There is the physical circumcision that symbolized the setting apart of God’s people in the Old Testament. It was a sign of the Jews’ covenant with God. However, it didn’t represent true circumcision, which is of the heart. God made that clear to them. For example, in Jeremiah 4: 4, He said, “Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, circumcise your hearts, you men of Judah and people of Jerusalem, or my wrath will break out and burn like fire because of the evil you have done”
True circumcision has always been about the inner person’s love for God and His precepts for life. That’s why the Apostle Paul related circumcision to God’s Law in Romans 2: 25-29, addressing it to Christians.
“For circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law. For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.”
A circumcised heart is one purified by the Holy Spirit. As such, the heart generates throughout everything that we are, a love for God and his template for a holy, eternal life (Deuteronomy 30: 6). To say, as some do, that to be obedient to God’s Law is legalistic, is simply rubbish.
Not being under the Law anymore – in terms of its penalty of death – but instead lovingly embracing God’s Law as a character guide is of utmost value. Such affection for His law, God expects from the spiritually new creatures that we are. A circumcised heart demonstrates that God still has a nation – spiritual Israel* – set aside for the world to see and come to.
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*Inwardly, all Christians are Jews. Read more about it in The Chosen People of God Are in Jesus. Click here.