S128P6 – That which lies within: a circumcised heart
Rom. 2:25-29
For circumcision is indeed profitable if you keep the law; but if you are a breaker of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. Therefore, if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision? And will not the physically uncircumcised, if he fulfills the law, judge you who, even with your written code and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law? For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.
No one could argue with the fact that family meant a lot to him. He was the dad who made sure to go to all of his sons’ events. Work was never an excuse to skirt any family responsibility because he knew what his own father’s presence had meant in his life when he was a boy. Unfortunately, his sons did not share this conviction. In fact, as they grew and became men of their own, they flew far from the nest and did not bother much with dad. It was no wonder that the reading of his will would create a great controversy. The inheritance those sons expected would not be theirs. It would be left instead to those who were not children of that father but who cared for him as his sons never did but should have.
Circumcision once served as a man’s physical sign of covenant relationship with the Lord, but that physical sign did not indicate whether the man (or his seed) fulfilled his part of the covenant through obedience. Well before Christ ushered in a new covenant [Col. 2:10-15], the Lord begged many times for his people to circumcise their hearts [Deut. 10:16; Jer. 4:3-4]. It is not the outward symbol but the inward attitude that determines whether the effect of circumcision is at play, which is spiritual circumcision. This is the goal not just for men but for all God’s people, not just for the Jew but for all who have chosen to believe in the Lord as Messiah. If we have entered into Christ’s new covenant through his death and resurrection, our hearts must be circumcised.
Where physical circumcision is once and done, spiritual circumcision requires maintenance. This is a process of obedience. We can learn a lot about the heart’s circumcision is we review Old Testament scripture on the matter. Remeber, the Church has not been established to replace God’s people Israel. We simply have been grafted in to provoke her to jealousy and repentance, and we are now part of her. The Lord’s instruction to Israel on the matter is also our instruction. Although we have accepted Messiah, we must maintain our spiritual circumcision through obedience in life. Father, teach us what it means to have circumcised hearts, and give us refreshed revelation of our role in your people Israel so that we can remain faithful.