²⁸ For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision something external and physical.^(A)

¹⁵ For^[a] neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything, but a new creation is everything!^(A)

⁹ and do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.^(A)

⁹ “I know your affliction and your poverty, even though you are rich. I know the slander on the part of those who say that they are Jews and are not but are a synagogue of Satan.^(A)

⁶ It is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all those descended from Israel are Israelites,^{(A) 7} and not all of Abraham’s children are his descendants, but “it is through Isaac that descendants shall be named for you.”^{(B) 8} This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as descendants.

¹⁰ How then was it reckoned to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after but before he was circumcised. ¹¹ He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith^[a] while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the ancestor of all who believe^[b] without being circumcised and who thus have righteousness reckoned to them,^{(A) 12} and likewise the ancestor of the circumcised who are not only circumcised but follow the example of the faith that our ancestor Abraham had before he was circumcised.

God the Creator and Redeemer

⁶ She conceived again and bore a daughter. Then the Lord said to him, “Name her Lo-ruhamah,^[a] for I will no longer have pity on the house of Israel or forgive them.^{(A) 7} But I will have pity on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the Lord their God; I will not save them by bow or by sword or by war or by horses or by horsemen.”^(B)

⁸ When she had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she conceived and bore a son. ⁹ Then the Lord said, “Name him Lo-ammi,^[b] for you are not my people, and I am not your God.”^[c]

²¹ And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you—not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for^[a] a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,^(A)