In whom also 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 (Col. 2:11).
Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of [the] sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve [the] sin (Rom. 6:6).
The critical key in the fall of Adam and Eve was their choice for the flesh life of self rather than the spiritual life with God. Thus, mankind has continually been drawn to the sin principle inherited from Adam; the New Testament calls this principle the flesh. Every child, with the exception of Jesus Christ, has been born with the sin nature or the nature of the flesh.
Is there any hope of the deliverance from this inherited power that controls life from infancy? If there is hope, what is the remedy for this flesh nature and power? Perhaps the question needs to be embellished. Is there hope in this life for God Himself to destroy or render inoperative this inherited “old man Adam,” this flesh principle nature that is interwoven in our human nature from Adam?
Sanctification: The Circumcision of Heart
The formal term used in Scripture concerning a confrontation with this flesh principle is holiness, or sanctification. Perhaps the two aorist, crisis terms in the New Testament identifying the work of sanctification with the flesh are circumcision and crucifixion. Both of these terms in the natural are attacks against the flesh. In this article we will unfold the term circumcision; in the next issue of Straightway, we will pursue the word crucifixion.
It must be noted that Paul sidesteps the Old Testament concept of circumcision of the natural flesh and reveals in the New Covenant a circumcision wrought by Christ which is “without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh” (Col. 2:11).
From the natural perspective in history, circumcision began with the command by God to Abraham and his household: “And Abraham was ninety years old and nine, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin” (Gen. 17:24). This token continued as part of the witness of Israel entering a covenant with God; this token was exacted for each male child on the eighth day. This was a literal work by a sharp instrument to cut away the foreskin surrounding the head of the male anatomy identified with the perpetuation of offspring seed.
Early in the Old Testament are several passages in Deuteronomy given to the second generation, where we surprisingly read of Moses mentioning this term circumcision in a spiritual context. For example, “Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked” (Deut. 10:16). The great Emancipator also declared this truth in Deuteronomy 30:6, “And 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.” What is the spiritual meaning of which Moses speaks concerning this literal act?
While one may ponder the Old Testament spiritual meaning of a heart being circumcised, the apostle Paul gives the commentary of this principle in the New Testament. He reveals its importance in the New Covenant given through Christ Jesus. Paul declares this word circumcision to be a work of grace, a crisis work of grace, just as the circumcision in the natural was a crisis on the eighth day of a male child’s life. This spiritual work cannot possibly be regeneration, for this circumcision was performed distinctively after the birth of the child. In Romans 2:29 we read, “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.” Dealing with the Jew in Romans 2, Paul emphasizes this inward circumcision and not that which is without. He reveals a work made without hands, yet made of the Lord Jesus.
In the Revivalist movement of the 1700s, God’s men viewed this term circumcision as a classic term in the New Testament for a work subsequent to the New Birth; another term for this work is sanctification. Circumcision was especially used as a description of sanctification attacking the flesh, or the carnal nature that had power over the human nature.
Regeneration is viewed in the Bible as the figure of birth: “Ye must be born again” (John 3:7). Circumcision in Scripture is declared as a work after birth. A Jewish child certainly had to be born before the rite of circumcision could be administered eight days later. Birth is the giving of life; circumcision is an excision, or removal of something. Although circumcision was typically performed on the eighth day, there were a few times where we read of circumcision performed on grown men. A classic example is the second generation of those who came out of Egypt, who were circumcised after they crossed the Jordan River and entered the Canaan land. Their first encampment was at Gilgal:
At that time the Lord said unto Joshua, Make thee sharp knives, and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time [those who were born during the wandering]. And Joshua made him sharp knives, and circumcised the children of Israel at the hill of the foreskins. And this is the cause why Joshua did circumcise: All the people that came out of Egypt, that were males, even all the men of war, died in the wilderness by the way, after they came out of Egypt.…And it came to pass, when they had done circumcising all the people, that they abode in their places in the camp, till they were whole. And the Lord said unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you. Wherefore the name of the place is called Gilgal unto this day (Josh. 5:2–4, 8, 9).
When we read of circumcision in the Bible, there are several characteristics that must be seen in identification with this work: (1) Circumcision is dealt with in the hidden part of man. (2) It somewhat brings shame because of its delicacy and privacy. (3) It is a delicate cutting away of the flesh that covers the head of the seed organ. (4) The surgery of circumcision humbles the man child, and in that season brings a weakness to an otherwise strong male.
When circumcision is spoken of in the New Testament in the spiritual sense, it is a cutting made without hands in the putting off the body of the sins of the flesh. It is a complete, definite, clear-cut separation of the power of the flesh, the sin-nature power.
To Israel circumcision meant a mark of separation from the Gentile world and identification with Jehovah and the Covenant. It was the sign that the Jew or proselyte had separated himself from the world, and had separated himself unto God, and had God’s mark and seal on him. God said to Abraham in Genesis 17:10, 11:
This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised. And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you.
In Acts 7:8 it was called the “covenant of circumcision.”
In Genesis 17:13 God says, “My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.” Circumcision is the sign of the covenant of obedience and the seal of the righteousness of faith. Circumcision was the tangible commitment of Abraham and his seed after him to walk in the steps of that faith in righteousness.
The key to sanctification is that it is the work of God, without human hands, wrought on the spirit heart of the soul, that enables the individual to obey God’s law and Word. Note Paul’s words in Romans 2:25, 26:
For circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law: but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision. Therefore if the uncircumcision [the Gentile] keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision?
The apostle Paul also stated in Galatians 5:3, “For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law [to obey all the Law].” This is what circumcision meant: “I will obey God’s Law.”
This external circumcision, which was by man’s hand and executed with the knife in the flesh, was only a symbol of that internal circumcision, made without hands, the cutting away of the principle of sin, the old man, the evil heart, with the sharp instrument. This sharp instrument is revealed in Hebrews 4:12 as the sword, or dagger of the Word of God, that in this context is to cut away the flesh power that hinders the soul’s heart from complete obedience.
Again, in Colossians 2:11 we see this strong statement of the force and effect of this spiritual circumcision:
In whom also 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 declares a definite and positive “putting off the body of the sins of the flesh,” by the act of circumcision, once and for all. The “body of the flesh,” must refer to the same thing as the “body of sin” in Romans 6:6.
From this spiritual perspective, the flesh covers the heart and suppresses that heart from fully obeying and fully loving God. Thus, when spiritual circumcision happens, God gives believers a new heart. The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit at the New Birth in order for us to love God and to love His Word in obedience; but in spiritual circumcision, made without human hands, this work of God cuts away the power of that flesh, as God creates a new heart to bring this love to perfection and to bring our obedience to consistency.
The New Covenant
Ezekiel 36 speaks of the New Covenant that one day would be received by the nation of Israel. Verse 25 describes holiness beginning in the New Birth:
Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.
Then verse 26 presents the work of a new heart:
A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh [or a soft, pliable heart].
The heart is the center of our being, the seat of our conscience, and the mainspring of the activities of life. The heart is also the source of desires, affections, passions, lusts, appetites, and the will. The physical heart pulsates with perpetual motion from the cradle to the grave. It is the receptacle of the blood and causes the blood to make its way through the arteries and veins in its endless round of circulation, until the blood pumped from that heart carries the stream of life to and permeates every part of the body.
The spiritual (moral) heart is the fountain from whence flow all the issues of life (Prov. 4:23). In the natural man this spiritual heart flows out in a natural, fallen, sinful life. The natural spiritual heart bears evil and corrupt fruit. Note Mark 7:21–23:
For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.
This is the flesh nature and the works of the flesh.
Speaking of the natural heart, Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” But God is able to change the natural heart, to deliver it from the powers of the flesh. God wants to give man a new heart in his converted life. Christ comes into this spiritual heart of the soul; but there is the Old Man dwelling in that heart as well, and thus, “when I would do good, evil is present with me” (Rom. 7:21). God must do something to this Old Man for the New Man to be at liberty to live His life through the New Man without the power of the Old Man controlling or competing with Christ in the life. The effectual working of God gives a new heart in this spiritual circumcision, the outflow of the new life in Christ. Note James 3:11, 12:
Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.
The words of our Lord in Matthew 7:16–20 reveal several principles: (1) The heart bears fruit; (2) the old, unregenerate heart bears evil, corrupt fruit; (3) a new heart bears peaceable fruit of righteousness; (4) the natural, evil heart can never bear any other fruit than evil. But in the light of these principles, the old heart cannot be made into a new heart; for the new heart must be a new creation from God. Psalm 51:10 states, “Create in me a clean heart, O God.” David did not ask for a mending up of his old evil heart; he wanted a new heart created fresh from the hand of God: a new heart! This is to be a heart of life, of peace, and of righteousness that could not flow from the old sinful heart. It is a new fountain for life, for living the Christian life. He wanted a new seat of desires, affections, passions; he wanted even a renewed will. Oh, for an effectual working of the fountain of life!
The Crisis of Circumcision
Earlier, we noted several characteristics that were identified with the work of circumcision: (1) Circumcision is dealt with in the hidden part of man. The New Birth deals with my personal sins, bringing forgiveness of all sins I have committed. But spiritual circumcision deals with the heart, the hidden part of my Christian life. It must deal with the power that controls my heart: the power of the flesh.
(2) Circumcision also somewhat brings a shame due to its delicate and private work. It is one thing to deal with my sins but another thing to deal with my heart. This is the most private, inner sanctum of my existence. It is the sanctuary of the real me: “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” It is easier to give God my sins to cover than to give Him my self, the I of my life. “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Rom. 7:24). The answer to this cry is, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (7:25).
(3) Circumcision is also a delicate cutting away of the flesh that covers the head of the seed organ. It is the power of the flesh that covers the spiritual heart that must be broken, cut away by the Word of God: “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth” (John 17:17).
(4) The surgery of circumcision also humbles the man child and for a season brings a weakness and vulnerability to the otherwise strong male. Sanctification, or spiritual circumcision, will make us weak in self; our strength is to be found in Christ alone. The wrestling of Jacob in Genesis 32 brought a permanent weakness to Jacob: he halted upon his thigh until the end of his days. He later declared, “The Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads” (Gen. 48:16). Sanctification is an attack against the carnal heart. It exposes the heart to God alone for Him to purge from the power of the flesh. Only then can one speak of being “pure in heart.”
Conclusion
Sanctification, the circumcision of the heart, brings about the casting away of the filth of the flesh. Ezekiel 36:26 declares, “I will take away the stony heart.” This stony heart is the stubborn heart, the fleshly heart that is always at enmity with God and His Word. It is the heart that does not want to live in complete obedience. His effectual working within is needed to take away the stony heart out of our flesh. The stony heart includes the self-stubbornness, the flesh, the fleshly appetites and desires, as well as the old passions. This new heart is delivered from the power and control of the flesh. This new heart is sensitive to the blood of Christ and to God in will, passions, appetites, and desires. Yes, both Moses and Paul called it a circumcised heart.
We also read in Ezekiel 36:27:
And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.
When the new heart is put in, and the old heart is taken out or circumcised, we now seek for the fullness of God’s Spirit to control our heart. It is hard to obey God when the heart of flesh is controlling the life of the believer. The Holy Spirit cannot work fully in the stony heart, the fleshly natured heart. When there is a submissive will, when there is obedience flowing from a new heart, when there is deliverance from the Old Man (that stony heart), this is the revelation that the heart of flesh has been circumcised!
Yes, disobedience is what brought the Fall. The disobedience of Adam and Eve brought the human nature into a captivity to the sin principle. In this captivity the human nature is naturally drawn to the power of the flesh. It is ever the heart’s proclivity to the flesh until God circumcises that heart, rendering inoperative the power of the flesh.
This circumcision of the heart by Christ is a definite act, performed solely by Him. This work of grace will happen when through faith we present ourselves to Him for the operation. It is a real work of grace wrought in us. It cuts away “the body of the sins of the flesh,” or the “body of the flesh,” and delivers the heart from the affections and lusts thereof.
Interestingly in Philippians 3:2 and 3, Paul draws a contrast between the words concision and circumcision:
Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
Paul says “beware of the concision. For we are the circumcision.” The word concision seems to have the idea of cutting into, an incision or mutilation; while the word circumcision signifies the clear cutting away, without any mutilation or piecemeal operation.
Beware of the concision! Beware of a compromise thought, a partial cutting away of the body of the sins of the flesh, or leaving it in a mutilated form, as a source of continued trouble and cause of offense to the new man in his spiritual progress.
Paul pleads in Colossians 2:11, “Putting off the body of the sins of the flesh.” In the original Greek “putting off” carries the meaning “the extinction of the passions and the removal of spiritual impurity.”
In Galatians 5:24 we read, “And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.”
Christ as the God-Man has been given the power over “all flesh.” I must believe He can do it! I must preach He can do it! We dare not continue in the bondage of this flesh. The Apostle gives us the hope in Romans 5:20: “But where sin [the sin principle] abounded, grace did much more abound.”
For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God (Rom. 8:5–8).