People of God: Circumcision Outer and Inner

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God first commanded circumcision of Abraham in Genesis 17. The rite was to be a token of the covenant that God had made with Abraham (17:11). It was to be applied not only to Abraham and his descendants, but also to servants who were born in his house and slaves he had purchased from foreigners (17:12-13). Any males who were not circumcised were to be cut off from the people as covenant breakers.

Circumcision modified the body as a physical evidence that God had chosen Abraham and his offspring. It was a mark or token of inclusion in the promised nation. In principle, to be circumcised was to claim a share in the promise and to wear the badge of participation as an heir. But paradoxically, the introduction of circumcision also implied that not everyone who received the sign would actually receive the promise. Why? Because at the very time that Abraham was commanded to institute circumcision, he was clearly told that Ishmael would not receive the promise (17:18-21). Nevertheless, Ishmael received circumcision (17:26).

From the very beginning it should have been clear that circumcision was neither an efficacious means to gaining nor an infallible sign of possessing the promise. All those who were heirs of the promise were obligated to receive circumcision, but not all those who received circumcision became heirs of the promise. Though circumcision was a sign or token of inclusion, it was not an infallible sign. Something more was always required.

The need for something more than physical circumcision became clear in the events that followed the exodus. God delivered Israel from Egypt and led them into the wilderness, where they were constituted as His people. They were under the cloud, they passed through the sea, they were baptized into identification with Moses in the cloud and the sea, they all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink (1 Cor. 10:1-4). By these events, the nation was devoted externally and visibly to God. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them, and struck them down in the desert (1 Cor. 10:5). While the nation was devoted externally and visibly to God, most of the individuals within the nation fell under God’s judgment instead of His blessing. Ultimately, of the men who left Egypt, only two would enter the promised land.

The reason for God’s judgment was simple: the inner devotion of the Israelites did not match their external position. Externally they constituted a nation that was devoted to God, and they all wore the mark of that devotion—circumcision. Internally, however, their hearts were often hardened toward God. To use the biblical expression, their necks grew stiff as they rebelled against Him. Outwardly they wore the badge of the covenant, but inwardly they were rebels.

Before the nation went in to take possession of the promised land, Moses warned them sternly against their inward rebellion. He urged them to fear God, to obey Him, and to serve and love Him with all their heart and soul (Deut. 10:12). To do this, they would need to change their minds toward God and to alter their attitudes from rebellion toward submission and devotion—in a word, the Israelites would have to repent. Moses’ exhortation for this repentance and submission of heart is revealing. He commanded the Israelites to “circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and stop being stiff-necked.”

The metaphorical use of the word circumcision was not new. When Moses wanted to express his inability to speak properly about divine things, he said that he had “uncircumcised lips” (Ex. 6:12, 30). In other words, he believed that his speech (viewed under the metonym of lips) had not been sufficiently disciplined and developed in the area that he was supposed to address. To have “circumcised lips” would mean to devote one’s self to the task of framing speech about divine things until one could discourse about them fluently.

Similarly, to circumcise the heart was to devote one’s self to the things of God, to learn to fear Him, to study obedience and submission, and most of all to cultivate a genuine love for God with all one’s heart and soul. A circumcised heart is the opposite of a stiff neck. The latter is resistance and rebellion, the former is repentance and devotion. Physical circumcision was a symbolic, outward badge of devotion to God in a covenant relationship. Circumcision of the heart was a metaphor for real, inward devotion to God for His own sake—the very thing that the New Testament calls regeneration or being born again. (The juxtaposition of the command to “circumcise your hearts” with the promise that God would circumcise the heart probably parallels the New Testament emphasis upon the necessity of personal repentance and belief even though God is the one who does the regenerating.)

God had previously spoken of a future time when He would bring judgment upon rebellious Israel (Lev. 26:14-39). Yet He also promised that when the Israelites confessed their treachery and hostility, He would remember His covenant with the patriarchs and restore them (26:40-45). God described the condition of Israel as treacherous rebels by saying that they had “uncircumcised hearts” (26:41) that needed to be humbled.

Later on, the prophet Jeremiah foretold a time when God would judge both the circumcised and the uncircumcised. Amazingly, he listed Judah among the Gentile nations, observing that “all the nations are uncircumcised” (Jer. 9:25-26). But he immediately clarified this juxtaposition by declaring that “all the house of Israel are uncircumcised of heart.” This language clearly anticipates what the apostle Paul would say in Romans 2:25-29.

Jeremiah also spoke of the “uncircumcised ears” of God’s people (Jer. 6:10). He equates uncircumcised ears with a stubborn inability to receive God’s message because they “have no delight in it.” This is the language that Stephen picked up in his address to the Jewish leadership when he announced that they were “uncircumcised in heart and ears” (Acts 7:51), which he also identified as resisting the Holy Spirit.

The solution for Judah was to “circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and remove the foreskins of your heart” (Jer. 4:4). Again, the circumcised heart speaks of an inner change, of repentance, of a shift from a disposition of rebellion against God to a disposition of devotion to Him. This was evidently an individual responsibility for each Old Testament Israelite, but it was also a national duty. The thrust of the New Covenant was that God would someday work this inner change for the entire nation. Jeremiah referred to God writing His laws on their hearts (Jer. 31:33). Ezekiel phrased this future change in terms of God taking away their heart of stone and giving them a new heart, a heart of flesh (Ezek. 36:26). Perhaps the earliest form of this promise occurs in Deuteronomy 30:6, in which God promised to circumcise their heart.

This new heart, this heart of flesh, this circumcised heart, was promised to the nation as a whole. Yet it was always available to the individual. Indeed, it was the duty of all individual Israelites to circumcise their hearts. At the end of the day, to have a circumcised heart was simply to believe the Lord God for His promise. To have an uncircumcised heart was simply to rebel against Him in unbelief.

From the Pentateuch onward, the Old Testament maintains a contrast between inner and outer circumcision. Outer circumcision marks one externally as a participant in the covenant or as one who is devoted to God. Inner circumcision is a metaphor for repentance followed by genuine, inner devotion to God. There is no indication in the Old Testament that inner and outer circumcision can substitute for the other. A son of Israel who truly trusted and loved God could not imaginably have neglected outer circumcision. By the same token, outer circumcision without inner devotion could neither secure God’s blessing nor deliver from God’s judgment.

These are the themes that lie behind New Testament references to Gentile believers as “the circumcision.” Before we can discuss the application of these themes to Christians, however, we first have to deal with the relationship of Gentiles to circumcision. That will be our next step in this discussion—but it may have to wait while we interject a few comments on other topics.

Hark! A Thrilling Voice is Sounding
Fifth Century Latin, translated by Edward Caswall (1814-1878)

Hark! a thrilling voice is sounding;
“Christ is nigh,” it seems to say,
“Cast away the works of darkness,
O ye children of the day.”

Wakened by the solemn warning
Let the earthbound soul arise;
Christ, her Sun, all ill dispelling,
Shines upon the morning skies.

Lo, the Lamb, so long expected,
Comes with pardon down from Heav’n;
Let us haste, with tears of sorrow,
One and all to be forgiven.

That when next He comes in glory,
And the world is wrapped in fear,
With His mercy He may shield us,
And with words of love draw near.

Honor, glory, might, and blessing
Be to God: the Father, Son
And the everlasting Spirit,
While eternal ages run.