Charles Ellicott Commentary Romans 2:25-29

"For circumcision indeed profiteth, if thou be a doer of the law: but if thou be a transgressor of the law, thy circumcision is become uncircumcision. If therefore the uncircumcision keep the ordinances of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be reckoned for circumcision? and shall not the uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfil the law, judge thee, who with the letter and circumcision art a transgressor of the law? For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision 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 of men, but of God." — Romans 2:25-29 (ASV)

This section forms a connecting link with the opening of the next chapter. “The characteristic mark and badge of the Jew has two sides: one outward and formal, the other inward and real. Its essence consists in the latter, and without this inward circumcision, the outward profits nothing. It is not necessary to be born a Jew to possess it.” Precisely the same language might be applied to the Christian sacraments or to the privileges of any particular communion. Privileges they may be, but they depend for their efficacy entirely upon the disposition of the heart which underlies them.

[Verse 25] Is made.—Is become,—ipso facto, “is reduced to the case of.”

[Verse 27] Judge you.—Compare to Matthew 12:41-42: The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it, and following. The idea is that of “putting to shame by contrast.”

By the letter.—The preposition here marks the condition or circumstance under which the action is done and might be paraphrased, “with all the advantages of the written Law and of circumcision.”

Here, again, the sentence may not be a question but an affirmation.