Philippians 3:3; We Are The Circumcision

PastorRodney’s Weblog

03/24 Philippians 3:3; We Are The Circumcision; Audio available at: http://www.ephraimbible.org/Sermons/20240324_philippians-3_3.mp3

Paul in Philippians 3 grinds the gears to warn the church of an impending danger, Judaizers who push Torah observance on Gentile believers contrary to the Jerusalem decision of Acts chapter 15.

He flips the tables on the Judaizing false teachers, calling them indiscriminate dogs who can’t discern between what is clean and unclean; what Jesus had said about food (Mk.7:18-19), God revealed to Peter about Gentile believers; what God has made clean, do not call common (Ac.10:15). He calls them ‘workers of evil’; encouraging people to walk away from God’s grace and seek to please him by their own ‘good’ works. He calls them ‘mutilators’; comparing their insistence on circumcising non-Jews to the pagan nations who cut themselves to seek to draw the attention of their false gods.

He encourages the believers to rejoice; rejoice in the Lord, for this is safe. Rejoicing in Jesus, rejoicing in the cross, in his finished work for sinners will remind us how absurd it is to think we could ever do something to earn or contribute to our own salvation. He exhorts us to walk worthy of, to live consistent with (1:27), to work out the salvation that God has freely given to us (2:12-13), but this in no way implies or encourages Gentile believers to submit to Old Testament regulations. We are to be on guard against those who would take away our freedom and seek to impose on us regulations that were never meant for us.

Paul in another dramatic turn makes this startling claim, emphasizing the ‘we’. I, Hebrew of Hebrews, now apostle to the Gentiles, together with you, a church made up mainly of uncircumcised Gentile believers, we are the circumcision.

Circumcision; Physical Sign of the Old Covenant

To understand what he is saying, it will be helpful to go back and understand what circumcision was all about, what this means and what this does not mean. Circumcision was first introduced in Genesis 17, when God made a covenant with childless Abram (this is where God changed his name to Abraham); God promised to make him fruitful, the father of nations, to be his God, and to give to him and to his descendants the land of Canaan.

Genesis 17:10 This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. 11 You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. 12 He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring, 13 both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money, shall surely be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. 14 Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”

True Circumcision a Matter of the Heart

Circumcision was the physical sign of God’s covenant with Abraham and his descendants. But it was meant to be a physical reminder of an inner covenant commitment to God. As early as Leviticus we read of the treachery of walking contrary to God described as an ‘uncircumcised heart’ (Lev.26:40-42). Moses in Deuteronomy 10 exhorts the generation who would enter the land to fear YHWH God, walk in his ways, love him, serve him with heart and soul and keep his commandments;

Deuteronomy 10:16 Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn.

Deuteronomy 30:6 points to the hope of God himself circumcising you heart, so that you will love YHWH God with all your heart and soul. The prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel warn of the danger of uncircumcised ears that cannot heed the word of the Lord (Jer.6:10); of those uncircumcised in heart and flesh (Ezek.44:7,9); exhorting rebellious Israel to ‘remove the foreskin of your hearts’ (Jer.4:4).

In Acts 7, Stephen rebukes the unbelieving Jews of his day who rejected their Messiah;

Acts 7:51 “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you.

Even under the Old Covenant, even for the Jew, circumcision was to be much more than a mere mark on the flesh. It was meant to be a physical sign of a genuine heart change.

Gentile Believers Not To Be Troubled With Torah

As we saw last week, there were those of the circumcision party who insisted of Gentile believers in Jesus “It is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses” (Ac.15:5); “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved” (Ac.15:1). The first church council ruled that salvation for both Jew and non-Jew is by grace, not by works of the law (Ac.15:11). Salvation comes through hearing the word of the gospel and believing (Ac.15:7). ‘We should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God’ (Ac.15:19); ‘by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear’ (Ac.15:10)

A Gospel Issue

Shortly before this Jerusalem decision, Paul wrote to the churches in Galatia to warn that this is a gospel issue (Gal.2:4-5,14); he warns:

Galatians 3:1 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. 2 Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? 4 Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? 5 Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith—

This is a gospel issue, an issue of how the Holy Spirit transforms people. We do not become worthy to be inhabited by the Spirit of God by our performance; we receive the Holy Spirit by hearing with faith, and he comes in and begins to transform us from the inside out. If it is by the Spirit that we begin this journey in the New Covenant, we certainly do not progress by reverting back to Old Covenant law-keeping.

Paul even connects this back to Abraham:

Galatians 3:6 just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”? 7 Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. 8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” 9 So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. …14 so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.

We, believing Gentiles, becomes sons of Abraham through faith; we are justified by trusting in Jesus. In Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham comes even to the Gentiles. Paul is passionate that this is a gospel issue. In Galatians 5 he says:

Galatians 5:1 For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. 2 Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. 3 I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. 4 You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. 5 For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.

The Argument of Romans

Paul fleshes this out in Romans; he begins by saying that the gospel is ‘the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek’ (Rom.1:16). Then he establishes our need for salvation; we all are under God’s wrath. In chapter 1, Gentiles are under God’s wrath for rejecting the light given to us in the created world. In chapter 2, Jews

Romans 2:23 You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. 24 For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” 25 For circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. 26 So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? 27 Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law. 28 For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. 29 But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.

Physical circumcision is only valid if it is a sign of an inward reality. Circumcision under the Old Covenant was a pointer to a new and better circumcision under a New and better Covenant, circumcision of the heart by the Spirit of the living God.

Paul concludes that both Jews and Greeks are under sin, guilty before God. All, Jew and Greek, have sinned, and all, both Jew and Greek;

Romans 3:24 …are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. …

In chapter 4, Paul points to Abraham, who was not justified by works, but ‘Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness’ (Rom.4:3; Gen.15:6). He points out that this was Genesis 15, before Abraham was circumcised;

Romans 4:11 He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well, 12 and to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.

Abraham becomes the father of two distinct groups; all Gentiles who believe without being circumcised, and the Jews who are not merely circumcised, but who also put their trust in their Messiah, Jesus Christ.

Ethnic Jews and Circumcision

Paul was accused of ‘teaching the Jews …to forsake the law of Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or walk according to [Jewish] customs’ (Ac.21:21). In Acts 21, Paul ‘related …the things that God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry’ (Ac.21:19), and the Jerusalem elders glorified God. But because of these accusations, they encouraged him to demonstrate ‘that you yourself also live in observance of the law. But as for the Gentiles who have believed, we have sent a letter with our judgment…’ (Ac.21:24-25). They were differentiating between Jews who believed in Jesus who were encouraged to observe the law, and Gentile believers who were not required to observe the law. Neither Jew nor Gentile was required to abandon their own ethnicity to follow Jesus, but both were only ever saved by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone. Even these distinct ethnicities were both reconciled to God through the cross, which broke down the dividing wall of hostility and knit us together in one body, the church (Eph.2:13-16).

Even back in Acts 16, Paul inviting the half-Jewish Timothy to accompany him in ministry had him circumcised to remove a hindrance to the gospel among the Jews. Paul was not against Jews observing their law; he was against looking to that law as a means of salvation for Jew or Gentile. Paul himself claimed in 1 Corinthians 9 that he was ‘not himself under the law’, neither was he ‘outside the law of God but under the law of Christ’.

When he asks the rhetorical question in Romans 3:1-2 ‘Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision?’ His answer is ‘Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God.’

The Law of the Spirit

In Romans 8 Paul goes on to say that all who are in Christ are under a different law, ‘the law of the Spirit of life’ not the ‘law of sin and death’,

Romans 8:4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

This righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled when our hearts are circumcised by the Spirit of God;

Romans 8:13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

We all, Jew or non-Jew, are adopted as sons of God through faith, having received the Spirit of God when we put our trust in Jesus.

In Colossians 2 Paul points to this promised circumcision of the heart; addressing Gentile believers

Colossians 2:11 In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,

This is how Paul can say ‘we’ believers in Jesus regardless of ethnicity, ‘are the circumcision’. Circumcision made in the flesh by human hands (Eph.2:11) cannot change the heart.

Distinction and No Distinction

So Paul says in Galatians 3:

Galatians 3:26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.

In reference to salvation the distinctions are demolished. In Christ the dividing wall of hostility is broken down. We have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Male, female, slave, free, Jew, Greek, all are saved by the grace of God and not by any kind of merit.

This does not mean that there is no distinction of any kind. Paul continues to address the unique and distinct roles of men and women, slave and free, and he continues in Romans to recognize ethnic distinctions and expresses his

Romans 9:2 …great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. 4 They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. 5 To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.

Romans 10:1 Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. 2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.

Romans 11:1 I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. … 5 So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace.

In Romans 11:11, Paul asks of his fellow Jews:

Romans 11:11 So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. 12 Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean! 13 Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry 14 in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them. 15 For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?

He concludes:

Romans 11:30 For just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, 31 so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy. 32 For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all. 33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! 34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” 35 “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” 36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

***

Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org