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TOPIC: Pink, Arthur - Gleanings in Joshua (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 08.1-Symbols of Committal 5:1-15
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Gleanings In Joshua
8. Symbols of Committal
Joshua 5:1-15
Circumcision
That which is to engage our attention on this occasion, as in the article following, is still concerned with what was preparatory to the real task awaiting Israel, and is found in what, strictly speaking, belongs unto the introductory portion of Joshua, rather than to the body of the book, where Israel's conquest and occupation of Canaan is the distinctive subject. Yet it is in these opening chapters that the Holy Spirit has (in typical form) revealed the fundamental secrets of success in the Christian warfare and their present enjoyment of the heritage which Christ has procured for them. It is therefore all the more needful for us to proceed slowly and seek to thoroughly assimilate these initial truths if we are to obtain the richest benefit from them. The first thing absolutely indispensable to Israel's possession of Canaan was their crossing of the Jordan. That, as we have shown, was a figure of the Christian passing through death and judgment in the person of his Surety and then his entrance into "life." It is only one who is on resurrection ground that is qualified to overcome the foes which would prevent him possessing his possessions. Equally essential is it for the Christian to experience in a spiritual and practical way that which marked Israel's history at Gilgal.
"At that time the Lord said unto Joshua, Make thee sharp knives, and circumcise the children of Israel the second time" (Josh. 5:2). With those words chapter 5 ought to begin, for verse 1 in our Bibles obviously concludes the preceding one. Here in verses 2-9 the Holy Spirit has recorded what took place in Gilgal, namely, the circumcising of Israel. The narration of that important event is introduced by informing us when it occurred-a detail which must not be overlooked when seeking the spiritual application unto ourselves. "At that time," i.e., first when the Lord their God had so signally shown Himself strong in their behalf by performing a miracle of mercy for them. Second, when they had just passed through the river which spake of death and judgment. Third, as soon as they had set foot within the borders of their promised inheritance. Fourth, four days before the Passover, as a necessary pre-requisite and qualification for them to participate in that feast. Fifth, ere they began the real task of possessing their possessions-by vanquishing those who would seek to prevent their enjoyment of the same. We shall ponder first the literal or historical meaning of this for the natural Israel, and then its application unto and significance as it respects the spiritual Israel, the Church of Christ.
The "circumcise the children of Israel the second time" requires a word of explanation. It should be apparent at once that the reference is not unto a repetition of a painful operation upon those who had previously been circumcised, but rather in contrast from a general circumcising of Israel on an earlier occasion. In the light of Joshua 24:14, Ezekiel 20:7, 8 and 23:3 it is clear that during their lengthy sojourn in Egypt the children of Israel departed grievously from the revelation which God had made unto their fathers, and the statutes (Gen. 26:5) He had given them; and judging from the case of Moses' own son (Ex. 4:24, 25), there is little doubt that the ordinance of circumcision had been generally, if not universally, neglected and omitted by them. The words "God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob" (Ex. 2:24, and 6:5) imply that Israel had forgotten it. The express prohibition that none should partake of the Passover, save those who were circumcised (Ex. 12:48, 49), and the added statement. "Thus did all the children of Israel: as the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they," denotes that circumcision had at last been administered-probably at the beginning of the "thick darkness which was upon all Egypt" for the "three days" (Ex. 10:21) that preceded the Passover night.
Verses 4 to 7 (of Joshua 5) tell us what it was that required such a wholesale circumcising of the male Israelites-adults as well as children-on this occasion: "Now all the people that came out were circumcised, but all the people that were born in the wilderness by the way as they came forth out of Egypt, them they had not circumcised (v. 5), which in view of Genesis 17:9-11, was a startling omission. There has been considerable conjecture as to why Israel had failed to administer this essential rite for so many years. Thos. Scott says, "The reason for this omission is not so manifest." John Gill, "because of their frequent journeying, and the inconvenience of performing it being always uncertain when they pitched their tents how long they should remain and when they should remove . . . it was not safe to administer it." But the most popular explanation is that of sinful neglect. Yet even though that were the case with the great majority, would not the pious among them have complied? If rank disobedience was the cause, why is there no record of Moses rebuking them for such a grave sin? And why had not Joshua insisted upon it while they tarried in the plains of Moab, instead of waiting till the Jordan was crossed.
Matthew Henry came very much nearer the true explanation, though he states it rather vaguely and with some measure of uncertainty. The real reason, we submit, was what occurred at Kadesh-barnea. It was there the murmuring and unbelief of Israel reached its awful and fatal climax. when they hearkened to the evil report of the ten spies and refused to go forward into the land of Canaan, saying "Let us make us a captain, and let us return to Egypt"; and when Joshua and Caleb expostulated with them "all the congregation bade stone them with stones" (Num. 14:1-10). It was then that Jehovah swore in His wrath that they should not enter into His rest (Ps. 95:11). It was then that He declared "But as for you, your carcasses, they shall fall in this wilderness. And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcasses be wasted in the wilderness. All the number of the days in which ye searched the land, forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities forty years, and ye shall know My breach of promise" (Num. 14:32-34)-their apostasy and breaking of the covenant releasing Him from His engagement to bring them into Canaan. There is the key to Joshua 5:5!
When Israel, after repeated provocations, at length consummated their rebellion by despising the promised land and refused to advance beyond Kadesh-barnea, God swore that only two of that generation should enter it, the remainder being condemned to perish in the wilderness. Thus for thirty-eight years (Deut. 2:14) Israel was in a state of apostasy, and during that time their children bore the reproach of the same by being denied the "token" or "sign of the covenant" (Gen. 17:11)-wrongly termed by men "the seal of the covenant," for circumcision never "sealed" anything to anyone saving only to Abraham (Rom. 4:11). While the awful sentence of Numbers 14:32-34, lasted, Israel was a rejected people, and therefore their children were not entitled to bear the mark of covenant-relationship to God. But for the sake of their children, He did not withdraw every token of mercy from that generation, but provided sustenance and guidance throughout their journeys: the daily supply of manna, the pillar of cloud and fire, the erection of the tabernacle, etc., were so many intimations that God's favor would yet return unto Israel, though He had cast off their fathers.
The miraculous passage of the Jordan gave clear proof that Israel was once more restored unto the Divine favor, that Jehovah had resumed His covenant relationship with them, that in emerging from the river of death, judgment was behind them; that His sentence upon their fathers had been completed. That miracle showed unmistakably that Jehovah now owned Israel as His people, and therefore were they fit subjects again to receive the sign of the covenant upon their bodies. Circumcision was the token of the Abrahamic covenant (Gen. 17:11). That ordinance was the mark by which the natural seed of Abraham was distinguished from all other nations as a people in covenant with Jehovah, and which bound them by a special obligation to obey Him. It was the sign of the promissory part of the covenant which secured to Abraham's seed the land of promise (Gen. 17:8). Thus it was fitting that this second generation should now be circumcised. Moreover, the restoration of circumcision was to be accompanied by a revival of other institutions which had lapsed in the wilderness-such as the Passover feast, for which circumcision was a prerequisite. Upon Israel's entrance into Canaan they came under a stricter discipline than hitherto (Deut. 6:1; 12:1, 8).
"At that time the Lord said unto Joshua, Make thee sharp knives and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time." At the very time when Israel had entered that land whose inhabitants their unbelieving fathers had reported to be "strong" and "the cities are walled, and very great," yea. "all the people we saw in it are men of a great stature" (Num. 13:28, 32). What a testing of Joshua's faith was this: that all the males of Israel should now, for several days, be thoroughly incapacitated for fighting (Gen. 34:25)! But God intended it should be made manifest that the camp of Israel was governed by Himself, and not by any worldly policy. "What general ever opened a campaign in an enemy's country in the manner that Joshua did? On such occasions, all attention paid to the exercises of religion is too generally considered as a needless waste of time. Yet if indeed the help of God be the best security for success, and if His anger is more to be feared than the sword of any enemy, it will be found true policy to begin every expedition with repentance of sin, and attendance on the solemn worship of the Lord, and with using every method of securing His protection, though to a carnal eye it may appear unfavorable to success" (T. Scott).
"And Joshua made him sharp knives and circumcised the children of Israel" (v. 3). Severe as was this testing of his faith to thus handicap his fighting forces, yet counting upon the Lord's protection, his confidence in Him triumphed over it. We need hardly say that such a vast undertaking was not performed by him in person, but is attributed unto Joshua because the operation was carried out under his order and observation-just as we read that "Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John. Though Jesus Himself baptized not, but His disciples" (John 4:1, 2). Not only was this command of God's a severe test of Joshua's faith, but of the people's too: their submission would evidence whether they owned the verity of that Divine promise (Num. 14:7, 8) which their fathers had disbelieved. Moreover, their submitting unto circumcision was designed as a test of their obedience, for their conquest of Canaan was conditioned upon their punctilious compliance with all that God had commanded through Moses (Josh. 1:8). Their willing compliance was a fulfillment of the promise which they had made unto Joshua, in Joshua 1:17, 18, and afforded a further demonstration that the? were the best of all the generations of Israel-in answer to the prayer of Moses (Ps. 90:13-17).
"And it came to pass, when they had done circumcising all the people, that they abode in their places in the camp till they were whole. And the Lord said unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you. Wherefore the name of the place is called Gilgal [or "rolling "] unto this day" (vv. 8, 9). The commentators are strangely "at sea" concerning the significance of that expression "the reproach of Egypt," most of them regarding it as a reference to the stigma incurred by Israel when they were the slaves of the Egyptians. But surely that reproach was for ever rolled away when Jehovah delivered His people from Egypt by a high arm, brought them safely through the Red Sea and there destroyed Pharaoh and his hosts. No, rather is it an allusion to Egypt's taunt of Exodus 32:12. During the thirty-eight years when Israel was rejected by God there appeared ground for Egypt's sneer that they would perish in the wilderness; but all occasion for such a reproach had now been removed by the Lord's return unto Israel, and by restoring the token of the covenant He gave intimation that He had resumed His mighty works on their behalf, that they were His people and He their God.
But we must turn now and consider the application of this unto ourselves, for like all the ceremonial rites and institutions of the Old Testament times, circumcision is, anti-typically, a real and substantial thing unto New Testament saints. Stating it first in a brief sentence, circumcision respected the mortification of sin, the putting off of the filth of the flesh. But that statement calls for explanation and amplification, for the great majority of Christians have very low and defective thoughts on this subject-inherited as they have been from the errors of Rome. Far too many of God's children today suppose that "mortification" signifies a dying to some specific acts of sin, the overcoming of this or that particular corruption. But that is a serious mistake. Watching against, offering stern resistance unto, and obtaining the victory over some particular acts of sin, falls far short of real mortification. That is evident from the fact that none of that is beyond what persons in a state of nature may do, and not a few have actually done. Men and women whose hearts know nothing whatever of the power of Divine grace have, nevertheless, succeeded in gaining the mastery over an unruly temper, and of denying their craving for strong drink.
Again, let it be granted that, as the result of a course of strict self-discipline, a Christian has overcome some besetting sin; or, putting it on a higher ground, that by Divine enablement in answer to prayer, he has become dead to some particular lust; nevertheless, the evil nature, the root, the filthy fountain from which such foul streams proceed, the whole body of sin, still remains within! No, Christian mortification consists of something much better, something far greater and grander than anything poor Papists are acquainted with. To be mortified unto sin is a higher and holier mystery than to be delivered from any mere acts of sin. It consists of having union and communion with Christ in His death unto sin (Rom. 6:10, 11). It is the effect and fruit of Christ's death for us, and of Christ's death in us by the vower of the Holy Spirit, whereby we live upon and enjoy fellowship with Him in His death, and are made partakers of "the power of His resurrection." As faith is exercised upon Him as our Head, we experience the virtue and efficacy of His death and resurrection in our hearts and lives.
That which was shadowed forth by circumcision, namely the putting off of the filth of the flesh, all believers find the substance of in Christ, and the same is made good in their souls-in measure here, but perfectly, so at death. In order to obtain a complete view of the Christian's circumcision, we need to consider it federally and judicially, then spiritually and experimentally, and then practically and manifestatively. First, then, all believers are legally circumcised in Christ. That which circumcision prefigured was the removal of the pollution of sin, and that was accomplished for believers judicially in the death of their Head. Circumcision symbolized the entire mortification of sin, and that is the effect and fruit of Christ's death for His people. "Ye are complete in Him [Christ], which is the Head of all principality and power. In whom 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" (Col. 2:10, 11). There we have the blessed fact stated, that in Christ their federal Head His redeemed are already, truly legally circumcised. It is said to be "without hands to distinguish it from the physical circumcision of the type, and to show that it is the result of no attainment of ours. Colossians 2:11, is a statement which is addressed to our faith, for it refers to something outside of our actual experience, to something which we have in Christ.
The apostle was moved by the Holy Spirit to employ quite a variety of terms to express the same fact. In Romans 6:2, he said of all believers "we died unto sin." In 1 Corinthians 6:9, "but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus." In Galatians 2:20, he declared-as the representative of all saints-"I am crucified with Christ." Here in Colossians 2:11, he affirms, "In whom also ye are circumcised," which signifies that in the sight of God's Law and justice the total pollution and defilement of sin (as well as its guilt and criminality) has been for ever removed. I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions" (Isa. 44:22). "Thou art all fair My love, there is no spot in thee" (Song 4:7). "And you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh, to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in His sight" (Col. 1:21, 22). These scriptures bear witness that Christ and the Church are federally and legally one: that God the Father accepts them and views them in the Beloved as both righteous and holy; that He now sees them as without spot or wrinkle or any such thing; that He pronounces them eternally cleansed and blessed.
The faith of many of God's people apprehends the blessed fact that the guilt and condemnation of their actual transgressions was perfectly atoned for by Christ, but the faith of very few apprehends that their evil nature itself and all their corruptions have been made a legal end of by the sacrifice of Christ. They recognize by faith that God views them as cleansed from the curse of the Law, that there is "no condemnation" resting upon them; but they fail to perceive that the justice of God regards them as purged from the very presence and defilement of sin in their natures, that there is no filth within them. Yet the latter is just as true of them as is the former. Their "old man was crucified with Christ" (Rom. 6:6). They were circumcised in Christ, which is described as a "putting off the body. of the sins of the flesh." Indwelling sin is called a "body" because it consists of various parts and members, and that "body of sin" has been "put off," yea, "destroyed" or "annulled" as the word used in Romans 6:6 signifies. Not only so, but the holiness of Christ has been imputed or placed to the account of their souls, so that God Himself declares, "the King's daughter is all glorious within" (Ps. 45:13), and not merely "without"-as covered with the robe of Christ's righteousness.
We say again that Colossians 2:11, is a Divine declaration (as is Song of Solomon 4:7, and Psalm 45:13, quoted above) which is addressed to faith. and is not a description of Christian experience; though in proportion as faith really appropriates it, we experience the comfort and joy of it. Alas that some of our readers are likely to refuse that comfort and joy through suspicion and fear that a belief of the same might lead to carelessness and low views of sin. When God bids His children to "reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin" (Rom. 6:11)-which means exactly the same as "Reckon ye also yourselves to be circumcised indeed in Christ, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh"-He certainly is not bidding them do anything which has a dangerous tendency. He exhorts them to so regard themselves because they have good and solid ground for doing so. They had a representative being and existence in their Head when He suffered and died to remove both the guilt and the defilement of their sins. Unless we were one with Christ in His death, there could be no pardon or cleansing for us. The saints then are to regard their state before God to be what Christ's is: delivered from sin's dominion, accepted in the Father's unclouded favor.
In our last we pointed out that the circumcising of all the male Israelites at Gilgal was a type of the circumcision of the Church. First, that all believers were legally circumcised in Christ: that at the cross the "body [or totality] of the sins of the flesh" was put off, completely and forever removed from the sight of God's law and justice; for such is the blessed, meaning and teaching of Colossians 2:11. God's elect had a federal being, a representative existence in their Head, so that when He died unto sin, they died unto sin; and it is both the duty and privilege of faith to appropriate that truth, and rest upon that fact. Therein we have revealed the Gospel method of mortifying sin-in blessed contrast from the fleshly devices of the Papists. It must flow from our union and communion with the Lord Jesus in His death, and faith's receiving of the virtue and efficacy of it. The fountain of all true and spiritual mortification was opened at the Cross and God is very jealous of the honor of the person and work of His beloved Son, and every departure from Him and it, every attempt of the carnal mind to devise some other remedy for any of the wounds which sin has inflicted upon and within us, is doomed to certain failure. Christ alone must be looked to for deliverance, not only from the guilt of sin but from its power and pollution; yes, and from its presence too.
But it must now be pointed out that as Christ is the federal Head of His people, so also is He their vital or life-giving Head. As the natural head of the physical body influences all its members, imparting life and motion to them (for when one side of the brain becomes paralyzed, one whole side of the body does too), so Christ imparts life unto and influences the members of His mystical body, the Church. This He does by sending down His Spirit into their hearts, who communicates to them what Christ did and purchased for them. Thereby they are circumcised spiritually and experimentally. That brings us to the second branch of our subject. "For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who 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" (Rom. 2:28, 29). There is much of deep importance in those two verses yet they are little understood today, especially by Dispensationalists and writers on "Prophecy"; but it would be outside our present scope to give an exposition of them, or even show the apostle's line of argument in that passage; rather we must confine ourselves to that in them which bears directly upon our present theme.
"Circumcision is that of the heart: in the spirit, and not in the flesh." There we are plainly taught that real "circumcision," the circumcision which God most approves, is an internal one. Even that is little understood by our moderns, and has no real place in their teaching. We wonder how many of our own readers have any definite and clear-cut conception of what is meant by spiritual "circumcision." Very few, we fear. All the more need then for us to take up this subject here, instead of seeing how swiftly we can get through the book of Joshua by merely offering generalizations upon its contents. It should be apparent to all who have read the Scriptures with any degree of attention and care that He who "desires Truth in the inward parts" (Ps. 51:6) required very much more from Israel even in Old Testament times than obedience to the outward ordinance of circumcision. The call "Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked" (Deut. 10:16) is too plain for misunderstanding. It is quite clear from Leviticus 26:41 and the last clause of Jeremiah 9:26 that the Lord punished Israel because they were "uncircumcised in heart." The same fault Stephen charged upon the Jews of his day (Acts 7:51).
"Circumcise yourselves to the Lord and take away the foreskins of your heart" (Jer. 4:4) was His just demand. John Gill acknowledged that "men are exhorted to this" (alas that so many of his admirers refuse to do so), though he rightly added "yet elsewhere He promises to do this for them." God has ever required reality and not simply outward profession, inward and moral purity and not merely external and ceremonial. "O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness" (Jer. 4:14). This spiritual circumcision, or cleansing of the heart, is the negative side of regeneration, or as the older writers more aptly expressed it "the privative" side. Strictly speaking there is no English word which accurately defines it, but "privative" is the nearest-that which results in a privation through the absence of something, the withholding or taking of it away. This is one aspect or part of "the great change" which takes place in a person when he is made the subject of a miracle of grace. Since we recently dealt with that in considerable detail, there is the less need to be lengthy on this occasion; but as spiritual circumcision is included in the general term "regeneration," we must not altogether ignore it.
As we emphasized in our articles upon "The Great Change," far too many writers when treating of regeneration confine their attention unto but a single aspect of the same-the communication of a new life or "nature." But that contemplates only one angle of it even from the positive side. There is a negative or privative side too. There is travail and pain in connection with a birth. Perhaps the reader will find it easier to grasp what we are saying and the better understand our terms when we remind him that justification has two parts to it: a privative and a positive-something removed and something bestowed. The cancellation or removal of the guilt and penalty of all sins is the privative side of justification, for remission (forgiveness) means "sending away." The imputation of the meritorious obedience of Christ to the account of the believing sinner is the positive side, for "justify" signifies to declare a person (not merely innocent, but) righteous. The two things are brought together in that lovely type in Zechariah 3:4, "Behold I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee"-that is the privative side; "and I will clothe thee with change of raiment" (the "best robe" of Luke 15) is the positive.
Now at regeneration something is removed, as well as something imparted: "I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh" (Ezek. 36:26). Though that be metaphorical language, yet is the figure easily understood. The affections are divorced from evil and united to that which is good. By the miracle of grace, God takes away the love of sin and implants a love of holiness. And how is fallen man's radical and inveterate love of sin removed from him? By the Holy Spirit's illumination, revealing to him the exceeding sinfulness of sin; by His convicting him of the enormity and heinousness of sin, striking his conscience with terror and horror at having waged war against the Almighty; by bringing him to realize that it was his sins which caused the Lord of glory to bleed and die. Then it is that the love of sin receives its death-wound in his soul. Then it is he is "pricked in his heart" and cries out in anguish and despair "what shall I do?" (Acts 2:37). Which is only another way of saying, Then it is that his soul is spiritually and experimentally circumcised; when so far as his love of it is concerned, he puts off "the body of the sins of the flesh" (Col. 2:11).
The work of the Holy Spirit within the saint is many-sided, but its grand design and accomplishment is to make good unto him what Christ did for him: or to state it in other words, the Spirit imparts to the soul an actual acquaintance and effects with it a spiritual experience of what he has in Christ federally and legally. Christ died unto sin, for He was "made sin [judicially] for us," and His death was the penal death of our sin. Consequently, when the Holy Spirit is given to us He first works death in our hearts: that is, He both slays our self-righteousness, and gives a death-wound to sin in our affections. As the apostle tells us when relating one aspect of his own conversion, "when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died" (Rom. 7:9). That is, when those words "thou shalt not covet," thou shalt not even lust after or desire any unlawful object, was applied in Divine power to his soul, the awful nature and extent of his sin became a living reality in his conscience, and he died to all good opinions of himself. By the spiritual slaying of our self-righteousness and making us loathe sin, the soul is experimentally "made conformable unto Christ's death" (Phil. 3:10).
"The Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed [which is to be taken generally as "all" and "the world" in the New Testament] to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart" (Deut. 30:6). There we have the two principal aspects of regeneration or the miracle of grace brought together: the privative side, the circumcising of the heart, when it is made willing to part with its cherished sins, when its affections are severed from all evil. That is in order to the positive side, namely, the heart's being brought to love the Lord with all its faculties and strength. That love to God, John Gill rightly pointed out is "the duty of every man," and thus of the unregenerate: so, contrary to his followers, Gill not only taught "duty faith," but "duty love"! Nevertheless, none performs this duty until God Himself circumcises the heart. Then it is that the soul of the elect is transformed from a natural man into "a new creature" (Gal. 6:15). That moral change of "putting off the old man with his deeds" (Col. 3:9) was prefigured by the fact that literal circumcision was required to be performed on the "eighth day" (Lev. 12:3)-the numeral which always signifies a new beginning, and thus of "the new creature."
There is yet another aspect of this subject which calls for careful attention, namely, that circumcision of the Christian which is practical and manifestative. What Christ accomplished for His people, His Spirit effects within them, and they are required to make the same apparent in their daily lives and actions. Our federal and legal circumcision in Christ was in order to our vital and experimental circumcision, for by His meritorious work on their behalf the Lord Jesus procured the gift and grace of the Spirit unto His people (Gal. 3:13, 14). Our inward circumcision by the operations of the Spirit unto His people was in order to the better qualifying us for the discharge of our responsibility and the glorifying of our God. While at regeneration the Spirit gives a death-wound unto sin in the affection of its favored subject, and while at the same time He implants in his heart an imperishable love of and longing for holiness, yet He does not then remove from him the evil principle-"the flesh" remains in his soul unto the end of his earthly pilgrimage. Consequently, there is now a ceaseless conflict within him (Gal. 5:17), and therefore he is henceforth called upon to fight the good fight of faith": to swim against the stream of his corruptions, deny self, mortify his members which are upon the earth.
The foes against which the Christian is called to wage conflict are mighty and powerful. That evil trinity, the flesh, the world, and the Devil, are relentlessly determined to destroy him. How then is he to successfully engage them in mortal contest? A great variety of answers have been returned to that question, all sort of rules and regulations prescribed; but most of them proceeded from "physicians of no value." It is too generally overlooked that this is "the fight of faith." The Devil can only be successfully resisted as we remain "steadfast in the faith" (1 Pet. 5:9). "This is the victory, that over-cometh the world-our faith" (1 John 5:4). And there can be no victory over indwelling sin except by the actings of faith. And faith, my reader, always has to do with Christ: He is its grand Object (Heb. 12:2), its Sustainer (Phil. 1:21), its Strengthener (Phil. 4:13). That is according to the appointment of the Father, who has determined that His people should be beholden to His beloved Son for everything, that they may ascribe their all unto Him, that they may place the crown of honor and glory upon His Head. Christ is the alone Savior not only from the guilt and pollution of sin, but likewise from its power and ragings within us.
In this matter of practical circumcision, our mortifying of sin, man's thoughts and ways are as far below God's as in everything else-as far as the earth is below the heavens. Man supposes he must do this in order to obtain that, avoid this in order to enjoy that, abstain from evil so as to enter into good. But he knows not where to obtain strength for the doing! Contrastively, God's way is to furnish that which equips for the performance of duty: to bestow freely, that gratitude will respond gladly; to lavish love upon us, that we cannot but love Him in return; to make known what He has made Christ to be unto us, and then bids us walk worthily of such a Savior. He first makes us "light in the Lord," and then bids us "walk as children of light" (Eph. 5:8). He first makes us saints, then bids us act "as becometh saints" (Eph. 5:3). He makes us holy, then calls us "to be in behavior as becometh holiness" (Titus 2:3).
Immediately after Christians are bidden to likewise reckon ye also to have died indeed unto sin, but live unto God in Christ our Lord, they are exhorted "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof" (Rom. 6:11, 12). Though they have died unto sin legally, sin is far from being dead within them. Though they are no longer "in the flesh" (Rom. 8:9) so far as their standing before God is concerned, yet "the flesh" is still in them. Though Christ has put away the whole of the guilt and pollution of their sins, He has not yet fully delivered them from its power-that they might prove the sufficiency of His grace, the marvels of His forbearance, and the reality of His keeping power; and that there might be opportunity for the trial, exercise, and development of their graces. But though the evil principle (or "nature") be not eradicated, the Christian is exhorted "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body." In that "therefore" we have an example of the apostle's evangelical method when urging Christians to perform their duty: not in order to obtain some further blessing, but because of what they already have in Christ.
That "therefore" looks back generally over the whole preceding section (from Joshua 5:1), but has a more particular reference to Joshua 6:10, 11. The "Let not therefore sin reign" is far more than an appeal for us to exercise our wills: it is a call for faith to make one's own all that standing and state which is ours by virtue of our legal and vital union with Christ. Faith is urged to apprehend and appropriate our sinlessness in Christ by our death and resurrection in Him. That is the only right way of approach unto gaining the victory over sin in our daily lives. God will set no premium upon unbelief, but He will honor faith. Faith is called upon to recognize and reckon that sin was vanquished by Christ, and therefore it has no right to lord it over us. We are to refuse obedience to its desires and behests. We are to yield no subserviency unto the dethroned adversary of Christ, but strive constantly against every effort it makes to gain the ascendancy over us. And in order unto strength for such striving, we are to draw motives and encouragement from the love of Christ, who suffered and died for us. Strength to resist sin comes from faith's eyeing Christ and love's drawing from Him incentives to mortify that which slew Him.
It is "the love of Christ" which is ever to constrain the Christian in all things. But I must first be assured of His love for me, before my affections will flow out to Him in grateful submission and service. Any service which issues from fear or is prompted by reward, is either legal or mercenary, and unacceptable to Him. Without a realization of pardoning mercy in the soul, we can gain no victory over indwelling sin. In Christ we are not only dead to sin legally, but victors over it. As faith beholds sin perfectly conquered by Christ judicially, it seeks to have fellowship with Him therein in a practical way. To repudiate long cherished sins, relinquish beloved idols, is a cutting and painful experience to nature, and therefore is it designated a circumcision and mortifying of our members; yea, so distressing is such work, our Lord likened it unto plucking out a right eye and cutting off a right hand (Matthew 5:29, 30). Yet such is not only a needful and profitable duty, but it becomes a desirable and longed-for one by those who truly love the Lord. The more their minds be spiritually occupied with Christ's love, the more are their affections drawn forth unto Him, and the more are their hearts brought to hate sin; and the more we hate sin, the more are we dying to it in our affections!
In our last, we pointed out the importance of observing the opening words of verse 2 when seeking the spiritual and practical application unto ourselves of what God required from Israel at Gilgal. "At that time": as soon as they had passed through that river which spoke of death and judgment they were required to be circumcised. Likewise it is immediately after the Christian is assured of his union with Christ in death and resurrection that he is enjoined "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body." It is by faith's realization of that union we draw motives to resist sin's solicitations and derive strength against it. And as stated in our last we cannot serve God trustfully and joyously unless we are assured we are forever beyond condemnation (Rom. 8:1), so it must now be added, there can be no progress in the Christian life unless we heed Romans 6:12. That is amplified in the next verse' "Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin; but (1) yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead and (2) your members as instruments of righteousness unto God." Because you have been "made alive," put away all the trappings of death, put off the old man, mortify the lusts of the flesh. Give up yourselves to God without any reserve.
Yet we repeat, obedience unto Romans 6:12, 13, is possible only as we maintain the assurance of our perfect standing in Christ (v. 11), drawing motives and strength therefrom for practical holiness, and by constantly seeking help from Christ by drawing upon His fullness (John 1:16). That is ever the evangelical order, "Be ye kindly affectioned one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you" (Eph. 4:32). "Set your affection on things above, and not on things on the earth." Why? "For ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in God . . . mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth" (Col. 3:1-5). "Put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communications out of your mouth; lie not one to another." Why? "Seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds" (Col. 3:8, 9). "Behold! what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God . . . when He shall appear we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is." And what is the effect of faith's appropriation thereof? This, "And every one that hath this hope in him purifieth himself [not merely ought to do] even as He is pure" (1 John 3:1-3).
But, says the Christian reader, notwithstanding my best efforts to keep my heart occupied with Christ and my faith fixed steadfastly on Him, sin daily gets the better of me. And what is the effect upon you? Are you pleased thereby? No, the very reverse; you are cut to the quick. That too is an integral part of practical "circumcision." Not only is every denying of self, every striving against sin, an element of mortification or practical circumcision, but equally so is all godly sorrow, all evangelical repentance, all contrite confession of sin. Blessed are they that "mourn" over their backslidings and falls, for it evidences they belong to those "whose circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit and not in the letter" (Rom. 2:29)-real and effectual, in contrast from the formal and ceremonial.
8. Symbols of Committal
Joshua 5:1-15
Circumcision
That which is to engage our attention on this occasion, as in the article following, is still concerned with what was preparatory to the real task awaiting Israel, and is found in what, strictly speaking, belongs unto the introductory portion of Joshua, rather than to the body of the book, where Israel's conquest and occupation of Canaan is the distinctive subject. Yet it is in these opening chapters that the Holy Spirit has (in typical form) revealed the fundamental secrets of success in the Christian warfare and their present enjoyment of the heritage which Christ has procured for them. It is therefore all the more needful for us to proceed slowly and seek to thoroughly assimilate these initial truths if we are to obtain the richest benefit from them. The first thing absolutely indispensable to Israel's possession of Canaan was their crossing of the Jordan. That, as we have shown, was a figure of the Christian passing through death and judgment in the person of his Surety and then his entrance into "life." It is only one who is on resurrection ground that is qualified to overcome the foes which would prevent him possessing his possessions. Equally essential is it for the Christian to experience in a spiritual and practical way that which marked Israel's history at Gilgal.
"At that time the Lord said unto Joshua, Make thee sharp knives, and circumcise the children of Israel the second time" (Josh. 5:2). With those words chapter 5 ought to begin, for verse 1 in our Bibles obviously concludes the preceding one. Here in verses 2-9 the Holy Spirit has recorded what took place in Gilgal, namely, the circumcising of Israel. The narration of that important event is introduced by informing us when it occurred-a detail which must not be overlooked when seeking the spiritual application unto ourselves. "At that time," i.e., first when the Lord their God had so signally shown Himself strong in their behalf by performing a miracle of mercy for them. Second, when they had just passed through the river which spake of death and judgment. Third, as soon as they had set foot within the borders of their promised inheritance. Fourth, four days before the Passover, as a necessary pre-requisite and qualification for them to participate in that feast. Fifth, ere they began the real task of possessing their possessions-by vanquishing those who would seek to prevent their enjoyment of the same. We shall ponder first the literal or historical meaning of this for the natural Israel, and then its application unto and significance as it respects the spiritual Israel, the Church of Christ.
The "circumcise the children of Israel the second time" requires a word of explanation. It should be apparent at once that the reference is not unto a repetition of a painful operation upon those who had previously been circumcised, but rather in contrast from a general circumcising of Israel on an earlier occasion. In the light of Joshua 24:14, Ezekiel 20:7, 8 and 23:3 it is clear that during their lengthy sojourn in Egypt the children of Israel departed grievously from the revelation which God had made unto their fathers, and the statutes (Gen. 26:5) He had given them; and judging from the case of Moses' own son (Ex. 4:24, 25), there is little doubt that the ordinance of circumcision had been generally, if not universally, neglected and omitted by them. The words "God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob" (Ex. 2:24, and 6:5) imply that Israel had forgotten it. The express prohibition that none should partake of the Passover, save those who were circumcised (Ex. 12:48, 49), and the added statement. "Thus did all the children of Israel: as the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they," denotes that circumcision had at last been administered-probably at the beginning of the "thick darkness which was upon all Egypt" for the "three days" (Ex. 10:21) that preceded the Passover night.
Verses 4 to 7 (of Joshua 5) tell us what it was that required such a wholesale circumcising of the male Israelites-adults as well as children-on this occasion: "Now all the people that came out were circumcised, but all the people that were born in the wilderness by the way as they came forth out of Egypt, them they had not circumcised (v. 5), which in view of Genesis 17:9-11, was a startling omission. There has been considerable conjecture as to why Israel had failed to administer this essential rite for so many years. Thos. Scott says, "The reason for this omission is not so manifest." John Gill, "because of their frequent journeying, and the inconvenience of performing it being always uncertain when they pitched their tents how long they should remain and when they should remove . . . it was not safe to administer it." But the most popular explanation is that of sinful neglect. Yet even though that were the case with the great majority, would not the pious among them have complied? If rank disobedience was the cause, why is there no record of Moses rebuking them for such a grave sin? And why had not Joshua insisted upon it while they tarried in the plains of Moab, instead of waiting till the Jordan was crossed.
Matthew Henry came very much nearer the true explanation, though he states it rather vaguely and with some measure of uncertainty. The real reason, we submit, was what occurred at Kadesh-barnea. It was there the murmuring and unbelief of Israel reached its awful and fatal climax. when they hearkened to the evil report of the ten spies and refused to go forward into the land of Canaan, saying "Let us make us a captain, and let us return to Egypt"; and when Joshua and Caleb expostulated with them "all the congregation bade stone them with stones" (Num. 14:1-10). It was then that Jehovah swore in His wrath that they should not enter into His rest (Ps. 95:11). It was then that He declared "But as for you, your carcasses, they shall fall in this wilderness. And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcasses be wasted in the wilderness. All the number of the days in which ye searched the land, forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities forty years, and ye shall know My breach of promise" (Num. 14:32-34)-their apostasy and breaking of the covenant releasing Him from His engagement to bring them into Canaan. There is the key to Joshua 5:5!
When Israel, after repeated provocations, at length consummated their rebellion by despising the promised land and refused to advance beyond Kadesh-barnea, God swore that only two of that generation should enter it, the remainder being condemned to perish in the wilderness. Thus for thirty-eight years (Deut. 2:14) Israel was in a state of apostasy, and during that time their children bore the reproach of the same by being denied the "token" or "sign of the covenant" (Gen. 17:11)-wrongly termed by men "the seal of the covenant," for circumcision never "sealed" anything to anyone saving only to Abraham (Rom. 4:11). While the awful sentence of Numbers 14:32-34, lasted, Israel was a rejected people, and therefore their children were not entitled to bear the mark of covenant-relationship to God. But for the sake of their children, He did not withdraw every token of mercy from that generation, but provided sustenance and guidance throughout their journeys: the daily supply of manna, the pillar of cloud and fire, the erection of the tabernacle, etc., were so many intimations that God's favor would yet return unto Israel, though He had cast off their fathers.
The miraculous passage of the Jordan gave clear proof that Israel was once more restored unto the Divine favor, that Jehovah had resumed His covenant relationship with them, that in emerging from the river of death, judgment was behind them; that His sentence upon their fathers had been completed. That miracle showed unmistakably that Jehovah now owned Israel as His people, and therefore were they fit subjects again to receive the sign of the covenant upon their bodies. Circumcision was the token of the Abrahamic covenant (Gen. 17:11). That ordinance was the mark by which the natural seed of Abraham was distinguished from all other nations as a people in covenant with Jehovah, and which bound them by a special obligation to obey Him. It was the sign of the promissory part of the covenant which secured to Abraham's seed the land of promise (Gen. 17:8). Thus it was fitting that this second generation should now be circumcised. Moreover, the restoration of circumcision was to be accompanied by a revival of other institutions which had lapsed in the wilderness-such as the Passover feast, for which circumcision was a prerequisite. Upon Israel's entrance into Canaan they came under a stricter discipline than hitherto (Deut. 6:1; 12:1, 8).
"At that time the Lord said unto Joshua, Make thee sharp knives and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time." At the very time when Israel had entered that land whose inhabitants their unbelieving fathers had reported to be "strong" and "the cities are walled, and very great," yea. "all the people we saw in it are men of a great stature" (Num. 13:28, 32). What a testing of Joshua's faith was this: that all the males of Israel should now, for several days, be thoroughly incapacitated for fighting (Gen. 34:25)! But God intended it should be made manifest that the camp of Israel was governed by Himself, and not by any worldly policy. "What general ever opened a campaign in an enemy's country in the manner that Joshua did? On such occasions, all attention paid to the exercises of religion is too generally considered as a needless waste of time. Yet if indeed the help of God be the best security for success, and if His anger is more to be feared than the sword of any enemy, it will be found true policy to begin every expedition with repentance of sin, and attendance on the solemn worship of the Lord, and with using every method of securing His protection, though to a carnal eye it may appear unfavorable to success" (T. Scott).
"And Joshua made him sharp knives and circumcised the children of Israel" (v. 3). Severe as was this testing of his faith to thus handicap his fighting forces, yet counting upon the Lord's protection, his confidence in Him triumphed over it. We need hardly say that such a vast undertaking was not performed by him in person, but is attributed unto Joshua because the operation was carried out under his order and observation-just as we read that "Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John. Though Jesus Himself baptized not, but His disciples" (John 4:1, 2). Not only was this command of God's a severe test of Joshua's faith, but of the people's too: their submission would evidence whether they owned the verity of that Divine promise (Num. 14:7, 8) which their fathers had disbelieved. Moreover, their submitting unto circumcision was designed as a test of their obedience, for their conquest of Canaan was conditioned upon their punctilious compliance with all that God had commanded through Moses (Josh. 1:8). Their willing compliance was a fulfillment of the promise which they had made unto Joshua, in Joshua 1:17, 18, and afforded a further demonstration that the? were the best of all the generations of Israel-in answer to the prayer of Moses (Ps. 90:13-17).
"And it came to pass, when they had done circumcising all the people, that they abode in their places in the camp till they were whole. And the Lord said unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you. Wherefore the name of the place is called Gilgal [or "rolling "] unto this day" (vv. 8, 9). The commentators are strangely "at sea" concerning the significance of that expression "the reproach of Egypt," most of them regarding it as a reference to the stigma incurred by Israel when they were the slaves of the Egyptians. But surely that reproach was for ever rolled away when Jehovah delivered His people from Egypt by a high arm, brought them safely through the Red Sea and there destroyed Pharaoh and his hosts. No, rather is it an allusion to Egypt's taunt of Exodus 32:12. During the thirty-eight years when Israel was rejected by God there appeared ground for Egypt's sneer that they would perish in the wilderness; but all occasion for such a reproach had now been removed by the Lord's return unto Israel, and by restoring the token of the covenant He gave intimation that He had resumed His mighty works on their behalf, that they were His people and He their God.
But we must turn now and consider the application of this unto ourselves, for like all the ceremonial rites and institutions of the Old Testament times, circumcision is, anti-typically, a real and substantial thing unto New Testament saints. Stating it first in a brief sentence, circumcision respected the mortification of sin, the putting off of the filth of the flesh. But that statement calls for explanation and amplification, for the great majority of Christians have very low and defective thoughts on this subject-inherited as they have been from the errors of Rome. Far too many of God's children today suppose that "mortification" signifies a dying to some specific acts of sin, the overcoming of this or that particular corruption. But that is a serious mistake. Watching against, offering stern resistance unto, and obtaining the victory over some particular acts of sin, falls far short of real mortification. That is evident from the fact that none of that is beyond what persons in a state of nature may do, and not a few have actually done. Men and women whose hearts know nothing whatever of the power of Divine grace have, nevertheless, succeeded in gaining the mastery over an unruly temper, and of denying their craving for strong drink.
Again, let it be granted that, as the result of a course of strict self-discipline, a Christian has overcome some besetting sin; or, putting it on a higher ground, that by Divine enablement in answer to prayer, he has become dead to some particular lust; nevertheless, the evil nature, the root, the filthy fountain from which such foul streams proceed, the whole body of sin, still remains within! No, Christian mortification consists of something much better, something far greater and grander than anything poor Papists are acquainted with. To be mortified unto sin is a higher and holier mystery than to be delivered from any mere acts of sin. It consists of having union and communion with Christ in His death unto sin (Rom. 6:10, 11). It is the effect and fruit of Christ's death for us, and of Christ's death in us by the vower of the Holy Spirit, whereby we live upon and enjoy fellowship with Him in His death, and are made partakers of "the power of His resurrection." As faith is exercised upon Him as our Head, we experience the virtue and efficacy of His death and resurrection in our hearts and lives.
That which was shadowed forth by circumcision, namely the putting off of the filth of the flesh, all believers find the substance of in Christ, and the same is made good in their souls-in measure here, but perfectly, so at death. In order to obtain a complete view of the Christian's circumcision, we need to consider it federally and judicially, then spiritually and experimentally, and then practically and manifestatively. First, then, all believers are legally circumcised in Christ. That which circumcision prefigured was the removal of the pollution of sin, and that was accomplished for believers judicially in the death of their Head. Circumcision symbolized the entire mortification of sin, and that is the effect and fruit of Christ's death for His people. "Ye are complete in Him [Christ], which is the Head of all principality and power. In whom 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" (Col. 2:10, 11). There we have the blessed fact stated, that in Christ their federal Head His redeemed are already, truly legally circumcised. It is said to be "without hands to distinguish it from the physical circumcision of the type, and to show that it is the result of no attainment of ours. Colossians 2:11, is a statement which is addressed to our faith, for it refers to something outside of our actual experience, to something which we have in Christ.
The apostle was moved by the Holy Spirit to employ quite a variety of terms to express the same fact. In Romans 6:2, he said of all believers "we died unto sin." In 1 Corinthians 6:9, "but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus." In Galatians 2:20, he declared-as the representative of all saints-"I am crucified with Christ." Here in Colossians 2:11, he affirms, "In whom also ye are circumcised," which signifies that in the sight of God's Law and justice the total pollution and defilement of sin (as well as its guilt and criminality) has been for ever removed. I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions" (Isa. 44:22). "Thou art all fair My love, there is no spot in thee" (Song 4:7). "And you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh, to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in His sight" (Col. 1:21, 22). These scriptures bear witness that Christ and the Church are federally and legally one: that God the Father accepts them and views them in the Beloved as both righteous and holy; that He now sees them as without spot or wrinkle or any such thing; that He pronounces them eternally cleansed and blessed.
The faith of many of God's people apprehends the blessed fact that the guilt and condemnation of their actual transgressions was perfectly atoned for by Christ, but the faith of very few apprehends that their evil nature itself and all their corruptions have been made a legal end of by the sacrifice of Christ. They recognize by faith that God views them as cleansed from the curse of the Law, that there is "no condemnation" resting upon them; but they fail to perceive that the justice of God regards them as purged from the very presence and defilement of sin in their natures, that there is no filth within them. Yet the latter is just as true of them as is the former. Their "old man was crucified with Christ" (Rom. 6:6). They were circumcised in Christ, which is described as a "putting off the body. of the sins of the flesh." Indwelling sin is called a "body" because it consists of various parts and members, and that "body of sin" has been "put off," yea, "destroyed" or "annulled" as the word used in Romans 6:6 signifies. Not only so, but the holiness of Christ has been imputed or placed to the account of their souls, so that God Himself declares, "the King's daughter is all glorious within" (Ps. 45:13), and not merely "without"-as covered with the robe of Christ's righteousness.
We say again that Colossians 2:11, is a Divine declaration (as is Song of Solomon 4:7, and Psalm 45:13, quoted above) which is addressed to faith. and is not a description of Christian experience; though in proportion as faith really appropriates it, we experience the comfort and joy of it. Alas that some of our readers are likely to refuse that comfort and joy through suspicion and fear that a belief of the same might lead to carelessness and low views of sin. When God bids His children to "reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin" (Rom. 6:11)-which means exactly the same as "Reckon ye also yourselves to be circumcised indeed in Christ, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh"-He certainly is not bidding them do anything which has a dangerous tendency. He exhorts them to so regard themselves because they have good and solid ground for doing so. They had a representative being and existence in their Head when He suffered and died to remove both the guilt and the defilement of their sins. Unless we were one with Christ in His death, there could be no pardon or cleansing for us. The saints then are to regard their state before God to be what Christ's is: delivered from sin's dominion, accepted in the Father's unclouded favor.
In our last we pointed out that the circumcising of all the male Israelites at Gilgal was a type of the circumcision of the Church. First, that all believers were legally circumcised in Christ: that at the cross the "body [or totality] of the sins of the flesh" was put off, completely and forever removed from the sight of God's law and justice; for such is the blessed, meaning and teaching of Colossians 2:11. God's elect had a federal being, a representative existence in their Head, so that when He died unto sin, they died unto sin; and it is both the duty and privilege of faith to appropriate that truth, and rest upon that fact. Therein we have revealed the Gospel method of mortifying sin-in blessed contrast from the fleshly devices of the Papists. It must flow from our union and communion with the Lord Jesus in His death, and faith's receiving of the virtue and efficacy of it. The fountain of all true and spiritual mortification was opened at the Cross and God is very jealous of the honor of the person and work of His beloved Son, and every departure from Him and it, every attempt of the carnal mind to devise some other remedy for any of the wounds which sin has inflicted upon and within us, is doomed to certain failure. Christ alone must be looked to for deliverance, not only from the guilt of sin but from its power and pollution; yes, and from its presence too.
But it must now be pointed out that as Christ is the federal Head of His people, so also is He their vital or life-giving Head. As the natural head of the physical body influences all its members, imparting life and motion to them (for when one side of the brain becomes paralyzed, one whole side of the body does too), so Christ imparts life unto and influences the members of His mystical body, the Church. This He does by sending down His Spirit into their hearts, who communicates to them what Christ did and purchased for them. Thereby they are circumcised spiritually and experimentally. That brings us to the second branch of our subject. "For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who 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" (Rom. 2:28, 29). There is much of deep importance in those two verses yet they are little understood today, especially by Dispensationalists and writers on "Prophecy"; but it would be outside our present scope to give an exposition of them, or even show the apostle's line of argument in that passage; rather we must confine ourselves to that in them which bears directly upon our present theme.
"Circumcision is that of the heart: in the spirit, and not in the flesh." There we are plainly taught that real "circumcision," the circumcision which God most approves, is an internal one. Even that is little understood by our moderns, and has no real place in their teaching. We wonder how many of our own readers have any definite and clear-cut conception of what is meant by spiritual "circumcision." Very few, we fear. All the more need then for us to take up this subject here, instead of seeing how swiftly we can get through the book of Joshua by merely offering generalizations upon its contents. It should be apparent to all who have read the Scriptures with any degree of attention and care that He who "desires Truth in the inward parts" (Ps. 51:6) required very much more from Israel even in Old Testament times than obedience to the outward ordinance of circumcision. The call "Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked" (Deut. 10:16) is too plain for misunderstanding. It is quite clear from Leviticus 26:41 and the last clause of Jeremiah 9:26 that the Lord punished Israel because they were "uncircumcised in heart." The same fault Stephen charged upon the Jews of his day (Acts 7:51).
"Circumcise yourselves to the Lord and take away the foreskins of your heart" (Jer. 4:4) was His just demand. John Gill acknowledged that "men are exhorted to this" (alas that so many of his admirers refuse to do so), though he rightly added "yet elsewhere He promises to do this for them." God has ever required reality and not simply outward profession, inward and moral purity and not merely external and ceremonial. "O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness" (Jer. 4:14). This spiritual circumcision, or cleansing of the heart, is the negative side of regeneration, or as the older writers more aptly expressed it "the privative" side. Strictly speaking there is no English word which accurately defines it, but "privative" is the nearest-that which results in a privation through the absence of something, the withholding or taking of it away. This is one aspect or part of "the great change" which takes place in a person when he is made the subject of a miracle of grace. Since we recently dealt with that in considerable detail, there is the less need to be lengthy on this occasion; but as spiritual circumcision is included in the general term "regeneration," we must not altogether ignore it.
As we emphasized in our articles upon "The Great Change," far too many writers when treating of regeneration confine their attention unto but a single aspect of the same-the communication of a new life or "nature." But that contemplates only one angle of it even from the positive side. There is a negative or privative side too. There is travail and pain in connection with a birth. Perhaps the reader will find it easier to grasp what we are saying and the better understand our terms when we remind him that justification has two parts to it: a privative and a positive-something removed and something bestowed. The cancellation or removal of the guilt and penalty of all sins is the privative side of justification, for remission (forgiveness) means "sending away." The imputation of the meritorious obedience of Christ to the account of the believing sinner is the positive side, for "justify" signifies to declare a person (not merely innocent, but) righteous. The two things are brought together in that lovely type in Zechariah 3:4, "Behold I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee"-that is the privative side; "and I will clothe thee with change of raiment" (the "best robe" of Luke 15) is the positive.
Now at regeneration something is removed, as well as something imparted: "I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh" (Ezek. 36:26). Though that be metaphorical language, yet is the figure easily understood. The affections are divorced from evil and united to that which is good. By the miracle of grace, God takes away the love of sin and implants a love of holiness. And how is fallen man's radical and inveterate love of sin removed from him? By the Holy Spirit's illumination, revealing to him the exceeding sinfulness of sin; by His convicting him of the enormity and heinousness of sin, striking his conscience with terror and horror at having waged war against the Almighty; by bringing him to realize that it was his sins which caused the Lord of glory to bleed and die. Then it is that the love of sin receives its death-wound in his soul. Then it is he is "pricked in his heart" and cries out in anguish and despair "what shall I do?" (Acts 2:37). Which is only another way of saying, Then it is that his soul is spiritually and experimentally circumcised; when so far as his love of it is concerned, he puts off "the body of the sins of the flesh" (Col. 2:11).
The work of the Holy Spirit within the saint is many-sided, but its grand design and accomplishment is to make good unto him what Christ did for him: or to state it in other words, the Spirit imparts to the soul an actual acquaintance and effects with it a spiritual experience of what he has in Christ federally and legally. Christ died unto sin, for He was "made sin [judicially] for us," and His death was the penal death of our sin. Consequently, when the Holy Spirit is given to us He first works death in our hearts: that is, He both slays our self-righteousness, and gives a death-wound to sin in our affections. As the apostle tells us when relating one aspect of his own conversion, "when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died" (Rom. 7:9). That is, when those words "thou shalt not covet," thou shalt not even lust after or desire any unlawful object, was applied in Divine power to his soul, the awful nature and extent of his sin became a living reality in his conscience, and he died to all good opinions of himself. By the spiritual slaying of our self-righteousness and making us loathe sin, the soul is experimentally "made conformable unto Christ's death" (Phil. 3:10).
"The Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed [which is to be taken generally as "all" and "the world" in the New Testament] to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart" (Deut. 30:6). There we have the two principal aspects of regeneration or the miracle of grace brought together: the privative side, the circumcising of the heart, when it is made willing to part with its cherished sins, when its affections are severed from all evil. That is in order to the positive side, namely, the heart's being brought to love the Lord with all its faculties and strength. That love to God, John Gill rightly pointed out is "the duty of every man," and thus of the unregenerate: so, contrary to his followers, Gill not only taught "duty faith," but "duty love"! Nevertheless, none performs this duty until God Himself circumcises the heart. Then it is that the soul of the elect is transformed from a natural man into "a new creature" (Gal. 6:15). That moral change of "putting off the old man with his deeds" (Col. 3:9) was prefigured by the fact that literal circumcision was required to be performed on the "eighth day" (Lev. 12:3)-the numeral which always signifies a new beginning, and thus of "the new creature."
There is yet another aspect of this subject which calls for careful attention, namely, that circumcision of the Christian which is practical and manifestative. What Christ accomplished for His people, His Spirit effects within them, and they are required to make the same apparent in their daily lives and actions. Our federal and legal circumcision in Christ was in order to our vital and experimental circumcision, for by His meritorious work on their behalf the Lord Jesus procured the gift and grace of the Spirit unto His people (Gal. 3:13, 14). Our inward circumcision by the operations of the Spirit unto His people was in order to the better qualifying us for the discharge of our responsibility and the glorifying of our God. While at regeneration the Spirit gives a death-wound unto sin in the affection of its favored subject, and while at the same time He implants in his heart an imperishable love of and longing for holiness, yet He does not then remove from him the evil principle-"the flesh" remains in his soul unto the end of his earthly pilgrimage. Consequently, there is now a ceaseless conflict within him (Gal. 5:17), and therefore he is henceforth called upon to fight the good fight of faith": to swim against the stream of his corruptions, deny self, mortify his members which are upon the earth.
The foes against which the Christian is called to wage conflict are mighty and powerful. That evil trinity, the flesh, the world, and the Devil, are relentlessly determined to destroy him. How then is he to successfully engage them in mortal contest? A great variety of answers have been returned to that question, all sort of rules and regulations prescribed; but most of them proceeded from "physicians of no value." It is too generally overlooked that this is "the fight of faith." The Devil can only be successfully resisted as we remain "steadfast in the faith" (1 Pet. 5:9). "This is the victory, that over-cometh the world-our faith" (1 John 5:4). And there can be no victory over indwelling sin except by the actings of faith. And faith, my reader, always has to do with Christ: He is its grand Object (Heb. 12:2), its Sustainer (Phil. 1:21), its Strengthener (Phil. 4:13). That is according to the appointment of the Father, who has determined that His people should be beholden to His beloved Son for everything, that they may ascribe their all unto Him, that they may place the crown of honor and glory upon His Head. Christ is the alone Savior not only from the guilt and pollution of sin, but likewise from its power and ragings within us.
In this matter of practical circumcision, our mortifying of sin, man's thoughts and ways are as far below God's as in everything else-as far as the earth is below the heavens. Man supposes he must do this in order to obtain that, avoid this in order to enjoy that, abstain from evil so as to enter into good. But he knows not where to obtain strength for the doing! Contrastively, God's way is to furnish that which equips for the performance of duty: to bestow freely, that gratitude will respond gladly; to lavish love upon us, that we cannot but love Him in return; to make known what He has made Christ to be unto us, and then bids us walk worthily of such a Savior. He first makes us "light in the Lord," and then bids us "walk as children of light" (Eph. 5:8). He first makes us saints, then bids us act "as becometh saints" (Eph. 5:3). He makes us holy, then calls us "to be in behavior as becometh holiness" (Titus 2:3).
Immediately after Christians are bidden to likewise reckon ye also to have died indeed unto sin, but live unto God in Christ our Lord, they are exhorted "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof" (Rom. 6:11, 12). Though they have died unto sin legally, sin is far from being dead within them. Though they are no longer "in the flesh" (Rom. 8:9) so far as their standing before God is concerned, yet "the flesh" is still in them. Though Christ has put away the whole of the guilt and pollution of their sins, He has not yet fully delivered them from its power-that they might prove the sufficiency of His grace, the marvels of His forbearance, and the reality of His keeping power; and that there might be opportunity for the trial, exercise, and development of their graces. But though the evil principle (or "nature") be not eradicated, the Christian is exhorted "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body." In that "therefore" we have an example of the apostle's evangelical method when urging Christians to perform their duty: not in order to obtain some further blessing, but because of what they already have in Christ.
That "therefore" looks back generally over the whole preceding section (from Joshua 5:1), but has a more particular reference to Joshua 6:10, 11. The "Let not therefore sin reign" is far more than an appeal for us to exercise our wills: it is a call for faith to make one's own all that standing and state which is ours by virtue of our legal and vital union with Christ. Faith is urged to apprehend and appropriate our sinlessness in Christ by our death and resurrection in Him. That is the only right way of approach unto gaining the victory over sin in our daily lives. God will set no premium upon unbelief, but He will honor faith. Faith is called upon to recognize and reckon that sin was vanquished by Christ, and therefore it has no right to lord it over us. We are to refuse obedience to its desires and behests. We are to yield no subserviency unto the dethroned adversary of Christ, but strive constantly against every effort it makes to gain the ascendancy over us. And in order unto strength for such striving, we are to draw motives and encouragement from the love of Christ, who suffered and died for us. Strength to resist sin comes from faith's eyeing Christ and love's drawing from Him incentives to mortify that which slew Him.
It is "the love of Christ" which is ever to constrain the Christian in all things. But I must first be assured of His love for me, before my affections will flow out to Him in grateful submission and service. Any service which issues from fear or is prompted by reward, is either legal or mercenary, and unacceptable to Him. Without a realization of pardoning mercy in the soul, we can gain no victory over indwelling sin. In Christ we are not only dead to sin legally, but victors over it. As faith beholds sin perfectly conquered by Christ judicially, it seeks to have fellowship with Him therein in a practical way. To repudiate long cherished sins, relinquish beloved idols, is a cutting and painful experience to nature, and therefore is it designated a circumcision and mortifying of our members; yea, so distressing is such work, our Lord likened it unto plucking out a right eye and cutting off a right hand (Matthew 5:29, 30). Yet such is not only a needful and profitable duty, but it becomes a desirable and longed-for one by those who truly love the Lord. The more their minds be spiritually occupied with Christ's love, the more are their affections drawn forth unto Him, and the more are their hearts brought to hate sin; and the more we hate sin, the more are we dying to it in our affections!
In our last, we pointed out the importance of observing the opening words of verse 2 when seeking the spiritual and practical application unto ourselves of what God required from Israel at Gilgal. "At that time": as soon as they had passed through that river which spoke of death and judgment they were required to be circumcised. Likewise it is immediately after the Christian is assured of his union with Christ in death and resurrection that he is enjoined "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body." It is by faith's realization of that union we draw motives to resist sin's solicitations and derive strength against it. And as stated in our last we cannot serve God trustfully and joyously unless we are assured we are forever beyond condemnation (Rom. 8:1), so it must now be added, there can be no progress in the Christian life unless we heed Romans 6:12. That is amplified in the next verse' "Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin; but (1) yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead and (2) your members as instruments of righteousness unto God." Because you have been "made alive," put away all the trappings of death, put off the old man, mortify the lusts of the flesh. Give up yourselves to God without any reserve.
Yet we repeat, obedience unto Romans 6:12, 13, is possible only as we maintain the assurance of our perfect standing in Christ (v. 11), drawing motives and strength therefrom for practical holiness, and by constantly seeking help from Christ by drawing upon His fullness (John 1:16). That is ever the evangelical order, "Be ye kindly affectioned one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you" (Eph. 4:32). "Set your affection on things above, and not on things on the earth." Why? "For ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in God . . . mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth" (Col. 3:1-5). "Put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communications out of your mouth; lie not one to another." Why? "Seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds" (Col. 3:8, 9). "Behold! what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God . . . when He shall appear we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is." And what is the effect of faith's appropriation thereof? This, "And every one that hath this hope in him purifieth himself [not merely ought to do] even as He is pure" (1 John 3:1-3).
But, says the Christian reader, notwithstanding my best efforts to keep my heart occupied with Christ and my faith fixed steadfastly on Him, sin daily gets the better of me. And what is the effect upon you? Are you pleased thereby? No, the very reverse; you are cut to the quick. That too is an integral part of practical "circumcision." Not only is every denying of self, every striving against sin, an element of mortification or practical circumcision, but equally so is all godly sorrow, all evangelical repentance, all contrite confession of sin. Blessed are they that "mourn" over their backslidings and falls, for it evidences they belong to those "whose circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit and not in the letter" (Rom. 2:29)-real and effectual, in contrast from the formal and ceremonial.