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. Deuteronomy 30:6
Circumcision has a marvelous spiritual significance. For one thing, a believer cannot receive his inheritance until he is circumcised. This was true outwardly for an Israelite, and it is true inwardly for a Christian. There is no inheritance until we are circumcised in our hearts. God told Abraham that before he and his descendants could inherit the land of Canaan, they had to be circumcised (Gen. 17:1-14).
Circumcision is to cut away the flesh. Spiritually, it is a cutting away of the natural, sinful, Adamic nature we are born with. Uncircumcision represents uncleanness. It means that what we are born with has not yet been dealt with. It signifies that the old nature, with its wrong desires, ways, thought patterns, and responses, still remain. “How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word” (Ps. 119:9). How does God circumcise our hearts? By the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God applied to our lives by the working of the Holy Spirit. There are a few evidences of a circumcised heart:
(1) A circumcised heart is compliant. “Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff-necked no longer” (Deut. 10:16). To be “stiff-necked” is to be rebellious, inflexible and stubborn.
(2) A circumcised heart does not resist the Holy Spirit. “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you” (Acts 7:51).
(3) A circumcised heart does not resist the preachers sent by God (7:52).
(4) A circumcised heart is humble, broken and repentant. “But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, with their unfaithfulness in which they were unfaithful to Me, and that they also have walked contrary to Me … if their uncircumcised hearts are humbled, and they accept their guilt—then I will remember My covenant …” (Lev. 26:40-42).
(5) A circumcised heart is quick to forgive and release people for the offenses they have committed. A hardened heart cannot easily forgive but remembers and cherishes grudges (Matt. l9:7-8; Mark l0:4-6).
Circumcision has a marvelous spiritual significance. For one thing, a believer cannot receive his inheritance until he is circumcised. This was true outwardly for an Israelite, and it is true inwardly for a Christian. There is no inheritance until we are circumcised in our hearts. God told Abraham that before he and his descendants could inherit the land of Canaan, they had to be circumcised (Gen. 17:1-14).
Circumcision is to cut away the flesh. Spiritually, it is a cutting away of the natural, sinful, Adamic nature we are born with. Uncircumcision represents uncleanness. It means that what we are born with has not yet been dealt with. It signifies that the old nature, with its wrong desires, ways, thought patterns, and responses, still remain. “How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word” (Ps. 119:9). How does God circumcise our hearts? By the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God applied to our lives by the working of the Holy Spirit. There are a few evidences of a circumcised heart:
(1) A circumcised heart is compliant. “Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff-necked no longer” (Deut. 10:16). To be “stiff-necked” is to be rebellious, inflexible and stubborn.
(2) A circumcised heart does not resist the Holy Spirit. “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you” (Acts 7:51).
(3) A circumcised heart does not resist the preachers sent by God (7:52).
(4) A circumcised heart is humble, broken and repentant. “But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, with their unfaithfulness in which they were unfaithful to Me, and that they also have walked contrary to Me … if their uncircumcised hearts are humbled, and they accept their guilt—then I will remember My covenant …” (Lev. 26:40-42).
(5) A circumcised heart is quick to forgive and release people for the offenses they have committed. A hardened heart cannot easily forgive but remembers and cherishes grudges (Matt. l9:7-8; Mark l0:4-6).
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