1236. Circumcision and Uncircumcision Can Not Create the New Creature, and Therefore They…
Circumcision and Uncircumcision Can Not Create the New Creature, and Therefore They Are Not Anything
"Simon answered and said, He, I suppose, to whom he forgave the most. And He said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged" (Luk_6:43, A. S. V.).
1. Nothing apart from regeneration is anything. Even baptism and the Lord's Supper, singing and praying, giving to missions at home and to missions abroad, evangelism and general Christian activities, nothing in Judaism, nothing in the church, nothing in the world is anything, apart from the new creation.
Why? The Word of God very plainly tells us why. A bitter fountain can not give forth fresh water; and evil tree can not bear good fruit; thorns can not bear figs; briars can not bear grapes; those who are accustomed to do evil, can not do good; those who are in the flesh can not serve God.
How many people have been deceived just here. They vainly imagine that joining the church is salvation, that attending the church enhances their chance of Heaven. They are looking to themselves and leaning upon themselves. They build their hope of Heaven upon those things that adorn Heaven. All such hope is vain. Churchanity, even of the better type, is nothing, unless Jesus Christ is everything.
2. Nothing apart from Christ is anything. There are some things that man can do. These can be done by legislation, by cultivation, by reformation, and by education. Man has not been slow to utilize these things. Yet, with any, or with all of these things, man can not bring forth anything that is satisfying to God. Why? Again God answers: "Out of the heart of man proceedeth adulteries, fornications." There is not one thing that is good, that is pure, that is holy; there is not one thing that can enter in through the gates into the City, that comes out of the natural man: the heart bringeth forth that which is evil.
Everything which man has built and is building is awaiting the fire. Everything which man has done and is doing is under condemnation. God has placed His handwriting on the wall, and His words are plain, "Mene! Mene! Tekel! Upharsin!" Over everything that concerns the works of the flesh our Scripture writes: "corruption." It is the edict of the Almighty. Circumcision and uncircumcision are not anything in Christ Jesus.
3. Nothing apart from Christ is anything. The colossus which Nebuchadnezzar saw, with its head of gold and its chest of silver, etc., stands before us as monumental of everything that man can do in the political world. Yet, in Christ Jesus, this is not anything.
When the Lord comes He will crush the whole image and grind it to powder. The tower of Babel, which was built in the land of Shinar, stood for everything which man, in his human boastfulness, could conceive, but God said, "We will destroy this tower."
The New Babylon, which is to be built upon the same plains of Shinar, will be the most gorgeous, the most luxuriant, and the most costly of all cities. It will stand for everything commercially that man can invent and erect, but in one hour God will bring its glories to naught.
The woman arrayed in the purple and scarlet robe, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls; the woman having a golden cup in her hand, stands for everything ecclesiastical that man can do. The woman stands for confederated Christendom; she stands for the amalgamation, the collusion and the combine of churches, yet, the woman shall be made desolate and naked, and they shall "eat her flesh and burn her with fire, for God hath put it in their hearts to fulfil His will."
Thus, from every angle, circumcision and uncircumcision must collapse. They fail in their highest flights and in all of their various attempts to bring forth anything that can stand before a Holy God.
Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR