The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my mind and heart in Colossians 1:11-12,
"In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead."
Paul tells us of a mysterious "circumcision not performed by human hands." What is this circumcision? Is it only for the boys? This circumcision is something performed in the life of every believer (girls too!) at the point they embrace Jesus Christ in faith. It has to do with our sinful nature.
Our understanding of the absolute tyranny of our sinful natures over us prior to conversoin to Christ, in fact our identity as a sinful-natured person is something we may not fully comprehend. As the Lord observes mankind, his analysis is, "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" In Romans 3:23 Paul tells us all have sinned. In quoting Psalms 14 and 53 he tells us, "All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one." Romans 3:12. Paul also points to that indwelling sinful nature, using himself, as a law-abiding Pharisee prior to his conversion, as an example in Romans 7:14-19 (he speaks in present tense language to make vivid his past experience in sin), "We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing." This is our condition before embracing Jesus Christ in faith - we are under control of our sinful nature.
Paul discusses that new life in Romans 6:1-4, "What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life." In speaking to the Jews regarding this new life, Paul says, "No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a person's praise is not from other people, but from God."
Although we may still commit sin (we are not perfect yet), we are no longer subject to our sinful natures as masters over us. I like what Paul says in Romans 6:22, "But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life." Here is the great benefit of that "circumcision not performed by human hands." As God's holy people, we are no longer enslaved to sin, but have been freed to live a life pleasing to our Lord who has loved us so much.
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!
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