This week’s “Wednesday Word” is a summary of Dr. Wellum’s seventh session in his series, The Bible’s Big Picture, given on Sunday, November 8, 2009.
We continue our study of the Abrahamic covenant by investigating Genesis 17. Here we are given more details about the covenant with particular focus on the institution of circumcision. As the initial promise was given to Abraham in Genesis 12 and the covenant ratified in Genesis 15, this chapter reveals more to us about God’s saving purposes to Abraham as well as to us now that our Lord Jesus has come. There are four points to focus on from this chapter.
First, it is important to remember that Genesis 15 precedes Genesis 17 in God’s saving plan. The apostle Paul emphasizes this in Romans 4. The importance of this point is that justification by grace through faith (Gen 15:6) is announced prior to the giving of circumcision which entails that as important as circumcision is, it was never meant to be a permanent institution for the people of God. This is why, as God’s plan unfolds and our Lord comes, Paul can say in 1 Corinthians 7:17ff that circumcision is now done away with and it is not a covenantal requirement for the people of God today. In other words, circumcision was commanded by God and God but God never intended for it to be that which was practiced permanently. It had its place in God’s plan, but ultimately it pointed forward to greater realities that have now come in Jesus Christ.
Second, there are further details given in regard to the promise. Earlier in the chapter, God not only reiterates the prior promises centered on a great name, nation, and land, but also he speaks of kings coming from Abraham (Gen 17:6ff). In this way, we are reminded that it is through Abraham that God’s promise to reverse the effects of sin and the fall will be brought about. This promise of kings will later be picked up in the Mosaic, Davidic, and ultimately fulfilled in the coming of Christ.
Third, it is important to think through who the children of Abraham are in Scripture and how this applies to the institution of circumcision. In terms of the children of Abraham, or his seed, there are four kinds of children. (1) There are physical children which includes Ishmael, Isaac, and the later sons of Keturah. (2) There is the promised, special, physical child, namely Isaac (Gen 17:17-22). (3) There is the true seed of Abraham who is the fulfillment of Isaac, namely our Lord (Gal 3:16). At this point we can say that Isaac is a type of Christ. (4) There is the spiritual seed of Abraham which includes every believer in the past and present (Gal 3:29ff). When we speak of Abraham’s children, we must be careful to think through what “children” are we talking about.
Fourth, the third point is important as you think of the institution of circumcision. What is the significance of it? For some in the church, they believe that circumcision functions as a covenant marker in the OT and in the NT it comes over in terms of the baptism of an infant. This is a mistaken notion. Let me explain why. When we think of circumcision we have to think of its significance in three areas. (1) At its heart circumcision functions as a physical marker demarcating the physical lineage of Abraham. Here it is a covenant sign given to Abraham, his house, and the entire nation of Israel. That is why it is applied to every physical child of Abraham and everyone associated with his household. In this way, when it is applied to the male child it does not necessarily signify salvation. (2) Circumcision also points beyond itself, picking up the seed promise, that from Abraham and later, from Israel, a male child will come who will bring salvation to the world. In this way, circumcision points forward to the coming of a Messiah, who we know to be our Lord Jesus Christ. The last covenantally significant circumcision, then, in the Bible is that of Christ’s who is the fulfillment of this promise. (3) Circumcision also is typological in that it points to the need for a circumcision of the heart. The physical marker is not enough for salvation; what is needed is for God to change the human heart and to give a person a new heart. This point is applied in the NT to believers (Rom 2:25; Gal 5:3; Eph 2:11ff). As circumcision is picked up in the NT, it is never picked up in baptism. Rather circumcision as a covenant marker comes to an end (1 Cor 7:17) and it teaches us that what is needed is a new heart and new life—that which only Christ can achieve and give. No doubt, baptism is a covenant marker like circumcision, but what these two covenant signs signify is entirely different. Circumcision demarcates a physical nation and speaks of the need for a transformation of heart. Baptism is applied to those who have been joined to Christ by faith, who have come to believe in the promised Messiah, and who have experienced a circumcision of heart—that to which circumcision points forward to. Furthermore, in the NT, there is no evidence that the formula given to Abraham—to you and your children—is picked up in the NT in the sense that believers bring their children to the Lord and give them the covenant sign of baptism. The only children of Abraham today are those who are believers in Christ, not you and your children. Now that Christ has come, we have to make it clear that what people need is to close with Christ, to be regenerated by his Spirit, and to signify those great new covenant realities by publically confessing Christ in baptism.