The Circumcised Heart

The promise of the Spirit is vital to the redemption of humanity and the Covenant of God with His people, the Church of Jesus Christ.

The New Testament links the “Promise of the Spirit” to the “Blessings of Abraham,” the promise that God will 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 promised to Abraham, and the Apostle Peter connects this gift to “the blessings” for the nations, the Gentiles, in his sermon preached on the Day of Pentecost.

The Gift of the Spirit received by the 120 disciples that day in Jerusalem, and later by 3,000 converts, began to bring to life the covenant promises of God.

• “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 summon” - (Acts 2:38-39).

• “And Yahweh said to Abram <…> So will be blessed in you all the clans of the earth” - (Genesis 12:1-3).

• “And I will confirm my covenant between me and you and your seed after you to their generations for an everlasting covenant” - (Genesis 17:7).

[Forest Flowers - Photo by Ivan Stepanov on Unsplash]

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. The Israelites could not meet the Law’s requirements since they did not have the Spirit of God. Without the empowerment of the Spirit, no man or woman could ever keep “the righteous requirements of the Law” - (Exodus 24:1-8, Numbers 11:1-15).

The Mosaic Legislation anticipated Israel’s failure 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 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 like the one He made with the nation’s forefathers at Mount Sinai – (Jeremiah 31:31-34, Hebrews 8:6-13).

Instead, God 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” inaugurated by Jesus through his sacrificial death:

• “And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and gave to them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. And the cup in like manner after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood, even that which is poured out for you” – (Luke 22:19-20, 1 Corinthians 11:25).

• “Now, the God of peace, who brought again from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep with the blood of an everlasting covenant, our Lord Jesus” – (Hebrews 13:20).

• “And I will confirm my covenant between me and you and your seed after you to their generations for an everlasting covenant” - (Genesis 17:7).

The New Testament applies the promise of a new covenant described by the prophets to the new covenant founded on the Death and Resurrection of Jesus.

Likewise, the Prophet Ezekiel describes this same covenant but adds 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.”

• (Ezekiel 11:19) – “And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. And I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes, and keep my ordinances, and do them. And they will be my people, and I will be their God.”

And so, the Book of Ezekiel combines the promises of the New Covenant, the Gift of the Spirit, and the circumcised heart.

SPIRIT AND COVENANT

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 for God’s one covenant people. With the Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus, the long-awaited New Covenant with its Gift of the Spirit was given to the Church, beginning with the outpouring of the Spirit on Pentecost:

• “And in filling full the day of Pentecost, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound as of the rushing of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues parting asunder, as of fire. And it sat upon each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” – (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 with His redemptive purposes for the nation of Israel. What He began with Abraham is brought to completion through Jesus Christ, the Lord who now dispenses the Gift of the Spirit to the Church, empowering them for ministry, witness, and righteous living.

• “And behold, I send forth the promise of my Father upon you. But wait in the city, until you are clothed with power from on high” – (Luke 24:49).

• “But you will receive power, when the Holy Spirit comes upon you: and you will be my witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” – (Acts 1:8).

Neither the Church nor the receipt of the Spirit was an unforeseen interim stage or a detour of God’s plan. They have been fundamental components of His promises from the very beginning when God summoned Abram to leave “Ur of the Chaldees” and journey to the land of Canaan– (Genesis 15:7).

The Abrahamic Covenant is fulfilled by Jesus Christ, and in his church, filled with and empowered by the Spirit of God to take the Gospel “to the uttermost parts of the Earth,” to every nation. And that body is composed of Jewish and Gentile disciples of Jesus.

With his Death and Resurrection and the outpouring of the Spirit, “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 hearts circumcised by the Spirit, they follow the Messiah of Israel wherever he leads them as “one new man” - (Galatians 3:26-29, Ephesians 2:15).

[PDF Copy]

SEE ALSO:

• Jesus Fulfills the Promises - (The promises of the Hebrew Bible are fulfilled in the Son of God and Messiah of Israel, Jesus of Nazareth)

• Coheirs with Jesus - (The covenant with Abraham is fulfilled in Jesus, the Heir of the Patriarch and his Seed, including the possession of the Earth – Romans 8:1-23)

• 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)