"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).

It’s all or nothing. We either trust in our good works or we trust in Jesus. However, if we trust in ourselves, failing one time ruins everything (James 2:10). This is the point. The Jews were relying on circumcision, a symbol of the righteousness Abraham had obtained by faith (Rom. 4:11), but instead of living by this faith, they were trusting in their ability to keep each commandment. In a disquieting declaration, Paul said, their habitual sin makes it as if they were uncircumcised. 

This is quite a statement! What a shock for the Jews who went to great care to follow the letter of Law. They prided themselves in living up its standards. And yet, Paul observes that it is of no value to them because they are unable to live perfectly. In other words, they were trusting in the wrong thing! In fact, one of the main points in Paul’s letters is that no one will be justified by their ability to keep the Law (Rom. 3:20, 10:3-4; 11:6; Gal 2:16, 3:10-11, Eph. 2:8-9, Titus 3:5). 

"Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and brag about your relationship to God; if you know his will and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by the law; if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth—you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who brag about the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? As it is written: "God's name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you" (Romans 2:17-24)

Having the Law brings superior knowledge, but it also brings accountability. What could be omitted by ignorance, cannot be omitted by awareness. The Jews prided themselves in observing on the Law, trusting that they were good enough by being careful to do everything it instructed.

However, here’s a shocking revelation by Paul—the same laws the Jews are claiming to have kept, are the laws they had repeatedly broken. The Book of James says, “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it” (James 2:10).