Tag Archives: circumcised

Paul’s Trump Card

Bible Study, , ,

PAUL’S TRUMP CARD

“Yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, though he was a Greek. This matter arose because some false believers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves. We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.” Galatians 2:3-5.

What part does circumcision play in the life of a believer? This was a very live issue in the early church. On what grounds were Gentile believers permitted to be acceptable to God and to be part of the fellowship of the church?

The Bible relates two apparently contradictory scenarios. In Acts 16:1-3, Paul had Timothy, son of a Greek father and a Jewish mother, circumcised because of the unbelieving Jews. Yet in Galatians 2:3-5, he records that he did not compel Titus, a young Greek believer, to undergo circumcision. Was Paul being inconsistent?

David M Rogers (www.bibletruth.cc/gal2_1_10.htm – The Circumcision Controversy) wrote a thorough and compelling explanation for Paul’s action. (Read the article to get the full explanation).

To summarise, the circumstances for each situation were different. Timothy was half Jewish. And Paul had him circumcised for the sake of unbelieving Jews, because no uncircumcised person was permitted to participate in the Passover (Exodus 12:48, 49). This was a missionary motive, not to make Timothy Jewish but, because he was already half Jewish, to give him opportunity to reach unbelieving Jews.

“Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew to win the Jews…” 1 Corinthians 9:20.

In Titus’ case, he was a Greek. He had no Jewish ancestry and no Jewish connections. He refused to be circumcised to satisfy the demands of false believers – those posing as believers but who were only out to get converts for their cause. Later in his letter, Paul makes their motives clear. They were not interested in binding Jesus’ yoke on Gentile believers. They were teaching and trying to enforce their own yoke on people who had already received the message of Christ, so that they could collect “scalps” for themselves (Galatians 4:17) and avoid the offense of the cross (Galatians 6:12).

The issue for Paul was not that circumcision in itself was wrong but that the teaching that, for the Gentile, circumcision was necessary for acceptance with God was wrong. Circumcision does not guarantee that a person’s heart is pure. It was nothing more than an outward sign that a Jewish male belonged to the Jewish race and was recognised as belonging to the covenant people of God. But, even for him it was not circumcision that made him a true Jew, but obedience to God.

“The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love Him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live.” Deuteronomy 30:6.

“…Even the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.” Jeremiah 9:26.

Even in the Old Covenant era, God was more concerned about heart attitude than about a physical sign. Circumcision meant nothing without obedience to the teachings of God from the heart.

“Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing. Keeping God’s commandments is what counts.” 1 Corinthians 7:19.

“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” Galatians 5:6.

For Paul (Romans 13:8-10), and for Jesus (Matthew 22:36-40), loving God and loving others fulfilled all the commandments.

Was Titus circumcised? No. Why was Titus not circumcised? Because he refused to bow to the demands of false teachers who insisted that Gentiles had to become Jews first before they could be accepted into the fellowship of the church. What was the issue? Was the cross of Jesus sufficient for Gentiles to be saved? Yes, a thousand times, yes! How did the cross deal with the Law? Watch this space…!

Is this still an issue today? Yes, it is although it rears its head in many other subtle ways, if not in the matter of circumcision. What Paul taught in this letter deals with every way in which this is an issue today.

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Grace Is For All

Bible Study, , ,

GRACE IS FOR ALL

“Is this blessedness only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness. Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? It was not after but before! And he received circumcision as a sign, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all who believe, but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them. And he is then also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but also follow in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.” Romans 4:9-12.

What blessedness? The blessedness David experienced of knowing that his sins were forgiven! On what did David base his confidence? On the daily sacrifices that were offered by the priests on his behalf?

This is how David prayed when his sins were uncovered: “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love, according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin…You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.” Psalm 51: 1, 2; 16.

What was David saying? He did not base his plea on what he could do but on the mercy and compassion of God, and God could have mercy on him because He saw, not the blood of animal sacrifices but the blood of His own Son as an offering for David’s sin.

And what of Abraham? We know that Abraham was the father of the Jewish nation, but did Abraham have to be a Jew first before he could be accepted by God? Paul swept that notion away by pointing out that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness long before he was given the sign of circumcision.

Why did Paul take such pains to clarify this to his Roman readers? He wanted to bolster them up against the false teachers who were insisting on circumcision as a prerequisite for faith in Jesus. To Paul that was unthinkable because there is nothing any human being can add to what Jesus did for us to make His forgiveness and all that flows from it more effective. When Jesus cried, “It is finished!” He satisfied every demand of a holy God and cancelled every debt we owe Him for a broken law.

Unfortunately, this pernicious teaching recurs in many subtle forms today – Christ plus baptism; Christ plus good works; Christ plus church attendance or communion or giving to the poor or serving Him in some “full time” capacity. All of these things are good and necessary but not to make more effective what Jesus did for us. They are the outflow of faith, not the reason for confidence.

The thief on the cross had no opportunity to add anything to his dying plea, “Lord, remember me…” It was enough to hear Jesus’ words of reassurance, “Today you will be with me in paradise.”

The tragedy for those who feel that they must earn their salvation by some addition to faith in Jesus, is that they will never know the blessedness of sins forgiven of which David spoke because they will never know when they have done enough to satisfy God’s holy law.

But far worse is the truth that any effort on our part to add to Jesus’ finished work actually cancels God’s grace. The moment we put our trust in something we have done, we make everything Jesus did useless for us.

“Mark my words! I, Paul tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all.” Galatians 5:2.

What reassurance for the Gentiles who were wrestling with this problem! Paul’s watertight argument must have settled the question for them. The answer to their dilemma came, not from human reason but from God’s Word and Paul used it with effect to reassure them that their faith in Jesus had opened the door to God’s grace. Circumcised or not, they were acceptable to God because God’s mercy came to them, not because of what they did, but because of what Jesus did for them.

And for us!

Acknowledgement

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

Out In The Cold

Christian life, , ,

OUT IN THE COLD

“Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, you have become as though you had not been circumcised. So then, if those who are not circumcised keep the law’s requirements, will they not be regarded as though they were circumcised? The one who is not circumcised physically and yet obeys the law will condemn you who, even though you have the written code and circumcision, are a lawbreaker. A person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a person’s praise is not from other people, but from God.” Romans 2:25-29.

Paul took great pains to ensure that his Jewish readers understood the place of the law in their lives. Being a Jew was much more than having the outward and physical sign of the covenant in their bodies. It was an issue of the heart. Like his Master Jesus, he needed them to understand that they were all lawbreakers, no matter how much they viewed themselves as the privileged covenant people of God.

Like the Pharisees who were Jesus’ persistent opponents, defending their natural birth into the nation of Israel was of no use if they did not back it up with obedience to the terms of God’s covenant. It would be the same as thinking that natural birth in a country would be enough to keep me out of prison even if I committed a crime.

The thinking of the Jews whom Paul addressed then is, unfortunately, the same false teaching that deceives millions of people today. False religions teach people that the way to please their god, or the way to get rid of sin is to subscribe to a certain religion and to do certain things, rituals or rules that relate to the body but cannot change the heart. Eat or do not eat certain foods; wash here or wash this way; offer sacrifices of food or blood; bow so many times, or bow this way etc. What can any of these things do to alter the state of the heart, or remove the guilt of the soul?

The prophet Micah, in the Old Testament, struggled with the same issue.

“With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of olive oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He had shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:6-8.

What value is there in washing the body, putting the right kinds of food in the mouth or offering sacrifices to an inanimate block of wood or stone? What evidence it there to prove that these rituals have any effect on the guilty conscience? Of what value is circumcision, as a mark of membership if it does not issue in obedience to God, or offering sacrifices if they are an excuse to keep on sinning? All the adherence to religious practices in the world cannot and will not change the heart.

Paul was slowly building his case for the hopelessness of all human beings. Not even the Jews, who had thousands of years of history – God actively involved in their lives, revealing Himself to them, cutting covenant with them, intervening in their lives with many miracles,  protecting and providing for them, governing and guiding them – were any better than the Gentiles because they were just as guilty of ungodly behaviour as their uncircumcised neighbours.

Worst of all, although the Jews probably did not even give it a thought, was their arrogant attitude towards the Gentiles whom they despised. It was their very pride in their privileged birth that cut them off from God. “God opposes the proud but shows favour to the humble.” 1 Peter 5:5b. So, instead of living in God’s favour, they had cut themselves off from Him because of their arrogance.

Acknowledgement

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

One Of Them

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ONE OF THEM

“Paul came first to Derbe, then Lystra. He found a disciple there by the name of Timothy, son of a devout Jewish mother and a Greek father. Friends in Lystra and Iconium all said what a fine young man he was. Paul wanted to recruit him for their mission, but first took him aside and circumcised him so he wouldn’t offend the Jews who lived in those parts. They all knew that his father was a Greek.

“As they travelled from town to town, they presented the simple guidelines the Jerusalem apostles and leaders had come up with. That turned out to be most helpful. Day after day the congregations became stronger in faith and larger in size.” Acts 16:1-5 (The Message).

Doesn’t that sound like a contradiction? Paul has Timothy circumcised and then takes the message to the Gentile believers that they don’t have to be circumcised to be saved! At face value it seems so. However, we have to examine the motive behind the action.

In spite of his frustration with the stubbornness of the Jews and their unrelenting persecution, Paul had a passion to preach the Word of God to them first and did so whenever he could. Timothy was a member of the covenant people of God through his mother. In order to have as much favour with the Jews as possible, he wanted Timothy to carry the sign of the covenant in his body, so he had him circumcised.

This was not about salvation. This was about identification. It was Paul who said, “I have become all things to all people. To the Jew I became as a Jew…” Paul was not changing his belief but imitating his Master. Jesus did everything He could to identify with humanity.

He came from the Father to be one of us, “born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights as sons.” Galatians 4:4, 5 (NIV). He was baptised to express His identity with us and He was crucified to complete that identity by taking our debt upon Himself and paying for it with His own blood.

Paul would never compromise the truth he stood for and defended with his very life. Jesus is the only Saviour and His work sufficient, plus nothing, to justify the sinner and give him access to a holy God. Through Him we have been redeemed from the slave market of sin and restored to the Father as His sons and daughters.

No additions, rule-keeping or rituals, can make us more acceptable to God than we are now. In fact, anything we think we need to do to gain God’s approval actually disqualifies us from sharing in God’s grace and in the life of Jesus. Not even the work we do “for Jesus” can influence Him towards us.

“Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness
My beauty are, my glorious dress;
‘Midst flaming worlds in these arrayed,
With joy shall I lift up my head.”

Whatever we might change or add to our lives had nothing to do with our acceptance with God; it only affects our acceptance with people. We may need to adopt dress, diet or behaviour to identify with people who are different from us, but none of these things will alter our standing before God unless we are depending on them for acceptance with God or to impress Him in any way.

What we do as believers should always be the outflow of the grateful and obedient heart of a son or daughter of the Father and never the reason for coming to Him. On the other hand what we do should be from a desire to identify with those we want to win, becoming one of them so that they can become one of us.