I am going to propose a new look at a long-cherished doctrine. You almost certainly won’t accept it at face value – nor would I expect you to. But I’m going to propose proof from scripture that explains WHY God told men to be baptized, AND circumcised – something that has never been done before!

Oh, I’m not talking about simple allegories that explain parts of it, but REAL, SOLID REASONS that explain the WHOLE concept!

This will require that you open your mind to new possibilities… not that you take a flight of fancy and leave your intelligence behind, but that you should be willing to EXAMINE your long-treasured ideas and LEARN MORE about them!

First, I want you to imagine yourself in the shoes of the apostle Peter. You have just spent several years living and traveling with Jesus Christ. God has been working mighty miracles through your hands. And through all this time, Christ never once mentioned, or even HINTED that circumcision was to be done away! Not once!

Then, from out of nowhere the man who killed many of your closest friends shows up, with the signs and power of God, and tells you that circumcision is done away! Not only that, but the entire law of Moses is gone!

To top it all off, this upstart has absolutely ZERO SCRIPTURAL PROOF! Not one shred of a prophecy, not one word of Christ, NOTHING to show that this is done away! All he has to go on is a powerful argument, the power of God, and an appeal to your sense of reason. This is the situation in which Peter found himself!

Peter couldn’t argue with what Paul said – what he said made good sense! For example…

Romans 4:8-12 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.
Cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also? for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness.
How was it then reckoned? when he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision.
And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also:
And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised.

Who can argue such logic? He proved that God didn’t care about circumcision by proving that God overlooked the unwitting sins of Abraham BEFORE his circumcision! Who can deny that? And yet God commanded circumcision FOREVER!

Genesis 17:13 He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.

This was everlasting! Not only until Christ, but everlasting! And yet Paul can make an irresistible argument that it doesn’t matter – but he has NO PROOF whatsoever! Imagine the position Peter was in! Besides all that, Paul’s writing style was… confusing, at best.

2 Peter 3:16 As also in all his [Paul’s] epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.

Paul never did explain why circumcision was done away. He proved that it WAS, but he never showed why. It’s important to stop and try to empathize with Peter’s position. The reason for that is, you are about to be in a similar one. Read this scripture carefully:

Romans 2:25-26 For circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law: but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision. Therefore if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision?…

In other words, whether you were circumcised or not, God doesn’t care! All he wants is for you to keep the law – the Ten Commandments.

Verses 27-29 And shall not uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfil the law, judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision dost transgress the law? For 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.

God never wanted circumcision! Any more than He wanted the sacrificial system of Moses! It was just a type of the REAL THING! What He wanted was to be able to whisper in the back of your mind, and to have you JUMP to do what was right! That is CIRCUMCISION OF THE HEART!

Circumcision was to be done on the 8^th day to a new child, and to any stranger who wanted to become a part of Israel. This BOUND them to obey the law – the WHOLE law. If you disobeyed the letter of the Ten Commandments, you died WITHOUT MERCY! (Hebrews 10:28)

This obedience to the letter of the law was not an option! It was the price tag that went with belonging to Israel, being a member of God’s kingdom. Because of this, children only 8 days old entered into this covenant!

But the new covenant was OPTIONAL! No one forced you to obey the new covenant… because no one could! The new covenant wasn’t simply to obey the letter of the law, you had to do MORE! The old covenant allowed you to slap someone who slapped you first – but not the new!

Hebrews 8:7-10 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.
For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:
Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:

To be in the NEW covenant you have to be of age – old enough to consciously CHOOSE to be a part of God’s kingdom – it can’t be forced on you from outside! You must willingly listen to the promptings of the holy spirit. When a twinge of guilt hits the back of your mind, when you think “I shouldn’t be doing this…” that is the spirit of God, working in YOUR MIND! TRYING to get the access to your heart that you promised to give Him!

But you deny Him that access by refusing to obey that prompting! And so your heart is UNCIRCUMCISED, and closed off!

Jeremiah 9:25-26 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will punish all them which are circumcised with the uncircumcised;
Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that are in the utmost corners, that dwell in the wilderness: for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart.

God doesn’t care if you were circumcised OUTWARDLY, if you deny Him the access to your heart that the terms of the new covenant promises, you are UNCIRCUMCISED, and not a part of the KINGDOM OF GOD!

Romans 2:28-29 For 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.

And so Paul eventually argued most of the church to silence over the subject of circumcision. And since Paul’s words were made into scripture we may be sure that this is as God wanted it.

But it didn’t end there! Paul pushed baptism in the place of circumcision. In this at least, the apostles agreed. But why did baptism show up just as circumcision was leaving? BECAUSE, baptism REPLACED circumcision! It was the NEW symbol!

Colossians 2:11-13 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:
Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;

When you are baptized, you are committing yourself to life-long, SPIRITUAL CIRCUMCISION! Circumcision of the heart! You are entering into a covenant to ALWAYS allow God that access to you. Remember, this covenant is TOTALLY OPTIONAL.

By optional, I mean that no one requires you to be baptized the 8^th day of your life, unlike circumcision. No, for this covenant you had to CHOOSE to do this forever. Once you make this covenant, there is no turning back! You are BOUND to obey not only the letter, but also the SPIRIT of the law, in every point!

Romans 7:6 But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.

And because of this new symbol we have, baptism, circumcision has become meaningless! Utterly worthless! God never cared about it to begin with, it was just a seal of the agreement, and an example to show Israel what He wanted from them.

1 Corinthians 7:18-19 Is any man called being circumcised? let him not become uncircumcised. Is any called in uncircumcision? let him not be circumcised.
Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God.

But now to introduce the fascinating part…. allow me to make a few statements; please consider them carefully.

“Baptism is nothing, and UNbaptism is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God!”

“You know the scripture that says that Abraham believed God, and it was imputed to him for righteousness… and yet he wasn’t baptized, OR circumcised… was it counted to him for righteousness in circumision or baptism, or when he was yet in Uncircumcision, and UNbaptism?”

Can you argue with those statements any more than Peter could argue with the statements of Paul? Of course, I know there are scriptures that command baptism… but there were scriptures that commanded circumcision forever too!

Well? Let’s ask some more questions.

Acts 10:34-35 Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.

At this time, NO ONE had been baptized except those who were Israelite (and those who were naturalized), and yet ALL nations had these men! ALL nations did not have baptized men however!

So is it baptism that matters to God? Is it works of the flesh (or water, in this case) that matter to God? Is it circumcision that matters? Or is it baptism, a type of circumcision that matters? Or is it that God couldn’t care less about these symbols, these carnal ordinances, and cares ONLY about circumcision of the HEART, and anything that leads toward that end!

2 Corinthians 3:3 Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.

He wants his law written in your heart! And now we approach the REAL meaning, the true SIGNIFICANCE of WHY God created baptism and circumcision!

God created circumcision as a shadow, or a TYPE of the circumcision of the HEART that He really WANTED to have! He didn’t care about the physical symbol, He wanted the REAL THING! He wanted direct access to your conscience, so He could influence your decisions towards righteousness! If He had that, circumcision was an idle waste of time!

The fascinating thing is, HE FEELS THE SAME WAY ABOUT BAPTISM! Baptism REPLACED circumcision, and symbolized the SAME THING, just a different example and a more in-depth TYPE of the direct access to the heart that He wanted all along!

So what is circumcision, or uncircumcision, baptism or unbaptism! all that God cares about is that your heart is circumcised in TRUE FAITH! Faith based on your works, faith based on listening to the promptings of the holy spirit and OBEYING GOD, this is worth more than all the burnt offerings, sacrifices, circumcisions and baptisms ever done!

Circumcision and baptism were merely symbols, TYPES of the ONLY THING GOD REALLY CARED ABOUT, which was an OPEN heart he could access and influence!

*****

So, now that I’ve made my case, what do you think? Can you find a shred of an argument that shows why you should be baptized or circumcised… besides the obvious fact that God commanded them forever?

Despite the fact that I, like Paul, have zero scriptural proof on my side, can you fault my arguments?

Now you know how poor Peter felt.

Contrary to what it may have appeared, the purpose of this article wasn’t to convince young people not to be baptized. It is to show you the GREAT PURPOSE GOD INTENDED IT TO SIGNIFY! Baptism is nothing more than the SIGNING OF A CONTRACT! But all God cares about is whether you do the work or not! If you aren’t willing to PERMANENTLY circumcise your heart and obey ALL of the spirit of ALL God’s commandments, it wouldn’t help you!

If you are already baptized and your heart is not circumcised – if you resist and quench the spirit when it causes you guilt or reproaches you – then you are dead in your sins, and worse off for your baptism!

Contrariwise, if you ARE obeying the spirit of the law, if your heart IS circumcised before baptism, then signing that contract and making it permanent will not change your life one bit – but you, God, and anyone else who may be interested will know that you are COMMITTED to making a permanent change in yourself.

And if this is your intent, to make a permanent change, then signing the dotted line shouldn’t be a problem for you. And again let me reiterate – baptism will change nothing for you.

It is only a seal of the contract, so that when you feel like quitting this way of life you will look back and remember that you made a vow to the Lord, and you entered into a contract with Him to perform certain duties.

And when you think back and remember that, you will know that you can’t back out now. Remember, the Lord takes no pleasure in a fool, who doesn’t pay his vows! (Ecclesiastes 5:4)

If you have any questions, feel free to email me. If you are reticent about entering into this largest of commitments, think upon this scripture. God has laid the deal on the table now. It may not stay there forever.

Isaiah 55:6-7 Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:
Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.