Faith & Circumcision

Vol 2 - No 6, April 2, 2005

Faith and Circumcision, Part 2 of 2:

Three (3) questions were posed in our previous study: 1) what happened that caused the Lord to seek to kill because a boy was not circumcised? 2) What was the significance of circumcision that made this so serious to God? 3) What does circumcision mean to members of the Body of Christ today? The answers to the first two questions were addressed leaving the third for this study.

The sign of circumcision given to Abraham and his progeny was an act of the flesh demonstrating faith in God's Word but it also teaches a spiritual truth: "For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope." - Romans 15:44 For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.

. In order to understand the purpose or meaning of circumcision we must examine what led up to its implementation and the context in which it was introduced. Specifically, the offering of animal sacrifices preceded and led up to the implementation of circumcision and it was introduced in the context of justification by faith.

Animal sacrifices are either alluded to or described five (5) times in the Bible before circumcision was introduced. 1) After Adam and Eve disobeyed God's Word by eating the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, Genesis 3:2121 Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.

informs that God made them "coats of skins." This of course infers animals were killed in order to provide the skins to cover their shame (sin.). 2) God told Cain and Abel to offer animal sacrifices. Cain had no faith in God's word and brought instead an offering of the produce he had grown while Abel obeyed by faith. - Genesis 4:2 - 42 And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.

3 And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD.

4 And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering:

& Faith Studies Vol 1 - No 3. 3) After the flood when Noah disembarked the ark he built an alter upon which he sacrificed one of every clean beast and fowl as burnt offerings. - Genesis 8:2020 And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

. 4) To seal His covenant promise to Abraham, God caused a smoking furnace and burning lamp to pass between the carcasses of three (3) animals and two (2) foul offered by Abraham. - Genesis 15:8 - 218 And he said, LORD God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?

9 And he said unto him, Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.

10 And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another: but the birds divided he not.

11 And when the fowls came down upon the carcases, Abram drove them away.

12 And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him.

13 And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not their's, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;

14 And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance.

15 And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age.

16 But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.

17 And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.

18 In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:

19 The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites,

20 And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims,

21 And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.

. 5) When Abraham was about to offer his son Isaac in obedience to God a ram was provided and sacrificed instead. - Genesis 22:1313 And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.

. (There is not enough space here to examine these sacrifices in detail but suffice it to note that they were types, that is, they signified and pointed to God's work in dealing with sin with the goal of the regeneration of creation and redemption of man.)

The offering of an animal in sacrifice could not, in and of itself, take away the sin of the person making the offering, Hebrews 10:44 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.

, but it was a witness to faith in God's Word on the part of the person making the offering. Also, each sacrifice was an object lesson, both to the person offering the sacrifice at the time and for us today, demonstrating the fact that "without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins." - Hebrews 9:2222 And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.

. In other words, animal sacrifices taught that our Holy God cannot condone sin and there is no "cure" for sin except it be killed and gone with. All the animals sacrificed in obedience to God's Word in the Old Testament were types of, that is they pointed to and anticipated the one perfect sacrifice offered by God Himself in the person of His son Jesus Christ. "Wherefore when he (Jesus Christ) cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." - Hebrews 10:5 - 105 Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:

6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.

7 Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.

8 Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law;

9 Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.

10 By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

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After the lesson of sacrifice for sin, circumcision was introduced in the context of justification by faith. There is nothing man can do on his own to earn God's righteousness except to have faith in His Word. "What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." - Romans 4:1 - 51 What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found?

2 For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God.

3 For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.

4 Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.

5 But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.

. It was then, after Abraham demonstrated faith in God's Word that ".. he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also: And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised." Romans 4:11 & 1211 And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also:

12 And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised.

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The covenant God made with Abraham required his progeny the Children of Israel be circumcised but we must keep in mind the fact already discussed in detail, Vol 2, Numbers 4 & 5, that God dealt with the Children of Israel as one, that is as one corporate body He called His son, Exodus 4:22 & 2322 And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD, Israel is my son, even my firstborn:

23 And I say unto thee, Let my son go, that he may serve me: and if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn.

, and any disobedience on the part of one individual affected or infected the whole. And even though an individual appeared to others as being in conformance, God looks into each man's heart and knows if true faith abides therein. - Corinthians 10:7. Jesus made this clear when he took the Scribes and Pharisees to task during His ministry. They had been circumcised, had offered sacrifices and were the leaders of Israel but Jesus identified them as hypocrites and compared them to white washed sepulchers filled with dead bones. That is, they presented the appearance of a believing Israelite to other men but were corruptly dead inside. - Matthew 23:23 - 3523 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.

24 Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.

25 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.

26 Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.

27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.

28 Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

29 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous,

30 And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.

31 Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets.

32 Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.

33 Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?

34 Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city:

35 That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.

. And so God's son of the Old Testament, the Nation of Israel, failed to uphold God's standard and were set aside when they rejected their Messiah. (The reader is reminded what was stated in study Vol 2 - No 4 that in Romans 9 - 11 the Apostle Paul explains how Israel was, and still is, set aside as God's chosen nation only for a season but all the promises He made to that Nation will someday be fulfilled literally and completely. The yet future accomplishment of Israel's restoration is prophesied a number of places in he Old Testament and by the Apostle John in the book of Revelation.)

Even though the Nation Israel failed because of unbelief they were a type of and pointed to God's only begotten son Jesus Christ who fulfilled by his life and in His body what Israel had not been able to do and this brings us to the point of what circumcision means to members of the Body of Christ as revealed by the Apostle Paul. For whereas the physical act of circumcision was a token or sign of the righteousness of the faith of Abraham it was also an object lesson pointing to the separated spiritual life those of us who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ live today.

By the Holy Spirit's inspiration Paul writes: "And ye (believers today) are complete in him, which is the head of all principality: In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened (made alive) together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;" - Colossians 2:10 - 1310 And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:

11 In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:

12 Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.

13 And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;

. What God's son in the Old Testament (Israel) could not do because of the impossible weakness of the flesh believers today gladly and thankfully claim in the perfect life, sacrificial death and resurrection of God's only begotten son, our Lord Jesus Christ who is the head of the Body of Christ of which believers today are members - Romans 12:55 So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.

, I Corinthians 12:12 & 27, Ephesians 4:4 - 134 There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;

5 One Lord, one faith, one baptism,

6 One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.

7 But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.

8 Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.

9 (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?

10 He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)

11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;

12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:

13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:

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