To Cut or Not to Cut

For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love.  Galatians 5:6  NASB

Circumcision – Given the choice, most men remember Shechem (Genesis 34).  The very idea of adult circumcision causes pain.  So they run to this verse, and others like it, claiming that it really doesn’t make any difference.  “As long as I have Jesus in my heart, I’m good with God.  After all, Paul says circumcision doesn’t really matter.  What matters is love.”

If it were only this simple.  The problem is Paul’s context.  Without properly understanding the context, we think Paul is preaching a message of  “heart circumcision.”  That would mean Paul’s statements that the Law is good and holy, that he kept the Law all his life and encouraged others to do so, that “circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing, but what matters is keeping the commandments of God” are not only hypocritical, they show that Paul was schizophrenic.  How can circumcision be “nothing” when it is a commandment of God?  How can Paul say that the Law, which contains the commandment of circumcision, is good and holy and at the same time say that circumcision doesn’t matter?  Why does Paul not compel Timothy to be circumcised but participates in the ritual anyway?  These conflicts are resolved when we consider who is opposing Paul.

In the first century, pagans came to Jews asking to join their communities with the full rights and privileges of Jewish members.  This was the path of the proselyte.  There was a prescribed sequence for a pagan to become a Jew which included Torah study, baptism and circumcision.  Not surprisingly, Romans considered circumcision a barbaric practice; first because it originated (in their thinking) in Egypt (the enemy) and second because the Hellenistic world considered the body sacred, therefore, mutilating the body, especially the penis, was unthinkable.  One had to be very serious, and very non-Roman, to want to go through this in order to be a Jew.

But many men did take this path.  Therefore, when Paul argues against the necessity of circumcision, he is speaking to an audience that already believed you had to be Jewish in order to be a full member of the community that worshipped YHWH.  What Paul argues is that circumcision is not a requirement for membership in the household of God.  All that is required is answering God’s call on your life.  You are accepted into full membership because of the faithfulness of Yeshua who opened the door for anyone, regardless of ancestry, to enter God’s household.  Therefore, in opposition to those who represented the proselyte path, Paul argues that circumcision is unnecessary.  In fact, if you have entered on the basis of Yeshua’s obedience, and then you attempt to use circumcision as the basis for your entry, you nullify what Yeshua already did for you.  You can’t have it both ways, argues Paul.  Either you come into fellowship with YHWH on the basis of Yeshua’s faithfulness or you attempt to come into fellowship through the path of the proselyte.  And if you choose the path of the proselyte, you inherit the demands of the whole Law as a means of entry.  Even Jews know that this is foolishness.  That’s why there are sacrifices.  No one comes on the basis of the Law alone.

What is circumcision then?  Well, it’s obedience to the commandments of God after you have been ushered into the household of the faithful.  It means nothing for entry, but it is still part of the expected behavior of citizens of the Kingdom.  But only citizens.  You have to be a citizen first before the rules of citizenship apply.  That’s why Paul tells those who want to make circumcision an entry requirement that they are wrong.  They have missed the entire point about grace.  But Paul still participates in Timothy’s circumcision because it is not a matter of getting in.  It is a matter of doing what God asks after you have arrived.

By the way, it is no different for keeping Shabbat or eating kosher or not charging interest to a brother in need or taking care of widows and orphans.  All of these are expectations of citizens of the Kingdom.  None are requirements for entry into the Kingdom.  Go read Peter’s exclamation at the house of Cornelius.  Once he realizes that citizens are the ones called, not the ones born in the line, he understands that answering God’s call is the only necessary and sufficient condition for fellowship.  All the rest is subsequent obedience.

“The categories of the Bible are not principles to be comprehended but events to be continued.  The life of him who joins the covenant of Abraham continues the life of Abraham.  Abraham endures for ever.  We are Abraham, Isaac, Jacob.”[1]

Now go back and read Paul’s opening prepositional phrase.  “In Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything.”  Outside of Christ, cutting the foreskin meant acceptance or no acceptance.  But in Christ, as entry into the Kingdom, cutting means nothing.  Why?  Because there is only one door and it does not open with a brit milah.  It opens with teshuvah.

Topical Index: circumcision, Galatians 5:6, brit milah, 1 Corinthians 7:19