We will see that circumcision (the cutting off of a male’s foreskin) in the Old Testament was very important to God but that it is not required for New Testament believers. Yet circumcision is mentioned in the New Testament to symbolize something that is very important to God.

In Genesis chapter 17 God made a COVENANT with Abraham where He promised him he would be a “father of many nations”, and they would inherit the land of Canaan if he would meet certain conditions (verses 1-8). One of the conditions was he and his male children would need to be CIRCUMCISED as a “SIGN of the COVENANT.” Let’s read verses 9-12: “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.” If one was not circumcised “that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant” (verse 14). This “physical sign” marked that person out as belonging to God’s chosen people. In time they became a great nation (called Israel) through Abraham’s son Isaac and they were called “the circumcision” (Acts 10:45) while the Gentile nations were called the “Uncircumcision” (Ephesians 2:11). This “sign of the cutting off of the flesh” was to show the nations that Israel’s relationship was with a “HOLY God.” This is why God told Abraham to “walk before Me and be blameless” (verse 1). It symbolized their commitment to morality in contrast to their heathen neighbors whose religion (i.e. worship of false gods) included immorality (temple prostitution). This “moral symbolism” was a matter of the heart in devotion to God as we see in Deuteronomy 30:6, “And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.” Sadly, in time, the Jewish nation made this rite of circumcision a “means of salvation,” failing to see that salvation for a “true Jew” is a matter of “faith in the heart” as we see in Romans 2:28-29: “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; whose praise is not from men but from God.”

You will look in vain in the New Testament for a commandment for Christians to be “physically circumcised.” Yet we do read in Philippians 3:3, “For we are THE CIRCUMCISION, who worship God in (by) the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and HAVE NO CONFIDENCE IN THE FLESH.” We saw that Abraham and his descendants had their “literal flesh cut off” but for the believer in Christ there is a “spiritual circumcision” through our faith in Christ. What do I mean by that? In Colossians 2:11 we read, “In Him (Christ) you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by the PUTTING OFF THE BODY OF THE SINS OF THE FLESH, by the circumcision of Christ.” When Christ died on the cross, He was judged by God for our sins that we committed because of our “old, sinful nature” which is called “the flesh.“ Romans 7:17-18a says, “But now, it is no longer I who do it, but SIN that dwells in me. For I know that in me (that is, in MY FLESH) nothing good dwells.” At the cross OUR FLESH (SIN nature) was condemned and judged by God. We can say it was “cut off when Christ was cut off in death.” This is the believer’s POSITION in Christ. And because of this, we should PRACTICALLY “judge the flesh that is still in us” by “having no confidence in the flesh” (Philippians 3:3) and by “reckoning ourselves to be dead indeed to sin” (Romans 6:11; see also Colossians 3:5). If we do, we are spiritually “cutting off the flesh.”  (DO)  (669.3)