Audio commentary on this verse

Note 1 at Rom. 2:28: As with so many commandments of the Old Testament, circumcision was an outward sign of a greater inward reality. Paul uses this term "sign" in referring to the circumcision of Abraham in Romans 4:11. The Jews of the first century had ignored the circumcision of the heart and had focused all their attention on the flesh (1 Sam. 16:7). Paul is clarifying that it is the condition of the heart that makes someone a child of God, not the flesh.