If you keep the Sabbath, shouldn't you be circumcised too?

We should keep the Sabbath because it is one of the precepts of the eternal, unchangeable moral law of God, which Paul declares to be 'holy,' 'just,' and 'good' (Romans 7:12); but we do not practice circumcision because it was one of the national rites of the Jews and part of the ceremonial law that was nailed to the cross (Colossians 2:14). 'Was anyone called while circumcised? Let him not become uncircumcised. Was anyone called while uncircumcised? Let him not be circumcised. Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing, but keeping the commandments of God is what matters' (1 Corinthians 7:18, 19).

Circumcision was part of the law of Moses, the ceremonial law God initially gave for the well-being of one to two million Jews living together in the wilderness. When did patriarch, prophet, apostle, or anybody else command any Gentile to keep the law of Moses? And when did anyone of authority command anyone to keep Sunday, or to keep no day, or to refrain from observing the seventh day?

If a command of God was observed by the Jews, does that mean it automatically does not apply to other races? The Ten Commandments are not the words of Moses but of God. The Bible says, just before quoting the Ten Commandments, 'God spoke all these words.' (See Exodus 20:1-17.) The law of God applies to all the world. 'We know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God' (Romans 3:19). No person is guilty 'before God' unless the law applies to his case.

Furthermore, all are to be judged by the law that forbids murder and adultery. (See James 2:10-12.) This is the Ten Commandment law. But people are not judged by a law that people are under no obligation to obey. Therefore, all are under obligation to obey the Ten Commandment law, for James declares that they will be judged by it.

Adapted from H.M.S. Richards, Hard Nuts Cracked, The Law of Circumcision.

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