How can we remain calm and relaxed when believers are in spiritual danger? If we stand by and do nothing then either we don’t see the danger or else we don’t care. Paul testifies to them as one who fears for them and courageously stands in the way to turn them aside. But having given a faithful warning and prayed for them, he must wait to see how they will respond, for he cannot physically prevent them from doing what is wrong; they must respond willingly or not at all.
If circumcision originated in the Abrahamic covenant, why was it later taken and made the principal symbol of the covenant made with Moses at Sinai since this was so different in nature to the covenant made four hundred and thirty years before with Jacob, and still earlier with Abraham? Almost everywhere in the New Testament circumcision in the flesh is treated as a symbol of the law and not as a symbol of faith. But this borrowing of the rite of circumcision is entirely fitting if we understand the nature of the Abrahamic covenant and the two sides to that covenant: one made with Abraham and his spiritual descendants, and the other made with his physical descendants. Each had distinct blessings promised to them by God; the physical descendants never received the blessing of justification and imputed righteousness given to Abraham unless they too exercised faith. They did receive the external expression of heavenly blessings in the form of an earthly land, but this was only a token of the true blessing.
Of particular importance was the fact that these physical descendants of Abraham, who lacked faith and were only in the typical side of the covenant, were still under the law. Without faith in the promise they could not receive the imputed righteousness of God and remained in a legal relationship with the Lord, seeking justification by their own works. For this reason it was entirely suitable that the nation as a whole should be explicitly placed under the covenant of the law at Sinai. There were promises made to the descendants of Abraham but these did not include salvation; they only promised earthly blessings and left the members of the nation without spiritual life. But these members of the Abrahamic covenant were identified by circumcision in the flesh without the corresponding circumcision in the heart. This was why the sign, which originally pointed to Abraham’s faith, was in the case of those who did not believe made a sign of their bondage under the law. This is what they had turned circumcision into by relying on it for favour with God. Circumcision therefore took on a new meaning. It came to stand for entrance into and reliance on the law of God for righteousness. The unbelieving Jews boasted in his relation to Abraham and circumcision was for him a symbol of this, but since he was a natural child and not a child of promise, he continued to have a legal relation to the Lord and was under obligation to fulfil the whole law which was spelled out so clearly by Moses. The nation as a whole was therefore placed under the law at Sinai and shown that this was the choice they had made. Physical circumcision became a symbol of bondage to the law. It was therefore madness for the Galatians to wish to be circumcised, for in doing so they were following the example of unbelieving Israel, and committing themselves to do what Israel had failed to do for centuries.