95: Spiritual Circumcision

Spiritual Circumcision.

In Colossians 2, where Paul explains what happened to us when we were delivered from the law and joined to Jesus.

For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power. (Colossians 2:9-10)¹

The law will tell us that becoming complete is our goal in life, and we must live our whole life working our fingers to the bone to get there. However, grace says the work is finished, and we are at the goal line the minute we are born again! The word “complete” is in the perfect passive participle tense²:

Passive – We did nothing to be made complete. It was done to us.
Perfect – It was done once, and will never be done again.
Participle – It describes our on-going state of being.

Kenneth S. Wuest, a Greek expert, translated Colossians 2:10 like this³:

And you are in Him, having been COMPLETELY filled full, with the PRESENT result that you are in a state of fullness, in Him who is the Head of every principality and authority. (Colossians 2:10, Kenneth S. Wuest, emphasis mine)

For us to be made complete, we experienced a death to the law when our “old man” died. The “old man” was our inward man that was JOINED to the flesh. This was our condition before we were raised with Christ, and our “new man” was joined to Him. We were “in the flesh” in the old race of Adam, dead in sin and in the uncircumcision of the flesh.

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. And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him,… (Colossians 2:11-13)

The cross of Jesus Christ CUT AWAY the “old man” from the flesh. In this spiritual circumcision, the old man with its sin nature died, went into the grave, and ceased to exist. The “new man,” a completely new creation with no sin nature, was born.

The Old Testament sign of circumcision given to Abraham and all of his physical descendants was a picture of this spiritual circumcision given to all of Abraham’s spiritual descendants, which includes you and me today. Abraham is the father of our faith because “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”⁴ It’s the same way with us. God commanded that every Jewish child be circumcised on the eighth day as a sign of the covenant He had made with Abraham.⁵ The eighth day was the first day of a new week following the passing of a completed week. “Eight” is the number of new beginnings and signifies our new life in Christ. The circumcision on the eighth day symbolized our deliverance from the old creation. The old has gone, the new has come!

If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. (2 Corinthians 5:17)

“New” is the Greek word “kainos,”⁶ and it means “fresh, unused, unworn, of a new kind, unprecedented, novel, uncommon, unheard of.” The new creation is nothing like the old! This new creation is joined to the Lord, NOT joined to the flesh as the old man was. When we are joined to the Lord, we are made one spirit with Him!⁷

(from pages 159-161 of Unveiling Jesus)

Want more from Tricia Gunn? Check out excerpts from the Unveiling Jesus 20-part series!

Unveiling Jesus, by Tricia Gunn, is a verse by verse study of the pure gospel of grace. It’s an amazing journey of love, identity, and freedom in Christ.

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¹All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New King James Version. Scripture taken from the New King James Version®.  Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.  Used by permission.
²Colossians 2:10, Blue Letter Bible (interlinear tab), website: http://www.blueletterbible.org/Bible.cfm?b=Col&c=2&v=10&t=KJV#s=t_conc_1109010, accessed on 6-23-14
³Kenneth S. Wuest, The New Testament, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1961, p. 472
⁴Romans 4:3
⁵Genesis 17:12
⁶G2537, (kainos), Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, website: http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/Lexicon/Lexicon.cfm?strongs=G2537&t=KJV, accessed on 5-24-14
⁷1 Corinthians 6:17″