Genesis 17:7 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Genesis 17:7

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Then comes the repeat of the land promise, which will be the glorified earth in heaven for all who believe, and there is a condition in verse 9 that the covenant must be kept. Well of course; if God works a work of grace in your heart and you are a believer and you are converted, then you obey God. You are still a sinner-saint; you slip and slide, and you fail him, but you repent and your great concern is to do better and to please him and serve him. If you don't care about sin, then you are obviously not in this covenant; you have never truly been saved. Circumcision is now introduced, and it is covered in quite a number of verses. What is the purpose of circumcision? Physical circumcision was the removal of the foreskin of the male children on the eighth day of life. It was a sign of the great change that takes place at conversion: the circumcision of the heart. It is a sign of faith, but it is only a sign and is not itself faith. It was intended to remind the Jews, until Christ came, of Abraham's faith. It reminded them that through their nation would come the seed royal, the Messiah, the one in whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed. Although the requirement for circumcision of the flesh was not perpetual, the reality which it represents is indeed perpetual, for none will ever be saved who have not been circumcised in the heart. There were two sides to the Abrahamic covenant. On one side were the physical seed (Genesis 12:3), and on the other side are the spiritual seed. It was not a purely spiritual covenant, because at this stage in the history of the world mankind was like a child that still needed lessons suitable for a child. The child is taught through pictures and illustrations. The physical seed were given earthly, temporal promises, and the spiritual seed are given spiritual, eternal promises. The earthly seed was composed of Abraham’s physical descendants, who were to form the nation of Israel, but the spiritual seed is not limited to these; it includes all who have the faith of Abraham, both Jews and Gentiles (Galatians 3:29). The physical seed were given a sign in the flesh to mark them out as different from the nations around them. It was a sign that God had separated them for himself: the removal of the uncleanness of the flesh symbolised the removal of the sin. It was a painful operation which represented the correspondingly painful mortification of sinful lusts. Just as the physical seen were distinguished by this physical rite, so the spiritual seed are distinguished from the people of the world by a sanctified heart, a heart that loves God rather than the world; they are those who have a circumcised heart. ‘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’ (Colossians 2:11). This heart circumcision is something carried out not by human hands in a surgical operation, but by the Holy Spirit on the heart. And of course physical circumcision was for the male babies only, whereas circumcision of the heart is for all. Circumcision of flesh does not save; circumcision of the heart does save.So Abraham was commanded to circumcise every male child born in his household, as well as strangers bought from outside. What did this do? It did not save them, but it pointed to Abraham’s faith as Paul argues in Romans 4: ‘he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith’ (Romans 4:11). In Abraham’s case, he already had that righteousness before the was circumcised, and circumcision simply confirmed it. But in the case of his descendants, the sign in the flesh preceded any spiritual change: it was supposed to lead to the reality that was present in Abraham: a circumcised heart. But for many Israelites circumcision went no further than the physical rite. Moses therefore exhorts them: ‘Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked’ (Deuteronomy 10:16). To be a member of the nation of Israel was to have many advantages, but membership of the nation of Israel did itself bring salvation. Israel was God’s school, a school setup for all of Abraham’s descendants, but without faith it was possible to be in that school and profit nothing. By contrast, the church is the body of Christ. It is the reality of which Israel was only a picture. The New Testament church of Jesus Christ is not like the mixed multitude that was Israel, the nation. It is a body of regenerate men and women who do not need to challenge one another as to whether they know the Lord, for they all know the Lord; they all have faith; they have all been born again. The elders of each local church do their best to ensure that only those who are truly born again are admitted into membership.Although adults could be circumcised under special circumstances, in the normal course of events circumcision was carried out eight days after birth and so was linked to natural birth. It signified membership of the physical side of the covenant made with Abraham and his descendants. God promised to be their God: to teach them, to defend them, to supply their needs, to accept their outward worship, but that side of the covenant did not go so far as to confer any spiritual blessings. To receive spiritual blessings, they had to exercise faith just as Abraham did, and then they would enter the covenant of grace not by blood (physical descent), nor by the will of the flesh (human works and effort), nor by the will of man (a human decision), but by the new birth: they are born of God.Baptism is not equivalent to circumcision because the qualification for circumcision is physical birth, but the qualification for baptism is the new birth following repentance and faith in Christ (Acts 8:36). Neither circumcision nor baptism make anyone a Christian, but they both symbolise the change that occurs at conversion. Circumcision (except in the case of Abraham) came before faith; baptism should come after faith. Circumcision anticipates a future spiritual change that hopefully will take place, but baptism confirms a past spiritual change that should have already taken place. This difference is in line with the difference between Israel and the true church. Baptism symbolises death to the old life in a watery grave and rising to a new life in Christ. It is a picture of the baptism of the Spirit which occurs at conversion.

Application

Questions

Why was circumcision made the great sign of being under the law (Galatians 5:3), when in fact it originated in the Abrahamic covenant (John 7:22)? The Abrahamic covenant was a covenant of grace and of promise, but the national covenant made with Israel on Sinai was a legal covenant; it was about works (Galatians 4:24-25;), and those who failed to keep all its requirements were subject to a curse (Galatians 3:10). How could circumcision be taken from one covenant and made a sign of another covenant so different in character? Viewed as a sign of heart circumcision, physical circumcision instructed each Israelite what should be true of them spiritually. But if it was detached from heart circumcision and became an end in itself, then it turned into a sign of bondage. This is how Paul treats it in Galatians. Those who belonged to the physical side of the Abrahamic covenant but who never exercised faith and did not see that they needed to, were in a dangerous position. Under the covenant made on Sinai with the nation, God reminded them that descent from Abraham gave them nothing without personal faith, and they were still in bondage; they were still under the law which brings a curse. So circumcision was made to stand for all the requirements of the law which they failed to keep. This was a further incentive to drive them back to the promise, to drive them to grace in Christ Jesus.

‘And my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.’ Reading this, people say, ‘Does that mean that circumcision should have gone on, and it lasts forever, and it should even be practised by the Christian church today on little boys; is that what it means?’ No, of course not, because we have Romans 10:4: ‘Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth.’ The ceremonial practices of the law, including circumcision are finished in Christ. Christ is the end of the law. All symbolic acts of righteousness have been swallowed up by Christ's real act of perfect righteousness, when he lived a perfect life and offered himself up on Calvary's cross in obedience to the Father to bear away the sins of the redeemed. Now all symbolic righteousness in the Old Testament, all the rites and the ceremonies, are totally eclipsed by Christ's actual, real, literal offering of perfect righteousness. Christ is the end of the ceremonial law. So although the text in Genesis 17 says that it is perpetual, we must understand this to mean that it is perpetual before Christ comes, and after Christ comes it is perpetual in the sense that he has fulfilled all those symbols.

Outline

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Introduction

Genesis 17:7 Commentary and Bible Study