The following is the third in a series of blog posts on this topic that are meant to be read together. Links to the other articles may be found at the bottom of this page. The series as a whole is also meant to accompany a collection of related articles currently being posted on the website Reformation21. Links to those articles can likewise be found at the bottom of this page.
In my previous article on this subject, I discussed how God instituted a penalty for disobedience under the Abrahamic Covenant that continued into the Mosaic Covenant: any individual who violated the commands contained within the covenant would be cut off from the people of God. I ended by discussing the somewhat paradoxical statements made about the circumcision of the heart. On the one hand, God told the Israelites to circumcize their own hearts, while on the other, He declared that He Himself would perform such a circumcision upon them.
This is a riddle and no mistake, but the answer is found in those two English words “cut off”, which stand in for the Hebrew word karath. This same word is used to refer to 1) the “cutting” or initiating of a covenant in blood and 2) the cutting off of an individual from that covenant due to disobedience. By the same word a covenant is made and the covenant curse is experienced. Both were pictured in the sign of circumcision commanded in Genesis chapter 17. The removal of the foreskin, which left a permanent trace, reminded the Israelites of how the Abrahamic Covenant was cut in the blood of those animals, but it was also applied to every male descendant of Abraham as a prophesy: a male in the physical line of Abraham would be cut off for the people, taking upon Himself the covenant curse that was due to them.
“Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him,And by His scourging we are healed.All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us allTo fall on Him.He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth. By oppression and judgment He was taken away; And as for His generation, who considered That He was cut off out of the land of the living For the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due?”
Isaiah 53:4-8
In this exceptionally powerful biblical prophecy, Isaiah lamented for a Servant of God who would be cut off for the people of God. He would take on their iniquities so that they could be healed, then He Himself would be satisfied and given all due honor by God. This was the one to whom the sign of circumcision pointed: Jesus Christ, physical descendant of Abraham. Hundreds of years later, another man unintentionally prophesied as much.
“Therefore the chief priests and the Pharisees convened a council, and were saying, ‘What are we doing? For this man is performing many signs. If we let Him go on like this, all men will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.’ But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, ‘You know nothing at all, nor do you take into account that it is expedient for you that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish.’ Now he did not say this on his own initiative, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but in order that He might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.”
John 11:47-52
Here we find the answer to the riddle. Yes, God had commanded that Abraham’s descendants obey the commands of the Mosaic Law in order to live. Yes, they had broken those commands and therefore deserved to be cut off. However, Jesus Christ was cut off for the nation, bearing their curse. God’s justice required that the covenant be obeyed and the Law upheld. As Christ Himself said, “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.” (Matthew 5:17) The one who alone was perfectly obedient to the Law took on the curse of the Law that the covenant demands would be satisfied but “the whole nation not perish”.
One riddle is answered, but three more are raised. 1) What about the circumcision of the heart? 2) How would all the nations be blessed in Abraham’s seed? 3) How would righteousness be credited to those who had faith?
To be continued…
All scripture quotations are taken from the 1995 New American Standard Bible, copyright The Lockman Foundation.
[1] Luther, Martin. Theological thesis 26, 1518 Heidelberg Disputation. http://bookofconcord.org/heidelberg.php. Accessed 24 June 2020.
Other articles in this blog series in order of publication:
“Why I Am a Reformed Protestant: The Covenant with Abraham”
“Why I Am a Reformed Protestant: The Requirement of Works”
“Why I Am a Reformed Protestant: The Circumcision of the Heart”
“Why I Am a Reformed Protestant: Two Progenies in Abraham”
Related articles hosted on Reformation21 in order of publication:
“Infusion and Imputation: An Introduction”
“Justification: The Roman Catholic View”
“Justification: The Reformed Protestant View”
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