NEW WINE/OLD WINESKINS. CIRCUMCISION.

In the 17th chapter of Genesis God gives to Abraham the sign of the covenant, the cutting of the foreskin, otherwise known as circumcision. This painful procedure was to remind Abraham that God would bring into the world the seed of the woman which would be a blessing to many nations (17:1-8). That promise would be to God’s chosen people and Abraham would be the father of those people. God also promised Abraham the land in which he was at that time a stranger (vs 8). In this 17th chapter God renews the covenant to Abraham and to his family and gives him the physical mark of covenant membership, circumcision. God had given His people an objective physical mark to show that they were truly His. Everyone outside God’s covenant were considered “uncircumcised” and aliens to the covenant promises made to Abraham. This sign of the Old Covenant has prompted many theologians to ask the question, “What, then, is the sign of the new Covenant?” The answer given by most heirs of the Protestant Reformation has been baptism. And certainly this seems to be a reasonable parallel. Since circumcision was a physical sign given to all Abraham’s family including babies, logic would dictate that there would be a similar sign to mark members of the New Covenant family. Those who see the sign of circumcision being fulfilled in baptism perform what we call paedobaptism. They baptize their children just as Abraham circumcised his. Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Lutherans, and many other Reformed denominations all practice infant baptism. What exactly this baptism accomplishes in the soul of the baptized one varies from group to group.

But is there scriptural support that baptism is the sign of the New Covenant? Furthermore, does the Bible teach that we are to baptize infants of Christian parents? In other words, is New Covenant baptism the antitype (the fulfillment) of the Old Covenant rite of circumcision? Though this seems like a likely inference, there is a profound problem with this view.

One must begin with the 4th chapter of Romans. Here Paul argues that Abraham was justified (saved) when he looked up to the heavens in Genesis chapter 15 and believed God’s promise. That promise was that Abraham’s descendants would be as many as the stars in the skies. Seeing that an ageing Abraham had no children demonstrates how great his faith was. Thus, it is clear to Paul, that Abraham was justified (saved) in chapter 15 of Genesis. And if this be true then there could be nothing more for Abraham to do to make himself more right with God. His faith gave to him the very righteousness of God (Genesis 15:6). Paul’s point is not only to argue for justification by faith alone, but that when Abraham believed, he was in a state of uncircumcision (Rom 4:10). This demonstrates that Abraham was saved well before he was circumcised and thus forces us to conclude that the addition of circumcision in Genesis 17 had a purpose with God that was something other than Abraham’s salvation. So what was that purpose?

The answer is that circumcision was a ‘sign’ of covenant distinction. God has always wished to keep his covenant people separated from the world (consider the Mosaic dietary laws, for example). By commanding the Jews to be circumcised, God was in effect giving them a visible sign of their covenant relationship to God. Circumcision was given not for God’s benefit for He knows “those who are His.'“ The sign was given for the benefit of His people who, in their weakness, must be given some visible reminder of their covenant membership. If someone asked a Jew ‘how do you know you belong to God?’ that Jew would say, “I belong to God because I am circumcised.” Circumcision is, therefore, a visible sign of an inward reality. One other thing must be mentioned. The entrance requirement for being in the covenant was physical and ethnic. Only those who were Jews or had been proselytized into the Jewish community were eligible to receive the sign of the covenant. But there was more. The covenant also had stipulations. Circumcision alone did not make one a true Jew. One also had to obey the Mosaic Law. Had a Gentile been circumcised yet had no submission to the Law of God, he would still be outside the covenant community. Circumcision was a true sign of one’s covenant membership only if the attendant stipulations were met, that being adherence to the law.

Now bring this forward to the New Covenant. A point of continuity with the Old Covenant is that the New Covenant must also have a sign of covenant membership. As I said earlier many Protestant denominations say that the badge of covenant membership is baptism. We disagree. The New Testament does not herald baptism as a sign of anything. Rather the New Testament describes it as a picture of an existing reality. Romans 6:4 says, “Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” Baptism is a reenactment of what a person underwent when he or she was saved. The immersion into water and the drawing out of the water is a picture of one’s death to the world and one’s resultant resurrection life. In other words, baptism symbolizes that the person being baptized has been united to Christ and therefore has both died and lived again, died to sin and still very much alive to Christ. This is pictured in the convert’s submersion into the water and his being drawn out of the water.

If baptism’s role is that of a picture of an existing reality, then what is the real sign of the New Covenant?

Well if we go to Colossians chapter 2, we find our answer. Let me quote verses 11 & 12: “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.” Here Paul is reminding the Colossians what happened to them when they were saved. They were circumcised in Christ, a heart circumcision, not a fleshly circumcision. The circumcision of the heart is equal to them being saved. So we see that all who are circumcised in the New Covenant context are regenerated. And what is the sign of their status as regenerated/covenant people? Paul answers it clearly; they “were raised through faith.” Faith was the instrument by which they entered the New Covenant, just as circumcision was the mark by which Jews entered the Old Covenant. The Bible teaches that only “those who are of faith are sons of Abraham” (Gal 3:7). Circumcision does not make you a son of Abraham, nor does good works make you a son of Abraham, nor does baptism make you a son of Abraham. Faith and faith alone brings one into the New Covenant and makes one a son of Abraham. Faith is the sign of New Covenant membership.

Do you see now why the New Covenant is so much greater than the Old? The mark of membership in this New Covenant is neither physical or national. It is a internal and universal. It is a sign for both Jews and Gentiles, for rich or poor, for religious or non-religious. “For you are all sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ” (Gal 3:26). In the Old Covenant one could be circumcised yet not truly be part of the covenant community. So it was with Ishmael. But in the New Covenant, the sign guarantees that one shall belong to God forever. Indeed, all those who have faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ are part of the covenant community. No one can take that away. Paul’s echo is simply, ‘“For by grace you have been saved through faith.”

If you truly believe the testimony about Jesus Christ and have clung to Him as your only hope through faith, you have the covenant sign that you are a member of the New Covenant community of God. And you may rest in that as objectively as any Jew would have rested in his circumcision.