Changing the Rules to Suit Your Position

I was reading a very good article by Kim Riddlebarger this morning on the subject of Dispensationalists and how they, in their view of the thousand year reign of Christ (or millennium), hold to an end times position that is a return to types and shadows once Christ returns. Riddlebarger rightly points out in the article that Dispys should be reading the OT prophecies through the eyes of the NT writers, specifically how all the types and shadows have been fulfilled in Christ. He says, “The literal interpretation of these Old Testament messianic passages is supplied by the New Testament. Therefore, Old Testament prophetic expectation must not be the basis for understanding the eschatology of the New.”

I agree, but I wonder why he and other Paedo brothers and sisters don’t apply the same principle when it comes to the type and shadow of circumcision. Why are the prophecies, such as the land promises, fulfilled in Christ and spiritualized, but something which pointed to Christ, circumicsion, is not?

Riddlebarger rightly points out that, although the Dispensationalist says there still remains a future promise of land, Paul clearly demonstrates in the NT that this promise has been spiritualized. He says, “the Abrahamic covenant has been fulfilled in Jesus Christ, since even Gentiles who embrace the messianic promise through faith are Abraham’s children and members of this covenant (Galatians 3:15-29; Romans 4:1-25). It is Paul who “spiritualizes” the promise of a land in Palestine”.

I believe that, in the same way Paul in the NT spiritualizes the promise of land in the OT, he also does the same thing with the OT practice and type and shadow of circumcision, which pointed to Christ, by his comments in Colossians 2. As even Riddlebarger has duly noted in his article on Dispensationalism, everything has been fulfilled in Christ, and I believe that includes the OT practice of circumcision. In Colossians 2, Paul takes the physical action of circumcision and spiritualizes it when he says the following:

See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority; and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. – Col. 2:9-12

Paul takes the OT practice of physical circumcision and spiritualizes it by declaring that now, circumcision is performed by Christ (and notice that this act has already been performed on those he’s writing to), and is done without physical hands. He takes the OT physical act of circumcision of the flesh and replaces it with the spiritual act of being circumcised of the heart. My Paedo brothers, though, take the OT physical act of circumcision and replace it with the physical act of baptism. Paul has given us the same proper look at an OT type and shadow – circumcision – as he has given with respect to the OT land promise, which was another type and shadow. And a consistent interpretive principle for both issues will bring you to this conclusion every time.

Going to Church Doesn’t Put You in the New Covenant

Neither does baptism, saying a prayer, marrying a believer, having Christian parents, walking an aisle, or becoming a member of a local body. In other words, being part of a particular assembly of people who name the name of Christ as their Savior, whether you want to call it a community or group, does not place you (not even in name only) among those who are to be considered of God. The only thing which places you in the New Covenant, which is in Christ’s blood, is the effectual calling of our Sovereign God.

This ‘New Covenant Group’ is one of a spiritual makeup, made up of those who have (past tense) received the circumcision of the heart, the circumcision of Christ. It is made up of those who were once dead, but have been made alive, and who have been made complete, and have faith. This group knows God, has His law written on their minds and upon their hearts, and have had their iniquity forgiven and their sin remembered no more. They are saints in the truest sense of the word, because the blood of Christ has been given for them, and He has paid their debt.

Please, oh please, my reader…do not think you are a part of this wonderful new and better covenant that HAS BEEN enacted on better promises just because you belong to a group which names the names of Christ, or because you formally joined their number, or because you were baptized when you couldn’t even hold your head up. For God is not concerned with a superficial outward connection or a ceremony apart from the work of the Spirit, and He is certainly not impressed by your family tree.

Put your hope in Christ, and not in some false assurance based upon affiliation. Test yourselves, to see if you be in the faith. Examine yourselves.