The Circumcised Jew

Circumcision is not just important in the New Covenant. It is a requirement. Surprised? To enter the New Covenant, you must receive circumcision. However, not as the Old Covenant required.

Paul informs us in his letter to the Colossians, that in Christ, i.e., in the New Covenant,

2:11 . . . ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:

This “circumcision of Christ” is a reference to His death on the cross. Early in his letter to the Romans, Paul describes the “properly” circumcised Jew in this manner.

2:28 For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:
2:29 But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

For natural Israel, there was no greater sign of belonging to the people of God than fleshly circumcision. It was the token of God’s covenant with Abraham [Gen. 17].

However, before the Israelites went into the land of promise, Moses admonished them,

 

Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked. [Deut. 10:16]

To have a circumcised heart is to not be stiffnecked (rebellious), but obedient to the voice and commandments of the Lord. Later, Moses instructs them concerning the time when they would return from Babylonian captivity,

"The Lord thy God, will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live."  [Deut. 30:6]

This appears to be another prophecy of the New Covenant. It is at least, a good description of it. The circumcised heart is not just an obedient heart but a heart that wholly loves the Lord God.

Circumcising the heart was a grave matter in the eyes of God, who said through His prophet Jeremiah,

Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings. [Jer. 4:4]

According to the above, refusing to circumcise the heart would result in the judgment of God. Does this mean that those who perished in the AD 70 judgment on Jerusalem had uncircumcised hearts? Considering the forty years that the gospel was preached to them, and the many signs of warning given, along with the fact that the disciples had “filled Jerusalem” with the doctrine of Christ, this would seem to be the case.

Having an uncircumcised heart causes one to become an enemy of the Most High God. In Stephen’s denunciation of his generation, he said,

51 Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.
52 Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers:
53 Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.[Act. 7:51-53]

The Scriptures make it quite clear that having an uncircumcised heart is an evil and dangerous thing. Was not the natural Jew circumcised in his flesh as a sign of the Abrahamic covenant? Yes, but it was still strictly in the flesh and in no way affected the heart. Therefore, it was not counted as a proper circumcision [Rom. 2:28]. Going back to what Paul stated in Romans 9,

7 Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called.
8 That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.

Concerning the covenant of promise, having Abraham as your genetic ancestor does not qualify you as a child of Abraham. In the immediate fulfillment, the Seed of Promise was Isaac. The natural Jew would agree. However, they are blind to the fact the ultimate Seed of Promise is Christ Jesus [Gal. 3:16].

Being circumcised in the flesh, apart from the circumcision of the heart, is not a true circumcision. Paul refers to it as mutilation [Phil. 3:2]. Without the heart circumcision of faith in God through Christ, physical circumcision by itself is just mutilation of the body.

Concerning this true circumcision, Paul says,

For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. [Phil. 3:3]

The true circumcision,

• worships God in the Spirit,
• rejoices in Christ Jesus, and
• has no confidence in the flesh.

Without these, there is no circumcision of heart.

While on this topic, we should address an issue that has caused some confusion in the past. Allow me to state this as plainly as I can, when a Gentile becomes a Christian, he does not become a spiritual Jew, nor any other kind of Jew. In Romans 2, where Paul deals with the true circumcised Jew, some have come to this incorrect conclusion. There is no such entity in the Bible called a spiritual Jew.

This is another ditch people can fall into. Why do they fall into this particular ditch? It is based on the idea that there is something special or spiritual about being called a Jew. No apostle ever called the believing Gentiles, Jews, of any kind, spiritual, or otherwise.

If you read the passage carefully, it is not addressing Gentiles (Paul dealt with Gentiles in Romans, chapter 1), but Jews who are trusting in their circumcision and heritage as a means of rightness with God.

The truth is that in Christ,

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. [Gal. 3:28]