna, an angel
makes his irepiro^rj into o(cpo^v