As we read in last week’s focus, people, both Jews and Gentiles, are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. All people have access to the Father by one Spirit. This act of oneness is the work of Jesus Christ on the cross: He died for all human beings. People do not have to die because of their sins as was the case in Noah’s time because Jesus came to die for the sins of the world. The penalty for sin has been paid by the Righteous One, the Son of God, on the cross. God brought this gift to mankind through his covenant with Abraham. God would bless all of mankind through Abraham’s Seed. To confirm this promise forever, He told Abraham and his ancestors to be circumcised. Abram fell facedown, and God said to him, “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. The whole land of Canaan, where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.” (Genesis 17:3-8) This act of cutting away the flesh was to be performed on all Jewish males at the age of 8 days. After circumcision, every male had a sign on his body that he was committed to the God of Creation and that he would serve God and him only. Circumcision came after God stated his promise to Abraham. This act of circumcision affirmed that the Jewish people were his own people, separating them from everyone else on the face of the earth. However, Abraham’s covenant was said before the act of circumcision. God had told Abraham that he has been MADE BY GOD to be the father of many nations. Abraham would also be the father of those who were not circumcised or from Abraham’s loins. All people would receive the blessings of the covenant with Abraham. They also would be known as God’s chosen, his special people, inheritors of God himself and his eternal land. Those who were far away from God, not with the markings of circumcision, would be brought close to God by the blood of Christ. Jesus died for whosoever will, not just for the circumcision people of the Jewish lineage. All people who trust in Jesus would be cloaked under the promise of Abraham. God would be their God and their descendants’ God. Salvation, the Good News of eternal life, would be for all who fall under the name of Jesus Christ. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16). Circumcision is not the qualifying element in the redemption of mankind; the spirit of God in people is the key to life forever. Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” (John 3:5-8) Cutting away the flesh cannot transform a life to an everlasting life; only the Spirit of God can perform that transformation.
The Old Testament reveals clearly the weakness of trying to please God through the acts of the flesh. The Jewish people who had every male circumcised lost contact with their God in many ways. Their kings were often leaders of sin rather than righteousness. After the division of Israel into two nations, all the kings of the kingdom of Israel consisting of ten tribes were evil. And many of the kings in Judah, made up of two tribes, were evil. In the kingdom of Israel, Jeroboam, their first king, set up two gold calves to worship in his nation. One was in the city of Bethel and the other in Dan, one golden calf in the upper part of his kingdom and one in the lower part of his kingdom. These idols represented fertility and power. This worship of this god was brought out of Egypt. In the wilderness, this idea of the bull god was so strong in the Israelites, that Aaron was compelled to mold gold into a form of a calf to worship when the people thought Moses had abandoned them. Jeroboam now brought this idol into prominence in Israel. Jeroboam did this so the people would not go into Judah to worship the only true God in Jerusalem. Israel had other idols too that that they worshiped, gods of the heavenly bodies and of fertility. They even sacrificed their own children to these gods. Finally their wickedness became so persuasive that God abandoned them completely. The Assyrians invaded Israel, killing many, and taking the remaining Israelites into Assyria as slaves. The people of Israel disappeared from history after this devastation. But Judah still existed. They also were evil, but sometimes good kings would arise and lead the people back to the God of Abraham. But even though the men were circumcised, they also forgot the God of Abraham and did evil in the sight of the Lord. Finally about 100 years after the Kingdom of Israel disappeared, Judah was defeated by the Babylonians. Many were killed and others became slaves in Babylon. Now both Israelite nations were defeated, and the land of Canaan was in the control of the Gentiles. Circumcision and the law and regulations never changed permanently the hearts of the Jewish men and women. As Jesus said, they needed to be born again. Cutting away of the flesh and the laws never change their Adamic nature. As Paul said, there is something inside me that wants to do evil, to separate me from the authority of God. To illustrate the Adamic nature of the Jews, we see a remnant of Jews in Egypt who fled from the Babylonians. Jeremiah had prophesied over and over that God was judging them for their idol worshipping and their wickedness, but they would not repent and now these Jews found themselves in the foreign land of Egypt. But their attitude toward God and toward their idols had not changed at all. Then all the men who knew that their wives were burning incense to other gods, along with all the women who were present—a large assembly—and all the people living in Lower and Upper Egypt, said to Jeremiah, “We will not listen to the message you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord! We will certainly do everything we said we would: We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and will pour out drink offerings to her just as we and our ancestors, our kings and our officials did in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. At that time we had plenty of food and were well off and suffered no harm. But ever since we stopped burning incense to the Queen of Heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have had nothing and have been perishing by sword and famine.” (Jeremiah 44:15-18). Their allegiance to the God who brought them out of Egypt was nil. They served their idols with relish, believing any success they experienced in life was because of their worshipping of these idols. They forgot God; therefore, God abandoned them. And it would take 2,000 years for the land of Canaan to be theirs again.
Circumcision and the laws could not change the hearts of the Jews. But God had a plan from the beginning of time to bring all people to him as his own, circumcised in the heart. And that plan came through his Son, through whom He created all things. Jesus would create a new heart in those who would put their trust in him. The Spirit of God would come to those who were cleansed by the blood of the Lamb. God sent his son to connect all humans together as his children. The animosity between the Jews and the Gentiles would be broken down. This animosity was so great that the Jews could not even associate with the Gentiles, and for sure, not enter their houses. But we see Peter in the Bible given a vision to accept all foods that God blesses as worthy to be eaten. After this vision, Peter is called to the Gentile home of Cornelius. God tells Peter that he should go to this devout Gentile and present him the Good News. Peter does exactly that. He now understands because of his vision about food, that whatever God blesses, he should not reject. While talking with him, Peter went inside and found a large gathering of people. He said to them: “You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile. But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean. So when I was sent for, I came without raising any objection. May I ask why you sent for me?” (Acts 10:27-29) Peter is at Cornelius' house because God is now going to open the Good News to all people everywhere. All people, all lands, will receive the Good News that Jesus saves. The promise to Abraham will be fulfilled. You will be the father of many nations. God will imprint on people’s hearts his circumcision, not of the flesh, for it could not affect man’s nature, but of the heart, a change inside out in a person’s life. God’s promise of inheriting a new land would be theirs, for the kingdom of God would be the inheritance of this new people, chosen to be God’s people forever. How is this accomplished? In Acts we see Silas and Paul talking to their jailer about his salvation. The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” (Acts 16:29-31) Paul is telling the jailer, you do not have to be afraid, God has eternal life for you. Through the man Jesus you can experience peace with God. He has brought all people in the world in right alignment with God; all people can know the Creator as their Father, Gentiles and Jews alike. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two. Therefore, may we all walk in that glorious freedom today, praising our Lord for our salvation.
No comments:
Post a Comment