Read Galatians 2
And so, to
begin Galatians 2, we go to Genesis 17.
When Abram
was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am God
Almighty; walk before me faithfully and be blameless. Then I will make my covenant between me and
you and will greatly increase your numbers.”
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.”
Then God said
to Abraham, “As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants
after you for the generations to come.
This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the
covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You are to undergo circumcision, and it will
be the sign of the covenant between me and you.
For the generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must
be circumcised, including those born in your household or bought with money
from a foreigner—those who are not your offspring. Whether born in your household or bought with
your money, they must be circumcised. My covenant in your flesh is to be an
everlasting covenant. Any uncircumcised
male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his
people; he has broken my covenant.”
This
circumcision stuff was not a slight matter for the Hebrew people. In the past, it wasn’t an issue. There were no expectations for the Gentiles
because they were not God’s people. It’s the not my circus, not my monkey
mindset.
Jesus
changed the dynamic. Now God was sending
his emissaries out to all the peoples of the world. God’s love was and is for all. All can come in good relationship with God
through belief in Christ Jesus.
Does that
end God’s covenant with Abraham?
No. God’s Chosen People will bear
this sign in the flesh as part of an everlasting covenant. It is not a condition of salvation for those
who come to Christ Jesus and receive him as Lord.
Today, in
the modern, western world, circumcision is more a medical choice than a
decision of religion or faith. Two
thousand years ago, it was a sign in the flesh of the covenant that God made
with Abraham and very important to his chosen people. We can’t fully understand
how much this meant to God’s Chosen People.
I’m thinking
that I would not have wanted to be the junior rabbi at temple gates during
Passover or some other big event. The Sanhedrin
sitting high and mighty would surely assign the most junior rabbi’s
circumcision check duty. Nobody gets in
from the Gentile courts without proof of circumcision.
I’m thinking
I don’t like the idea of a vaccination passport, but I would have been ok with
a circumcision passport. You think getting wanded at airport security is
invasive…
The Jews are
still God’s Chosen People, but God has extended his unfathomable love to
all. He has chosen us to be a part of
his eternal family.
This was a
matter of some discussion when Paul met with Peter, James, and John in
Jerusalem, as we read in Acts 15. Where does circumcision, and for
that matter, other matters of the law fit into the paradigm for these new
believers from the Gentile world?
Then some of
the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said,
“The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses.”
The apostles
and elders met to consider this question.
After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: “Brothers, you
know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might
hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. God, who knows the heart, showed that he
accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. He did not discriminate between us and them,
for he purified their hearts by faith.
Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles
a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear? No! We believe it is through the grace of our
Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.”
And in this
first big church meeting, we see grace triumphant over ritual and works and
even an everlasting sign inn the flesh.
Later on, Paul would talk about Gentiles being grafted into the line of
Abraham and a discussion of circumcision might ensue from there, but surely the
purpose of such grafting was for God to include all humankind into his eternal
family.
So, if the
Gentile believers were not required to be circumcised, how would they be known
as followers of Jesus?
Jesus
commanded us to be known by our love. Our
baptism is considered our modern-day sign.
It’s a sign in the spirit not the flesh, but that’s part of how we are
to be known and how we are to live.
Paul presented
it this way.
For through
the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no
longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by
faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if
righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!
The law
which could only show me that I had fallen short of the glory of God offered
little in the way of atonement. Again
and again, I was led to make recurring atonement for my sin.
I am dead to
that way now. The law was not bad. God gave it for our own good, but now we
receive the ultimate good of the law. We
have come to know grace.
We come to
know God through his Son and his atoning sacrifice—a once and for all
sacrifice.
Where does
that leave me? Where does that leave any of us who have come to know Christ in
this modern century?
I am
crucified with Christ. Christ lives in
me.
Our sin, our
debt, our old self was nailed
to the cross with Christ. And that
old self that was so egregious as far as the law goes, is now dead. There was
no resurrection for that old self. There will be more to follow along these
lines.
But through
God’s grace, his Son lives in me. We
have received the deposit of the Holy Spirit and we know that life eternal is
real and that God has chosen us.
Christ lives
in me!
Paul will
address this concept in different ways in many letters, but we need to get our
hearts and our heads around this idea that God himself is living within us.
The old
sinful self is dead. It is Christ
himself who lives in me.
I am
crucified with Christ. Christ lives in
me.
Yes, we have
some wrestling to do along the way, but we need to be fully convinced in our
own minds that Christ Jesus lives within us.
I suggest
that we get so accustomed to this quip of theology, that our minds become more
and more accepting of what it means.
I am
crucified with Christ. Christ lives in
me.
Amen.
