Circumcision - A Sign

In this Covenant of Purpose which God made with Abraham, circumcision was the sign that God intended to have a peculiar people to be His own precious possession, and their fruitfulness would be from Him. Abraham and his male descendants were expected, by God, to be circumcised as a sign of their response of obedience to God's purpose and His expectation of them to keep covenant with Him. This physical sign of being in covenant with God is a picture of what becomes a spiritual reality in both the Old and New Testaments, not in the baptism of infant children, but in the circumcision of the heart of each believer in Jesus Christ. This is a work that only God can do in its inception, but which each and every believer willingly participates in. So the question this morning that we are asking is this. How are true believers in both Old Testament and New to understand circumcision? What does it mean for us who are here this morning? Well I believe that it is a sign to Old Testament believers of 3 things. And as we show what it meant to Abram and the Old Testament people of God to receive circumcision, we will also attempt to show what it means to us as New Testament believers in Jesus Christ.