'Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing,
but the keeping of the commandments of God.'--1 COR. vii. 19.
'For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything,
nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love.'--GAL. v. 6.
'For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision,
but a new creature.'--GAL. vi. 16 (R.V.).
The great controversy which embittered so much of Paul's life, and
marred so much of his activity, turned upon the question whether a
heathen man could come into the Church simply by the door of faith,
or whether he must also go through the gate of circumcision. We all
know how Paul answered the question. Time, which settles all
controversies, has settled that one so thoroughly that it is
impossible to revive any kind of interest in it; and it may seem to
be a pure waste of time to talk about it. But the principles that
fought then are eternal, though the forms in which they manifest
themselves vary with every varying age.
The Ritualist--using that word in its broadest sense--on the one
hand, and the Puritan on the other, represent permanent tendencies of
human nature; and we find to-day the old foes with new faces. These
three passages, which I have read, are Paul's deliverance on the
question of the comparative value of external rites and spiritual
character. They are remarkable both for the identity in the former
part of each and for the variety in the latter. In all the three
cases he affirms, almost in the same language, that 'circumcision is
nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing,' that the Ritualist's rite
and the Puritan's protest are equally insignificant in comparison
with higher things. And then he varies the statement of what the
higher things are, in a very remarkable and instructive fashion. The
'keeping of the commandments of God,' says one of the texts, is the
all-important matter. Then, as it were, he pierces deeper, and in
another of the texts (I take the liberty of varying their order)
pronounces that 'a new creature' is the all-important thing. And then
he pierces still deeper to the bottom of all, in the third text, and
says the all-important thing is 'faith which worketh by love.'
I think I shall best bring out the force of these words by dealing
first with that emphatic threefold proclamation of the nullity of all
externalism; and then with the singular variations in the triple
statement of what is essential, viz. spiritual conduct and character.