“So why are you now trying to out-god God …?” (Acts 15:10, Message)
With this teaching we would like to largely conclude the sub-theme of the sabbath. We clearly pointed out how the new covenant differs from the old covenant. Specifically: the revelation Jesus presents concerning the sabbath demonstrates the perfect law of freedom, in no uncertain terms! A few last examples to solidify our argument.
The event found in John 7:19-23 is of great importance in understanding the law (and thus observing the sabbath) in the new covenant: “’Did not Moses give you the law, yet none of you keeps the law? Why do you seek to kill Me?’ The people answered and said, ‘You have a demon. Who is seeking to kill You?’ Jesus answered and said to them, ‘I did one work, and you all marvel. Moses therefore gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath, so that the law of Moses should not be broken, are you angry with Me because I made a man completely well on the Sabbath?’”
This is a deadly argument.
In Gen. 17:9-14 the eternal covenant between God and Abraham is cut through the circumcision: “And God said to Abraham: ‘As for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. This is My covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: Every male child among you shall be circumcised; and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you. He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised, every male child in your generations, he who is born in your house or bought with money from any foreigner who is not your descendant. He who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money must be circumcised, and My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. And the uncircumcised male child, who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.’”
According to the following Scripture, the sabbath, along with the circumcision, are both signs of the covenant the Jews have with God. Ex. 31:16-17 makes it clear: “Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever …” Based on this the sabbath and the circumcision are the central symbols of covenant with God, if you are a Jew. We can start to see why Paul refers to circumcision as “the offense of the cross” (Gal. 5:11) – this is equally true for the sabbath!
But what then happens if the day of circumcision falls on the sabbath, as circumcision is surely seen as work? Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible specifies the following: “The law required that the child should be circumcised on the eighth day. If that day happened to be the Sabbath, yet they held that he was to be circumcised, as there was a positive law to that effect; and as this was commanded, they did not consider it a breach of the Sabbath.”
From this we need to understand the spirit of the law – if there was in any way a conflict surrounding the execution of a particular law, the law always had to give way to the covenant. Selah! A beautiful example of this is found in Isa. 58:5-8, when fasting is presented as a religious ritual: “Is it a fast that I have chosen, a day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush, and to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Would you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord? ‘Is this not the fast that I have chosen: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out; when you see the naked, that you cover him, and not hide yourself from your own flesh? Then your light shall break forth like the morning, your healing shall spring forth speedily, and your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.’”
Clearly God works with the spirit of the law rather than with the letter of the law – He is always testing the attitude of our heart (Jer. 17:10), that which Luke 1:17 calls “the wisdom of the just”.
[The section in Isa. 58 does however end with verses 13 and 14, with a praise song about observing the sabbath, but keep in mind that it is presented in the same context as the guidelines concerning fasting, and is thus clearly still part of (only) the covenant Yahweh has with the Jews.]
Back to “the covenant of circumcision” (Acts 7:8). It is absolutely important that the terms “circumcise” and “circumcision” – the markers of the old covenant, pop up frequently until the book of Joshua. Thereafter we find no reference to circumcision at all (except in the negative form of the “uncircumcised” – 1 Sam. 14:6; 17:26; 2 Sam. 1:20; Ezek. 31:18). Only in the prophetic book of Jeremiah do we find two references to circumcision, but with a very specific larger meaning attached:
- “Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and take away the foreskins of your hearts, you men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, lest My fury come forth like fire, and burn so that no one can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.” (Jer. 4:4); and:
- “’Behold, the days are coming,’ says the Lord, ‘that I will punish all who are circumcised with the uncircumcised—” (Jer. 9:25)
Circumcised, yet uncircumcised! Clearly God is not primarily interested in the law or the observance of a religious rite!
There are two more references to the circumcision of John the Baptist (Luke 1:59), and the circumcision of Jesus (Luke 2:21), two actions that have clearly been executed within the law “to fulfill all righteousness” (Matt. 3:15). This is absolutely clear on the grounds of Rom. 15:8: “Now I say that Jesus Christ has become a servant to the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers …”
In Acts 15 the matter of the circumcision between Jews and the heathens who have found God reaches a theological boiling point, and the result of these events is of utmost importance: “And certain men came down from Judea and taught the brethren, ‘Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.’ Therefore, when Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and dispute with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain others of them should go up to Jerusalem, to the apostles and elders, about this question … But some of the sect of the Pharisees who believed rose up, saying, ‘It is necessary to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses.’ Now the apostles and elders came together to consider this matter. And when there had been much dispute, Peter rose up and said to them: ‘Men and brethren, you know that a good while ago God chose among us, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us, and made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Now therefore, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?’” (Acts 15:1-2; 5-10).
Today this is still a central matter for us: “It is necessary to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses.” (Acts 15:5). Anything that adheres to the law, including circumcision, observing the sabbath, whatever, places an ungodly yoke on believers, “test[s] God”!(Acts 15:10). The Message provides us with an amazing translation: “So why are you now trying to out-god God, loading these new believers down with rules that crushed our ancestors and crushed us, too?”
One can imagine that the Jews were in an immense struggle concerning this “babbler” (Acts 17:18), of whom was said “that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children nor to walk according to the customs” (Acts 21:21)!
Paul goes into great detail discussing this issue in his letters. In Rom. 2:25-29 he makes it undeniably clear: “For circumcision is indeed profitable if you keep the law; but if you are a breaker of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. Therefore, if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision? And will not the physically uncircumcised, if he fulfills the law, judge you who, even with your written code and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law? For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter …”
This becomes the new covenant definition of making a covenant with God – Jesus refers to it as being born again (John 3:3) – also a circumcision, but now a circumcision of the heart – “In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.” (Col. 2:11-12).
[For the sake of completion, and to get rid of any misunderstanding – the circumcision of the old covenant, Reformed dogma argues, has now been transferred to the baptism of babies. This is faulty not only on theological, but also on metaphoric terms – the circumcision of the old covenant is a typology or shadow of the new covenant state of being born again, in other words someone who professes Christ (Rom. 10:9-10), was baptised as an adult believer, and who has received the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands (John 3:3 & 5).]
Paul makes it very clear in 1 Cor. 7:18-19: “But as God has distributed to each one, as the Lord has called each one, so let him walk. And so I ordain in all the churches. Was anyone called while circumcised? Let him not become uncircumcised. Was anyone called while uncircumcised? Let him not be circumcised.” These commandments are NOT THE OLD TESTAMENT LAW, but the only New Testament law: “love is the fulfillment of the law” (Rom. 13:10).
- Selah: Explain to someone the difference between circumcision in the old and new covenants.
- Read: John 2-5: Mark. 2.
- Memorise: John 3:3 & 5.
