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Leviticus 26: 41, 42 (NIV)
“‘When their uncircumcised
hearts are humbled and they pay for their sin, I will remember my covenant . . . and I will remember the land.’”
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| The heart is the heart of the matter.* |
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In this passage,
God speaks of uncircumcised hearts. Let’s be indelicate for a moment: the heart
is not the body part upon which the ritual of circumcision was performed. It is
interesting, though, that the condition of neither organ is obvious to the
public. An outsider could not walk up to a Jewish man and know for sure that he
had been properly circumcised. Likewise, the naked eye cannot discern the condition
of a Christian’s heart. Circumcision, whether of the heart or otherwise, is for
God’s eyes only.
The Jews had a
secret pact with God and now so do we. And while it is true that the state of
the heart is between us and God, there must be some outward sign of our
covenant relationship with him. For the Jews, it was the law and its associated
rituals that set them apart from the world. For Christians, it is our
faithfulness to Christ’s example that tells the world that our hearts have
undergone a secret, life-changing surgical procedure. It is not done without
our permission and submission, but we are not saved by what we do but by what
is done to us and for us.
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| While works do not justify us, they do identify us.* |
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