Note: Devotional article based on last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 17:
This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you,
and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised (Genesis
17:10).
In whom also are ye circumcised with the circumcision made without
hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of
Christ (Colossians 2:11).
The external token of circumcision literally marked the
descendants and household of Abraham as a special people through whom the LORD
was working out his special purposes (cf. Genesis 3:15).
Even before circumcision, Abraham had been justified by faith
(Genesis 15:6; Romans 4:3).
Moses, who recorded this life of Abraham in Genesis, would
later report the LORD’s exhortation to Israel, “Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more
stiffnecked” (Deuteronomy 10:16).
Of
course, one of the greatest controversies of early Christianity was whether or
not Gentile converts to the faith needed to be circumcised to be saved (Acts
15:1-2). This controversy erupted in the church at Antioch and was settled when
the apostles and elders of the church of Jerusalem determined in counsel that
circumcision was not required (see Acts 15:19-20).
The
same issue arose in the churches of Galatia. Paul declared in Galatians 5:6, “For
in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision;
but faith which worketh by love.”
The historical Covenant of Circumcision through Abraham,
established in the OT with a gracious purpose to distinguish his physical seed
as a nation, was eclipsed in the New Covenant through Christ. In Galatians 3:28
Paul claimed there is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female, slave nor free,
but all believers are one in Christ. He
added, “And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and
heirs according to the promise” (v. 29).
Here are at least three distinctions between the
Abrahamic Covenant and the New Covenant:
First: The Abrahamic covenant was established by the blood
shed by physical circumcision. The New Covenant is established once for all, for
the elect, by the shed blood of Christ upon the cross.
Second: The Abrahamic Covenant came by an outward token, the
physical marks of circumcision. The New Covenant comes by an inward token, conversion,
a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit, regeneration. It is what we call the “circumcision…
of the heart,” “the circumcision made without hands,” or being “quickened” (cf.
Romans 28-29; Colossians 2:11-13).
Third: The administration of the Abrahamic covenant of
circumcision came only upon the physical seed of Abraham, and the servants
within his household, and then only upon the males. The administration of the New
Covenant, the Covenant of Grace, however, comes upon all who are born again, all
who are justified by faith in Christ, all the spiritual seed of Abraham, Jew
and Gentile, men and women, slave and free (Galatians 3:28).
The marks of God’s work in a man’s life are not merely being
cut in the flesh, but being cut in the heart.
Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle
