The Sign

Photo by Ryan Loughlin on Unsplash
​Symbols are important things. They aren't just images that are nice to have. They are essential to our memory. We have rings for marriage because they are meant to remind us to stay faithful. I don't need reminding that I am married; I need reminding that that marriage makes a difference in how I live. I am no longer just me. I am married to my wife. That doesn't just change what I do in any given bedroom. It changes how I take out the trash, how I spend money, and it even changes things for descendants. My children are greatly affected by my covenant with my wife. Their lives are different because of it. 

Today, we are going to be looking at a symbol for a covenant that has effect even unto today, circumcision. Modern life has made this awkward to talk about, but I think precisely because it is such an intimate symbol, it really strikes a cord that this is what was used by God in the Old Testament. Now, just to clarify at the start, circumcision is not required today (Acts 15). You do not need to undergo this process to be saved. There is nothing that saves you but the blood of Christ. 

That being said, we will see that there are some elements of this covenant that continue. We will see that though this promise is made to Abraham and Isaac, Ishmael will receive the sign, too. We will see that God works in households, not just individuals. Circumcision gives blessing to all in that covenant, but the full enjoyment of the blessings of that covenant are for those who are circumcised in heart and thus obey the will of God (Redd, 142 *Covenant Theology*).  

Today we will explore our two points: God provides a sign of His covenant and We are called to apply and remember His sign.  

God Provides a sign of His Covenant 

Thirteen years have passed since we last met with Abram. He was 86 years old when Ishmael was born, and now he is 99. Still no son by Sarai. It's a lot of waiting, but the Lord appears again and speaks to Abram. He calls Abram to walk before Him and be blameless. This isn't to mean that Abram is going to earn the covenant with God. God has already made this promise to Him. But that doesn't mean that Abram is just going to sit there. Abram's life is called to be different. One commentator had this to say about the word "blameless," "This word does not refer to moral conduct, for that would be too insignificant in this situation and is self-understood. The high demand corresponds to God's, 'Be you mine, and I will be yours." (Ross, Quoting Benno Jacob, 331). What he is saying here is that it should be obvious that Abram is to be a moral person, but that is bottom rung of what it means to be united with God. "Blameless" has the quality of being "whole" (Ross, 331). One can only be that united to God. 

It is like marriage. You don't define marriage as two people who live in the same house and help with chores. That is a roommate. A marriage is something profound. It is tying oneself to another's life. We are bound to each other. Are there expectations on each other? Yes, but that is not what makes a marriage. Marriage isn't checking off boxes of activity. It is belonging to each other such that the activities flow. Are there times where you do things out of duty? Sure. There are times where you soldier on. But the whole of the relationship shouldn't be defined that way. 

The same is true with God. Being in covenant is nothing less than being obedient to God. You have to do what God says. But there's more to it than that. Being in covenant with God is walking with Him, and in so doing becoming whole, healed. This is what is happening with Abram. 

Now, God is going to give a sign to Abram. First, he changes his name from Abram, "exalted father" to Abraham, "father of a multitude." Sarai will also get a name change to Sarah, but it is a little harder to know what the significance is here. Both names, near as we can tell, both mean "princess," but perhaps the altered spelling is here to mark a new era in her life. 

We are called to apply and remember His sign.  

But then we get to the big sign: circumcision. The first thing that I want you to notice here is the wide inclusiveness we have in this rite. This sign is a sign of God's covenant with Abraham, yet Abraham is going to have to do this, along with every male in the household whether born or bought. This means Abraham's sons and male servants are all going to have to undergo this thing. God considers them as having a portion in Abraham's blessing. 

What's really interesting here, as one writer points out, there will be more slaves than sons who received this sign (Myers, 181)! He continues, "...the people of the circumcision would not be a people of ethnic descent, but a people marked by God's promise. Even from this early point, God had a panethnic covenant people in view, a people whose commonality was not blood but God's promise." (181). In other words, we tend to think that the Old Testament people of God were always just Jews, but they weren't. It was always a mixed group of people.  

It is also a promise that is made to the generations following after. It's a plural thing! One thing that southern English gives us is the plural you, known as "y'all." It is needed in Biblical translation, because Hebrew and Greek have this concept of "y'all." We can see this in verse 10. Verse 10 should read, "This is my covenant, which Y'ALL shall keep." That "you" there is plural! Covenants have to include descendants! Otherwise, it isn't much of a promise. The plural nature of this covenant is the first thing I want you to notice. 

The second thing I want you to notice is the broadness of age in this covenant. When is the sign of this covenant applied to the next generation that will come up after Abraham? It is applied when a male child is eight days old. That child doesn't know what God's covenant is, but God wants to show that He considers the children in His work. If you are born in a house that is in covenant with God, there are blessings to it. Babies are part of a household, too. God considers babies as part of that covenant, so they get the sign, too. 

Why on the eighth day? Well, I'm sure some of it is being on the first day of the week, as it were. A full sabbath cycle has gone by. But there is an interesting biological reason for this, too. Obviously, undergoing a surgery like this involves bleeding. The body uses vitamin K to help the blood clot so we don't bleed to death. Do you know when vitamin K levels peak in babies? On the eighth day! The body isn't ready for that procedure until then. God has reasons for what He does. 

So we have seen some important things to notice. First, even though this covenant was made to Abraham and his offspring, every male undergoes the sign of the covenant, the whole household, sons and servants. Second, the sign of the covenant is made on every male of the house as soon as biologically possible, eight days old. 

One final thing to notice: Ishmael gets the sign, too (v 25). You know what is really interesting about that? He is not really in line for Abraham's covenant. Ishmael has his own promise (v 20), but God explicitly says that the covenant with Abraham—land, seed, blessing—is going to Isaac, not Ishmael. But Ishmael gets the same sign that Isaac does. 

Why do I stress this so much? Because this is why we baptize babies as well as adults in this church. When the New Covenant comes along, and Peter is preaching about it in Acts 2, the people ask, "What shall we do?" What does Peter say? Verse 38-39 "And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” Does anything in that text sound familiar? Do you hear something familiar? This promise is for you and for your children! Who is listening to this? Jews! Do you think that for even a moment they don't hear the echos of Abraham's covenant? It's only been the way things have worked for the last two thousand years! "You and your children, you and your offspring," generation after generation after generation, and now Peter gets up and says the same thing, and only now are kids kicked out? I think not. This might help explain things like why the Philippian jailer has his whole household baptized when he comes to faith. Almost like the Old Testament and the New Testament are connected, or something! 

Let me give you the reason why I bring this up, as we close. I'm not saying this because I'm trying to score points with presbyterianism. I'm trying to lead you to Jesus, not dead guys who wrote a catechism. I'm trying to lead you to the same Jesus they were trying to lead their people to. Jesus has given you a gift in a covenant sign. For Abraham, it was circumcision. For us, it is baptism and the Lord's Supper. Baptism isn't really our sign for other people. This is God's sign to us. Our baptism is supposed to remind us of God's faithfulness to us. Baptism is God reaching down to us to say, "Those who put their faith in me can be cleansed of their sins." And it is applied to babies because, as we have seen in Abraham's household and in Jesus' own ministry, babies aren't forgotten. They were in their respective societies, including our own, but God doesn't forget children. We aren't saying that babies are automatically saved by putting water on them, but we are saying that these kids have a distinct advantage because they are in a household with a parent who follows Jesus. They are up close and personal. They are hearing the Word of God proclaimed to them. They are in the presence of someone who has a blessing from God, and because God is so generous, He causes blessings to flow onto the children. 

So when you are feeling beat down by the world, remember your baptism. We don't look back on baptisms as a way of saying, "Wow! Look at how committed I was! I was crying that day! God has to have accepted me because of that." NO! Baptism is supposed to remind us that God has reached down and cleansed me when I didn't deserve it. I have been given the mark of blessing on my forehead, so I need to live in light of that. Receiving the mark of baptism is a greater status change than any other thing you could achieve. I have a degree from Samford university. That is nothing compared to receiving the sign of God! 

This is something that we should revel in, and it is something that we should call our children to. If they have been baptized but haven't come to faith yet, we can tell them that they are part of our family. They need to submit to God as Lord. They have the blessings of being in God's covenant, but in order to experience the full blessings of that covenant, they need to put their faith in Christ! So if they haven't yet, their baptism should point them saying, "God has given you blessings! It is time to submit to Him!"

Circumcision or baptism is never the salvation itself. It was always meant to point to a circumcision of the heart, a changed life. Stephen Myers put it this way: "If you are of Abraham's seed, you are without merit of your own, but you are not without responsibility...God's grace does not nullify obedience; it produces it. Grace makes obedience possible." (183) Does God alone save us? Yes. But does that relationship change us, make us whole, and transform our lives such that we have a responsibility to Him? Yes. We "are saved by grace, yet called to obedience." (Myers, 183). 

For Kids: 
You have a huge advantage. Invite others into it. Listen to your parents apply it to you. 
For Parents: 
You have a huge advantage. The covenant is more powerful than money. The covenant will make your kids more well-rounded than the co-op will. 
For Seniors
You are not defined by what you can't do anymore. You are a member of the covenant. You've been given the grace of time, maturity, and wisdom, all the more so if you have been following Christ your whole life. Use that position winsomely and with the humility it should have given you.  
For Non-Christians  
Right now, no other identity matters. God doesn't care about your career or anything else that you are proud of, and if you are honest with yourself, neither do you.