Circumcize Your Heart

Circumcise Your Heart (Jer. 4:4)

“Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, circumcise your hearts, you men of Judah and people of Jerusalem, or my wrath will break out and burn like fire because of the evil you have done” (Jeremiah 4:4).

In Jeremiah 3:19-4:4 God was calling the nation of Israel to true repentance. The scene is set during Josiah’s reform (2 Kings 22). The book of the Law was discovered and Josiah, the boy king, stirred up revival all throughout the land. Jeremiah calls upon the people to mourn and to “lie down in our shame” because they have sinned and have not “obeyed the voice of the LORD our God.” They were called to true repentance which involves far more than changing a few practices or rituals. Beyond physical circumcision, which was an external sign of Israel’s covenant with God, they were called to circumcise their hearts which means to remove the cold, dead, calloused, stiff-necked hearts that so often marked the people and to instead turn fully — with the whole self — to the LORD in dedication.

In Romans 2:29 Paul reiterates this and makes an argument that “a Jew is one inwardly” and that “circumcision is a matter of the heart.” Paul is discussing the role of the Old Testament Law as it relates to Christianity. He argues that Jewish circumcision is only an outward sign of being set apart to God. However, if the heart is sinful, then physical circumcision is of no avail. A circumcised body and a sinful heart are at odds with each other. Rather than focus on external rites, Paul focuses on the condition of the heart. Using circumcision as a metaphor, he says that only the Holy Spirit can purify a heart and set us apart to God. Ultimately, circumcision cannot make a person right with God; the Law is not enough. A person’s heart must change. Paul calls this change “circumcision of the heart.”

This is really not a new argument, though. As a Jew trained in the Law of Moses, Paul was certainly aware of this discussion from Deuteronomy 30. There, the Lord used the same metaphor to communicate His desire for a holy people: “And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live” (Deuteronomy 30:6). Circumcision of the heart, therefore, indicates Israel’s being set apart to love God fully, inside and out.

God has always wanted more from His people than just external conformity to a set of rules. He has always wanted them to possess a heart to love, know, and follow Him. That’s why He is not concerned with a circumcision of the flesh. Even in the Old Testament, God’s priority was a spiritual circumcision of the heart. Now, under the New Covenant, this call to have a circumcised heart is a call to turn to Jesus Christ in full devotion. It is clear that all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. But Jesus Christ has fulfilled the Law in our place, and it is through His finished work that believers, through the Spirit, are given this new heart. To circumcise your heart then is to respond to the work of Christ in true repentance and faith. We “cut-off” our old man, our calloused hearts, and we turn in faith and devotion to Jesus Christ.

Is your heart circumcised?

Source: https://www.gotquestions.org/circumcision-of-the-heart.html; https://www.biblestudytools.com/bible-study/topical-studies/what-is-the-circumcision-of-the-heart.html