The Rite of Circumcision

The Rite of Circumcision

We read about circumcision in Genesis 17:1–14. It was so important that verse 11 says, “it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you.” Verse 14 says an uncircumcised male “will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.” The rite of circumcision was God’s way of requiring the Jewish people to become physically different because of their relationship to Him.

A careful reading of Colossians 2:9–15 sheds light on how the infant Jesus would later be used to fulfill a different kind of circumcision in believers. Verse 11 says: “In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature.” If you have walked with Jesus for any time, you can point to ways in which our spiritual circumcision results in proof that we are different than the persons we originally were.

Colossians 2:15 goes on to proclaim that this Christ “disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” When the infant Jesus was circumcised at eight days of age, I’m not sure His parents could fathom that He was the physical manifestation of the covenant God had made thousands of years earlier.

Second Corinthians 1:20 says, “No matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘Yes’ in Christ.” The infant Joseph held during that circumcision was the very Yes of God to the promise of the covenant being symbolized. But this infant was more. He was also the fulfillment of the rite of redemption.