circumcision Archives - Plain Bible Teaching

Andy Sochor January 8, 2020

Faith Working through Love

In his letter to the churches of Galatia, Paul addressed the problem of Jewish Christians wanting to return to or retain parts of the Law of Moses. If one attempted to do this and be “justified by law,” he would have “fallen from grace” (Galatians 5:4).

There are not many Christians today who are trying to go back to the Law of Moses as there were in the first century (at least not as overtly as the early Jewish Christians were). Yet this was the first major controversy among the early disciples. Much of the focus in this controversy had to do with circumcision. Circumcision was the sign of God’s covenant with Abraham (Genesis 17:10-12) and was a commandment under the Law of Moses (Leviticus 12:2-3); however, it was not required for Christians under the law of Christ (Acts 15:1-11; Galatians 2:3-5). So in Paul’s letter to the Galatians, he explained that there was something more important than whether or not one was circumcised.

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

What mattered for these brethren was “faith working through love.” Let us briefly break down what Paul meant by this.Continue Reading

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: circumcision, faith, good works, law, love, works

Andy Sochor July 31, 2017

The Real Pharisees (Part 17): The Pharisees Wanted to Hold Onto Parts of the Old Law

“But some of the sect of the Pharisees who had believed stood up, saying, ‘It is necessary to circumcise them and to direct them to observe the Law of Moses’” (Acts 15:5).

Despite all of the problems that we have seen with the Pharisees throughout this study, some of them had evidently believed and obeyed the gospel. A notable example of this was Paul (Acts 26:5; 9:1-18). However, many of them held onto the same attitudes and continued to be “zealous for the Law” (Acts 21:20).

Because of this, certain ones came to Antioch – a church with a large number of Gentile disciples (Acts 11:19-21) and where they were “first called Christians” (Acts 11:26) – and taught, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved” (Acts 15:1). Luke recorded that “Paul and Barnabas had great dissension and debate with them” (Acts 15:2) because this teaching would effectively bring these disciples “into bondage” (Galatians 2:4).
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Filed Under: SERIES: The Real Pharisees Tagged With: circumcision, covenant, grace, law, Pharisees

Andy Sochor July 14, 2015

Joshua Circumcised the People

“At that time the Lord said to Joshua, ‘Make for yourself flint knives and circumcise again the sons of Israel the second time.’ So Joshua made himself flint knives and circumcised the sons of Israel at Gibeath-haaraloth.

“This is the reason why Joshua circumcised them: all the people who came out of Egypt who were males, all the men of war, died in the wilderness along the way after they came out of Egypt. For all the people who came out were circumcised, but all the people who were born in the wilderness along the way as they came out of Egypt had not been circumcised. For the sons of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, until all the nation, that is, the men of war who came out of Egypt, perished because they did not listen to the voice of the Lord, to whom the Lord had sworn that He would not let them see the land which the Lord had sworn to their fathers to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey. Their children whom He raised up in their place, Joshua circumcised; for they were uncircumcised, because they had not circumcised them along the way.

“Now when they had finished circumcising all the nation, they remained in their places in the camp until they were healed. Then the Lord said to Joshua, ‘Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.’ So the name of that place is called Gilgal to this day” (Joshua 5:2-9).

After crossing the Jordan river into the land of Canaan (Joshua 3), but before conquering the first city (Joshua 6), the Lord commanded Joshua to circumcise the sons of Israel. It is important that we understand the reasons why this was done because their physical circumcision is parallel to our spiritual circumcision. Let us consider some lessons that we can learn from this account.
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