Galatians
Study 8:
Ch.2
(background)
The question of
circumcision
We have
noted
that in the first two chapters of
Galatians Paul testifies as to how his life and
experience demonstrate the reality of
walking and living in the Spirit as opposed to a life in the flesh;
indeed he tells us in another epistle that he is set forth by God as an
example of all those that follow.
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Howbeit
for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might
shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should
hereafter believe
on him to life everlasting.
I
Tim.1:16
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In
chapter
one we saw that Paul’s conversion was
of the Spirit and
now in chapter two we see
Paul facing up to the
false brethren he mentions in Gal.2:4
and even other the apostles, who had been taken in!
1. Its origin
Before
we
look at chapter two we shall consider in more detail that which was
giving the early church much grief: circumcision. Originally it was
given as a
sign to Abraham of the covenant between God and Abraham. Every male
descendant had to be circumcised otherwise they were not in the
covenant.
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. And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it
shall be a token of the
covenant betwixt me and you. And
he that
is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in
your generations, he that is born in the house, or
bought with money of any stranger, which
is
not of thy seed. He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought
with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in
your
flesh for an everlasting covenant. And the uncircumcised
man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul
shall be cut off from his people;
he hath broken my covenant.
Gen.17:10-14
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Indeed
such
was its importance that God once tried to slay Moses, because
he had not circumcised his own children!
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And
it came to pass by the way in the inn, that the LORD met him,
and sought to
kill him. Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of
her son, and cast it
at his feet, and said, surely a bloody husband art thou to me. So
he let him go: then she said, A bloody husband thou art, because of the
circumcision.
Ex.4:24-26
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Such was
the
serious nature of this requirement that no one could partake of the
passover unless they were circumcised.
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And when a stranger shall
sojourn with thee, and will keep the
Passover to the
LORD, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and
keep it; and he shall be as one that is born in the land: for no
uncircumcised person shall eat
thereof.
Ex.12:48
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Circumcision
was incorporated formally into the Mosaic (Sinai) law .
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Speak
unto the children of Israel, saying, if a woman have conceived seed,
and born a man child: then she shall be unclean seven days; according
to the days of
the separation for her infirmity shall she be unclean. And in the
eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.
Lev.12:2-3
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And we know from the gospels that the Jews thought it so important that
they practised it on the Sabbath day! We also note also that Jesus also
stated how zealous they were in seeking
converts:
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Moses therefore gave unto you
circumcision; (not because it is of Moses, but of the
fathers;) and ye on the
Sabbath day
circumcise a man.
Jn.7:22
Woe unto you, scribes
and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye compass sea and land to make one
proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of
hell than yourselves.
Mtt.23:15
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2. The
dissension
It
is
therefore not surprising that when the church was born, and God began to
bring the Gentiles into the NC, the question of circumcision would
arise. And
coming to Acts
15 we sure have the problem raised big time. The zeal of
proselytising was still there and they wanted to have dominion
over people, and this is one of the characteristics of false brethren
we noted in chapter one.
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And
certain men
which came down from
Judaea taught the brethren, and
said, Except
ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be
saved. When therefore Paul and Barnabas had no
small dissension and disputation with them, they determined that Paul
and Barnabas, and certain other of them, should go up to Jerusalem
unto the apostles and elders about this question. And being
brought on their way by the church, they passed through Phenice and
Samaria, declaring the conversion of the Gentiles: and they
caused great joy unto all the brethren. And when they were
come to Jerusalem, they were received of the church, and of the apostles and
elders, and they
declared all things that God had done with them. But there rose up
certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying, That it
was needful to
circumcise them, and to command them
to keep the law of Moses.
Acts 15:1-5
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The
main
thing here is that the ‘certain men’ (false
brethren) were teaching that salvation was dependant on this law of
circumcision. Unless the
Gentiles were circumcised, they argued, they could not be partakers of
God’s promises. These teachers were bringing over
with them that which was from the OC into the new. They would not
leave their old ways and life behind, they followed a religious past
and wanted it in the new.
And this is one aspect of Galatianism: people who
claim to
be born again bringing the old baggage with them. They will not let go
of the old religious ways they once had; they want to see it added
onto the NC, and this is precisely what the epistle denounces as false
and opposed to the true gospel. How often do we see people make a
confession of salvation and yet do not give up their old
religious or secular ways of thinking and doing things, but insist on
introducing them to the God's people? Not just religious things either,
that’s bad enough, but also the secular reasoning
and methods of the world. Real salvation, as we saw in chapter one
means a complete separation and cutting off from the old.
Now
some may
object saying that Paul had Timothy circumcised and therefore
contradicts himself (Acts.16:1-3)
But this makes the point we are trying to establish. Firstly it happened no too long after the
conference of Acts
15 and anyone who things Paul would contradict himself so
soon afterwards doesn’t understand what’s going on;
secondly the scripture gives us the reason, his father was a Jew,
so it
was because of the cultural background and NOT because of any
religious duty.
Circumcision
goes on in many cultures, and is performed for many reasons,
including medical ones, but these are not the issues at stake
here; the
issue is performing such acts as a necessity for salvation or living
the Christian life. Salvation is a gift from God; He has done all the
work needed for salvation, and no one can add thereto by
some ritual or other, whether it is from the Mosaic Law or by some
modern man made tradition. By trying to add on to the simple
gospel is Galatianism and is opposite to the true
gospel.
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Behold
I Paul say unto
you, that if ye be circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing. For I
testify again to every man
that is circumcised that he is a debtor to the whole law Christ is
become of no effect unto you whosoever of you are
justified by the law ye are fallen from
grace
Gal.
5:4
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This
passage
is revealing for the issue is emphatically stated that if we seek
justification by the law then we are fallen from grace: we
are either in grace or the law,
but not both: it
is one or the other. We either walk in the Spirit
or the flesh to use the terminology of this epistle. (And those who say
a believer can not fall from grace are
clearly contradicted by the words of Paul
here.)
3. The
apostles’ answer
Acts 15
despite the clear testimony of Paul and Barnabas to the
assembly in Jerusalem there were still these Pharisees (and note how
Luke calls them a
sect = a body following there own tenants) insisting on
the Law of
Moses being kept! Yet the whole tenor of Paul’s testimony is
that God had brought the Gentiles in without the works of the law.
These Pharisees of the OC wanted to be the Pharisees in the
church, they wanted to glory in those whom they compelled to be
circumcised (Gal.6:12-13)
basically they wanted to be in charge telling
others what to do. But what was the apostles’
response?
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And
the
apostles and elders came together for to consider of this
matter. And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose
up, and
said unto them, Men and
brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us,
that the Gentiles by my mouth
should hear the word of the gospel, and believe. And God,
which knoweth the
hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as He did
unto us;
and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by
faith. Now
therefore why tempt ye
God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our
fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe
that through the grace of the
Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as
they……. ….James answered, saying, Men
and brethren, hearken unto me: Simeon hath declared how
God at the first did visit the
Gentiles, to take out of them
a people
for his name. And to this agree the words of the prophets; as
it is written, After this I will return, and will build again the
tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again
the ruins thereof, and I will set it up: That the residue of
men might seek after the
Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith
the
Lord, who doeth all these things. Known unto God are all
his works from the
beginning of the
world. Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from
among the Gentiles are turned to
God: But that we write unto
them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication,
and from
things strangled, and from
blood…….For it seemed good to
the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no
greater burden than these necessary things;
Acts
15:6 -20
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Gal. 2
reveals to us that some of the apostles were being led astray
themselves by the false brethren! And Paul, being
led by revelation of God, had to put the record straight. We will see
in this chapter then how even leaders can go astray, and some of the
principles here of flesh verses Spirit being worked out in
practice.
4. The
Substance
Whilst not strictly a part of the message of
Galatians, it
would be good just to briefly mention what relevance the
teaching of circumcision is to us in the NC.
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For the law having a shadow
of good things to come, and
not the very image of the
things,
Heb.10:1
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Apart from what Paul tells us about the Mosaic law
later on
in this epistle, one purpose of it was to
foreshadow the NC. And circumcision has its
antitype in new
birth. Just consider the following.
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For he is not a Jew,
which is one outwardly; neither is
that circumcision, which is outward in the
flesh: 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.
Rom.
2:28-29
For in him dwelleth all the
fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him,
which 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: Buried with Him in baptism,
wherein also ye are risen with Him
through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the
dead. And you, being dead in your
sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened
together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;
Blotting out the
handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to
us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His
cross; And
having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a shew of
them openly, triumphing over them in it. Let no man therefore judge
you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of
the sabbath days
Col.2:9-16
For in Jesus Christ neither
circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which
worketh by love.
Gal.5:6
For in Christ Jesus neither
circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.
Gal.6:15
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And
once more in the Colossian passage Paul warns
about
those who seek to bring us into legal bondage. In the last
two references, we see that physical circumcision is of no avail as far
as God is concerned, but rather regeneration in the Holy
Ghost is what matters. So then with this in mind we
will now consider Chapter two.
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