What is circumcision of the heart?

Now in the first place they were, as verse 16 says, to "circumcise" their hearts, as the answer to the love shown to them. We again find the Apostle Paul alluding to this in Romans 2:28-29. The rite of circumcision was established in connection with the patriarchal covenant, as we read in Genesis 17, though confirmed later in connection with the law. The inveterate tendency was to observe the outward ceremony and overlook its significance. Israel was to be a people completely cut off for and to God. Had there been circumcision of "heart," there would have been the cutting off of self-love, in the knowledge of the love of God.

The same tendency to lay much stress on outward, visible ceremony, while overlooking the inward, spiritual import, is with us today. Take the ordinance of baptism, for instance. We are not furnished with an exact, detailed description of just how it was administered, hence the much discussion and argument as to the outward ceremony. If as much attention had been paid to the spiritual meaning of the ordinance, as stated in the early verses of Romans 6, we should have gained far more profit. Dead and buried with Christ - our old life, as in Adam, judged — and "newness of life," now to characterise us.

Had Israel circumcised their hearts, a second thing would have marked them. They would have shown love to the stranger, who might be in their midst. We are to display the love that has reached us by seeking others with the Gospel of the grace of God.

Verses 1-4. A return must be a return unto Him, Jehovah; anything less is insufficient. Their abominations must be judged and put away. Every return of backsliders must be in the same way--a true return to the Lord with confession of sin, self-judgment, and abandonment of evil. The circumcision of the heart means regeneration. (See chapter 31:31-34, and Ezek. 36:26.)

Therefore he tells them to circumcise the foreskin of their heart, that is, cut off the selfish, fleshly desires of their heart; and "be stiff-necked no longer" (v.16). Being stiff-necked refers to the stubbornness of wanting our own way. But would Israel be corrected by being told this? Sadly, no! Only the New Testament shows the way of proper correction.

Notice here that this argument is one that strictly concerns Judaism. But we may easily transfer the principle to Christendom today, where baptism, the outward sign or badge of Christianity is often boasted in and trusted in, while the soul is far from God. And shall not the godly faith of an unbaptized person be counted for baptism — and the baptism of the perverter be counted as no baptism? Not that we would belittle baptism, any more than circumcision is belittled in verses 25-26 in connection with Judaism; but let it be known that baptism is no substitute for, and no supplement to, the reality of faith. Therefore the uncircumcised man, if he keeps the law, is the very judge of the Jew who, having the letter and circumcision, is a transgressor of the law. For the outward claims and pretensions of a man do not make the man. The Jew whose inward motives are not subject to God cannot have a place in “the Israel of God,” no matter how rigid and meticulous his formal observance of the rites of Judaism.

The Jew in the eyes of God is that one whose inward faith and hope are in God, and true circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter. The letter here speaks not of the actual words of the law — for these are truly inspired by God — but of a man's outwardly exact adherence to the law's forms. And such a thing without a purified heart — even in Judaism where ceremonialism was in order — is nothing but barren desolation. How much more as is in Christianity, which leaves no room for the elaborate ritual of Judaism! For Christ Himself is given as the altogether absorbing Object of the heart and eyes — the fullness that displaces Old Testament shadows — the Living Son of God by whom all mere religious formalism and machinery is exposed in its cold, heartless haughtiness. “Whose praise is not of men, but of God.” The true Jew is not that one who lives and acts for the eyes of men, but for God's eye — who lives not “in the presence of his brethren,” but in the presence of God. Jewish parentage rightly requires such character. If it is lacking, a claim based on Jewish relationship is valueless.

If God covenants to bless by His Almighty power, there must, on our side, be no confidence in the flesh or allowance of its activity. For the believer today, circumcision is, we know, "of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God" (Rom. 2:29). The refusal of the flesh is not to be merely an outward neglecting of the body of which the world can take account, but the refusal of the flesh in all its inward workings in the heart — its self-confidence, self-righteousness, vanity and lusts — as that which has been condemned in the cross (Col. 2:11).

When this scripture is fulfilled, the Lord will circumcise their hearts, that is, He will lead them to use the sharp knife of repentance to judge their sinful condition, and draw their hearts in genuine love toward Himself (v.6). This will take place at the end of the Great Tribulation, and will be a marvelous work of grace in the nation which will be born again in one day (Isa.66:8).

Hence we "are complete in him who is the head of all principality and power: in whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body [of the sins] of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ." vv. 10, 11. This is expressly in contrast with the external ordinance of circumcision. It should be "putting off the body of the flesh," not the body "of the sins" of the flesh. The true reading makes it a more complete thing; it is not a question of sins, but rather of sin in the nature. "Sins" would hardly be in keeping with the scope of the passage or phrase. It does not refer to the literal act of circumcising, but to Christ's death. When we believe in Christ, we have all the value of His death made true of us. This is here called circumcision not made by hands, in contrast with the ancient ordinance. The meaning and spiritual thought of circumcision is the mortification of human nature, man as he is being treated as a dead thing. It is Christ's death that gives us this privilege. We are brought into association with His death and have all its value in parting with our own ruined condition, "the body of the flesh," when we receive Him by faith. This circumcision supersedes all others, which in no way stripped off our evil state as man in the flesh.

The connection between circumcision and baptism is not so easy to explain, but circumcision is of course only true to us in Christ's death. (Col. 2:11.) It is not an "ordinance made with hands" as in the case of the Jew. It is what His death becomes to me who can say Christ is my life, so that I account all that happened to Him as having happened to me: and having been brought to bow to the complete judgment of all that I am, as only fit for judgment, I have received that judgment in the death of Christ, and have been thus circumcised with the circumcision of Christ. It is the soul brought to accept the complete end of all I was as a child of Adam, in the cross of Christ — thus putting off the body of the flesh (same verse).

(Vv. 25-29) The Apostle has shown that the practice of the religious man is far below his profession. In the verses that follow he shows the reason for this breakdown. The root of the failure lies in the profession of outward privileges without an inward work of grace in the heart. The outward place of privilege, of which circumcision is the sign, is indeed of profit, if the law is kept. An outward place among the people of God has its advantages; but if the practice is not in accord with the place, it has no spiritual value. If the gentile, without the position, keeps the righteousness of the law, he would get the blessing of the privileged class, though not having their position; Therefore what is inward is of far greater importance than what is outward. The true Jew is one in whom there is an inward work of the heart, and who serves God in spirit and not in the letter, and who lives before God, and not merely before men.

Whilst thus foretelling the doom which was coming upon Jerusalem by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, Jeremiah labours to reach the heart of the people. And it is important to notice it is in this connection we have the first mention of circumcision after the book of Joshua (Jer. 4:4). Jeremiah 9:25-26 gives the last mention of it in the Old Testament. The prophet seeks true circumcision “to the Lord”, the circumcision which touches the heart, preparing it for Him. With pleadings and warnings he labours thus to reach them. It is the same today. Unless we have been reached in the heart, and in the spirit, in the very centre of our being, we are alienated from the living God, though like these Jews we call ourselves “the people of God” and have priests and a form of religion. What though they claim to be a religious nation if the Lord be not exalted! What though religionists claim to be the church if the true Head be displaced. Israel made high claims, but they knew not the Lord! They were “sottish children”, they had “no understanding”, they were “wise to do evil”, but to do good they had no knowledge (Jer. 4:22). Woe and anguish must therefore come upon them (v. 31). But, as at all times, God reserves a remnant. Such turn in reality to the Lord Himself, and they are true in heart to Him (Jer. 4:27 and 5:18); therefore, He will not make a full end of the nation.