Complete or Partial

 DEVOTION

GENESIS

COMPLETE OR PARTIAL

Gen 17:9-14

9 Then God said to Abraham, "As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come. 10 This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised. 11 You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. 12 For the generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, including those born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner — those who are not your offspring. 13 Whether born in your household or bought with your money, they must be circumcised. My covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting covenant. 14 Any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant."

NIV

Here is where we distinguish between the Old Covenant, or at least the sign of the covenant God required of Abraham, and the sign of the covenant Jesus made with us under the New Covenant. Many males in our country understand circumcision of the flesh, in fact, for the most part, the medical profession under the policies of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Since 2012, has followed a policy statement that argues the medical benefits outweigh the risks of circumcision. However, it stops short of being a recommendation of the procedure. Nevertheless, the idea of this circumcision of the flesh was required by God for Abraham and every male among his household, and all those under his authority, even those not among his offspring, and for all generations to come who are after Abraham and all males among his tribe. Now, as we live under this New Covenant with Jesus, we too must undergo a circumcision as a sign of this covenant between Jesus and us. However, our circumcision needs to be of our heart. Certainly, we understand the exposing of perhaps the most sensitive area of the male body in the flesh, and thus we understand the exposing of the most sensitive body of our whole being, our heart. There are many times we see the warning to not harden our hearts, as the children of Israel did in the rebellion. We must open our hearts to Jesus, and in our current state, the Holy Spirit, allowing him to dwell within us, or our hearts. We wonder if we can do a partial opening, thus have a partial hardening of our hearts. What would this look like? Could we say to the Lord, we will allow you limited access to our heart, of course, we profess you as our Lord and Savior, but it is the Savior part we accept fully, giving complete access, but limit his Lordship just a little as we want to keep a portion of control over our own heart. Do we still want to be able to decide who we truly love, and who we want to judge, criticize, not forgive, gossip about, have envy, or jealousy, even revenge toward others, or just disregard them completely, along with a host of other feelings or emotions? The question remains; Will we circumcise our hearts, allowing Jesus full access, or will we harden part of it? There is no partial circumcision of the flesh, and so there is neither complete nor partial circumcision of our hearts.