[Kelli]

The Circumcised Heart

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Genesis 17:11-14 “and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you. 12 He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised, every male child in your generations, he who is born in your house or bought with money from any foreigner who is not your descendant. 13 He who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money must be circumcised, and My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. 14 And the uncircumcised male child, who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.”


Circumcision; doesn’t it seem an odd way to begin a covenant? We find it strange, but let’s examine the physical dynamics of circumcision. Circumcision is a procedure to remove the foreskin, a fold of fleshy skin that covers the tip of the penis.

When a male was circumcised in the Old Testament, somebody else, the priest, did it. They didn’t circumcise themselves. They surrendered to the physical act of circumcision. The Israelites did it for spiritual reasons.

What is a spiritual truth that you can glean from circumcision? __________________

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The spiritual truth is that we are not expected to perform the spiritual circumcision on ourselves, only God can do that; we are asked only to yield to the surgery. Spiritual circumcision is a process that takes time and is often painful. The physical circumcision cuts away flesh. The spiritual circumcision cuts away our vices (flesh).

There may be some confusion about the word “flesh”. We tend to think of flesh as the covering of our bodies, but that’s not what the Bible is talking about when it says flesh. The dictionary defines flesh as the physical nature of human as distinguished from the soul (or spirit). We are flesh and spirit. The flesh is the physical nature of human beings; it is the human part of us, along with our fleshly, unspiritual, worldly, carnal, sensual will. The Biblical description of flesh is the weakness of man, such as when the apostles fell asleep in the Garden of Gethsemane (Mark 14:32-38). The flesh is the earthly part of man; it represents lusts, desires, and primal reactions.

Ephesians 2:3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.


Galatians 5:16, 17 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.


When Jesus died on the cross, it wasn’t only to make it possible for us to go to Heaven; it accomplished much more. He made it possible for you and me to become like Him. He never intended to leave us in bondage to our old, natural man. When we become born-again, Jesus begins to cut away our old sin-nature, like the priest cut away the useless, fleshy part of the penis.


Colossians 2:9-14 For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; 10 and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.

Not Legalism but Christ

11 In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. 13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, 14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.


Romans 8:29, 30 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.


Romans 2:28, 29 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; 29 but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.


What is your part of the spiritual circumcision? ______________________________

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First, we have to yield to the cutting away of the flesh. Sometimes, it’s hard to distinguish between the times when we are trying to submit to the cutting and when we are trying to circumcise ourselves by helping God. We have to stay close to Him, pray for strength, and leave the results and consequences to Him. Sometimes, it takes time to get the job done. Leave it up to God, because it is going to happen anyway. Learning to yield to the voice of God, no matter what, is humbling and hurts sometimes; but it is the only way.

So how do we yield to the cutting away of our flesh/vices? Just as the physical law of circumcision in the Old Testament was not optional, neither is the cutting away of our vices. It has to be done, so you might as well just yield and not fight it. Trust, and don’t murmur; even though the process is often confusing.

Personally, I didn’t even realize that my deepest, and most habitual, fault was my obsession to be thin. I thought that my sin was overeating; but God revealed, through many hours of cutting flesh, that the spirit part of me is what is valuable.

God gave us every single one of the Old Testament laws for a reason. Some of them, like circumcision, seem so strange to us. We know that the killing of a spotless lamb, for the forgiveness of sins, parallels our perfect Jesus dying for our sins. In addition, when Moses lifted the serpent in the wilderness, Jesus tells us that it was a representation of Himself being lifted to the cross. A serpent has always represented sin in the Bible. Jesus was saying that He was going to take upon Himself the sins of the world. God established spiritual truth with natural law.



John 3:1-15 There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”

3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

4 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”

5 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

9 Nicodemus answered and said to Him, “How can these things be?”

10 Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things? 11 Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness. 12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.


Deuteronomy 30:6 And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.


Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.


Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Spiritual circumcision is a painful procedure; cutting flesh sometimes takes prayer and fasting, tearing us away from our own will. You are in the flesh when you’re not trusting God. If you are trying to keep the laws of God, and expecting others to do the same, then you have to keep every letter of the law; not just the ones that are comfortable.

There have been times when I have talked to my children about problems that they are having, but they are so upset and worried about what is going on that they want it fixed and fixed now. I say, “Trust God,” and they wail, “I do trust God, but …” I know how they feel; I still whine all the time. If I really trusted God myself, I would trust Him; no “but” about it!



Galatians 5:1-26
Christian Liberty

Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. 2 Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. 3 And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law. 4 You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. 5 For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love.


Love Fulfills the Law

7 You ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? 8 This persuasion does not come from Him who calls you. 9 A little leaven leavens the whole lump. 10 I have confidence in you, in the Lord, that you will have no other mind; but he who troubles you shall bear His judgment, whoever he is.

11 And I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why do I still suffer persecution? Then the offense of the cross has ceased. 12 I could wish that those who trouble you would even cut themselves off!

13 For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another!

Walking in the Spirit

16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. 24 And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 f we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.


To circumcise the heart is to trust God, and to allow Him to cut away anything that keeps you from Him. When you let God cut away the things that are bad for you, just accepting it without murmuring, you fall in love with Him and want to obey; not just because of the law, but because you love Him. We don’t take care of, protect, and nurture our children because of parental-responsibility laws, and we don’t care for our children because it’s the legal thing to do; we care for them out of love for them.

In your own words, summarize what you think it means to be spiritually-circumcised?

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Spiritual circumcision is an ongoing work. We must trust God with the process. It’s easy for us to read about the lives of the people in the Bible that God used the most. We read all about their trials, in a few chapters, without really thinking about the timeline. They all went through times of frustration and trials. They each had promises from God that it seemed like He would never fulfill. It took Noah years and years to build the ark. Abraham had to wait many years for a child. Jacob had to work an extra seven years for Rachel. Joseph was wrongly accused and spent years in jail. Pharaoh’s magicians, and the whole wilderness thing, frustrated Moses. David ran from Saul all those years … it goes on-and-on; but through it all, God was at work in each of them, getting them ready for the job that He had prepared for them.


Hebrews 12:11 Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.


Deuteronomy 10:16, 17 Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff-necked no longer. 17 For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe.


The Lord your God wants the whole person; outward symbols, like fasting and circumcision, are meant to display a total devotion to God and a transforming of our hearts.

Obsessing about dieting and being thin has probably become an idol in your life. If you knew that you would never lose another pound, would you still be obedient? God may test you on this. Trust Him, let Him be the One in control, lean on Him, and let Him circumcise your heart.


READ: Acts 7


In light of today’s study, what was the Scripture or statement in today’s lesson that most spoke to your heart? __________________________________________________ _

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What steps of faith does God want you to take towards Him today? ______________

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Rephrase the Scripture or statement into an expression of faith ___________________

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Memory Scripture:



John 6:27 “Do not __________ __________ the food __________ perishes, but for the food __________ __________ to everlasting life, which the __________ __________ __________ will __________ you, because God the __________ has __________ His seal on Him.”