A call to the Circumcised of Christ

Introduction
I have to say at the outset that some of you, who know me, may find this article a little different to most of the others I have written. In this letter I have made some references to ‘the act of marriage’. In other words I talk briefly about some aspects of sex between a man and wife. The context is circumcision. By definition the removal of the male foreskin by cutting as commanded by our God. I have tried to treat the issue with respect, speaking frankly but without being unnecessarily explicit. If you are not comfortable with that, don’t read on.

Circumcision must surely have been something with which all little Hebrew boys and girls grew up knowing about. The boy child was taken from the mother to be circumcised by priests. Circumcision was written in the Law and must have been common knowledge amongst the people. Children ask some funny questions. I can imagine some of the girls asking why only the boys had circumcision; even being thankful they were not boys. By and large I imagine the rite was accepted as so intrinsic to the Hebrew way of life that there was no questioning on any deeper level. The fact that it happened for the most part when the boy was eight days old served to rule out complaint and refusal by the subject as means of stopping the rite.

It was part of God’s covenant. Most of us know that. Until recently though, I did not really understand the fuller significance of the rite. On top of that, I don’t ever remember having had much teaching on the subject so I thought you all might appreciate me writing on my findings.
I want you to know I did not set out deliberately to shock you all by talking about this issue. It really came about quite unexpectedly while I was studying out the issue of ‘faith alone’, a well-known heresy that has existed since the 16th century.

Types
One of the things that I believe after my recent study is that this Hebrew act of obedience was a ‘type’ of our baptism and a symbol of remembrance much like our bread and wine.

When I say a ‘type’ I don’t mean the type of type you type with a keyboard.

I mean a foreshadowing. Read Colossians 2:17. It is very clear about types.

Many modern Old Testament surveys touch on this phenomenon of Old Testament events being somehow similar to New Testament events in a way that God planned in order to show His divine wisdom.

One example of this that Jesus showed us was the ‘sign of Jonah’.

MT 12:38 Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, “Teacher, we want to see a miraculous sign from you.”
39 He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Jesus shows the Pharisees how the fish had a meaning for the time of Jonah and also for His own generation. There were obvious similarities and obvious differences between Jonah’s relationship with the fish and that of Jesus in the tomb. One similarity is the obvious one drawn out by the Lord. The events both lasted for a ‘three-day’ period. Many more differences exist however. For example Jonah was not embalmed in spices and wrapped in grave clothes by caring friends and then placed lovingly on the slab. He was just plain old ‘swallowed’ and probably surrounded by stomach lining.

The apostle Paul used types too and he often stressed the very same themes as Jesus.

Understanding the ways in which Paul is using types in various passages is worthy of study because by being clear about what he is saying are similarities we can avoid false assumptions.

Works and ‘Faith Alone’
One doctrine of the religious world which I believe is based on false assumptions is the doctrine of ‘faith alone’. This doctrine sets itself up in opposition to the gospel that was preached to my friends and I by members of churches from the restoration movement. For that reason I need to understand it.

Teachers of the ‘faith alone’ doctrine say that no act of obedience can be linked to salvation. Acts that they keep separate from God’s plan for salvation include those commanded by Jesus such as baptism (Mt 28:18-20).

Paul does indeed write that salvation is ‘not by works’ but I will show that he is talking about circumcision. These same teachers claim that Abraham was saved by ‘faith alone’ and that the Apostle Paul uses Abraham’s faith as a type of our faith in Jesus. Protestant teachers call acts of any kind, ‘works’. They say salvation is not by works and claim that because of this no work or act can be involved in salvation.

They do not see belief as a work and so they conclude that salvation is by faith and what is more that salvation is by faith alone.

Jesus disagrees with Protestants and other churchgoers, on this issue of belief not being an act (Jn 6:29) and so the Lord Himself undermines their argument.

JN 6:29 Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”

In spite of Jesus, many religious people believe that salvation is by this ‘work’ alone and at the same time hold the contradictory view that salvation is not by works at all.

Proponents of ‘faith alone’ also hold the belief that faith must be accompanied by confession with the tongue. This is based on their proof text in Romans 10:9-10. Notice here how this obviously contradicts the ‘no works’ doctrine. The confession of the tongue is clearly a work of the flesh involving the tongue, the throat, the vocal cords, the lungs and the brain, to name only a few parts of the human anatomy involved in speech. Many pamphlets and even some bibles have taken this confession further and include a ‘sinner’s prayer’ ritual which is also a ‘work of the flesh’.

The term ‘faith alone’ rules out any other act of obedience as being part of God’s plan for salvation. It also rules out God’s grace as being part of God’s plan for salvation.

In a way God did rule out some works with the new covenant of Christ. We will be looking at those.

Let’s not forget about God’s grace in the plan of salvation.
Grace is as important as faith in God’s plan of salvation through Jesus. When we neglect to bring grace into the equation we lose the peace that comes from being under God’s sovereign will. The phrase ‘it is by grace you have been saved’ is repeated twice in Ephesians chapter two within three verses. How can salvation be by faith alone if we are saved by grace?
Ephesians chapter two also speaks of works.

It should be noted that the works of Ephesians 2:9 are immediately followed by the precise point in the letter where Paul argues against circumcision and the other Jewish rites.

We need not confuse the works of Ephesians 2:9 with ALL works or acts of any kind.

Hence faith and confession are works that are part of God’s New Testament covenant with us.
As we see in Ephesians 2:9-18 circumcision was abolished. I will show later more reasons why circumcision was no longer necessary after the coming of Jesus.

Some of the early Jewish converts took it upon themselves to preach Judaism in combination with Christianity. They often did this in spite of the clear instruction from apostolic authority. The practice of ignoring the Apostles teachings started very early on!
In the letter to the Galatians, not long after the ‘council of Jerusalem’ Judaising was officially banned among Christians. Paul argues out a specific point, that the covenants of circumcision and the Law were no longer the covenant through which God was giving man salvation (Galatians 5:1-6 is one reference of many that prove this).

To be continued…