Circumcise and Crucify, Friends of Sanctification
1 Samuel 31:4b These uncircumcised people might come and run me through and treat me with scorn.
1 Timothy 6:3a If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not accede to them the pure words of our Lord Jesus Christ and toward godly teaching,
There are two sides to every coin, two sides to every argument, two sides in a competition. Whose side am I on? Is it heads or tails? In the Old Testament, the choices were clearly obvious; uncircumcised or circumcised.
At the end of King Saul’s life, and after all his evil deeds he was responsible for, he still didn’t want to fall into the hands of the enemy of God’s people, the uncircumcised.
Fast forward over 900 years to the time of Jesus, and what do we find? The lines are not nearly and so clearly drawn. Roman pagans rule the known world. The circumcised Jews were relentless in their not-so-Herculean efforts to overthrow the strong arm of Rome. These freedom-fighters were nothing more than freedom-hopers, with no hope to overthrow Rome and remained in their own prideful religion.
Why? These local circumcised law-keepers were led by self-serving Pharisees who used their religious position to line their pockets and feed their egos. They hid behind the name of Moses as an auspice for holiness> They used Moses like a sword to battle against Jesus.
Our New Testament hero, Paul, sprouted from this religious sect after the Lord sat on him like a 2,000-pound gorilla in Acts 9. The rough road to Damascus won Paul over to the pure words of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The coming of Jesus confused the religious order of that day. Jesus, a Jew, represented the one true God, which, opposed the polytheistic culture of Rome. Jesus said he came to fulfill the law of Moses, meaning that the law of Moses was not yet sufficient for holiness and godliness, thus opposing the Jewish Pharisees as well.
But the new covenant, the pure words of our Lord Jesus Christ is ‘advanced citizenship’.
The narrow gate that leads to the center of Christ’s humility is agonizing (per gospel writer, Luke), and the definition for ‘disciple’ was soon wiped clean, leaving room for the more watered-down version of follower called the ‘Crowd.’ The Crowd excitedly followed Jesus all around the Galilean Basin in search of all the goodies in this Christological Horn or Plenty.
Health care rose to an unprecedented level for this diseased stricken era. Fish sandwiches seemed to multiply pretty much out of nowhere. Taxes due the government were simply taken from the mouths of fish. Imagine the health and wealth gospel come to life… But sadly somehow, the invitation to imitate the holiness of Jesus was tabled, and the cross simply faded as a prop in a Hollywood movie set; one more way to watch the cross rather than what Jesus said to do…raise it.
The pagans, Pharisees, and the curious Crowd have treated that cross with scornful, uncircumcised hearts, using Jesus for their own selfish purposes.
Apostle Paul, set on a holy quest, left behind encouraging words for those who would choose to raise a sacrificial cross as a disciple of Jesus would. But it starts with another kind of circumcision, the circumcision of the heart: Romans 2:29 states “Rather, the Jew is one concealed and the circumcision of the heart in spirit is not written, which the praise is not from people but from God.”
Flesh circumcision was the trademark of the Jew, while circumcision of the heart is found in acts of Humility, many times unseen by the naked eye, but praised by God alone.
Circumcision of the heart can only come from that raised cross, arresting pride and ego for their crucifixion. Then the imitation of Jesus begins, keeping strict His Twenty Commands that do fulfill Moses’ Ten.
These are the pure words of our Lord Jesus Christ, encased in what is known as the Sermon on the Mount, godly teaching at its best.
Once pride and ego are crucified, cross-carrying Humility and Righteousness are free to do what they do best – imitate Jesus, the trademark of a disciple.
Anything else is a different doctrine.
