The New Covenant and Sincerity of Heart

"circumcision and uncircumcision." He received law in that word of the speaker, according to the good law. The Gentiles are lawless; for 'law' means 'those without law of their own.'." But when they were called to the true law, not according to the common concept, they are no longer lawless. The blessing may be for both kinds of lawless: the Gentiles, or the Jews who have sin concealed. But they had law earlier, so that the distinction of circumcision toward uncircumcision occurs.

This existed before the gospel when the human race was divided into two kinds of men, circumcised and uncircumcised. But when our Lord pleased to come, he joined both ranks into one new man, having created him. The new man is not a Gentile, the new man is not from circumcision, but one new just as one man had become in the beginning; for there was no difference of circumcision and uncircumcision then.

Just as the one from circumcision and the Greek are created into one new man through repentance, through the knowing of the former conduct—and the former conduct before the law is evangelical. If ever Greeks mock saying, "Christianity was brought into the midst only recently; but we were earlier," we show that before Moses, and before idols were brought into the midst and the making of idols, the polity of men is such as Christians now have, living according to practical and intellectual virtue.

Into that one man therefore he created, and a new one he has made him, a new man not a different one, but a new man being set apart from the old. When a succession of commandments occurs, that old one becomes old, as we have often said that the coming law makes the former old. So also the law of the Jews according to the shadow is old, since it was received from the gospel. Since it is non-successive...

This is the Gospel—'even if heaven and earth pass away, the words of Jesus remain' (Matt 24:35)—for this reason it is called a new covenant, because it is non-successive. Thus, the life of the lawless and of the sinners has also been inherited; for the lawlessness of the former has been forgiven, and the sins of the latter have been covered up, and moreover, he has become a man. He no longer speaks concerning a lawless person or a sinner, and he says: 'Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin' (Ps 32:2). Pay attention to what they were saying: sin is a kind of lawlessness.

It can also be referred to the 'underscoring' of the saved ones, the Lord's man I say. Blessed is this one; for sin is not imputed to him, for he did not know it nor did he do it. 'Nor is there deceit in his mouth.' The one 'speaking truth in his heart' according to the psalm that says this: 'Walking blamelessly and working righteousness, speaking truth in his heart' (Ps 15:2), the one speaking truth in his heart does not have deceit in his mouth, he does not have a deceitful word. And it is good also to say: 'Nor is there deceit in his mouth.'

Some do not have deceit in their mouth, but they have it in their heart; for 'your heart' is said to someone, is 'full of deceit.' And toward Elymas the magician the apostle said: 'O full of all deceit' (Acts 13:10). Therefore, it is a great thing not to have deceit in the mouth when the heart does not have deceit; for a cunning person can say all such things as to seem to have no deceit. And I say: no one has deceit in the mouth like the sophists; I do not mean the teachers of rhetoric, but the sophistical ones who are false with their sophisms. A sophism is a falsehood; even if it were ever known to be from true premises, the conclusion is a falsehood.

3 Because I was silent, my bones grew old from crying out all day long. This lies beyond the scope of this: 'Because I was silent from crying out all day long, my bones grew old' (Ps 32:3).