Myth, 22

~ You Can Judge Spirituality By Outward Appearance ~

Arguments For  ~  In the Old Testament God’s people were circumcised.  Nazarites never cut their hair.  In the New Testament baptism is intended to be an outward sign of an inward reality.  Some people point to church membership as an outward indicator of spiritual reality. 

Arguments Against  ~  “So it was, when they came, that he looked at Eliab and said, ‘Surely the Lord’s anointed is before Him!’   But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him.  For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart’” (1 Samuel 16:6-7). 

“…God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ…” (Romans 2:16). 

Conclusion  ~  Circumcision is of no value by itself.  “For circumcision is indeed profitable if you keep the law; but if you are a breaker of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.  Therefore, if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision?  And will not the physically uncircumcised, if he fulfills the law, judge you who, even with your written code and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law?  For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God” (Romans 2:25-29).

The Key  ~  We are righteous before God, the Father, not because of any outward deeds—or even inward reality!  We only become righteous because of the righteousness of Jesus Christ which can be credited to our account. 

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.  For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith’ (Romans 1:16-17). 

~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW

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