Day 13 – What Does it Mean to Circumcise the Heart?
~Deuteronomy 10:16 Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked.
Beginning in Genesis, God established a covenant with Abram and his people. This was the beginning of the Jewish people. The covenant was defined as:
~Genesis 17:10 This [is] my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised.
The physical act of circumcision defined a “setting apart” of a people for the glory of God. Just because they were physically set apart for the glory of God, they were not acting like it spiritually. God wanted them to be a holy people – a special people – above all people on earth.
~Deuteronomy 7:6 For thou [art] an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that [are] upon the face of the earth.
However, they were not obeying the Lord’s statutes and, therefore, became stiff-necked. God wanted a people that desired to obey Him out of love. But the people refused and their hearts were hardened. These people were serving God by the letter of the Law rather than with their hearts. They were viewing their works as their own righteousness and, therefore, “working at being righteous.”
~Deuteronomy 6:24-25 And the LORD commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as [it is] at this day. 25 And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the LORD our God, as he hath commanded us.
In other words, they were serving God in the “flesh” and not serving Him with their hearts. That is why God told them to circumcise the foreskin of their heart. This cuts away at what makes them the same as everyone else and causes them to be different – to be set apart in their hearts. It is the heart that reveals what kind of person one is – it is with the heart that one comes to salvation:
~Romans 10:10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
One can be circumcised in the body but not of the heart. In other words, a person can be circumcised but not have a circumcised heart – born again through repentance and faith (Acts 20:21). Once a person is truly born again, a miracle happens. A spiritual circumcision occurs in that person’s heart. He is now set apart! The Christian is to be different from the world. The foreskin of our hearts has been circumcised and we are set apart for God’s use!
~Romans 2:29 But he [is] a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision [is that] of the heart, in the spirit, [and] not in the letter; whose praise [is] not of men, but of God.
~Philippians 3:3 For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
~Colossians 2:11 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:
The Christian is now holy to God because Christ’s righteousness and holiness is what God sees!
~1 Peter 2:5 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
~Titus 2:14 Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.
~1 Peter 2:9 But ye [are] a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:
God chose a special people – a people that were not just to be set apart through the physical circumcision, but a people that served Him with their heart.
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