The Circumcised Heart
The promise of the Spirit is vital to the redemption of humanity and the Covenant of God with His people, the Assembly of Jesus Christ. The New
Testament links the “Promise of the Spirit” to the “Blessings of
Abraham,” the promise that God would bless the nations through the Great Patriarch.
The Spirit is the gift believers receive “through
the hearing of faith.” It is part of the Covenant Promises given to
Abraham, and the Apostle Peter connected this gift to the “blessings” for
the nations during his sermon on the Day of Pentecost.
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[Photo by Derek Sutton on Unsplash] |
The Gift of the Spirit received by the 120 disciples on that day, and later by 3,000 converts in Jerusalem, was in fulfillment of what God had promised Abraham centuries earlier.
- “The promise is for you, and to your children and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God will call” - (Acts 2:38-39).
- (Genesis 12:1-3) - “And Yahweh said to Abram <…> So will be blessed in you all the clans of the earth.”
- (Genesis 17:7) - “And I will confirm my covenant between me and you and your seed after you to their generations for an everlasting covenant.”
Israel failed to keep the requirements of
the Covenant. Though the nation had sworn to perform “all the words which
Yahweh has spoken,” history attests to its failure to fulfill its covenant obligations.
The Israelites could not meet those requirements since they did not possess the
Spirit. Without the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, no man or woman can fulfill the “righteous requirements of the Law” - (Exodus 24:1-8, Numbers
11:1-15).
However, the Mosaic Legislation anticipated
Israel’s downfall and the need for something beyond the written Law. After
predicting the dispersal of the Nation, God promised that after the people of Israel
truly repented, they would “return to Me and obey my voice with all your
heart and soul.”
On that future glorious day, God would gather
His people from all nations and “circumcise your heart and the heart of your
seed to love Yahweh your God with all your heart” - (Deuteronomy 30:1-6).
The themes of renewal and circumcision
of the heart are addressed in the Book of Jeremiah. God would “make
a New Covenant with the House of Israel and the House of Judah,” but not a
covenant according to the one He made with the nation’s forefathers at Mount
Sinai – (Jeremiah 31:31-34).
The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would provide
a New Covenant in which He would write His laws and regulations in the
hearts of His people. This circumcision of the heart foreseen by
Moses and Jeremiah has become reality in the “New Covenant” prophesied inaugurated by Jesus through his sacrificial death (“This
cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you” – Luke 22:20).
Thus, the New Testament applies this promise
to the Covenant based on the Death and Resurrection of Jesus. Likewise, the Prophet
Ezekiel described this same covenant but added the essential element of the
Spirit - (compare Hebrews 8:6-12):
- (Ezekiel 36:24-28) – “Therefore will I take you from among the nations, and gather you out of all the lands, and will bring you upon your own soil… And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the heart of stone of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh, and my spirit will I put within you and will cause that in my statutes you will walk, and my regulations you will observe and do.”
SPIRIT AND COVENANT
Thus, the Book of Ezekiel combines
the promises of the New Covenant, the Gift of the Spirit, and the circumcised
heart. Centuries later, the Apostle Paul applied these promises to the Church
of Corinth:
- (2 Corinthians 3:1-6) – “You are our letter, inscribed in our hearts, noted and read by all men, manifesting yourselves that you are a letter of Christ, ministered by us, inscribed, not with ink, but with the Spirit of a Living God; not in tablets of stone, but in tablets which are hearts of flesh <…> Not that of our own selves sufficient are we to reckon anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God, who also has made us sufficient to be ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter, but of the spirit, for the letter kills, but the Spirit makes alive.”
The prophecies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel
pointed to the centrality of the Spirit. With the Resurrection and Ascension of
Jesus, the long-awaited New Covenant with its Gift of the Spirit was given to the
people of God, beginning with the Spirit’s outpouring on the Day of Pentecost –
(Acts 2:1-4).
The connection of the Spirit to the Abrahamic Covenant and the “New Covenant” illustrates the continuity of what God is doing today through His Church, and with His redemptive purposes for the Nation of Israel.
Neither the Church nor the
receipt of the Spirit was an unforeseen interim stage or necessary detour in God’s
redemptive plan. They have been fundamental parts of His Covenant from the very
beginning.
The Abrahamic Covenant finds its fulfillment
in Jesus Christ and his people composed of Jewish and Gentile believers. With his
Death and Resurrection and the outpouring of the Spirit on his People, “no
longer can there be Jew or Gentile.” Together, Jews and Gentiles become the
“heirs” and “children” of Abraham, and “coheirs with Christ”
of the promises of God – (Romans 8:17).
Regardless of race or nationality, the
disciples of Jesus are filled with the Holy Spirit, and with their “circumcised
hearts,” they follow the Messiah of Israel wherever he leads as “one new
man” - (Galatians 3:26-29, Ephesians 2:15).
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SEE ALSO:
- Spirit and Covenant - (The Gift of the Spirit is part of the New Covenant, the first fruits of the New Creation, and the gathering of the nations in fulfillment of the covenant)
- The Heir of Abraham - (Jesus is the true Son of Abraham, the heir of the promises, the Anointed One who fulfills and implements the inheritance for his people)
- The Promise of the Father - (With the outpouring of the Spirit on Pentecost, the blessings for all nations promised to Abraham have commenced)
- Le Cœur Circoncis - (La promesse de l'Esprit est vitale pour la rédemption de l'humanité et l'Alliance de Dieu avec Son peuple, l'Assemblée de Jésus-Christ)
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