Circumcision of the Heart and Removing the Veil: Being and Becoming; the Now and Not Yet Life

“In Him you were also circumcised in the putting off of the sinful nature . . . with a circumcision done by Christ” (Colossians 2: 11 NIV).

“No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code” (Romans 2: 29).

“The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love Him with all your heart and with all your soul and live” (Deuteronomy 30: 6).

Circumcision is a cutting around or cutting away. The Greek peritemno (circumcised) and peritome (circumcision) are defined in Strong’s as “the extinction of passions and the removal of sins or spiritual impurity”. In Colossians 2:11, these verses describe a cutting away of sinful nature (NIV), the sins of the flesh (KJV), or the “stripping away of the body of the flesh – the whole corrupt, carnal nature with its passions and lusts” (AMP).

Circumcision by the Holy Spirit marks us as Kingdom men or women living ‘in Christ’. We are saved.

“When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature (translated as ‘flesh’ in the KJV), God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; He took it away (wiped it out, obliterated it), nailing it to the cross” (Colossians 2: 13 – 15 NIV).

Paul tells us when we confess with our mouths that “Jesus is Lord” and believe in our hearts that God raised Jesus from the dead, we are saved. To make this confession, you must repent. In that moment, when you turned away from sin and pride and turned to Jesus, you were born again; you became a new creation. And, your old self, your sinful nature or flesh (depending upon the translation), and the associated negative emotions and sins were ‘cut away’ by the circumcision of your heart by the Holy Spirit, and along with a certificate of debt, were nailed to the cross.

Through repentance and the work of the Holy Spirit, the spiritual flesh around our hearts that separated us from Jesus was removed – we entered the Kingdom of God.

This circumcision of the heart – the cutting away of the sins of the flesh by the Spirit; and the removal of the veil around our hearts by Jesus in response to our repentance (see my previous post), seem similar. Are they, in fact, the same thing? And if they are not, what can we learn from the differences between these two ways of ‘purifying’ our hearts?

Removing the veil around my heart involves repentance, which includes both me and Jesus. What about circumcision? Do I have a role to play in that as well? In Deuteronomy, God tells Israel, “Circumcise your hearts, and do not be stiff-necked” (Deuteronomy 10: 16). But later in Deuteronomy, God tells Israel, “The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants” (Deuteronomy 30: 6). So, who does the circumcision – God or me? The answer is both – like daily repentance, it is a partnership between me and God. And like daily repentance, I must acknowledge my need for a savior through confession and renunciation. But circumcision of the heart seems to be a one-time ‘event’.

Circumcision in the Bible refers to the cutting away of the foreskin around a man’s penis. It is a sign of the covenant between God and Israel. Circumcision is, thankfully, done only once. The foreskin does not grow back! Paul uses the circumcision-of-the-heart metaphor because, like the removal of the foreskin, it is only done once. Not so with the veil. Even though we follow Christ, and even though the veil might have been removed (or mostly removed) through previous acts of repentance, the veil can grow back because we still sin. We will continue to harbor negative emotions, struggle with fear (although to a lesser degree, hopefully), sin, and might even continue dabbling in the occult. The veil can continually grow, which is why removing the veil requires continual repentance. And it is a bit like peeling the onion. Repent of one layer and the next one pops up.

So, it seems like circumcision and ‘removing the veil’ as I described it are two related but different processes. Let’s look a bit deeper.

Understanding the differences between ‘sin nature’, ‘sins of the flesh’, and ‘the flesh’ eluded me. What exactly is cut away from around our heart when it is circumcised by Jesus? I found William Barclay’s commentary on Colossians helpful. Commenting on Colossians 2: 11, Barclay wrote:

“Circumcision is . . .  the excision from this life of everything which is against the will of God” (pg. 139)

“Only Christ can bring about that spiritual circumcision which means cutting away from a man’s life everything which keeps him from being God’s obedient child” (pg. 139).

“The only true circumcision is when a man dies (to self) . . . in such a way that it is not part of his body which is cut away but his whole sinful self which is destroyed and he is filled with newness of life and the very likeness of God” (pg. 140).

This makes more sense to me – when our hearts are circumcised, Jesus removes “our whole sinful self”. In other words, we die to self at the hands of the Holy Spirit. Circumcision is cutting away “the old self with its evil practices”.

Which reminds me of Andrew Murray because the other word for self is pride.

“Even the most secret breath of pride, in self-seeking, self-will, self-confidence, or self-exaltation, is only the strengthening of that self that cannot enter the Kingdom or possess the things of the Kingdom because it refuses to allow God to be who He is” (Murray, Humility, pg. 78).

“Faith is the means by which we perceive and apprehend the heavenly world and its blessings. Faith seeks the glory that comes when God is all. As long as we take glory from one another, as long as we seek love and jealously guard the glory of this life, the honor and reputation that comes from men, we do not seek and cannot receive the glory that comes from God. Pride renders faith impossible” (Murray, Humility, pg. 78).

Do you want faith, to be ‘in Christ’, to live in the Kingdom of God, remaining for eternal life in the Holy of Holies, hearing God’s voice and receiving from Him your inheritance as the children of God, especially the Holy Spirit? Then your self – your pride – must be cut away from around your heart. Your heart must be circumcised, not by human hands, but by Jesus. What Paul is describing when he writes, “in putting off of the sinful nature” or “in putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh” is cutting away pride or the self-life from our hearts by the power of the Holy Spirit.

 Circumcision has three outcomes:

First, there can be no faith in a heart filled with pride; pride makes faith impossible. Where there is no faith, there can be no repentance. In simplest terms, repentance is turning away from evil, which is renunciation; and turning toward Jesus, which is faith. If I have no faith, I have no place to turn; I cannot repent. And without repentance, there can be no Kingdom life. To have faith, the pride in my heart must be stripped away by circumcision.

Second, circumcision sets me free from the demonic power of pride. Pride is more than a feeling or a state of being. Pride has its strength in a spiritual power; it is demonic in origin. Pride always enslaves us; we are powerless to overcome it. When Jesus circumcises our hearts, He cuts away the spirit of pride. We are set free from the demonic power and free to walk in His power by faith. That is what Isaiah meant, predicting the words the coming Messiah, Jesus, would speak: “He has sent me to bind up (‘heal’ in NKJV) the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives, and release from darkness for the prisoners” (Isaiah 61: 1 NIV) – healing and freedom from the darkness of pride!

We can now become partakers of the Divine Nature (2 Peter 1: 4).

Third, when our hearts are circumcised by Christ, God sees us as “holy in His sight without blemish and free from accusation” (Colossians 1: 22 NIV). Paul wrote, speaking about the consequence of circumcision:

“But once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now He has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in His sight without blemish and free from accusation – if you continue in your faith” (Colossians 1: 21 – 23 NIV).

Through circumcision we are given faith and the Kingdom life, set free from demonic oppression and slavery to sin, and presented to God as holy and blameless, free from all accusation.

I have a role to play in circumcision. My role is to repent. Repentance is turning away from evil or self and turning toward God, which is faith. And when I turn to God in faith, He circumcises my heart and makes me a new creation. So, which comes first – circumcision, without which faith is impossible; or faith, which is necessary for repentance and circumcision? Good question. Probably both at the same time.

Back to my original question. Is Jesus’ circumcision of the heart the same thing as Jesus removing the veil of negative emotions and sins from around my heart as I described in the previous post? My answer is, “Yes and no”. They are similar in the sense that in both cases I repent and Jesus does the transforming work. They are different in the sense that circumcision of the heart is a one-time event, while removing the veil needs to be done every day. Circumcision of the heart results in a heart that is holy and blameless in God’s eyes, without blemish and free from accusation. But the truth is, even after our hearts have been circumcised, we still sin, and many will still wrestle with pride. It is to cleanse us daily from our sins and residual pride that God gave us the gift of repentance – the way to remove the veil around our hearts made up of the interwoven threads of daily sin and pride.

Circumcision of our hearts by Jesus is the way God justifies us; removal of the veil by Jesus through repentance is the way God sanctifies us. Circumcision presents us to God holy, blameless, and free from accusation – we are justified once-and-for all time. Removing the veil is the daily process by which we become holy – as Peter commands, “Be holy as I am holy”. This journey is called sanctification.

 So, at the same time, we are holy and we are becoming holy. How is this possible? I don’t know, but apparently it is. Hebrews 10:14 contrasts these two related but distinct aspects of our life with Jesus, “Because by one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy” – We are ‘being’ and ‘becoming’; we are perfect now (being) and at the same time we are being made holy (becoming). We are becoming who we already are!

 Adoption as holy and blameless sons and daughters is our present possession. It is now! But I still sin. I am more holy and more blameless than I was a year ago, Hallelujah – but still have a long way to go. Paul describes this: And, we, “who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from God, who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3: 18 NIV). Paul is describing the process of “being transformed”, or ‘becoming’ more like Jesus over time as the veil around our heart is progressively stripped away when we live repentant lives.

 So, I am holy, blameless, and without blemish in God’s eyes, but I am also becoming holy and blameless – ‘being’ and ‘becoming’; another way of saying ‘we are becoming who we already are’.  

Another quote from Paul describing ‘being’ and ‘becoming’:

“Do not lie to one another, for you have stripped off the old (unregenerate) self with its evil practices (Paul is referring to circumcision of the heart), and have clothed yourselves with the new spiritual self (Paul’s “holy in His sight, without blemish, and free from accusation” – the ‘being’), which is ever in the process of being renewed and remolded (the ‘becoming’) into fuller and more perfect knowledge after the image and likeness of Him Who created it” (Colossians 3: 9, 10 AMP).

Circumcision of the heart by the Spirit is a one-time event, a line in the sand, so to speak, that separates my life in the kingdom of the world where I demanded the right to myself, from my new life in the Kingdom of God, where I give up the right to myself. The circumcision of my heart is both the sign and cause of new birth – when the sins of the flesh (my pride) have been ‘cut away’ and the sinful life I led has been crucified. It is my ‘being’ life.

But at the same time our life in-Christ is being daily renewed, deepened, and extended as we live humble and repentant ‘becoming’ lives. It is not one or the other, it is both.

As followers of Jesus, do we find our ultimate value in ‘being’ – knowing that we are children of God, holy and blameless in His sight, without blemish, and free from accusation? Or do we find our value in ‘becoming’ – growing, repenting, learning, and even performing the ministries for which we were created? “By the stripes that wounded Him we are healed and made whole” (Isaiah 53: 5 AMP). We are ‘whole’ when we are confident of who we are plus when we experience the joy of growing by His Spirit into the person He created us to be. It is in the confluence of these two streams of being and becoming that we will find our ultimate value, where life has its greatest meaning and satisfaction; a life in which we are lifted out of ourselves, and placed in His Kingdom for His purposes with all the confidence and gifts of a blameless adopted son or daughter. It is here, in the confluence of these two rivers of life, that we can finally glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

‘Being’ and ‘becoming’ is also a tension between ‘now’ and ‘not yet’. Through circumcision of the heart we are now, in God’s eyes, the person He created us to be. But we are not yet that person – much like the Kingdom of God, which is also is now and not yet.

We repent and we are repentant. We are being and becoming; we are now and not yet. And all of this is by the power and grace of Jesus.

I think the Church in America can fall into the trap of preaching one stream only. Some churches preach the truth of ‘being’. We are holy in God’s sight, blameless, and free from accusation. A person living in that stream might ask, “If that is true, how can I be a sinner. Didn’t Jesus deal with all my sin – past, present, and future – on the cross?” Yes, that is true, but it deemphasizes repentance. Some churches preach the ‘becoming’ stream. Churches in this stream can focus on sin and sinners falling short of God’s best for them, without the assurance of ‘being’. The emphasis in these churches is not on who we are, but who we need to become.

The truth is these two streams, ‘being’ and ‘becoming,’ should converge in the Christian’s walk. We cannot live in one stream or the other. We must live in both at the same time.

We live between the Fall and the New Heaven and the New Earth. The good news is that God has brought us to ‘perfection’ in our now-existence through Jesus and the cross – we know who we are now and who we will be in the end – “if we continue in our faith”. And for those in Christ, we are becoming more like Him every day. In Christ, we have hope and joy – we know who we are before we become who we will be. Truly, “Christ in us, the hope of glory”.

“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body” (2 Corinthians 4: 7 – 10).

Thankful,

John