Hello rhuff:
Circumcision of the flesh meant that one had accepted the everlasting
old covenant.
The circumcision not made with hands is circumcision of the heart, and
it means that one has accepted the everlasting old covenant in spirit,
and is looking forward to accepting it in fact, when the Davidic
kingdom of covenant Israel is resurrected from the dead.
What do you think?
rhuff163 wrote:
Devotional Guide
For the week of October 8, 2006
CHEATING DEATH
The value of circumcision
To read the Bible in one year, today Read: 1 Samuel 22-24.
To Know:
=B3In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hand=
s, by
putting off the body of flesh in the circumcision of Christ=8A=B2 (Col.2:=
11)
My aunt Lucy raced home one afternoon with a fishhook lodged in her arm. =
She
was frightened and with very good reason. My grandfather had ordered her =
to
stay away from the town wharf whenever the boys were fishing. He knew that
when the boys were fishing, hooks would be flying fast and furiously. Lucy
ignored his warning and now she must face the music. Lucy didn=B9t know w=
hich
was worse, being hooked or facing his wrath. Her father was mad. When he =
saw
what she had done my grandfather reached for his pocketknife and cut the
thing out on the spot.
Cutting the flesh is a frightful action. God chose circumcision to make
evident the gravity of sin. The flesh necessitates a merciless action. Fl=
esh
is more than the body. Flesh is self in full-blown defiance of God. We can
understand what the Bible means by flesh by simply reversing the word and
dropping the h. Flesh is self going against God. Flesh cannot be tamed. It
cannot be trained. It cannot be threatened into submission. Flesh must be
cut off. This Christ did on the cross. Our Lord put =B3off the body of fl=
esh
in the circumcision of Christ.=B2 Flesh is the sinful self which God cruc=
ified
in Christ on the day that he died under the wrath of God.
To Do:
Our sinful nature was crucified in Christ on the cross. To the Romans Paul
wrote, =B3We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the si=
nful
body might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin.=B2 (6=
:6)
Circumcised skin is removed from the body. The circumcised self was remov=
ed
by the crucifixion of Christ. We must not now behave as if our
self-interests were still legitimate to us.
To Ask:
Father, thank you for your grace in crucifying us in Christ and not in
ourselves.
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10116$-10116
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