Israel’s national existence was founded upon the promises to Abraham and upon the deliverance from Egypt. The promises were memorialized by circumcision and the deliverance by the passover celebration. To Israel, these rites spoke of blessings and safety.
The promises, however, went further than Israel as they included the assurances that: “In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed” and “Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him” (Gen. 22:18; 18:18).
True circumcision
Circumcision related one to the national promises and taught a vital lesson about the greater hope. It taught the necessity of cutting off the flesh in order to have an eternal hope: “For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh: but he is a Jew which 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).
We know that the rite of baptism superseded the rite of circumcision to relate those who would be “spiritual” Jews to the promises. The apostle Paul tells us that as many of us as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ and therefore we are joint heirs according to the promises made to Abraham.
The passover
As we know, the passover originated in Egypt. Israel was about to be delivered from bondage. The angel of death was to bring the tenth plague on the Egyptians by destroying all of the firstborn.
The annual feast was celebrated so they might remember God delivered them from bondage. But there is a greater bondage from which all people need deliverance.
When Jesus went into the upper room with the twelve apostles, he was to keep the passover for the last time. Careful arrangements had been made that the upper room might be prepared for this occasion, for this was when the passover meal would be superseded by a new memorial, the Lord’s supper.
All things in Christ
Blessings and safety are brought together in Christ as he confirms the promises and provides deliverance from bondage. In him, too, a living exhortation is supplied of circumcision of the heart and cutting off the impulses of human nature.
Probably the most profound lesson in humility in the entire scriptures is given to us when Jesus took a basin of water and a towel and began washing his follower’s feet. The lesson was that they were to faithfully serve one another without regard to any rank among them. They would not fully appreciate the lesson until they later could look back on him hanging on the cross. Here was the future king and high priest of the entire earth serving his subjects in a way with which they could identify: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man should lay down his life for his friends.”
But the lessons in the upper room were not yet over. Jesus had said, “The law and the prophets were until John; since that time the kingdom of God is preached” (Luke 16:16). In the spirit of those words, he took the bread and wine and blessed them, partaking himself and offering them to his apostles.
The passover need no longer be celebrated as the divinely ordained memorial of rescue from death. That night it was replaced by the bread and wine which represented the body and blood of Jesus, who would save men from sin and death.
The message to us
The lesson to us is clear. When we are baptized into the name of Jesus, we embrace the blessings implied in God’s promises to Abraham, affirmed through circumcision, and we avail ourselves of the safety that is implied through applying the lamb’s blood to the door posts of our hearts.
What a precious and high calling we have.
The change has been made. We are to keep the commandments of God, not in the letter of the law, but in the spirit of grace. In so doing, we are to look past the flesh (making no provision for it) to the spirit. We are to “lay aside every weight that so easily besets us,” remembering the example of Jesus and relying on him to help us overcome.
We are to, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One