The Israel of God (Transcript)

by T. Austin-Sparks

Chapter 5 - The Great Transition

It is necessary, first for the newcomers as well as the rest of us, to repeat the passages of Scripture which are the foundation of our consideration in this conference. And so I will ask you again to turn to the prophecies of Isaiah, chapter 53, in verses 10 and 11: "When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed... He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied".

He shall see His seed, the travail of His soul.

In the letter to the Romans, chapter 9, in verses 6 and 7: "But it is not as though the word of God hath come to nought. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: neither, because they are Abraham's seed, are they all children".

And in the letter to the Galatians chapter 3 and verse 16: "Now to Abraham were the promises spoken, and to his seed. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ".

There will be other passages, probably, which I shall bring together as we go along. But as we come to this further phase of the whole matter of this Divine Seed, this fruit of Christ's travail, this new spiritual Israel, I want just to say one or two preliminary and general things.

Although it is so well known, yet it is very necessary for us to be very clear on this matter, that there are not two things or more in the Bible, as represented by two Testaments, the Old and the New, or more in the subdivisions of the Old Testament into eras. There may be two or more methods of expressing the same thing, but throughout, from the beginning of the Bible to its close, there is only one thing.

We have become mechanically minded in this matter of handling the Bible by dispensations and the different characteristics of different times. It may have had an effect upon us, much as we believe in typology and symbolism. And I want to just underline this anew this morning, that in the different and perhaps many forms of expression, God adheres to one thing and one thing alone, from beginning to end: His Son governs everything throughout, at all times.

He governs everything in the realities of His Person and of His redemptive and perfecting work. It is one Person and one Work, from the first book to the last. The change from the Old Testament to the New is only and simply the change from the indirect to the direct; from the symbolic to that which is symbolised; from the temporal representation to the spiritual reality. That is all. It is not a change of purpose and object, it is not a change of basis or foundation; it is not in any way a change of principles.

Well, perhaps you say you know all that, but there's more in it than we, any of us, have yet realised. To carry that further, the patriarchs were, in principle, as much upon the basis of God's Son as you and I are. That is true also of Israel. Israel in the Old Testament was as much upon the basis of God's Son as we are in this dispensation. God has never, at any time, by any means, worked on any other ground than that of His Son.

His creative activities were on the ground of His Son: "In Him, through Him, by Him, all things were created", and everything from then proceeds on that same basis, and will be consummated in Christ. By whatever means, however God has worked, His ground has always been the same. And on into the ages to come, that ground will be unchanging. It's the ground of Christ.

Now, that's a general statement, but it's very important for us to recall and be sure about it.

Having said it, I'm now bringing you back to the point where we broke off on Saturday night [Chapter 2]. You remember that we were then referring to the gospel by John, and especially at the point in that narrative marked by (in our arrangement) chapter 3 and perhaps chapter 4. I was saying that we think we know something about John chapter 3. Isn't it the great chapter of: "Ye must be born again..."? It's the great chapter of: "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son...". Don't we know it? Haven't we heard it a hundred times, a thousand times? And yet, and yet... what do we know about it?

Now, I said on Saturday night that this part, this part of that narrative marked by chapters 3 and 4, embraces all that could be said about this whole matter of the transition from the indirect to the direct; the transition from the old method of God to the new method of God. It brings right into view this whole matter of the heavenly Seed: its nature, its principles, and much more. Let us look, then, at John chapter 3.

And is it necessary for me to reemphasise the background of this? The Lord Jesus, we will admit, knew it all. The Spirit of God who led John to write, knew it all, knew far more than perhaps even John knew, not more than Jesus knew, but there is such a fullness here that does represent a tremendously comprehensive spiritual knowledge. Perhaps something of that will break upon us as we go on.

The chapter as we have it, which I think is an unfortunate division from the words immediately preceding, nevertheless, we take it: "There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews...". Verse 10: "Jesus said unto him, Art thou the teacher of Israel?" A man of the Pharisees, of the Jews, the teacher of Israel. Here you have in a person, an individual, the full embodiment of Israel after the flesh; the full development, the essential and intrinsic meaning of Israel: the Pharisees.

I have to just continually push back the temptation to dwell upon details or half an hour could easily be spent on the history of the Pharisees, and that to great profit. Nevertheless, let us simply note that the sect of the Pharisees were the very essence, the intrinsic meaning, of "Israel after the flesh". They gathered into themselves all that Israel claimed to be, was supposed to be. If you met a Pharisee, you would meet the last word in Israelism and Judaism.

So you have here a full embodiment of Israel after the flesh: "a ruler of the Jews", and then "the teacher of Israel". Note the form. And literally, the article is there in the text, Jesus did not say, "Art thou a teacher of Israel"; He said: "Art thou the teacher of Israel". This man evidently stood out; perhaps above all others recognised as the teacher of that time in Israel.

I indicate these things to point out that here we have Israel present after the flesh in a very full way; in every way. It is the natural seed of Abraham, a full-grown son of Abraham after the flesh, all the natural features and factors of a son of Abraham in the natural sense: he was born of the flesh of Abraham; he was circumcised in the flesh according to the covenant made with Abraham; his concern pre-eminently was with the kingdom which the seed of Abraham was to have. Those three things are the main factors here. I repeat them: he was born after the flesh as a son of Abraham; he was circumcised in the flesh as the seal of the covenant made with Abraham; and his all absorbing and consuming interest as a true Israelite was with the kingdom that was covenanted to the seed of Abraham.

Well, here is Abraham with all his natural seed gathered right into this chap, and all its marks and features are gathered right here. It is not just Nicodemus - Israel is present! From the time of Abraham on to this very hour, all the children of Abraham are present with this man in representation. He's a tremendous figure, this man; really, a lot more, of course, could be said about him. But that's where the matter is introduced.

The Lord Jesus, with a wave of the hand, repudiates the whole thing! He is not listening to it, not opening the door to it, not giving it a moment's consideration or attention. "Verily, verily, I say unto you: You must be born again. To really be the seed of Abraham, you must be born from above" - for that literally is the statement: "You must be born from above". The seed of Abraham, with all the covenants and the promises and the prospect and the kingdom, is that which is born from above; not this at all.

The Lord Jesus here, either by direct statement or by clear implication, makes some fundamental contrasts. Firstly between:

Two Births.

"That which is born of the flesh"; "that which is born of the Spirit": that which is born of the earth and that which is born out from heaven. These belong to two kingdoms, two worlds, two regimes, and there is no passage between from one to the other. The door is closed and He is not discussing this matter at all. He is simply saying it's so different, so other, it belongs to such a different realm, that there's no getting into that, only by way of an utterly new beginning out from heaven. Now, the rest of the New Testament is built upon that fundamental truth.

All Paul's ministry is built upon that. We said earlier that that was the cause of all the trouble where Paul was concerned. See how drastic, see how tremendous this thing is, to confront Israel with a statement like that: "You are not Israel after all! You're not Israel after all! You haven't begun to see the real meaning of the Israel of God! Except a man be born anew, he cannot see...".

He cannot see. "Except a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God." Here is not only the natural birth contrasted with the spiritual birth, here is a fundamental difference between the Red Sea and the pillar of cloud and fire as symbolic representations, and the spiritual reality. "Born of water" - yes, symbolically in the Red Sea. "Born of the Spirit" - yes, symbolically in the cloud. They were all baptised into Moses in the sea and in the cloud, "But, Nicodemus, you know all about that, or you think you do. You haven't begun to see the meaning of that! There's a difference between the symbolic and the spiritual, the typical and the real. Being born of water and of the Spirit has a far, far, deeper meaning than ever you have seen, or can see, Nicodemus."

And then as to the Kingdom.

As to the Kingdom

Of course, Nicodemus hadn't mentioned the word. But the Lord Jesus, who, according to the words immediately preceding (and that's why I think it's such an unfortunate division of the narrative): "Jesus did not trust Himself unto them, for He knew all men, and because He needed not that anyone should bear witness concerning man; He Himself knew what was in man. And there was a man..." and He knew him and what was in him, "...a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus." And He knew that this man's one interest in life - no doubt an honest, sincere interest, a passionate interest - was the kingdom. That was the great hope of Israel, that was the great thing about Israel, the kingdom. And the Lord Jesus, knowing the man's absorption in that kingdom interest, made it perfectly clear that the kingdom about which Nicodemus was thinking, was one thing, but that the Kingdom itself was quite another thing. The Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven, is quite another thing from the kingdom of Israel on the earth.

These are very strong contrasts that are here, and you can see how, by this, the whole Bible was focussed into this very chapter.

The inclusive conclusion of all this is just that all this that was historic was not the real - it did not conform to the Lord's meaning when He used the word "truth". That's why I said earlier chapter 4 is a part of chapter 3. You know that it is with a contrast that the Lord Jesus said to the woman of Samaria later, "The hour cometh, and now is..." here's your change, here's your transition, here's your passing over, "...and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship God not in this mountain nor in Jerusalem... in spirit and in truth". And that statement just rules out a whole order and system of things, and brings in an entirely other. All that which was historic was not the real, or to use His word, not the "true". Not the true! "This mountain... Jerusalem..." - yes, but it's not the true! This birth after Abraham - yes, but it's not the true! This hope of the kingdom - yes, but it's not the true! It's very, very searching.

The fact is that everything, everything had to be put on to the ground of Christ. On to the ground of Christ! And that could only be, and can only be, at any time, through death and resurrection - or:

New Birth on the Basis of Christ in Death and Resurrection

"In Isaac shall thy seed be called..." that again is a symbolic statement. "In Isaac shall thy seed be called". Why? Because Isaac is the symbolic embodiment of the principle of death and resurrection. Everything had to be put on the ground of Christ in death and resurrection, and that was equally true in the Old Testament as in the New.

In thinking about this and reading, I was reading again that fascinating story of Joseph: the famine in the land, the coming of his brethren, and the subsequent removing of the whole family - Jacob and all his sons, seventy souls - from the land into Egypt. It's a fascinating story. The whole story of Joseph itself, I think, is one of those things that holds you to the end once you start reading it. The whole of that episode is full of mastering interests.

But I found myself brought up short with a question. Now, the Lord had brought Abraham into the land and given the land to him by covenant, and to his seed; an everlasting possession. What's this? The whole seed, evacuating the land and going into Egypt! The whole of them; every soul coming out of the land of covenant and going into Egypt according to what the Lord had told Abraham that his seed should be; in the land of Egypt in bondage for four hundred years, and should be ill-treated, and so on. The Lord told Abraham that it would be, and here it is. Leave the prophecy and its fulfilment for the moment aside.

Here's a strange thing: uprooted and evacuated, to the last soul, from the very place of covenant and into Egypt! Into Egypt! What's the meaning of this? Why?

I thought long about that. And then I think I saw the answer. Yes, look at the seed of Abraham in the land; just look at those sons of Jacob. What sort of people are these? Yes, the seed of Abraham after the flesh, the inheritors of the covenant after the flesh, the historic line - but look at them! Well, the incident with Joseph only is enough to betray what sort of people they were. And the story is not a very, very nice story, is it, throughout, of those men in their behaviour, their disposition. No, it's a poor showing up of the seed of Abraham.

Do you think that God is going to allow that kind of person to follow through to His end? Not at all! He'll bring them into Egypt and put them first of all upon the basis of the travail of Christ - the Cross. And watch, when they're there, the principle of the Cross dealing with the self-life, the flesh, until they groan and groan. And then, see the mighty energies of God in that travail, bringing out that seed from Egypt.

In principle, you see, in principle it is all this tremendous thing: travail unto a new birth through death and resurrection. God is putting them off the ground of nature onto the ground of Christ, and that in death and resurrection. It's got to be! It's got to be, God is true to His principle: God is true to His Son. God is not play-acting; He is not just making history. God is writing, deep in history, the laws, the eternal laws of His Son in Person and redemption. So, they cannot inherit, they cannot inherit, they must go through this ordeal, this terrible ordeal, they must (to repeat) be put on the ground, on the basis of Christ in death and resurrection before they can come through to possess again the land.

And when you see God picking things up anew with the seed of Abraham, with the twelve tribes from Egypt, the Exodus, through the wilderness into the land, it's all on the basis of Christ. Every bit of it, every fragment of it is on the basis of Christ, in principle.

I think I must here put in a tremendous parenthesis.

This Matter of Circumcision

A delicate matter, but fraught with tremendous significance. Here we'll read a few passages.

We will first of all begin in the book of the Acts, chapter 7, in Stephen's great, great discourse. Chapter 7 of the book of the Acts at verse 8: "And He gave him" (that is, Abraham) "the covenant of circumcision".

Into the next book, the letter to the Romans, chapter 2, verse 28: "For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God".

Chapter 4, verse 9: "Is this blessing then pronounced upon the circumcision, or upon the uncircumcision also? For we say, To Abraham his faith was reckoned for righteousness. How then was it reckoned? When he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision: and he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while he was in uncircumcision: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be in uncircumcision".

How profound! Go over to the next in the first letter to the Corinthians, chapter 7, verse 19. You almost hold your breath as you read it: "Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing". Fancy a Jew saying that! Well, we'll come to that in a minute.

On to the letter to the Galatians, chapter 5, verse 6: "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith working through love".

Chapter 6, verse 15: "For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation".

Now the tremendous statement and exposition in the letter to the Colossians, chapter 2, verse 11: "In whom ye were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ; having been buried with Him in baptism, wherein ye were also raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead" (Colossians 2:11,12).

Now that's enough of the Word, let us call to mind the tremendous importance attached to circumcision by the Jews. That could hold us for quite a time, and it would be well if we did get the full force of that, the tremendous importance attached to this matter by the Jews. It was the very sign of their national oneness, of their national existence, of their belonging to that nation. And anybody without that sign was outside of it altogether, were outside of the pale of promise and hope and covenant and everything. Everything for them rested upon that. No one would ever be allowed to partake of the feast of the Passover who did not bear that mark. It was the door into everything.

And you can realise a little of what they placed upon it when you come even into the New Testament and after the day of Pentecost. On the one side, what a tremendous thing it was for the apostles themselves to have to handle that thing and weaken their position regarding it. Peter, James, John and the others, it was a real battle, it was a real battle to have to weaken their position over this matter of literal circumcision. It was cropping up all the time by rooting something out of their very being, that was a part of them. And then what about these Judaizers - pursuing Paul over the face of the earth, into every town and city, and tracking him down on this one issue. They followed up and said to those to whom he ministered: "Unless you are circumcised, you cannot be saved", was the statement. This was the cause of all the trouble!

And both in the Scriptures and outside of the Scriptures, we could give you so much that shows what a thing, what thing this was! Even today, the celebration of this, the night before in a Jewish home is marked by festivities and sacred rites and what-not. Yes, it's something big, great, tremendous, deep in their very being as a most sacred thing, on which everything for them, hung. And here is this man who comes along and says, "Circumcision isn't anything! It isn't anything. It's nothing, it's nothing!" What has Paul seen? A Jew of the Jews, "of the stock of Israel", "circumcised the eighth day", says it is nothing! What has he seen?

Well, of course, he's seen:

The Spiritual Significance.

And when you see that, the other is nothing. He's seen the spiritual significance! And he here in his letter to the Colossians (for one place), lays it down precisely and concisely what that significance is. Here it is: "In whom ye were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ; having been buried with Him in baptism, wherein ye were also raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead".

Now, there are two things here: the relationship of circumcision and baptism. Here is God's full thought, both about circumcision and about baptism. We are going to dig right into that if we can, before we go this morning. And the other thing is, what it really does mean in the life of the child of God.

The relationship between circumcision and baptism is here stated by Paul. We are brought, by both these words - "having been circumcised", "having been baptised" - we're brought by both of these words right to the Cross of the Lord Jesus. They are combined as one in principle and meaning as to the Cross of the Lord Jesus: "Buried with Him... raised together with Him". Oh, the whole thing is put on the basis of Christ crucified and risen.

Well, we know that, of course, about baptism; we Christians know that to be the meaning of baptism. What, what, on the other hand, did this sign signify? The Cross here is brought in, shall we say, as the instrument of circumcision. It does the job. It's effects the thing, and it's drastic.

Oh, if Israel had only seen! If they had only seen, nothing would have been given away. They wouldn't have had to lower their idea or lessen their estimate; they would not have made less of circumcision, if only they had seen. Yes, it is a big thing, it is a great thing, after all. After all, national existence does rest upon it: but it's not this nation, it's the heavenly one. Coming into all the blessings of the covenant, the eternal covenant in His blood, rests upon the principle that is here. Yes, it's a big thing.

All the Kingdom, as covenanted, is entered into and inherited by this door. It's a tremendous thing. Nothing has been exaggerated as to its importance. But if only they had seen Christ crucified and risen! And you see it was simply because they did not see the real meaning of this predominant, this pre-eminent rite in their own life and history that they lost everything. They lost the Kingdom; they lost their nationhood, in the counsels of God for the time being at least, lost everything because they separated between a thing and its meaning. In John 3 He's taking up the meaning of things for Nicodemus. But of course, he's blind. All that is there. Nicodemus is of the circumcision - that's the point. He is a Jew indeed, he's of the circumcision; he's a representative in a very full way, of Israel after the flesh in circumcision. But look how he, as such, is ruled out.

Now, because our time is practically gone, let's come to this. What is, what is the meaning of this? What does it mean in the life of the true Seed of Abraham which is Christ's Seed - what does it mean? It means simply this: that it is not of the flesh, but of the heart, as Paul says. It is a severance that has to take place deep down in the innermost being of the person; something down inside there in the inner man that is a cutting in between and putting two things apart.

I'm handicapped [of course,] carrying this thing as far as it perhaps should be carried. You will have to follow through, but here it is. There is here an encircling of the blood which comes right in between and puts two things apart, and for ever says that severance has taken place. That difference has been made, those two things are no longer together: God has put them asunder. And what a lot in the New Testament comes in when you say that! That is the meaning, the spiritual meaning, of baptism. You can't say all this, all this to everybody who is going to be baptised; they'd be frightened and run away! But God means all this. And you see that God doesn't let us off. If we really mean business, He doesn't let us off any of His meaning, even though at the beginning we may not see it all - and thank God we don't! However, even in saying that, it might be well if we did know a little more.

What is it that is severed in the Cross of the Lord Jesus and by the Cross of the Lord Jesus? What severance is it, that you and I accept and come to, when we come to the Cross of the Lord Jesus and take our position with Him there by the symbolic act of baptism? There are various terms in the New Testament for that. It is sometimes called by the symbolic term: "the flesh". Here Paul uses it: "the whole body of the flesh", he is not talking about our physical body, the body of the flesh. He uses that word very often doesn't he, in a symbolic way. A definition that he gives to that in the Corinthian letter is "the natural man". Another word for the same thing: the natural man. What is it, really? "Flesh" is a difficult, difficult word. "Natural man" perhaps that's still more difficult - it's much more technical. What is it? What do you mean? Well, dear friends, this is what it means, purely and simply: the self principle in creation.

The Self Principle

That's the root of everything. That's at the bottom of everything. That is where all the trouble began with Adam; and it is there that all the trouble has gone on, and that's where the trouble is with you and with me. There has awoken, and risen up, and stretched itself, and taken hold of a self principle that is in our hearts. It will assert itself, make itself known and felt, in any conceivable way. You will never be able to conceive of the ways in which this principle will show itself. Oh, it's no use trying to track it down. I could spend a lot of time going round the clock and showing that every second there's some form in which this thing, this many, many, many-membered thing - the self principle - asserts itself. It is not a very happy or healthy kind of consideration, but there it is, there it is!

It's in the mind. We use our intellect and our reason by our self principle to overpower and bring things our way, to argue and substantiate our position. And before you and I can ever get into the true realm of heavenly things, we've got to have a circumcised intellect, a circumcised reason, a circumcised mind. Is that not exactly what the Lord was saying to Nicodemus? You see, we're keeping in John 3. Here is this teacher of Israel, coming to argue, to discuss, and the Lord says, "It is no use. No use! You have been circumcised in the flesh as a good Jew, but what you need is to have your intellect circumcised! Except a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot see... You've got it all in the mind, all an intellectual apprehension, but if I have spoken earthly things to you and you don't understand them, where will you be if I begin to talk to you about heavenly things? Out of course altogether! You need a cutting in between your natural mind, even as a most devout son of Abraham, and the things of Heaven."

That's the trouble with a lot of people, you see, it's their own heads that are in their way all the time - just the one thing that is holding them back is their own heads! Their stubborn-mindedness, or their clever-mindedness, or their intellectual superiority or something, their argumentative disposition; all in that realm. You meet it every time - there's no way through, there's no way through. And if you decide to take them on that line then you are simply beating yourself against a wall. The Lord Jesus didn't do that in trying to win souls at all. He said: "You must be born from above".

In other cases the circumcision has to take place in the realm of the feelings, the emotions, the desires. That is the part of the being that gets in the way of so many people. They just are governed by their desires, their feelings, their emotions - controlled entirely by them. And it's bondage to that part of their being; and whenever you meet them that's the realm in which you meet them: the feeling life, the emotion life, the desire life, the affection life. They are very difficult people to handle. But you see, a true child of Heaven, the Seed of His travail, is that in which circumcision has taken place right in that realm of the feelings, the desires, and the emotions.

And what is true in those two is true in the realm of the will. Oh, how true this is, that with many people it's their will that's in the way. They just cannot let go. They've got a grip, they've got a position, and they hold it and they support it. They even support their position with Scriptures, or they'll support their position with a "revelation" superior to Scripture! They'll hold it, tenaciously, and not let go! Their will is the cause of all the arrest and the limitation and the defeat, and the frustration. And the setting back of all God's purposes is just their will: their choices, their decisions, their positions, their ways; their natural self-strength has never broken. And it's just there that circumcision must take place.

And in so many other ways, you see, it comes down to this inner life of ours. It comes right down there. The Cross, as the instrument of spiritual circumcision, has to be applied deeper and ever more deeply to this self-life, because there seems to be no end of it. No end of it.

What is happening on the other side? While that is the painful side, and that is the dark side, but it's making room for Christ, isn't it? That's what it is. You see, the real Seed, the Seed of Christ, is growing, becoming manifest, making room for Christ. Meekness is just the opposite to what I've been saying about the strength of self-will and position, whether it be in emotion, or in intellect, or in will. Meekness is exactly the opposite, and He said: "Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart". What a circumcised heart was His! Pursue this right through, and oh yes, something had been done right down in the depths of His being.

Dear friends, I have said that we cannot, we cannot calculate this whole range of this self-principle in introspection and self-occupation and self-attention and self-pity and self-consciousness. Even in our Christian life, our devotion to the Lord, we are so happy that other people see how devoted we are and how humble we are! And it's the self, the wretched (may I use the word?) stinking self, coming up all the time. For a true child of God is oblivious to himself or herself, lost consciousness of himself or herself in every way. If other people point out things they didn't realise, good things about them, they were not aware of it. They are surprised that anybody could say anything good about them; they are not conscious of that. And if it should be on the other side, if people say bad things, well, they only say, "Well, you can't tell me more than I know: I have that out with the Lord, I have got that before the Lord. I am not deceiving myself about that." You see, this is a true child of Heaven. So we could go on.

That is the meaning of circumcision. How different from that in the flesh; it never worked out that way. Think: in the light of that, in the light of that, the true principle, the true meaning, think of a child of Abraham, a Pharisee, saying: "I am better than anyone else", and making long prayers for everybody to see and to hear! And you know all that the Lord said about them and all that was spoken. A child of Abraham! Well, they've missed the point! Ah, but don't let us criticise and here complain. It's a very searching thing for us, isn't it? Very searching. Paul says that so far as that is concerned, circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing, but a new creation. Circumcision is not of the flesh, circumcision is of the heart. There I must stop for the present. The Lord give us circumcised hearts, and give us grace to have this severance pursued to finality.