The Jews also misinterpret the ordinance of physical circumcision (Gen. 17:10-14). In order to keep His chosen people a particular people, different from the Gentiles, God ordained that they practice circumcision. Physically speaking, circumcision is the cutting off of a piece of flesh. This cutting off, in a physical sense, does not mean anything to our inward being subjectively.
Actually, circumcision signifies that the chosen people of God should cut off the flesh. This is the real significance of circumcision, but the Jews misinterpreted it, making the physical act of circumcision very important. Many Jewish believers insisted that unless people were circumcised according to the custom of Moses, they could not be saved (Acts 15:1). This was an annulling of the faith in God’s New Testament economy and a real heresy, causing a big confrontation in Acts 15. Circumcision was a shadow of the crucifixion of Christ in its putting off of the flesh, as signified in baptism (Col. 2:11-12). The practice of circumcision was counted as nothing in the revelation received by Paul in his ministry (Gal. 5:6; 6:15).
The adherents of Judaism also overstretched the holy diet. In Leviticus 11 God charged His chosen people, Israel, to take care of their eating in a particular way, not following the Gentiles. All the nations, the Gentiles, eat many unclean, defiling things. God is wise. The diet revealed in Leviticus is a very healthy diet, but we need to see that these dietary ordinances were also dispensational.
The holy dietary regulations were annulled by the Spirit in Peter’s ministry (Acts 10:9-20). God wanted to use Peter to preach the gospel to the Gentiles, but the Jews would not contact the Gentiles. To the Jews the Gentiles were as unclean animals. One day Peter saw a heavenly vision of a great sheet descending from heaven, full of unclean animals. A heavenly voice said, “Rise up, Peter; slay and eat!” (v. 13). Peter refused to do so because he had never eaten anything common and unclean. This happened three times, and then the great sheet was taken up into heaven. The heavenly vision which Peter received annulled the dietary regulations in Leviticus 11.
Actually, the holy diet symbolizes persons who are clean and persons who are unclean, those whom God’s holy people should contact and those they should not contact (Acts 10:11-16, 34-35). God revealed to Peter that these unclean animals in his vision were actually people and that he should not call any man whom God has cleansed by the redeeming blood of Christ common or unclean (vv. 15, 28). Peter was taught by the Lord in such a way, but when he was in Antioch, he shrank back and separated himself from the Gentiles out of fear of those of the circumcision. Peter became a hypocrite (Gal. 2:11-14). All of this shows that the Jewish religion had overstretched the significance of the holy diet.
Thus, the law with the practice of circumcision, the Sabbath, and the holy diet constituted Judaism, which was deformed by man to become a religion of Satan. The law was given not for God’s chosen people to keep, but for God’s people to be tested, to be exposed, so that they could see that they are sinful and wicked. We have no capacity to keep the law. Instead, we should put our trust absolutely and fully in Christ. In our life-study of the Psalms we pointed out that the intention of the Psalms is not to charge us to keep the law but to turn us away from the law to Christ. Paul said clearly in Galatians 2 that if righteousness is through the law, Christ has died for nothing (v. 21). Thus, we can see that the Jewish religion has become satanic, “a synagogue of Satan.”
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