3623 — Meaning of Circumcision
By J. A. P.
There is no inharmony in the texts. The apostle tells us in Gal. 6:15 that in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creature; and the same elsewhere. Timothy was circumcised simply to relieve the Jews, from prejudice. There was nothing against it; there was nothing in favor of it. It did not help to save Timothy. Timothy knew that; Paul knew that. The only reason it was done was that it took away the prejudice of the Jews. It is one of the things in which it was proper to yield to their prejudice when it cost no principle. Timothy could then go into Jewish synagogs and the Jewish temple and would be listened to. Gal. 5:2-4 tells us that there is no hope in circumcision. Circumcision stood in its beginning for righteousness. Abraham had accepted God, and his sins had been forgiven, and he stood clean before God, and circumcision was given him as a seal of the righteousness which is by faith. Rom. 4:11. Now, the men that did not look to Christ, but did look to circumcision, by that very fact were bound to stand holy before the law, and to do the whole law, which no man could do. Consequently it condemned them rather than justified them. And therefore the comment of the apostle Paul in Rom. 2:28, 29: "He is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh; 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." But all that can come only through Christ.