07/21/2022
Circumcision 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. Colossians 2:11-12
A lot of us have read scriptures that point to our co-crucifixion with Christ, yet it’s hard to imagine the person that we know by the flesh as dead to sin and alive in Christ, because we are familiar with our weaknesses. What if we pictured the cross as a surgical knife that deals with the body of sin that seems impossible to be free from? When Christ was crucified, our old man that had the opposite nature of God was circumcised. This old man that was imbedded in the members of our body carried the propensity for every form of lust & pride. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Romans 6:11
In this passage above it seems that Christ died to His own sin nature that He had to overcome in order to live to God. But the scripture in 2 Corinthians 5:21 makes it clear that He who knew know sin, became sin on our behalf. When revelation knowledge opens the eyes of our heart, we get to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. Christ’s death defeated sin and death, to enact a new law called the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus as spoken of in Romans 8:2. Slavery to sin and slavery to righteousness come with two different masters. The blood of Jesus purchased us out of the sin nature ruled by the father of lies, to bring deliverance from the kingdom of darkness and translate us into the Kingdom of Father God’s dear Son.
It's possible to live the Christ life inside of us. We were made to be image bearers that reflect the nature of God into His creation. The old nature is tied to creation that has been in a fallen state ever since Adam and Eve were poisoned to doubt God. The whole created universe has suffered the consequences of human sin, being subjected to decomposition, futility, and corruption. However, that process of deterioration is only temporary, because God has provided hope of deliverance. As spoken of in Romans 8:21, fallen creation will be delivered from the bo***ge of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
In returning to the circumcision of the flesh we must revisit Colossians 2 to get this fully formed in our spirits.
And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it. Colossians 2:13-15
This takes us into a discovery that when we were yet sinners Christ died for us. In our worst state, Christ did what we could never do in delivering us from the lower nature we were bound to from birth. Our new creation identity is free from urges, impulses, and desires of the flesh ruling over us. We are free to choose life and not death, love and not fear.
