Circumcision has value if you observe the law,
but if you break the law, you have become
as though you had not been circumcised.
Romans 2:25
I’ve been thinking about circumcision lately—but only because the word keeps popping up in the Bible passages I’ve been reading. (No pun intended.)
The word “circumcision” appears in the Bible close to 100 times. The first is in chapter 17 of Genesis. "Then God said to Abraham, 'As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come. This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you'” (Genesis 17:9–11).
I tend to quickly read through the passages of Scripture that deal with circumcision because, as a woman, they have nothing to do with me. Right?
Wrong.
We are all called to undergo circumcision regardless of our gender, age, or background. “For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. 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, 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” (Colossians 2:9–12).
That is a mouthful, but it boils down to this: Faith that was once demonstrated through the physical ritual of male circumcision is now demonstrated by baptism into a spiritual relationship with Jesus Christ.
The physical act of circumcision found in the Old Testament may sound barbaric and strange to our 21st century ears when we consider that the procedure was performed with a flint knife on a man’s private parts without anesthetics, but it was actually a common practice in the ancient world. The Egyptians did it. The Polynesians and Aborigines did it. And the nations of Edom, Ammon, and Moab did it as well, according to Jeremiah 9:26. But the purpose was different.
Among these other nations, circumcision was commonly practiced on teens as a rite of passage from childhood into manhood. It was a visible mark of a man’s ability to procreate.
Within the Jewish community, however, circumcision was performed on every male child when they were eight days old. This was not a rite of passage but a sign of initiation into God’s kingdom. It wasn’t about manhood; it was about relationship. And that’s where things get messy.
Consider the story of the golden calf. Aaron and the Israelites constructed it to be their god while they were waiting in the desert for Moses to come down from the mountain where he was speaking with the Lord. When Moses finally descended with the 10 commandments in hand, he found the people praising what their hands had made. In anger, he smashed the stone tablets and rebuked the people. “Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer” (Deuteronomy 10:16). In other words, Moses wanted the Israelites to turn away from their stubborn desires of their own hearts and turn toward a relationship of loving obedience to God.
Our hearts are not the only parts of our bodies that need to turn toward God. Our voices, ears, and eyes must also be circumcised.
When God tapped Moses to be his mouthpiece before pharaoh, Moses questioned God’s decision, saying, “The people of Israel have not listened to me. How then shall Pharaoh listen to me, for I am of uncircumcised lips?” Here Moses claimed to be an unskilled speaker, someone whose speech would be found unacceptable by other men.
When the prophet Jeremiah spoke on God’s behalf, the people did not want to hear what he had to say. God’s call for repentance, fell on deaf ears. “To whom shall I speak and give warning that they may hear? Behold, their ears are uncircumcised; they cannot listen. Behold, the word of the Lord is to them an object of scorn; they take no pleasure in it” (Jeremiah 6:10). The people were not only unable to hear God’s voice—they had no desire to hear it!
A special relationship with God requires more than physical mutilation. True circumcision is marked by loving devotion to God—with every part of our being. As Paul wrote in Philippians 3:3, “For it is we who are the circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and boast in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh.” In simpler terms, faith is something we carry in ourselves, not on our bodies.
As a woman with no children of her own, I am neither an advocate nor proponent of physical circumcision. However, I am comfortable saying that through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, I have “circumcised the foreskin of my heart” (Jeremiah 4:4) and have, therefore, been “circumcised with a spiritual circumcision” (Colossians 2:11). I only pray that my words and actions reflect this.
THE SONG THAT COMES TO MIND is The Proof of Your Love by For King and Country
Favorite lyric: “Let my life be the proof, the proof of your love. Let my love look like you and what you’re made of.”
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