On Circumcision: Off With it!

     The condition for the Abrahamic Covenant follows:

My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant. (Gen 17:14:14)

     We find out later the true "foreskin" which must be circumcised:  "Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked" (Deut 10:16). That is still in the Old Testament, and the circumcision of the foreskin merely represents the circumcision of the heart. Paul defined circumcision for the uncircumcised Romans: "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" (Rom 2:29). "The letter" would be the blade of the mohel (circumciser). Circumcision of God would be by the Sword of the Spirit (Ephes 6:17).
     Male circumcision was never the condition of the person of the second part, but the symbolic ritual of the circumcision of the hearts of men and women. The souls of the uncircumcised shall be cut off from God's people unless the heart is circumcised.
     God will always keep His covenant to Abraham. It is "an everlasting covenant." That means it is still efficacious today; hearts must still be circumcised. Thus the covenant of grace (i.e., the Abrahamic Covenant) requires some thing from the parties of the second part -not to be stiff-necked to the Lord. That is not "taking God's Name in vain," or better said, not taking Jesus's purpose frivolously.
     We did nothing at the crucifixion. Jesus did it all! What is it that we must do? "Marvel not; ye must be born again! (John 3:7). That's when the hearts of those who trust Jesus for salvation are circumcised. They quit depending on themselves, but develop a dependence on Jesus's propitiated blood! We need only to circumcise the hear, but Jesus allowed all his flesh to be circumcised, not for his obligation to the Abrahamic Covenant, but for ours! We are to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, not just our foreskins but our hearts. (Rom 12:1). That is our "reasonable service" to God.