What does Romans 2:27 mean?
Paul has painted a picture of two men. One is Jewish and circumcised and under the law of Moses. He breaks the law. The other is Gentile, uncircumcised, but he keeps the law of Moses. He obeys it. In what would have been a deeply offensive shock to his Jewish readers, Paul said that circumcision is of no use to the Jewish lawbreaker. Worse, he suggested that a lack of physical circumcision is no hindrance to the Gentile law-keeper. The first will be regarded by God as if he were not circumcised and not Jewish; the second will be regarded as if he were circumcised and Jewish, even though he's not.Now Paul concludes that the Gentile law-keeper will condemn the Jewish law-breaker, even though he has been given the law by God and has been circumcised. The only difference between them is whether they kept the law or not. Only later will Paul reveal that nobody, Jewish or Gentile, is able to keep the law, after all (Romans 3:10). All are sinners and must be forgiven for their sin in order to be saved from God's wrath (Romans 3:22–25).