Following Judah's Lion

Partial Circumcision or Partial Salvation

Gen.17:10-11 - This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised. And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you.
Rom.2:29 - But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.
Col.2:11 - In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:

God had promised Abram a great nation whose population would be as the stars of heaven. In Abram and Sarai’s haste they agreed to let Hagar give birth to their child, mistakenly assuming God would accept that child as the promise. They called the child Ishmael according to the angel’s command and by God’s grace he would pronounce an earthly blessing upon this child, but Ishmael would never be the child of God’s promise and the one through whom would come the Messiah.

Now God visited Abram when he was ninety years old and affirmed His promise of a child which would be born to Sarai in her old age, and before Isaac was born God commanded all the male children born a Jew to be circumcised upon the eighth day. Now Abram, Ishamael, and all of Abram’s company were circumcised according to the command of God concerning the covenant. The seed that would give life to Isaac would now come through the covenant sign of Abram’s circumcision. The promise of God’s Word inherent in the child Isaac would come forth later outwardly sealing what God had already established before the worlds were made.

Please take note there is no command in the Old Testament that ever indicates that partial circumcision would ever be accepted. The only acceptable sign of the covenant was the removal of the foreskin totally from every male child born in Israel. There was no provision for partial circumcision, it was to be total. This act of obedience would have a significant symbolism for the coming New Covenant, one that was based upon better and enduring promises. This New Covenant would be substantiated through the shed blood of God’s own Son, and those who would enter this blood covenant were called also to circumcision, not of the flesh but of the spirit.

Listen carefully as Paul connects the Old Testament with the New through the shadow of circumcision, but with one major and important difference. No longer does God require the circumcision of the fleshly foreskin, no this new circumcision must be the cutting away of the sins of the heart. This circumcision is much more painful than Abram’s circumcision but it also demands a complete circumcision. Those who by faith come to Jesus Christ must be prepared for this circumcision, whole and complete, and holding nothing back. Process to be sure, but a complete surrender to that process is the sign of genuine faith.

There is no such thing as a partial commitment to Jesus Christ. Just as a partial circumcision would have been rejected in the Old Testament, so will a partial commitment to Christ be rejected by God. Can you not see the plethora of half hearted commitments to Jesus Christ today, and in those so called commitments lives the eternal danger of damnation. This is no game and no trifle, this is the ultimate issue of all seriousness. We have both minimized and also expanded God’s grace and have stuffed it into our own definitions and by doing such we have sometimes completely misrepresented the grace of God. The grace of God covers everything and it is limitless in the life of a believer, but that grace does not come through grace, it comes through faith. That is an important distinction because some now teach that God’s grace is automatically placed upon some who either have made a lukewarm commitment to Christ, or worse yet, that God’s grace will cover those who have never even believed in Christ.

Remember not all who were circumcised in Israel were actually saved, Hebrews tells us that some who bore the outward sign lived in unbelief. What then can we make of those who do not even bear the outward sign? Those who refused to be fully circumcised were to be treated as the heathen not as recipients of God’s grace even while they were living in disobedience and unbelief. To expand God’s grace without the exhibition of obedience that comes through genuine faith is to change the gospel and give false hope to millions of lost souls who rest in their partial and non-effective Christian life. Within the pews of the thousands of evangelical churches in America there dwells a massive mission field that includes Sunday School attenders, choir members, and many who are committed to their church and not the Lord Christ.

One cannot come by faith to the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and ask for a partial circumcision, one that protects the precious flesh and only commits that which is convenient and painless, no, that is not the gospel and many have followed its pernicious way. In the Old Testament it took time for the wound of circumcision to heal and indeed it was painful, but there is no provision for any other route to obey God’s command. So it is with the circumcision of the Spirit, it is painful and takes a lifetime to be fully healed and resolved. Then why do so many feel comfortable in their sin and careless living and their lack of sacrifice and seeking of God’s face? It is probable that many professing believers have been born in Ishmael’s legacy and not of Isaac’s. They have born of the illegitimate bondwoman and not the Son of promise.

What do I mean by that and just who does Ishmael represent? Ishmael is the symbol of the ways of man, the human way of salvation and not according to the promise of God’s Word. Ishmael is attractive, and just as Abram felt the attraction of his flesh toward Hagar so do many feel the attraction of the flesh toward these new and enticing words of man’s wisdom that change the essence of the gospel and offer Ishmael at the expense of Isaac. You see the birth of Ishmael was a natural act of the flesh while the birth of Isaac was a supernatural act of the Spirit. And we now have so many professions of Christ that are void of the supernatural and mirror the birth of Ishmael and yet are accepted as from God. God says “throw out the bondwoman and her child” because there can be no mixture.

God will not accept the works of the flesh, only the works that emanate from the Spirit Himself. No partial salvations, no partial commitments, no partial faith, and no partial circumcisions will be accepted by God. And to insinuate that God’s grace can be applied to the doorposts of tepid and lukewarm “believers” is wresting the Scriptures and giving false hope to sinners. Remember, desiring to avoid hell and desiring to go to heaven are used by the Spirit to open eyes, but salvation comes not from those things but by fully believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus doesn’t show the way, He is the way and only in Him can we find eternal life. The scraps that pass for commitment today are an affront to Christ and His gospel. Not only are people’s lives careless and fleshy, they no longer desire to become inwardly and outwardly sanctified and fit for the Master’s use. And even further, many teach that we no longer have to desire that depth of discipleship, God accepts us all just as we are.

Oh beware my friends, partial circumcision doesn’t lead to partial salvation, it leads to death. The feel good gospel has stretched out its tentacles and choked the truth from the gospel and is drawing millions to a convenient and shallow conversion. People are changing part of their minds but their hearts are far from Christ. The lusts of the world are now presented as gospel attractions, but the humble servant of the cross is rejected, repackaged, and disseminated for the consumption of the careless sinner. Anything that requires sacrifice or separation from the hedonistic dictates of this world is rejected as legalism and archaic. We are in desperate need of an awakening within the church, however the church is now primarily in the hands of false prophets and ear tickling teachers. New and exciting, but barren and dead.

God help us to break up the fallow ground, sow in tears, and seek His face until He reigns His power upon us again.