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Circumcision of the Heart — 5 Comments

  1. William, apparently we share a deep interest in this subject. I believe that circumcision and baptism are ritual symbols that our Creator has employed to address the universal reality of our humanity--which is that our lives aren't lived always free of error. We classify our life-errors as intentional and unintentional, recognizing that our brains function with a level of intent we call motive. Up to this point in my life (I'm beyond halfway, if "threescore years and ten" is our allotment Ps 90:10), I have not been able to live an error-free life, even when I've laid out my own course of action! I acknowledge that I have similarly disappointed some other humans and God Himself. What does one do when one becomes tired of saying, "I am sorry", to God, to others, to oneself? (Rm 7:23-24)

    The God who is love personified (1 Jn 4:8), and who understands our feelings arising from the frustration of repeated life-errors (Heb 4:15) has THE SOLUTION! Just like the bread and grape juice (Mt 26:26-27) is not to be understood as the actuality, but only a representation of the actual (Mt 26:28), even so is circumcision and baptism. Very early on, God communicated to national Israel (Dt 18:9,13-14), that even though they were His covenant people, the uniform condition of their minds (Dt 5:29; 10:12,16) were such that it was going to produce a checkered history culminating in an unfortunate reality (Act 3:26,14-15).

    It is easy to grossly underestimate where our error-prone minds can, and do, take us when an abiding love for the God who produces ONLY right actions in our lives, is absent from our minds. Jesus taught that humans don't need tons of laws. He taught that all that fallen man needs is a single law, from which would spring secondary and tertiary laws (Mt 22:37-38). This impossibly high standard--one that is pretty old (Dt 6:4-6)--Paul says, is only achievable when a single Source is present in the life (Rm 5:5). God promised Abraham (Gal 3:8) that the faith he found himself with, would establish a conduit to the person of Christ (Gal 3:29), who was the fulfillment of the prophets' and John's testimony (1 Pt 1:10-12; Jn 1:33-34; Gal 3:14).

    Could it be that it is CHRIST'S BAPTISM of submersion beneath His Holy Spirit (Jn 1:33; Act 1:5), which He called "THE PROMISE of the Father"(Act 1:4; 2:33; Lk 24:49), that error-prone humans need most? Could CHRIST'S BAPTISM and "THE CIRCUMCISION of CHRIST" (Col 2:11-12) be synonymous expressions identifying the sin-purging work of the Holy Spirit (Rm 2:29; Jn 16:7-8)? Should any error-prone human, sincerely desirous of having this work performed correctly in him or her, attempt to baptize and/or circumcise themselves (Dt 30:6; Heb 8:10; Col 2:9-11)?

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  2. Thank you for the powerful posts William, may the our Lord Jesus Christ continue to endow you with more knowledge from His Word to share with the world. God bless you.

    (2)

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