Ep. 55. Deuteronomy 10 | Circumcise the Heart
EPISODE 55
CIRCUMCISE THE HEART: DEUTERONOMY 10:12-22
As I set out to write this post, I worry I won't be able to convey accurately the weight of the truth we've discussed today. I'll be left wondering if the fifteen-minute video and this short blog can bring into focus what is so often neglected in our thinking. But here we go.
We, at least many of us in Western church culture, have been taught the Law of Moses is a guideline for us so we can know how we ought to behave. We place more weight on the works of the Law than we ought to. We're surrounded by people who feel and believe the same. And every single Jew in the first century had to fight and struggle against the idea that the Law had been brought to nothing through the death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ.
For those first-century Jews, the main issue was that of circumcision. God had given Abraham circumcision as a sign of the covenant he had made with the forefather of faith. Modern Christians will sometimes argue that water baptism is the New Testament version of circumcision, but the Bible never makes that argument, and sadly, that argument ignores a key idea the Old Testament presents about circumcision. You see, God was never really concerned with a tiny piece of flesh being removed from the body of a man. God was always (has always been) concerned with the heart that beat in the chest of mankind. This text in Deuteronomy gives us some hints at what it means to be "circumcised in the heart." We ought to "fear the LORD, walk in all his ways, love him, and serve him with all [our] heart and soul." God, speaking through Moses, says, "Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn." God is concerned with removing that part of the human heart that would resist God.
Paul says it more plainly in Romans 2 when he says, "A Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, [done] by the Spirit, not by the letter [of the law]. His praise is not from man but from God." Those who look to be followers of Christ on the outside (circumcision of the flesh) receive their praise from men. By contrast, those who look to serve God from the heart receive their praise from God. (Galatians 2:10)
Paul says in another place, "In [Christ] also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses." In other words, the circumcision of the believer is not one of outward works but one only accomplished through the work of Jesus' death and resurrection.
God has always been more concerned with the heart than he has the false works of the hypocrite. Remember how he condemns the Israelites in Isaiah chapter one. He tells them that he hates their songs, assemblies, and offerings, which are offered according to God's requirements. But they weren't offered from a sincere heart. It reminds us of Cain's false offering.
We would do well to remember that it is not up to us to "remove" the flesh. It is not up to our efforts to bring our lives into conformity with Jesus. Christ has removed from us that which does not proclaim and honor God. Jesus has circumcised from the heart those things that made us rebels, and now we have been made into new creatures in him. You and I, by faith, are now in covenant with God, not on the basis of our works of flesh, but on the basis of Christ's work within our hearts.
ADDITIONAL READING: Romans 3:1, Jeremiah 9:25-26; Galatians 2:1-6; Galatians 6: 11-16; Jeremiah 4:4; Romans 2: 22-29; Romans 4: 7-14; Colossians 2: 8-14; Isaiah 1; Galatians 1:10
