Friday, January 13, 2012

Circumcision

Genesis 17:10 “This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. 11 You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. 12 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, 13 both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money, shall surely be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. 14 Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.” “
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Circumcision was instituted by God to “seal” the covenant between him and the righteous Jews with whom he made the covenant. The covenant between God and the Jews was for corporate righteousness. As long as the people were circumcised God honored the covenant. Along with circumcision was obedience to God. Circumcision without obedience invalidated the covenant for each individual and if the people ceased with circumcision they were to no longer be a people of the covenant.
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Circumcision is a sacred ritual where the foreskin of the male organ is severed. It can easily be detected and from a medical standpoint was to provide better hygiene in days of old where utilities were scarce and disease more easily passed. Not only was circumcision an ordinance, but it implied a clean sacrifice of self and the bonus was that the Jews were protected from disease and death to allow propagation of the race. God is wise!
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Our Savior, who was a Jew by the way, was circumcised. He honored Scripture because Scripture was His own Word. Jesus did not come to replace the law, but to fulfill it! He said that.
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As circumcision symbolized the sealing of the old covenant, Baptism symbolizes the sealing of the New Covenant... the Covenant of Grace, unlike the Old Covenant which was one of works. Isn't it great that we are saved by faith just because God has mercy; rather than having to strive to be good enough to make it to heaven, an impossible feat since one sin is as bad as breaking them all? Ephesians (below) tells us that covenant of works, represented by circumcision, has been replaced by the “blood of Christ” as our means of redemption. We are sealed by God in our salvation and Baptism is a public display of a changed heart. Instead of only a slither of skin being the difference, the entire man has changed. A Baptized person is dipped to signify our old nature, has the dirtiness (sins) symbolically washed away, and a person is raised cleansed. Our whole body has become clean, not just the foreskin!
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Ephesians 2:11 “Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— 12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.
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Since circumcision a a picture of Baptism many denomination still practice pedobaptism (infant) and the child is baptized at eight days. Pedobaptism is simply a tradition and is not efficacious. Adult “believer's baptism” is the scriptural requirement, and since we are entirely cleansed by the water, that means immersion.



Are Christians yet required to be circumcised? No! That requirement was invalidated at the Council of Jerusalem. Gentiles are not required to be circumcised. However, we are all to make a public confession and to are be baptized. Does the water save us? No again! We are saved by the blood... water is the symbol of the grace of Jesus shedding His own blood so that we didn't have to shed our own.

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