New Testament Circumcision: "New Covenant; Same Old Pain"
Colossians 2:11 “When you came to Christ you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature.
Paul is certainly wanting to draw a comparison between the old covenant and the new covenant. He uses this image of circumcision to describe the new covenant to relate the image to the old covenant. This helps the reader to understand what is truly happening in Christ according to Paul. I find it also fascinating in comparing the two “circumcisions” in the very act of the circumcising and want to spend time today thinking about this comparison. As Paul states…..”the cutting away of the sinful nature” I think it makes room and invites this discussion of the very act especially in light of my culture that desires not to be rid of its sinful nature (both in and outside the church).
I tell you one thing, I’m glad I was an infant when I was circumcised and that I have no concept of that pain. Just thinking about being circumcised and the pain that comes with that is something I don’t even want to fathom as a man. And yet, Paul uses this image to describe what happens when we come to know Jesus…..there is a cutting away of the sinful nature. Could it be that the cutting away of the sinful nature is as painful as old testament circumcision? Could it be that the reason so many in our culture refuse to completely give themselves to Christ is that they are afraid of the pain of cutting away their sinful nature? Could it be that their sinful nature is as close to them as their foreskin and the thought of cutting that skin, of separating themselves from this piece of their life that has been intimately tied to them forever is completely terrifying? Am I tied so tightly to my sinful nature that the thought of cutting it away is terrifying? The other side is that when someone is not circumcised there are a number of health risks the older they get and often men have to be circumcised later on in life which is much more painful because of the health risk that are a result of not being circumcised. Could the same be said of our circumcision of the sinful nature? Perhaps there are a number of risk that are involved in not being circumcised from our sinful nature? I’m kind of rambling at this point but my point is that giving our lives to Jesus and asking Him to cut away our sinful nature is not always a pretty picture and it means us cutting away a nature that is as intimately tied to our lives as a man’s foreskin but is something that must be cut away for us to live into this new covenant through Jesus Christ.
Lord, I come to you today asking for you to continue to circumcise my heart. Continue to cut away that sinful nature that seeks to pull me back into the old chaos of my life. I pray today Lord, that you would be the Lord of my life and that you would use me as a instrument of your new covenant. Thank you Jesus, for the cutting away my sinful nature at the cross and giving me the opportunity to live a new life through your grace. Continue to give me the grace live into this new covenant and to allow you to be that intimate piece of my life that replaces the sinful nature that sought to destroy my life. Amen!
Through Jesus my sinful nature is circumcised away.
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