What if there was a way for you to know 100% for sure Yehovah was right there, by your side, in your circumstances, ready to heal, help, deliver, and protect? If there is one thing the year 2020 has shown us, it is this; nobody knows for sure what tomorrow brings. We dont know what 2021 has in store for us on a global, national, and private level. But what we do know is that we need assurance that our God is by our side whatever might happen to us. Is it possible for us to have that type of guarantee? The Bible says it is because of the covenant between Yehovah and us. How do we know we are in covenant with Yehovah? What do we have to look at to remind ourselves we are in covenant with our God, and our God is right there by our side whatever might happen in 2021? The answer to this is not the cross, but it is not circumcision of the flesh either.
The Bible says Abraham was declared righteous because He obeyed Yehovah’s Torah (the Torah is what we today call the law of Moses.) So the first covenant between Abraham and Yehovah dependent upon the Torah. The Bible also says how Abraham would have billions of descendants and how everyone who obeyed Torah would be a descendant of Abraham and a member of the covenant.
A great deal of time would elapse between the covenant ceremony at the beginning of Genesis and later on when Yehovah gives Abraham the sign of the covenant. The symbol of the covenant, or what we would call proof of Abraham’s obedience, would be circumcision of the flesh.
If Abraham was ever tempted to doubt Yehovah, he only had to remind himself of his circumcision and how his obedience guaranteed Yehovahs help.
I dont know about you, but I have found myself at times envying Abraham. Having a physical proof of Yehovah’s promises, something I could look at and remind myself how I belong to Yehovah and He is my God, would sometimes be a great comfort when circumstances threatened once again to steal my peace.
As the years went by, Abrahams’s descendants started forgetting about the covenant’s terms, and they instead ended up worshiping the sign of the covenant. Suddenly it did not matter to them how they lived their lives as long as they were circumcised. By the time Yeshua was born in Israel, the Jews had replaced Yehovahs law with human-made opinions and doctrines. In the Gospels, the Son of God Yeshua rebukes them for this saying their worship is in vain because Yehovah wants to be worshiped with the Torah, not with human-made doctrines and laws.
Does this not resemble how we Christians live our lives?
Yehovah gave us His Son Yeshua to teach us how to live and to atone for our sins on the cross. The Gospels clearly say the renewed covenant is a covenant with dual responsibilities. If we live the repented lifestyle, obeying Moses’s law, Yehovah will do His part and be our God. He will see to all our needs, protect us, and deliver us. But as the years have gone by, we have forgotten about our responsibilities and instead started worshiping the cross. When we rely on the cross and dont care about how we live our lives, we are no different from the Israelites who relyed on circumcision and did not care how they lived their lives. If Yeshua walked among us today, He would have rebuked us and told us how our worship of Him is in vain. Yehovah still wants to be worshiped with the Torah, not with human-made laws and doctrines.
So what should we do?
Paul gives us the answer to this question in the book of Romans, circumcision on the flesh or the cross has no value at all if we are not first circumcised in our minds. What does it mean to have a circumcised mind? It means that the law of Moses becomes the most crucial thing in your life, so you keep the law at the forefront of your mind at all times. It means that you love the law more than anything else, so you make it your number one priority to guard, protect, and keep the law.
If you do this, you will be a descendant of Abraham and a part of the covenant.
This is what we need to understand, the sign of the covenant between Yehovah and us have never been circumcision in the flesh or the cross. The sign has always been, and will always be, our obedience to the Mosaic law.
Where does this leave the cross and circumcision?
They are both parts of the law because the commandment to be circumcised still applies to us today. And the commandment to atone for our sins with Blood still applies to us today, but they were never intended to be worshiped the way we worship them. They were only meant to be the entry into the circumcised mind and the renewed covenant with Yehovah.
Do you understand what this means?
It means that you can know for sure you are saved, and you can know for sure Yehovah is your God working on your behalf to deliver you, heal you and help you no matter the circumstances. It means that you can have the assurance of Yehovah’s help no matter what 2021 might bring. How can you have this assurance? Because you keep the law of Moses, and you are reconciled to Him through the cross.
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