Leviticus 12

“On the eighth day the boy is to be circumcised.” ‭‭Leviticus‬ ‭12‬:‭3‬ ‭NIV‬‬

The Israelites were commanded to be circumcised as a sign that they were set apart; God’s chosen people.  When the Christian church was being formed in the first and second centuries, it was comprised of both Jews and Gentiles (non-Jews).  Many of the Jewish believers in Christ taught circumcision to the Gentile converts as a necessity to become a Christian.  A large part of the Apostle Paul’s ministry and teaching was directed at issues like this and teaching the new believers that circumcision, dietary restrictions, and many other Jewish rituals were no longer requirements for Christians.  Paul addresses the issue of circumcision head-on in the book of Galatians when he says: “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.  Indeed I Paul say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing.  And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law.  You who have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.  For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.  For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love’’ (Galatians 5:1-6).  As with most Jewish religious acts and laws, circumcision was a foreshadowing of the true circumcision which we receive by grace through faith, which is a circumcision of the heart: “For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God” (Romans 2:28-29).