Romans 2:25 : 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. Of circumcision God said to Abraham: "It shall be a token of a covenant betwixt me and you." Descendants of Abraham and Jacob were not brought into the covenant by circumcision; they were born into that covenant, and were circumcised as a sign of their membership in the covenant. If one was not circumcised, he was cut off from his covenant relationship. "And the uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that soul shall be cut off from his people he bath broken my covenant" (Genesis 17:14). Hence, to the Jew circumcision was indispensable to continued membership in the covenant; and it was profitable to him, if he lived in obedience to God. But if he did not obey God's commands, his circumcision was worthless to him; he was the same as if he had not been circumcised. It was a sign, or token, of the covenant. Paul was seeking to show the Jews that this sign of covenant relationship was worth-less to the one who did not live up to the covenant requirements. What avails it for me to show a writ-ten covenant between me and another man, if he can show that I have broken every covenant requirement? If he can do so, it is the same as if I had no written contract. And that fairly represents the condition of the Jew. Why boast of being circumcised and of hav-ing the law, if he had broken the covenant? The Jew put stress upon the sign and not the substance. He boasted of the covenant, and broke it every day.