So What's the Bible's Deal with Circumcision? (Luke 2:21)

Hello, friends.

This is Pastor Creighton.

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This is the holy gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Luke.

Glory to you, Lord Christ.

When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, Let us go over to Bethlehem to see this thing that which has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.

And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in a manger.

And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child, and all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them.

But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.

And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen as it had been told them.

And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

This is the gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you, Lord Christ.

And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

Let's pray.

To claim us as your own, to bring us to yourself, to redeem us, to renew us, to give us the hope of everlasting life.

And so, Lord, I pray that your Holy Spirit would illumine our hearts through your word that we would behold our wonderful Lord Jesus afresh today.

And in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Please be seated.

Well, there's something in my mind that tells me, you know, New Year's Day is a significant day and sets something of a tone for the rest of the year to follow.

So when it comes to preaching a sermon on New Year's Day, I thought, where better to preach than on circumcision?

This is a day in our liturgical calendar, in our church calendar.

It's the uh the commemoration of the circumcision and naming of Christ.

We know uh, according to the Old Testament pattern, that uh Israelite infants were uh Israel male babies, they were circumcised eight days after they were born, and that's when they were given their name.

And that's what we see in our Luke reading today.

That's no exception.

It does raise a question, though, and the question's this: what is the Bible's deal with circumcision?

Have you ever wondered that?

I mean, because circumcision is not like it's not like a light seasoning here and there that leaves us confused.

It's like Old Testament, New Testament, it's everywhere.

And you wonder, like, what is the deal?

This is the Bible just interested in making us feel uncomfortable and awkward, just bringing up topics like this?

Well, let's hold that thought.

Let's come at it from another angle.

This just caught my attention maybe a couple of weeks ago, and I thought, that is so interesting.

I hope you think think the same thing.

The Bible makes a big deal about circumcision, as does our own Anglican theological heritage and the heritage of uh, well, the the church.

So um here is uh just an excerpt from what's called the litany.

The litany is is in uh, you can find it in the uh uh kind of the prayer book of prayer books, the 1662 prayer book, which is set the tone for Anglican worship, and we uh we follow a contemporized version of that in our own liturgy.

The 1662 is kind of the standard by which all prayer books and Anglican worship services are judged.

Here's an excerpt from what's called the litany, which is a series of kind of comprehensive petitions for all walks and manners of life.

And right at the front is a petition for deliverance.

Deliverance from evil, deliverance from sin.

The litany goes on to say, deliverance from thy wrath and from everlasting damnation, and the response of the people is, Good Lord, deliver us.

And so goes the litany, deliverance from any number of examples.

And then eventually the litany comes around to suggest the means by which we are delivered from evil, from sin, from wrath and damnation.

What would you expect to find there?

What means does God work through to deliver us from sin and evil and wrath?

If we think, if the cross comes to mind, if Jesus' resurrection comes to mind, you'll certainly find those in the litany.

But here's how the litany starts.

By what means does God deliver us?

The litany says this by the mystery of thy holy incarnation, by thy holy nativity.

Okay, that makes sense.

Christmas Day is an essential part of the story.

It's not accidental.

If Jesus isn't fully God and fully man, then we have no hope of true union with God.

Okay, by the mystery of thy holy incarnation, by thy holy nativity and circumcision, good Lord, deliver us.

Okay, so that's interesting to me.

And it makes me wonder this what is it about our Lord Jesus' circumcision that God can use to deliver us?

How is this a means that God works his deliverance in our lives and in our life as the church?

What's the deal with circumcision?

I want to suggest this.

I want to take some time for us to survey what the Bible has to say about circumcision, but I think the bottom line we can say on this, the commemoration of Jesus' own circumcision, is this Jesus' circumcision is Jesus' submission to God's law.

And by submitting himself to God's law, he can fulfill God's law on our behalf.

And by fulfilling God's law on our behalf, he can deliver us.

Let me say that again.

Jesus' circumcision is Jesus' submission to God's law, so that he can fulfill God's law for our sake, and by fulfilling God's law, he can deliver us.

Submission, fulfillment, deliverance.

If circumcision is this important that it's a means by which God works deliverance in our lives, no matter how awkward or uncomfortable this topic may seem, we risk too much by ignoring it.

Let me put it another way.

We're certainly circumspect to circumvent circumcision.

So, friends, we've got reason to celebrate.

There is good news for us in the Bible today.

Let's have a look at what it has to say about circumcision and what it means for us.

Let's start from the beginning.

Let's look at Genesis chapter 17.

Genesis 17 · chapter mention

I'm going to be jumping around a lot, and I'm not going to be jumping around particularly in our order of service today.

So if you have your Bibles, you can have your fingers kind of prepped and ready to go in Genesis 17, in Luke chapter 2, and in Romans chapter 2, and I'm going to be jumping around a little bit here.

Luke 2 · chapter mention Romans 2 · chapter mention

But let's start in Genesis 17.

Let me read a portion from Genesis 17.

It's a bit lengthy, but it's worth reading.

This is where God establishes his covenant with Abram, or soon to be named Abraham.

And the covenant sign that God gives is circumcision.

Genesis 17 goes like this.

I am God Almighty.

Walk before me and be blameless.

I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.

This is my covenant, the Lord goes on to say, which you shall keep between me and you and your offspring after you.

Every male among you shall be circumcised.

You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you.

He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised.

So shall my covenant be in your flesh, an everlasting covenant.

Any uncircumcised male shall be cut off from his people.

He has broken my covenant.

So already we can see circumcision is a big deal.

When God commands circumcision, it's not an unheard-of practice in the ancient Eres.

There are other cultural examples you can find of circumcision, but what God commands here is unique.

It stands out because in verse 13 he says, My covenant will be in your flesh an everlasting covenant.

Circumcision is not just a mere cultural practice that takes place in the day and time this was written.

It's a sign of covenant between God and Abraham's descendants.

It is God's binding word, his contractual agreement that he is not going to default on.

Circumcision is a stipulation of the covenant, and it's a sign that the people are set apart unto God.

So even where in other ancient Near Eastern nations they practice circumcision, they were still referred to as the uncircumcised throughout the Old Testament precisely for this reason, because circumcision that God commands is covenantal.

It requires an ongoing agreement and trust and faith, a commitment to one another.

And covenant circumcision was this covenant stipulation for Abraham and his male descendants and their household.

See, this is a covenant stipulation with a generational focus in mind.

We're just such hyper-individualists.

It's like, what's required of me and what does that mean for me?

This covenant that God makes with Abraham is, yes, it's true, there's benefits for Abraham and his family, but the benefits go from generation to generation.

Did you notice that?

This is an everlasting covenant.

And the purpose, I mean, it's no accident that the sign of God's covenant is circumcision, because it's through the means of procreation in uh in marriage union that the next generation uh is formed.

Right?

So from one generation to the next, it's God's covenant sign shared amongst one flesh between man and woman, between husband and wife, that is bringing the next generation of God's people into being.

From one generation to the next, it's God's covenant that abides.

It's God's covenant that is carried forward and defines these people and sets them apart from other nations.

Circumcision, it's true, is a sign which the male bears, but it doesn't exclude women from the benefits of the covenant.

And that's important for us to note.

It's something that is shared in the bond of this family union.

So we can see in circumcision a sign of God's faithfulness, of his redemptive program.

What does he require?

He requires Abraham to walk before me and be blameless, and he will establish Abraham.

God has committed himself to bless Abraham and to be through Abraham a blessing to all people.

This is God moving his redemptive program forward.

And circumcision is a physical symbol of God's spiritual action and his commitment to follow through.

And we take symbols seriously.

In a way, it's a little bit like my wedding ring.

In a way.

So when I got married, we exchanged our vows and we had these rings blessed, and we shared with one another, Rachel and I, you know, gave each other rings as a sign of the covenant that we share.

The ring itself is not the covenant, is it?

If I take off my ring, I'm no less married.

I know that for sure.

But I take my wedding ring very seriously.

I'm not gonna be careless with it, because of what it symbolizes.

This is one of the most fundamental and defining covenants of who I am.

So of course I'm gonna treat the covenant sign seriously, or symbol of that covenant sign seriously.

And so too are uh Israelites to take this covenant symbol seriously.

That's why in verse 14 God says, any uncircumcised male will be cut off from his people.

He's broken my covenant.

It's like getting married and then not taking your marriage seriously.

That's why circumcision, an outward circumcision, is always purposed to be coupled with an inward circumcision.

And throughout Scripture, God describes the circumcision of the heart.

In Deuteronomy chapter 10, the Lord commands his people to circumcise the foreskins of your hearts and be no longer stubborn.

Deuteronomy 10 · chapter mention

Leave behind those things that separate you from me.

Leave behind those sins that you so easily cling to.

They don't belong to you.

They're not the way I'm calling you to walk in.

And in Deuteronomy chapter 30, God promises that after exile, He will do a work in the hearts of his people to call them into this kind of circumcised way of living.

Deuteronomy 30 · chapter mention

The Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.

Hey, we read something like that early in our service, didn't we?

When Jesus summarizes the law.

Seems to me God's making quite clear, you can't do that unless I do a work in your heart first.

You cannot love the Lord your God with all your heart without him first working in you his love and calling forth your response.

That's framed as circumcision of the heart throughout Scripture.

So circumcision is a big deal.

It points us to God's everlasting covenant, to his redemptive program that he is moving forward through Abraham and through Abraham's offspring.

So we take it seriously and we approach it with faith.

Now this should bring us to our gospel reading in Luke chapter 2.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

Let me just read that first verse again.

Pardon me, Luke 2.21.

At the end of eight days, when Jesus was circumvent, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

So we know that after eight days this child is circumcised and he's given his name, and his name is Jesus.

Jesus means God saves, which is a remarkable thing to think about in connection with circumcision here.

What's happening in this passage?

Because I'm convinced there's no accidental details, you know, in the in the Gospels or in Scripture.

What's happening here?

I think what we're seeing is we're seeing Jesus enter into the conditions of his mission.

What's Jesus' mission?

Luke will go on to say in chapter 19 that the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost.

And if we're wondering who the lost are, he's told a parable in Luke chapter 15 describing a woman looking for a lost coin.

Luke 15 · chapter mention

He's gone searching for his wayward people to bring them back to himself.

That's what Jesus is up to.

And he is going to bring them back to himself through fulfilling the old covenant God has made to Abraham and inaugurating a new covenant, one in which the circumcision of the heart will come to its fullness.

And you can't fulfill a covenant that doesn't first apply to you.

Bear in mind that Jesus said in the Gospel of Matthew, do not think that I've come to abolish the law and the prophets to do away with them, but I've come to fulfill them.

Jesus is entered into the requirements of this covenant, submitted himself to God's law so that he can fulfill God's law.

Bear in mind, Jesus is probably the only baby who ever chose to be born.

And he's doing this for our sake.

Jesus submits himself to the old covenant that he may fulfill it from within and inaugurate a new covenant through his death and resurrection, which will offer salvation to all people, not just Israel, but to all the nations, to the whole world.

When uh Rachel and I first uh bought our first house, oh, we were so excited to do that.

It was a great house too.

We had uh, well, we had a cosigner, one of our family members was kind enough to co-sign our mortgage.

And truthfully, I had to Google what cosigning was earlier because I'm still not super clear on what it was.

I probably should have been.

But the idea is simple enough, right?

If Rachel and I can't pay our mortgage for whatever reason, this cosigner is going to be responsible for it.

That's what enabled us to get this house in the first place.

Okay, so Jesus entering into the covenant here by submitting himself to the requirements of God's law and being circumcised is in a way entering into being a guarantor, being a cosigner.

He is going to take the conditions of the covenant on himself.

But the thing, the difference between us getting our mortgage and Jesus entering into the covenant of circumcision is he already knows we're not going to pay our portion of the covenant.

We are not going to walk before the Lord our God and be blameless.

He enters into this covenant freely for our sakes, knowing that we don't have it in us to fulfill its requirements.

Why would he do that?

Because of the great love with which he loved us.

This is his mission, to seek and save the lost.

You and I, who cannot on our own strength, fulfill the requirements of God's commandment and enjoy the benefits of everlasting blessing.

It's Jesus' submission to fulfill the covenant, to deliver us from God's wrath and from sin and from evil.

This is something to celebrate today.

Jesus is doing for us what we cannot do for ourselves.

And this moment, this circumcision in Luke chapter 2, is a prelude to the full inauguration of the new covenant.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

The old is being fulfilled, the new is breaking in and bringing with it our salvation in Jesus Christ.

So, what does all this mean for us, new covenant Christians?

There's a few things I think we should consider in the New Testament as we carry this forward, this fulfillment through Christ's person and his work.

In the book of Acts, the first major debate for the church was about new converts.

Do they have to submit themselves to the requirements of the old covenant and be circumcised before they can fully claim the benefits of the new?

This is the debate in Acts chapter 15.

Acts 15 · chapter mention

And under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the Church concludes that salvation under the new covenant is offered to all, regardless of circumcision.

And this is why the Apostle Paul will speak at length in his letters about the ineffective nature of circumcision.

You're not further ahead, you're not further behind in salvific terms by being circumcised.

Instead, cling to the new covenant that Christ has inaugurated.

Here's what Paul has to say in Galatians and 1 Corinthians.

I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you.

I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law.

You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law, you have fallen away from grace.

For through the Spirit, by faith, we are Eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.

For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.

What's Paul saying here?

He's saying circumcision is not the, is not God's favorite or privileged work that he sees and goes, oh, that person takes it seriously.

Yeah, I'm going to reward them with eternal life.

Paul is saying, no.

Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything.

Only cling to Christ by faith and his grace at work in your life.

For neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision, but keeping the commandments of God.

By clinging to Christ, we let the pattern and walk of our lives follow in his likeness.

We imitate Christ.

Here's what we glean from Colossians chapter 2.

Colossians 2 · chapter mention

Oh, this is a good passage.

Sorry, I get excited about this.

This is what Paul has to say, in Christ also you were circumcised.

He's talking primarily to uh Gentiles here, non-Jews.

In him also you were circumcised, with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him, through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.

What's Paul saying to the Colossians?

He's saying, God's work of circumcision is already at work in you.

Not outwardly, that's not the covenant sign anymore.

But inwardly, through faith, God is bringing you to Christ, the sign of which is baptism.

Baptism is the sign that we are raised with Christ through faith.

Our old self is put to death under the water, and a new self in Christ is raised with the hope of resurrection in Christ.

Baptism becomes, for these New Testament authors, the uh the parallel, as it were, to circumcision.

And truthfully, I think that's the strongest argument for why we baptize our babies.

God has invited infants into the covenant of circumcision under the old covenant, and now God invites Christian families under the promises of the new covenant in baptism.

And when we read Acts 2.39 and consider that this promise in baptism and repentance is for us and for our children, that's a pretty compelling thought.

So, circumcision of the flesh outwardly is no longer a covenant sign.

But circumcision of another kind is carried forward into the Christian life.

And that's circumcision of the heart.

Let me land around here in Romans chapter 2.

Romans 2 · chapter mention

Paul is saying that God's people, the Jews, are not exempt from the judgment of God because they are circumcised.

Paul goes on to say, for circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law.

But if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision.

For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical.

But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart by the Spirit, not by the letter.

His praise is not from man, but from God.

What's Paul saying here?

He's saying that we might be inclined to think that what it means to be God's people is to have an outward display of piety.

Maybe for God's people, the Jews, it was circumcision that separates us from the people around us.

What Paul is saying here is to truly be counted among God's people is not a outward sign of any kind of religiosity or piety.

It's the inward work of God by grace in your heart through his spirit.

Circumcision is a matter of the heart.

It's putting off the sins that so easily entangle us and clinging all the more to Christ.

I wonder if, as painful as circumcision, outward circumcision, is and seems, I wonder if this spiritual circumcision of sin is even more painful still.

That we carry into our lives, putting off the flesh, putting off the desires that lead us away from God and his promises to us, and instead clinging to Christ and walking before Him and endeavoring to live blameless lives before God.

See, the difference between, I think the difference that Paul is getting at here is, well, there should be no difference between our outward piety and our inward holiness.

The trouble is those two things are so often divorced from one another.

We put on a good show and we we look pious, we look religious.

Maybe we want to be seen by others, but Paul is saying the real sign of being among God's covenant people is that work he does in our hearts to draw us to himself such that he gives us new life by the Spirit.

Oh man.

That means greed and selfishness and lusts and slothful living, all these things that are just like so comfortable.

These are the things that we have to cut off from ourselves to surrender.

But there's good news for us, friends.

The benefit of God's covenant, his binding word to us, is not contingent on our blamelessness.

It is contingent on blamelessness.

It is contingent on walking before the Lord our God.

And yet it is not us who fulfills that covenant, is it?

There is a blameless one.

There is one who unswervingly walked in God's will.

And his name is Jesus.

And he is the one who submits himself to this covenant so that he can fulfill it and deliver us.

He alone, and his sacrifice upon the cross alone is acceptable to the Father, and he does so willingly for our sake.

He has fulfilled the requirement of the covenant on our behalf to deliver us.

And we have only to receive this truth by faith, to trust in Jesus as the one who has done for us what we could not do for ourselves, and made us perfectly acceptable to our covenant God.

So, friends, today we remember that our Lord willingly submitted himself to the covenant that God gave Abraham, that he might fulfill it and deliver us his people.

I'm going to conclude by uh I'm going to pray the colict again.

And I want to encourage you, I'm going to take it slow, and I want to encourage you to meditate on these words.

Because these are words written with great intention and weight.

And I want to invite you to let your heart cling to Christ.

Call to mind those uncircumcised parts of our heart.

Hand them over to him.

And cling to him in his great love for you.

Almighty God, your blessed Son fulfilled the covenant of circumcision for our sake, and was given the name that is above every name.

Give us grace faithfully to bear his name and to worship him with pure hearts, according to the new covenant, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Amen.

Thank you for listening today.

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