In my last post, I stated that circumcision is the key to turning a gentile into a member of Israel.
Immediately, people started losing their minds.
I started receiving comments like this…
“Oh dear, read Galatians”
“Circumcision of the heart!!”
“The circumcision of believers is in the heart…that only God sees.”
“Circumcision of the heart! Read your Bible!”
Now what I’d like to ask everyone who made comments like those above, how in the heck do you know for sure I wasn’t talking about circumcision of the heart?
You automatically assumed I was referring to just a physical circumcision.
How do you know I really wasn’t referring to a circumcision of the heart?
Or how do you know I wasn’t actually referring to BOTH the circumcision of the heart and the flesh?
This is how I responded to most folks.
If a physical circumcision is a reflection of the spiritual circumcision that has already occurred in one’s heart, then in reality there is no difference now, is there?
Let’s see what Paul had to say about the matter.
“For circumcision is indeed of value if you do what Torah says. But if you are a transgressor of Torah, your circumcision has become uncircumcision! Therefore, if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the Torah, won’t his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision? Indeed, the man who is physically uncircumcised but obeys the Torah will stand as a judgment on you who have had a b’rit-milah and have Torah written out but violate it! For the real Jew is not merely Jewish outwardly: true circumcision is not only external and physical. On the contrary, the real Jew is one inwardly; and true circumcision is of the heart, spiritual not literal; so that his praise comes not from other people but from God.”-Romans 2:25-29
And check out these verses:
“For in him, bodily, lives the fullness of all that God is. And it is in union with him that you have been made full — he is the head of every rule and authority. Also it was in union with him that you were circumcised with a circumcision not done by human hands, but accomplished by stripping away the old nature’s control over the body. In this circumcision done by the Messiah…”-Colossians 2:9-11
So what is Paul getting at here?
He ain’t saying a physical circumcision isn’t important.
He’s saying what good is being circumcised if you’re going to live like one who is uncircumcised!
He’s saying exactly what I said…just in different words.
The point Paul is making is that although circumcision is a physical requirement to be part of Israel, IT WAS ALWAYS A SPIRITUAL MATTER!
BOTH Jews and Gentiles are to have circumcised hearts.
Heck, the very idea of having one’s heart circumcised originates in Torah, NOT the New Testament.
“Moreover, 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, in order that you may live.”-Deuteronomy 30:6
I reiterate my point that…
…minus circumcision one CANNOT gain entry into the Assembly of Israel.
Got it?
Let’s move on.
In yesterday’s post, I discussed how Simeon and Levi misused circumcision in order to deceive the male residents of Shechem.
This was an especially perverse thing to do because circumcision is ONLY for the purpose of grafting a male person into the commonwealth of Israel.
Well, here’s the main point I want to make in this post.
Just as Simeon and Levi abused the sacred physical ritual of circumcision, there is a way that gentile believers abuse the circumcision the Lord has performed on their hearts.
What exactly do I mean by that?
Read Romans 11:13-22.
“However, to those of you who are Gentiles I say this:
since I myself am an emissary sent to the Gentiles,
I make known the importance of my work in the hope
that somehow I may provoke some of my own people
to jealousy and save some of them!
For if their casting Yeshua aside means reconciliation
for the world, what will their accepting him mean?
It will be life from the dead!
Now if the hallah offered as firstfruits is holy,
so is the whole loaf. And if the root is holy, so are the branches. 1
But if some of the branches were broken off,
and you — a wild olive — were grafted in among them and
have become equal sharers in the rich root of the olive tree,
then don’t boast as if you were better than the branches!
However, if you do boast, remember that you are not
supporting the root, the root is supporting you.
So you will say,
“Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.”
True, but so what?
They were broken off because of their lack of trust.
However, you keep your place only because of your trust.
So don’t be arrogant; on the contrary, be terrified!
For if God did not spare the natural branches,
he certainly won’t spare you!
So take a good look at God’s kindness and his severity:
on the one hand, severity toward those who fell off;
but, on the other hand, God’s kindness toward you
— provided you maintain yourself in that kindness!
Otherwise, you too will be cut off!”
Gentile believers (including myself), are you getting this?
If you deny your grafting in to Israel via some kind of retarded replacement theology, YOU are abusing your circumcision of the heart just as Simeon and Levi abused the purpose of physical circumcision.
Let me say that again.
When you deny that you have been grafted into Israel and NOT the other way around, you are misusing and abusing the circumcision that Messiah has perform on your hearts.
I’m done.
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