Circumcision in the New Covenant

Circumcision as the Sign of the Abrahamic Covenant

I want to invite you to take out your Bibles and turn to Genesis chapter 17 and go to verse 9. We're going to read again verses 9 to 14. Now, I want to sort of remind you where we are. We have been in Genesis for a long time now, going verse by verse through the text.

And last week we looked at an overview of Genesis chapter 17. And this is where God reconfirms the covenant that he had previously made with Abraham. He promised him a covenant in chapter 12. He cut the covenant in chapter 15, having divided the animals and the presence of God going through the animals.

And then in chapter 17, God confirms the covenant with a sign. And the sign is the sign of circumcision. And so last week we looked at the verses and sought to understand what they mean. And today I want to follow up that message by addressing some questions about circumcision.

And ultimately this is going to be more about how we understand the covenants than it is really just the act of circumcision. Because there are those who do not believe that there is any distinction in the covenants.

And they believe that members of the new covenant are bound by the same demands, both internally and externally, as those that were in previous covenants with God. I'll give you an example. I don't go looking for people online that say crazy things, but they happen to find me all the time.

And there was a man, I don't know this person individually, but he just happened to come up in my news feed. And this is what he wrote. He said, Paul taught no abrogation of the law or any part of it, and Christ certainly did not come to make void the law or the prophets either.

Your pastor is a nitwit. He wasn't speaking to y 'all directly, but in a sense he was. His seminary is filled with imbeciles.

Nice.

And your denomination is a fraud. Protestant, Catholic, or whatever. Like I said, this wasn't directed at me specific. But it was directed at anyone who would say that there is an abrogation of the old covenant laws in the new covenant.

And beloved, that is what the Bible teaches. And if you don't believe that, then we're going to need to talk about things like circumcision. We're going to need to talk about things like your ham sandwiches you've been having.

We're going to need to talk about things like how your hair is cut and how you plant your crops.

Where's Jordan?

We're going to have to talk about all those things because there is an entire set of laws that were given to the people of Israel, which are not applicable within the new covenant. And people say, I don't know, that makes God two-faced, makes God talking out of both sides of his mouth.

No, it does not. And I hope today to be able to help you understand why that is. Because honestly, if anything would apply to us, it would be the circumcision command. Because that command was given to Abraham, and it said to all of his descendants.

And Paul clearly says that through Jesus Christ, we are the children of Abraham. Therefore, if there was a law that should circumvent the covenants and should transcend all of the covenant, it would be the law of circumcision.

And yet, Paul will show us today in the text that in Christ, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision matters at all. But we have to understand how God has progressively revealed his covenants. And so we're going to begin in Genesis 17, verse 9.

We're going to read verses 9 to 14, and we're going to see the progress of the covenant as God gave Abraham the sign of circumcision and what we have today in the new covenant. So let us stand and read Genesis 17, verses 9 to 14.

And God said to Abraham, As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you, throughout their generations. This is my covenant, which you shall keep between me and you and your offspring after you.

Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised, every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring.

Both he who is born in your house and he who is brought with your money shall surely be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of the foreskin shall be cut off from his people.

He has broken my covenant. Father in heaven, I pray that as I seek to give an exposition of this text and a study of the subject of circumcision throughout the Bible, I pray, Lord, that you would give us eyes to see, ears to hear and hearts to understand.

And Lord, I pray that you would keep me from error and from cowardice. For, Lord God, your word, your word is truth. And I would be fearful to preach untruth from your pulpit. So, Lord, keep me in the truth today.

In Jesus name, amen. So today we're going to answer four questions. And this is the outline of the sermon if you happen to want to write down notes or maybe you are interested in keeping up with what we're doing.

And we'll put the four questions on the board. This is the four questions for today. Number one, what was circumcision for? Number two, who was circumcision for? Number three, was circumcision merely an external rite?

The word rite there meaning ceremony. Was it simply something that was meant to be external? And then finally, what has changed in the New Testament or better the New Covenant regarding circumcision? This is our four questions that we're going to ask.

And remember how the narrative went. God visits Abraham. God gives him a new name. He went from Abram to Abraham. And he says, you're not only going to be an exalted father, but you're going to be the father of many nations.

That's what Abraham means, father of the multitude. And he says, and I'm going to give you a sign of the promise that I have made to you. And the sign is that you and all your children are going to be circumcised in the flesh as a sign of this promise that I have given to you.

And he makes that with Abraham. And it says at the end of the chapter, Abraham circumcised every one of his household that day, which would have been hundreds of people. We know he had at least 300 fighting men in his household, as well as boys and servants and everything else.

Everyone. As I said last week, it would have been a bloody mess.

But it was.

He did all of it. It says that day he went about circumcising. And what's interesting is it doesn't say anybody complained. It doesn't say anybody argued. You've got to think at least somebody would have had, what did you say?

But they all went along. Because Abraham is the man of God. And he's speaking on behalf of God. And he's doing what God has commanded him to do. And so the question, the first question that comes up, well, what is this for?

What in the world could it possibly accomplish to scar someone in the flesh like this? What is this? What is the purpose of this ritual? Circumcision was chosen by God to be the sign of the covenant that God had made with Abraham.

And you remember that God makes covenants with people. And he gives signs to go along with those covenants as reminders of his promise. God gave Noah a promise. He says, I will never again destroy the world by water.

And he says, and I'm going to put my bow in the clouds. And every time you look up and see the bow in the clouds, you will remember my promise and the covenant that I have made with you. Well, that's a beautiful covenant picture.

It's a beautiful sign. It's painless. But when God speaks to Abraham, he gives him a covenant that is marked in blood and leaves an evermore scar in the body of the person. And it had a twofold purpose.

And you say, what was circumcision for? It had a twofold purpose. Number one, it had the purpose of separation. And number two, it had the purpose of inclusion. And you say, now, wait a minute. Those two things are oxymoronic.

They're opposites. To separate and to include, that doesn't make sense. But it does make sense because the purpose of circumcision was to separate from the world and to include in the covenant community.

So it had a picture of separation from the world and inclusion in the covenant community. And you might say, well, why that? Well, couldn't God just give him a tattoo? Couldn't God just give him a bracelet to wear or a necklace to put around their neck or something else?

No, it was a mark in the flesh. And a lot of people say, well, I just don't understand why God chose that. And the interesting thing is the Bible doesn't tell us. The Bible doesn't tell us why God chose this specific thing.

Several people have sought to opine regarding the purpose of circumcision. I'll give you a few thoughts. John MacArthur said this. He said, the symbolism has to do with the need to cut away and be cleansed.

It was the male organ that most clearly demonstrated the depth of depravity because it carried the seed that produced depraved sinners. Thus, circumcision symbolized the need for a profoundly deep cleansing to reverse the effects of depravity.

That was MacArthur's opinion. And Jameson Fawcett Brown sort of agrees. They said it was a quote, a symbol of cutting off the old life to sin, purifying one's heart and dedicating oneself to God. That's what people, some people believe.

It was in this procedure was was done where it was done, how it was done for the purpose of symbolizing the cutting away of sin, the cutting away of that which produces and prolongs sin, the reproduction of sinful human beings.

Well, that's an opinion.

But the Bible doesn't say that. I mean, I mean, I mean, you know, again, it's just some people believe it was a medical benefit. The Believer's Bible commentary mentions this. It says that many medical authorities believe that circumcision tends to prevent certain types of cancer.

And there is actually medical evidence that within the Jewish community throughout the centuries, there have been less cases of cervical cancer among Jewish women. And they say, well, maybe this has something to do tied to the medical procedure of circumcision.

OK.

But again, the Bible doesn't tell us that. We simply extrapolate that from what happens. It's sort of reading back into what we see. So ultimately, if you came up to me today and say, why did God choose circumcision?

I would say, I don't know for sure. But I do know this. As I said last week, Abraham didn't invent it. It was already in use by some of the pagan tribes. But all of those pagan tribes were using circumcision to introduce a boy into manhood.

It was done somewhere around 12, 13 years old. But God takes this already existing action, the already existing action of circumcision, and he applies it to the child at eight days old. And he says, every child born in this household will receive this mark to show that he, having been born into this house, is part of the physical, visible covenant community of Abraham.

And this sign will be a perpetual sign of that separation from the world and inclusion in this covenant. And so that leads us to the second question. We're going to spend the most time on number four.

So these first three are going to go a little quicker. The second question is, well, we asked, what is circumcision for? Separation and inclusion. Who was it for? Who was circumcision given to? According to this passage, it would be for all of Abraham's households.

All males, including those purchased as slaves. That's an interesting thing. It wasn't just those born from Abraham's seed. It wasn't just those who came from Abraham's body. In that case, at this point, it would have only been who?

Ishmael. He's the only physical descendant of Abraham. But it doesn't say that's the only one who received circumcision. It says every male, even those who've been purchased. And, of course, that is a picture of slavery that was very alive in the ancient world, that they would purchase people and have servants.

But they were still considered part of the family. They were still considered part of Abraham's household. And, therefore, this household mark was given to every man in the household. And the text stresses that this would continue forever.

Now, I want to say something about that word forever. Because a lot of stress is placed on that for those who would say we should still hold this today. They would say, see right here, the word is forever.

However, I want to say something. And I hope that you all can hang with me on this. Because I'm certainly not saying that the Bible is incorrect. But sometimes we translate words that have English meanings that don't have the same meaning as the underlying word.

And the underlying word is olam. And it doesn't always mean to be never-ending. But, rather, it means for an indeterminate or long period of time. Bruce Waltke, in his tremendous commentary on Genesis, talks about this.

He says, the Hebrew word olam, translated everlasting, means the most distant time or a relative concept according to the text's horizon. As long as God administered His nation by their physical lineage from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the sign of physical circumcision endured.

So, what are we saying? We're saying that there would come a time when this physical mark would no longer be the mark of the people of God. But, rather, it would become, as we're going to see, a mark that is in the heart.

But we'll see that a little later. But I want to say something kind of off to the side. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the book of Galatians, if you read Genesis 17, it is imperative that you have a right understanding of Galatians to understand what's happening.

Because Paul, as we're going to see later, Paul is going to clearly say that for saved Gentiles, circumcision is not necessary. In fact, he's going to say circumcision is, as I said earlier, whether you're circumcised or not, it doesn't matter.

And here's why that is important. Because I believe that the people Paul was fighting against were a group called the Judaizers. The Judaizers were an early sect in the church who went from Jerusalem out to churches and told them that if they were not circumcised, they weren't saved.

If they had not received the sign of Abraham, they were not in Christ. Essentially, their argument was, you have to be a Jew before you can be in Christ. You have to be a Jew before you can be a Christian.

And Paul said they were preaching a false gospel. But I have to tell you, in my heart of hearts, I believe they quoted Genesis 17. I believe they walked into those churches and said, see right here. Now, they didn't have Bibles like us.

Maybe they had a scroll. Maybe they had a backpack pulled out.

See right here, it says forever. And forever means forever.

Just like all the non-Calvinists, all means all and that's all. It's the same thing, right?

Forever means forever.

I can't prove it, but I have a feeling that this was the text that they would point to. And say, Paul told you you didn't have to be circumcised. Paul's a false teacher. Paul told you you didn't have to be circumcised.

Paul was wrong. See, here we have Genesis 17. And it tells you you have to be circumcised. This is an important concept, and I want you to understand this. Because there are people who would disagree.

In fact, I have good friends who would disagree with me. And maybe you'll disagree. But this is why I believe, and I know our elders would agree at least with this. That when we interpret the Old Testament, we have to interpret it in light of the New.

The New Covenant is the best interpreter of the Old Covenant. We interpret the Old in light of the New. Not because things have come along and changed God's mind. But God is progressively going through the covenants.

And we are not in the covenant of Moses anymore. In fact, what does Hebrews 8 tell us about the covenant of Moses? It says that because the New Covenant has come, we no longer are in the Old Covenant.

Therefore, the Old Covenant is obsolete. People don't like that word. How can you say the Word of God is obsolete? I didn't say it. He did. We are members of the New Covenant. And therefore, we are under the commands and standards of the New Covenant.

Does that mean there are things in the Old Covenant that we can't still look to? No, absolutely. The Old Covenant is filled with wonderful things that we can learn from and abide by. But we are not members of the Old Covenant.

That's the thing this guy that I read from earlier, he will never be able to wrap his mind around. Anybody you know who would call themselves Torah observant or Hebrew roots. There are all kinds of names for them.

Even your Seventh-day Adventists. They all hold the same strict structure that we are members of the Mosaic Covenant.

We are not.

That's so clear, but yet so misunderstood. So, who was circumcision for? Abraham and his household.

It was.

And all the ones who were in the Mosaic Covenant, they received the same circumcision. They received the same sign. But, here's the thing that really, really begins to help you understand what I'm saying today.

Circumcision of the Heart in the Old Testament

And this is question number three. Was circumcision merely an external right? Was circumcision meant to be only on the outside? Well, don't shoot me. In regard to covenant inclusion, in one sense, yes.

Because they received the sign, they were part of the covenant community. Right? But, it was also meant that that sign would have an accompanying internal change. I'm going to show you a few verses. In Deuteronomy 10, 16.

You can turn there if you'd like, or you can just listen to me read it. I've got several, so you may not want to try to get to all of them. But, let's all go to Deuteronomy together. We'll just do Deuteronomy first.

That way we're all together. In Deuteronomy chapter 10, verse 16. Moses is preaching. By the way, Deuteronomy is essentially a sermon that Moses gives to the second generation Israelites as they are now the generation that's about to go and take over the promised land.

The first generation has died in the wilderness, 40 years, so that they would all die. Now the second generation is going into the wilderness, and this is what Moses says to them. Circumcise, therefore, the foreskin of your heart.

Now, I'm not a doctor, but I do know this. Your heart does not have foreskin. Now, I don't know, I mean, you may not feel like I needed to say that, but it's pretty, you know, I mean, I go over and talk to Jordan.

Maybe he knows a little bit more about it than I do. I do know there's a sac around your heart called the pericardium, and that is not foreskin. And certainly, Moses is not advocating here physical surgery.

Everybody would agree?

Rather, he is saying something about circumcision that up until this point had really been misunderstood because they understood circumcision as the physical right of entrance into the covenant community, but there is something that should accompany circumcision, and that was the circumcision of the heart.

Okay, go back to what does circumcision mean? Well, if it does mean the cutting away of sin, if it does mean separation, if it does mean leaving the world, and that's why we said it could mean that, then that's what it's referring to when it refers to the heart.

Or another word that we might say is simply the idea of regeneration, the idea of the heart change that is supposed to accompany faith. Let me ask you a question. When you came to Christ, did your heart change?

Yes or no? When you came to Christ, your heart changed, right? Or let's say it this way, your heart changed, then you came to Christ because Christ changed your heart and you came. That is a picture of the circumcision of the heart, and there were people in the Jewish community who did not have circumcised hearts.

They were part of the covenant community physically. They had been brought into the covenant community by natural birth and circumcision, and yet they were not circumcised in the heart. You know who's a good example of that?

The Pharisees and the Sadducees. You go to Jesus' day. The Pharisees and the Sadducees were all circumcised in the flesh. They were all part of the covenant community by the physical mark. But I want you to hear this because it's important.

In Acts chapter 7 verse 51, Stephen, the first Christian martyr, is standing before the Sanhedrin, which would have been filled with men who were Jewish to the core, who were Hebrews of Hebrews. These were men who stood on the traditions, and I can't imagine there was one of them who was not circumcised.

But this is what he says to them in Acts 7 verse 51. You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears. You always resist the Holy Spirit as your fathers did, so do you. Notice how Stephen identifies the Pharisees, Sadducees, the Sanhedrin, who would have been circumcised in the flesh.

He says, you do not have circumcised hearts. And he also talks about ears. Throughout the Old Testament, there's a circumcised heart, circumcised ear. Again, referring to the cutting away of sin, referring to separation, right?

And he says, you're uncircumcised in heart, you're uncircumcised in ears. Again, yes, you've got a physical mark on your body, but you are not right with God.

Wow.

Is it possible for somebody to bear a physical mark and not be right with God? Absolutely. Here's a few other verses. If you want to write these down, I'm going to run through them quickly. Deuteronomy 30 verse 6.

The Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. Notice what happens with a circumcised heart.

You love God.

Jeremiah 4 verse 4. Circumcise yourselves to the Lord. Remove the foreskins of your hearts, O men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, lest my wrath go forth like fire and burn, like none to quench it because of the evil of your deeds.

What's God calling them to? He's calling them to repentance. He's calling them to conversion. He's calling them to turn from their sins. And what is the picture? Circumcise your hearts. We see this term in Ezekiel as well, Ezekiel 44, referring to foreigners, people who come in that are uncircumcised in the flesh.

And God challenges them on that through the words of the prophets, but he also calls them uncircumcised in flesh and heart. You're inviting people into the community that are not circumcised in the flesh, so that's one problem, but the bigger problem is they're not circumcised in the heart.

Bruce Waltke again in his commentary says this, Circumcision in the flesh was of no spiritual value unless it was accompanied by a circumcised heart. So yes, you could be circumcised in the flesh, you could be a member externally of the covenant community, but that did not make you right with God.

It made you part of the community, but it did not make you right with God. So right there it tells us something about circumcision. It tells us that it alone is not enough. Physical circumcision alone was not enough.

The New Covenant and the Circumcision Made Without Hands

But now, let's look at number four. What has changed in the new covenant regarding circumcision? And for this I do want you to look at it, so I invite you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Romans.

We're going to go to Romans chapter 4, because Paul makes a very important point in Romans 4 about Abraham's justification. Remember what justification is? How a sinful man is made right with the Holy God.

God must declare him to be righteous. That is the textbook definition of justification, to be declared righteous. And God must declare the sinner righteous in Jesus Christ. That is what justification is.

Notice what he says, we're going to begin at verse 7. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count as sin. By the way, that's a wonderful blessing.

If you're in Christ, that blessing is applied to you. In fact, this is a just... It's hard to imagine a greater blessing. People are always talking about God's blessings. People are always talking about, oh, I want God's blessings.

I want a better house, better job, better car, better parking spot, better kids. Maybe not that last one.

People are always talking about blessings.

The greatest blessing in the world. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins have been covered. Blessed is the man against whom God will not count as sin. That is the blessing.

That is the desperate blessing of every... The desperate need of every soul. Verse 9. Is this blessing then only for the circumcised or also for the uncircumcised? Why would Paul ask that question? Because of Genesis 17.

Why would Paul ask, is this blessing for the circumcised or for the uncircumcised? Because there were people who were saying this blessing is only for the circumcised. This blessing is only for the physical descendants of Abraham.

Notice what he says. We say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised.

Think with me. Three main events we have looked at in the life of Abraham. His call, Genesis 12. His covenant, Genesis 15. And the confirmation and sign of the covenant, Genesis 17. At what point was Abraham declared righteous, church?

Genesis 15 .6. And Abram believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. That was 13 years before he was circumcised. Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. 13 years before he was circumcised.

More than 13 years because we know Ishmael had not been born yet. Ishmael was 13 years old when this happened. So more than 13 years. Now, having thought that through, let's finish the thought. Verse 11.

He, that being Abraham, received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose, this is Holy Spirit commentary right here. God, the Holy Spirit, under the pen of the Apostle Paul, is interpreting Genesis 17 for us.

Listen to what he says. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised so that the righteousness would be counted to them as well and to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.

Abraham is the father of the circumcised. He is the father of the uncircumcised. He is the father of all who come to Christ by faith.

Amen.

That's it.

That's it.

So the believer in Christ is no longer sealed primarily with a physical mark on their body but rather they are sealed with the Holy Spirit in their heart. You say, prove it. Okay, Ephesians chapter 4 verse 30.

Do not grieve the Holy Spirit by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

Right there.

Ephesians 4 verse 30. You have the Holy Spirit who came to live within you and sealed you for the day of redemption. It's not a physical cutting away of flesh but a spiritual entrance and abode in your heart.

That is how you were sealed. We are spiritually circumcised in the heart through our identification with Jesus Christ. Listen to this verse. Listen to this very closely. This is Colossians chapter 2 and verse 11.

In him, that is in Christ, you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of the flesh through the circumcision of Christ. Now it goes on to talk about baptism there and there are some who equate baptism and circumcision.

I'm going to talk about that in a minute. But before we even get there, just listen to that verse again. In him, you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands. What is the circumcision made without hands?

It's the heart. It's what God does in the heart.

Therefore, we are called the true circumcision. Philippians 3 verse 3. For we are the circumcision who worship by the spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh. You know what we're called by Paul?

The circumcision. Not the circumcision party. That's what he called the Judaizers. But we who are in Christ have been circumcised in the heart. And we are called the circumcision because we are in him.

He, in that sense, is our circumcision because he came and changed our heart. Now, for the last few minutes, and I know I've been going for a while so I'll sort of make this brief, but I do feel the need to say it.

There are many, especially in the Reformed community, and we are in the Reformed community, so again, I feel the need to say this. There are many in the Reformed community, especially those of Presbyterian backgrounds, who would equate baptism and circumcision.

And here's what they would say. In the Old Testament, under the old covenant administration, God gave Abraham a sign for him and his children, and the sign was circumcision. Now God has given a new sign to replace the old sign, and the new sign is baptism.

And this is why Presbyterians baptize their babies, because Abraham circumcised his babies. So they said it's the same covenant household, covenant promises, therefore children of the covenant receive the covenant promises.

Okay.

Here is where I believe a distinction needs to be made. The Abrahamic covenant had an external and an internal sign. The external covenant was what? Circumcision. The internal covenant was what? Circumcision of the heart.

But if a person was in the household, it didn't matter what they believed. It only mattered that they were in the household and they received the sign. Because you don't know what an eight-day-old baby believes.

You don't know if an eight-day-year-old baby, you don't know if they're going to grow up to be a hero or a villain. You know, the Bible says to raise them in the fear and admonition of the Lord, right?

We raise them as best we can, but we don't know. But they all received the sign, therefore they're all part of the covenant community by the external sign. If you bore the sign of circumcision, you were a member of the Abrahamic covenant.

But the new covenant, hear this now and please internalize this, the new covenant is not entered into by birth. It is entered into by rebirth. You are not a part of the new covenant because your parents are believers.

And I have heard the arguments and I am not moved by them. The arguments, there's like in Acts 2, it says, this promise is for you and your children. They say, see, that's the promise. It's for you and your children.

Therefore, your children need to be baptized. Read the whole verse. It says, this promise is for you and for your children and all who are far off, as many as will believe. That's who the promise is for.

If your children believe, we will baptize them.

But we will not baptize unbelievers in this church knowingly. And I've heard people say, well, you baptize unbelievers. You baptize people who went and demonstrated themselves later to be unbelievers.

But I've never taken anyone into that pool who did not confess the Lord Jesus Christ. And the difference in the new covenant and the old covenant is this. If you read in the old covenant prophets, it says the difference in the new covenant is they will all know me.

You see, in the old covenant, they didn't all know him. There were those who knew him and those who didn't. They were all in the covenant, but they didn't all know him. But in the new covenant, they will all know me.

And none will have to say to the other, know the Lord, because they will all know me. Our circumcision is made without hands. And baptism has not replaced circumcision. Baptism is the sign of the new covenant.

And I agree with that. But circumcision is now in the heart. And baptism is a picture of our entrance into the new covenant. You could make a familial link between circumcision and baptism in the sense that both of them are pictures of entrance into the covenant.