The Nature of Circumcision

In a previous article, I explained that both the Old and New Covenants have the covenant with Abraham as their foundation and that the practice of circumcision originally began as the sign of the Abrahamic Covenant. It was decided in Acts 15 that the physical act of circumcision is not required for an uncircumcised man who becomes part of the New Covenant; however, there are other NT scriptures which simultaneously assert that every person of God is required to be circumcised, and these concepts need to somehow be reconciled.

The purpose of the present article is to examine the nature of circumcision. As I will show, God viewed circumcision as a spiritual matter from the beginning, and this is precisely the point that the NT writers were striving to convince the Jewish converts of.

The spiritual meaning of circumcision should have been evident since women have never been physically circumcised! While this natural distinction may have been overlooked by the Jews in the early church, God provided clear statements throughout the Old Covenant revealing the intent and spiritual nature of circumcision:

Deuteronomy 10:16
Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff-necked no longer.

Deuteronomy 30:6
And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.

Jeremiah 4:4
Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your hearts... lest My fury come forth like fire, and burn so that no one can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.”

Though God did require that every male child be cut in the flesh, He desired more that the people's hearts would be turned to Him. The confusion that the New Testament writers were contending with is due to the people not being able to separate physical circumcision from its spiritual significance, arguing that a person could not be devoted to God without the physical sign. In truth, physical circumcision is an outward expression of one's faith in God, but it is by a person's spiritual disposition rather than their physical disposition that they become part of the covenant of Abraham. This was true even of Abraham himself:

Romans 4:11-12
And [Abraham] received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they are uncircumcised, that righteousness might be imputed to them also, and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of the faith which our father Abraham had while still uncircumcised.

The problem that was commonly addressed in the NT writings was that the Jews equated a lack of physical circumcision with a lack of assurance of a person's salvation. Paul countered such claims by boldly stating who was truly circumcised:

Philippians 3:3
For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.

The Jews, who were called "the circumcision" because of their flesh, were supplanted by Christians as "the circumcision" because of our faith in God. As opposed to "confidence in the flesh," true devotion to and worship of God constitutes real circumcision. This is elsewhere referred to as the "circumcision of Christ:"

Colossians 2:11
In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ.

As I have stated: Christians must be circumcised. In the next article, I will give a more detailed discussion of the actual process of Christian circumcision (summarized in the above scripture) and explain exactly how we can go about "circumcising the foreskin of our hearts" (Deuteronomy 10:16).