Circumcision

“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will punish all who are circumcised only in the flesh— Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab, and all who live in the wilderness in distant places. For all these nations are really uncircumcised, and even the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.”

Jeremiah 9:25-26

God is so serious about his love and willingness to bless us that he created a covenant to ensure that he would fulfill his promises. The principal stipulation for us, his creation, is that we take him seriously. This is important because it requires faith to believe in what we can not see.

God chose Abram

We see this example by looking at God’s interaction with Abram. God told Abram to go from his people to a land of God’s choosing, where he would bless him to become a great nation. The requirement of faith for Abram was to leave his father’s country. So Abram, at seventy-five, left Harran and set out for the land of Canaan.

In Genesis 15, Abram was between seventy-five and eighty-five. The LORD God established a covenant with Abram. In verse 6, we read that it was counted as righteousness because Abram believed in the LORD.

In Genesis 17, The LORD changed Abrams’ name to Abraham at ninety-nine and reaffirmed that he would make Abraham the father of many nations.

Let’s pick this up at Genesis 17:9-14…

Then God said to Abraham, “As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come. This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. For the generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, including those born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner—those who are not your offspring. Whether born in your household or bought with your money, they must be circumcised. My covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting covenant. Any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”

If you notice, God first called Abram at seventy-five. Then he established a covenant with Abram. He believed in God, and it was counted as righteousness. Years later, when Abram was ninety-nine, God reaffirmed the covenant. As a sign between God, Abram, and his descendants, God implemented circumcision. The LORD said it is his sign in the flesh.

Wait a minute!

Didn’t we read at the beginning of this post that God said through the prophet Jeremiah that physical circumcision is not enough? Yes. Let’s look at what Paul said about this situation.

A person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a person’s praise is not from other people but from God.

Romans 2:28-29

What is the point?!

To please God, our hearts must be circumcised. In other words, we must allow God to cut away the part of our hearts that give in to the desires of our flesh to allow God to enact the blessings that come from his side of the covenant.

What does that mean?

Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. 

Colossians 3:5-10

I don’t know about all that…

Don’t be alarmed if letting some of this stuff go seems more than difficult. Many of us suffer in many similar ways. Don’t lose hope, people of God. There really is only one person who can rid us of these things. His name is Jesus!

See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ. For in Christ, all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ, you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. In him, you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.

When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

Colossians 2:8-15

In Summary:

God is challenging those who say we love him but think physical circumcision is sufficient. In other words, they believe the law will save them. However, none of this matters if we continue to live like the world in our hearts. If we do not allow Jesus to circumcise our hearts, we will be in danger of punishment, as Jeremiah wrote.

I have been a Christian for twenty-plus years, and during this series, I realized that I needed to ask God for help. I prayed and asked the LORD God to cut away the fleshly desires of my heart, create a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within me. Understanding this topic is huge in and of itself. Remember this when we dive into the crux of our series, Sex, Love, and Marriage IV.