Romans 2 and Galatians 3:28–29: Gentiles Don’t Become Spiritual Jews—They Become Fully Included in Christ

 Romans 2 and Galatians 3:28–29: Gentiles Don’t Become Spiritual Jews—They Become Fully Included in Christ

For centuries, Romans 2 and Galatians 3:28–29 have been interpreted through a supersessionist or replacement theology lens—suggesting that Gentiles, upon entering the covenant, become “spiritual Jews.” But this reading doesn't hold. Instead, these texts reveal something far more radical: in Christ, ethnic identity is no longer a factor of covenant qualification, but neither is it erased. Gentiles don’t become Jews—they become co-heirs as Gentiles.

This isn’t about merging Gentiles into Jewishness. It’s about the abolition of boundary markers in the New Creation inaugurated and fulfilled by 70 AD, where both Jews and Gentiles have equal access to God’s presence—not through Law, lineage, or transformation into something else, but through union with Christ alone.

Romans 2: A Heart Circumcision, Not a Tribal Transfer

“For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly... But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter.” —Romans 2:28–29

Paul isn’t saying that Gentiles become “real Jews” by spiritual circumcision. He’s making a polemic point: Jewishness is not what secures covenant inclusion. At this point in his argument (especially to a Roman audience), he’s leveling the playing field. He’s showing that ethnic Jews who boast in the Law are just as guilty under it as the Gentiles who never had it (see Romans 3:9).

The phrase “a Jew inwardly” is not about Gentiles replacing Jews or becoming spiritual Israelites. It’s a critique against covenantal boasting. The real marker of God’s people is no longer found in Torah-keeping, national heritage, or circumcision—it’s a heart transformed by the Spirit. The new heart reality came into full visibility and vindication in 70 AD, when the old covenant system was completely dismantled. From that moment forward, the New Covenant people of God are not defined by Jewishness in any sense, but by union with Christ.

Galatians 3:28–29: Not Erasing Identity, But Erasing Privilege

“There is neither Jew nor Greek... for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.” —Galatians 3:28–29

This is often misread as a verse where everyone becomes one “spiritual people” by assimilation. But Paul isn’t erasing ethnic identity; he’s erasing the covenantal privileges once tied to it. In the old age, to be a Jew meant you had Torah, covenant status, and access to God’s temple. Gentiles were excluded unless they became proselytes—second-class citizens at best.

But in Christ, the dividing wall of hostility is torn down (Eph. 2:14). Not so Gentiles could become Jews, but so that both Jew and Gentile could enter into one new humanity without either losing their ethnic identity. What Paul is affirming is that inheritance is not about Jewish lineage anymore, but about being “in Christ.” That’s what qualifies someone as “Abraham’s seed.” This is not a transfer of Jewish status to Gentiles—it’s a total redefinition of what “seed of Abraham” even means. The promise was never about bloodlines, but about faith and union with the true Seed—Christ.

The Transition Is Complete

The end of the age in 70 AD marked the full and final removal of the old covenant system—with its distinctions between clean/unclean, circumcised/uncircumcised, Jew/Gentile. What had been inaugurated in Christ’s death and resurrection was now publicly vindicated in the destruction of the temple, which symbolized the old age. After this point, there is no more redemptive significance to Jewishness. The shadow has passed. The substance has come.

Importantly, this doesn’t mean that Gentiles became Jews, or that there is now one homogenous “spiritual Israel.” It means that in the new covenant reality, Gentiles as Gentiles are full participants—not second-class, not tagalongs, and certainly not needing to take on Jewish identity to be fully included.

Identity in the New Creation: Diversity without Hierarchy

The beauty of gospel is this: ethnic identity is no longer the basis for exclusion or elevation. Jewishness once meant access; Gentileness meant distance. No longer. Now, Christ is all and in all (Col. 3:11). And yet, this new humanity is not colorless or cultureless. Gentiles don’t lose their distinctiveness. They just no longer need it—or lose out because of it.

Conclusion 

The point of Galatians 3 is not to blur everyone into spiritual Israel. It’s to declare that in Christ, anyone—Jew or Gentile—becomes a son of God (Gal. 3:26), not by assimilation, but by adoption and new creation identity. We are not spiritual Jews. We are something better—a new creation community of co-heirs in Christ.