GUEST TEACHING

Jay Ferris

CIRCUMCISION - THE BATTLE OF BELONGING

INTRODUCTION

The subject of circumcision, occupying as it does so much of the New Testament Epistles, is not just a relic of Church history or a matter of historical interest. The focus of deception during the ministry of Paul, by the time John was writing his epistles, the problem had broadened to friendship with the world, and finally "war against the saints".

Unfortunately, since the time of Paul's writing, the church has looked at circumcision as a historical problem of the past, the "mark of the beast" as a problem of the future, and ignored the man handling of the present. In the present study we see this Biblical subject in its generic outworking, "don't let man do a number on you", thus, better enabling us to understand its application in the present.

The controversy over circumcision is a type of a much greater conflict, a pervasive as well as an ultimate conflict, which will end only with, and by, the return of The Lord. In the early Church, circumcision was the outward sign of belonging and acceptance required by the Jewish believers. Throughout most of Church history, it has been institutions and institutional membership or loyalty that has been the outward sign of belonging and acceptance required by Gentile believers. So far from being Biblically required or even indicated, both are "the work of man's hands", and as such condemned by Scripture.

Viewed from one perspective, the central theme of the Scripture is the matter of place. In the Old Testament, the conflict is over an earthly place, and the warfare was physical. In the New Testament, the conflict is over a spiritual place, and the warfare is spiritual. The purpose of God, in its most generic expression, is to bring people to a place that does not shake. God does not want people to shake relationally, spiritually, emotionally, mentally, etc. The Scripture calls this place by a number of names, most notably, "a City with foundations, whose builder and maker is God". In its highest revelation, the name of this city is "The New Jerusalem".

There are many alternative places, but they have one thing in common, they are all "created things, "... the work of man's hands". From physical circumcision to Babylon The Great, they are man's doing, and, for that reason, fall short of the glory of God. Between man's doing and God's doing there is a conflict reconciled only in the person of Jesus Christ. He alone, undefiled by the marks of man is "the way, the truth and the life". In fact "The New Jerusalem" is a place in Him.

To the degree that we associate ourselves with the doing of man, we will be shaken. In the end, the doing of man is summed up in "the mark of the beast". The battle raging in the pages of the New Testament over the matter of circumcision is there as instruction so that we might be able to know the difference between the doing of man and the doing of God, particularly as it relates to the fundamental longing of the human heart, the need for an eternal place, the need for acceptance, the need to belong. God is very clear in His Word about "place" where the unity of the body is concerned. The degree to which the matter of "place" has become confused, is the degree, and extent to which we have already been "drawn away" in our own day. Any relationship, be it personal, corporate or institutional, which acts on you in such a way as, for your part, to reduce your ability to get along with the Body of Christ in the "place where you live" is either an ungodly relationship, or is impacting you in an ungodly way.

There are increasing numbers of relational structures, and authority structures, which are being imposed on the Body of Christ, and which, by design or fruit are causing, encouraging, or maintaining the division of The Body. Their time demands alone are sufficient so that there is no time left to relate to the rest of the Body where we live. This should not be. Those who are presenting these structures to the Body of Christ in the Name of The Lord, as being representative of God's purpose and perspective, are, to that degree, in the place of false prophets.

"TELLING IT TO THE CHURCH"
PAUL'S LETTER TO THE CHURCHES OF GALATIA

Jesus tells us in Matthew 18, what to do when we have ought against any. He tells us, "Go to them in private." If that doesn't do it, "Go to them with two or three others." If that still doesn't do it, "Tell it to the church".

In the following presentation, I have taken the position of those who would date Paul’s letter to the Galatians later in the chronology of Acts, sometime later than Paul's second letter to the Corinthians, and, since Paul mentions Timothy in the greeting of that letter, II CO 1:1, later than the circumcision of Timothy. In II Corinthians 12:2 Paul writes, "I know a man who fourteen years ago..." It is my understanding that Paul's surpassing revelations came while he was in Arabia, Galatians 1:17. This is when Paul received his individual and very Spiritual discipleship from The Lord. Whether from the time that he arrived in Arabia, or perhaps even earlier, or from the time he arrived in Damascus, Galatians 1:17, he arrived in Jerusalem three years later, and only for the purpose of "getting acquainted with Peter, Galatians 1:18.

Fourteen years later he went back and met with the Jerusalem leadership in private, Galatians 2:2, sometime later than that he wrote the letter to the Galatians. Anyway you look at it, the Galatian letter had to be later than the second Corinthian letter, and therefore after the council at Jerusalem in Acts 15, and after his circumcision of Timothy, which took place later than that council.
This is the challenge that I would like the reader to consider, if Paul could circumcise Timothy after writing the Galatian letter, then anything is possible. Rather it is our very strong impression that everything is not possible, permissible or helpful, least of all the manhandling of the saints as typified in physical circumcision this side of the Cross of Christ.

The influence of the Jerusalem leadership had been spoiling the churches that Paul had paid such a high price in pioneering. Paul tried to get this matter cleared up in private, Galatians 2:2. He took two or three others with him in Acts 15. By Acts 21, the problem was clearly not yet solved, and in Galatians, Paul tells it to the church. Not only the churches of Galatia, but by his letter, all the churches downstream of the judaizers, and right on through the mark of the beast.

Paul does not speak well of the Jerusalem leadership, even James, Peter and John, as he is writing his Galatian letter, and this is because circumcision was only the beginning of the problem. His message generically speaking; Don't let man do a number on you!

I could have named this, "Circumcision, the real border of the Kingdom," or "The border war of the Kingdom."

The Kingdom of God is Righteousness, peace, and Joy in the Holy Spirit . So then, where is the war? Jesus Christ Himself is the Kingdom of God, the government of God, and that government resides inside of all who believe. It was placed there as an incurruptable seed by a divine act of love. Inside that seed, the war is over, but there is a border war within each one of us. That border is somewhere between soul and spirit, and the Word of God has been given to us to fight that war. The Word of God or sword of the Spirit is so sharp that it is able to divide between soul and spirit any way you swing it. God has only one remedy for the soul of man, and it is not a self-improvement program, it is the cross of Christ.

The writing of this has taken place over the past 15 years. Over that time there have been some very deep valleys designed, it would seem in the purposes of God, not only to test the content, but to deepen and focus it.

To understand someone, you have to get where he is, you have to "do" him. Certainly this is true in connection with The Word of God, "It's not the hearers but the doers who understand". In a sense then, it's not the hearers of Jesus, but the doers of Jesus who understand Him, and so Jesus boils it all down to "Get away from Me you evil doers, I never knew you". No intimacy; no relationship; no understanding of what He is all about or where He is coming from. The same could be said for Paul, as an instrument in the writing of the Word, you have to "do" Paul, to understand Paul.

Most specifically, the present insight or revelation has to do with Paul's highest priority, not at the beginning of his ministry, but the end. In the end when his depth of insight and revelation was at the full, and before he no longer had any choice about where he went or what he did. In the end, the last time he had a choice about where to go, his highest priority was to get to Jerusalem, if possible in time for Pentecost.

This makes it very important to understand why he wanted to go, when everyone else was warning him "in the Spirit" not to go there. Luke went with him, and so was a first hand observer of what happened, writing it all down for us in the Book of Acts, and Luke was also among those urging him not to go.

On the way Paul said his goodbyes to the Ephesian elders, reminding them that for three and a half years he had not stopped warning them with tears that, after he left, savage wolves would tear the church apart. Even some from their own ranks would rise up and participate in this, not nice wolves, but savage wolves. This was part of what was in Paul's heart and mind, by the time he was headed for Jerusalem this last time. His highest priority had been to take the message of "his gospel" to the Gentiles. Now he was determined to get in the face of religion, the earthly Jerusalem, just as he had gotten in Peter's face in Antioch because of the influence of certain men who had come from James.

I had seen some years ago, that the reason he did this was because religion was wrecking, and would apparently continue to wreck, the fruit of his ministry. When something like that is your chronic experience, it's time to get it fixed somehow. Paul had not been able to fix it. Sharing his gospel with the leadership in private didn't fix it. The Jerusalem council didn't fix it. His confrontation with Peter didn't fix it. His falling out with Barnabas didn't fix it. Nothing he had done to that point fixed it.

On this last trip to Jerusalem, Paul was determined to have God fix it, and he himself was willing to be a curse if that's what it took to get it fixed. God saved him from that, however, by having him arrested the day before the blood sacrifice which would have completed his purification rite. Paul was never free again to decide where he would go. God saw to it that all of this got written down for us so that, among other things, we could learn from what happened to Paul.

If you are going to preach the oneness that is ours in Christ, the focus of Jesus' prayer in John 17, the first thing you have to get clear about is circumcision. Circumcision is the token of the covenant between God and Abraham, which is to say, God and His people. Before intimacy, comes circumcision, not, intimacy, then circumcision.

Circumcision takes place at the frontier of intimacy, as a matter of first importance. It was so important that God was looking to kill Moses after He had succeeded in talking him into going back to Egypt to rescue His people. That rescue would begin with Passover, the first month of the rest of their lives. Actually it would be as though they had never been alive before. But Moses had failed to circumcise his own son, and it was only due to the intervention of his wife, the boy's mother, that Moses was spared. She circumcised their son. Having done so, she threw the forskin at Moses feet, and said, "Surely a bloody husband art thou to me." Exodus 4:24-26. In verse 26 it is explained that she said, "a bloody husband thou art", because of the circumcision. This was taken care of prior to Moses, speaking to the elders of Israel, verse 29.

By the end of Paul's writing on the subject of circumcision, we know that physical circumcision is nothing. It was a sign of a different kind of circumcision, an inward one of the heart by the Spirit. It's the same with intimacy; it’s not the outward, but the inward intimacy which really matters. The one is a picture or a parable of the other. In fact sex itself is a parable, designed to reveal otherwise invisible truth about God.

Those who are hung up on the outer forms make war on those who would live in the inner or spiritual reality. Paul put it this way, "If I am still preaching (outward) circumcision, why am I still being persecuted for the cross of Christ?" The Cross of Christ is the circumcision of God, it was there that the barrier to intimacy was taken away, the heart of God was obscured by the flesh. For God's part, the circumcision of the cross made true intimacy possible, intimacy without barriers or uncleanness. "Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh" Hebrews 10:19,20. Male circumcision is only a sign of this reality. After the death of Jesus, all that was left was its internal outworking to take place in us who would be His bride. The bride also would have to undergo circumcision, not as a mere token, but as an inner reality, the circumcision of the heart. This is a foundational issue, a matter of primary importance.

Intimacy in Christ as Paul had come to understand it was being destroyed by the influence of the Jerusalem establishment, (See Paul's confrontation with Peter, and the cause of it, Galatians 2.) For Paul, there was no longer Jew and Gentile, that had all been done away in Christ. Paul had come to a place where he considered his own heritage in the flesh as rubbish.

As long as Paul had gone along with the program of religion, he was getting away with murder, in fact, he was licensed to kill, but when he stopped going along with the program, he was persecuted by the religious for the cross of Christ. And the fruit of his ministry was being persecuted for the same reason, Gal. 6:12-15: "As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised; only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law; but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh. But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature."

All of this to say, that intimacy of relationship is not possible before the matter of circumcision is both clear and taken care of at, and by the cross. But for this to be fully understood, there is often tremendous pain, the pain of failed relationships. This is the pain which comes of being wounded in the house of your friends, those who are closest to you. Part of that pain is that there is no place to talk about it, because to do so would only compound betrayal with betrayal. For me this explains Paul's silence on the issue. Paul had suffered that pain, and was headed for Jerusalem with blood in his eye.

Clearly, at that point, Paul was all alone in his understanding of the reason he went, and of what was at stake. Beginning to understand his heart, I'm forced to wonder, if perhaps, two or three, armed with the Biblical record, might succeed in making his point for the church in our own day. By now, we are armed with the evidence of what failure to resolve this issue cost Paul, and historic Christianity. The price has been very very high. There is only one reason to go to the earthly Jerusalem and that is to die. In the end, that's why Jesus went there, and that is why Paul went there. It is the same in our own day; to get in the face of religion is to have come to a place where there is a willingness to die. Jesus on the cross, clearly demonstrates what religion will do for you. Anyone who would confront religion must have reckoned himself dead already.