Baptism and the circumcision of Christ: OT sign is twofold: one is a threat of death and exile from the life that God promises in his cov’t; it threatens the sign taker with the reminder that breaking this cov’t (ie abandoning God completely, wholly, fully) leaves the believer with no hope but death. So when A took the Sign to himself and his posterity, he basically said, “We are followers of the one true God and is we leave the protective love of this one true God, there is nothing for us but God’s curse.” So A would raise his children to follow in faith this one true God upon the pains of death. Christ is circumcised for us; he is cut off from the land of the living as he hung on the cross. Not b/c of his cov’t unfaithfulness but b/c of ours b/c left to ourselves we would forsake God. Left to ourselves we would turn from him. And in order for God to protect us from ourselves is to remove from us our rebellion; and the only way to do that is to carry out the curse of the cov’t. You see way God removes rebellion is by cutting out the rebellious; severing them from this life. To carry out the consequences of sin God must perform this surgery. But God. But God demonstrates his own love for us in that while we were sinners, Christ was cut off for us. This is the good news of God’s love. Were you to stand before God on your own, you would be cut off; you would have no hope; you would be circumcised were you to stand on your own. And that is why we need Jesus. By the circumcision of Christ, we are cut off. B/c Christ has been cut off, we will not be. But that does not take away from the fact that we are obligated to walk in faithfulness. This is no different that the OT; when sacrifices were offered in the OT there is the demonstration of circumcision in the negative sense; every time an animal was offered up there was the crucifiction typified. So if we were to put Paul’s words in Colossians in the language of the OT sacrifices, we would say we are circumcised by the circumcision of this lamb; of this bull. I am preserved because this animal is being cut off in my place.
