Good morning! I hope you are having a great week and enjoying thinking about the richness and depth of God’s Big Words. Today let’s think about Atonement and Circumcision.
Atonement
This is the Old Testament word that corresponds to the New Testament word “propitiation.” It carries with it the idea of sins covered over. In Heb 9:5 this word is used as the phrase mercy seat—an atoning thing. Often people think of children of God under the Old Testament as not having their sins truly forgiven because they didn’t have the blood of Jesus. But Heb 9:15 makes it clear that Jesus’ blood was shed “for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament…” God provided atonement because the death of His Son was certain!
Circumcision
This was a physical act or rite enjoined by God upon Abraham and his male descendants as a sign of the covenant made with him. Genesis 17; Acts 7:8; Rom 4:11. Israelites termed Gentiles as “the uncircumcised.” However, Paul’s argument in Romans 4 was that Abraham was saved because of his obedient faith, not because of his fleshly circumcision. Paul goes on to teach in Colossians 2:11-14 that ours is a spiritual circumcision, the circumcision of the heart, “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…”