#11 Lu.
In our previous text here in the Gospel of Luke, we saw
the shepherds in the field leave their
sheep and go into
a very brief account of the circumcision
and the official
naming of baby Jesus.
I.
The circumcision of Jesus
V. 21, "And when eight days were accomplished for the
circumcising of the child....." This is all that Luke had to
say about Jesus being circumcised. Actually, he had said a
lot more about John the Baptist being
circumcised than he
does about Jesus being circumcised. The brevity of his
account, however, is not to be taken as an
indication of the
unimportance of this event. Circumcision was, under the law
of Moses, a requirement for every male
child in
was important to God that His Son fulfill
every jot and
tittle
of the law. It was necessary that He
keep the law
fully in order to be the Savior of
men. If He had not
fulfilled the law in every detail he could
not be the Savior
of men.
Therefore it was not only necessary for Jesus to be
circumcised, but it was important to God
that the writers of
Scripture record this event for the
benefit of all who would
read about His life so that all would know
beyond any shadow
of doubt that Jesus kept this part of the
law also. So, no
matter how brief the record of the
circumcision of Jesus may
be, it is never-the-less a very important
Bible record.
You will note that Luke says that Jesus was circumcised
on the eighth day. That is, Jesus was just eight days old
when this event took place.
This, too, is in keeping with the requirement of the
law of Moses. In Leviticus 12:3 the parents were required
to
circumcise the child on the eighth day.
Under ordinary circumstances we could say that the child
had no part in making that decision. The parents would make
the decision for him and the child had no
choice in the
matter.
He would be circumcised whether he liked it or not
and we can be sure that he would not like
it.
However, in the case of Jesus, we cannot be sure that He
exercised no choice in the matter. Actually, the choice was
made for Him before He was ever born. It was made by God the
Heavenly Father. It was in God's plans for Jesus before He
was ever born. He knew this before He was ever born and He
consented to do the Father's will before
He was ever born.
The question may come, "Why did God chose the eighth day
on which the Israelite child was to be
circumcised?" I am
not sure that we can know all of the mind
of God on this
matter, but there were at least two
reasons that He chose the
eighth day. One reason that God chose this day was a very
practical reason. Under the Mosaic Law the mother was
ceremonially unclean for the first seven
days after the birth
of the child. She was not to mingle with family and friends
lest she touch them and they too become
ceremonially unclean.
So the practical thing to do was to wait
until the ceremonial
uncleanness was over and her friends and
family could join
her on this very special occasion.
Another reason God chose the eighth day was because of
the symbolism involved. The seventh day was the end of a
weekly cycle. The eighth day was actually the beginning of a
new weekly cycle. Being the beginning, it thus symbolized
the beginning of a new life, a new human
being. The life of
the child did not literally begin on the
eighth day, of
course, but being circumcised on the
eighth day was symbolic
of the new life that had already come into
the world.
Perhaps you have already noticed that Luke makes no
mention whatsoever of either family or
friends being gathered
with them on this occasion. Back in chapter one, when John
the Baptist was circumcised and named Luke
makes special
mention of the family members and friends
who came for the
occasion.
We cannot be positively sure that there were no
family members or friends present when
Jesus was circumcised,
but the total silence of Luke leads us to
suspect that nobody
was there but Joseph and Mary and
Jesus. If that is correct,
the thing that would no doubt account for
nobody else being
there is that they were so very far away
from home. They
were not at
but they were in
As to circumcision, God set circumcision as a sign of
the covenant between Himself and Abraham
and Abraham's
descendants. In Genesis chapter twelve God made a covenant
with Abraham. Among other things God promised Abraham that
He would make of Abraham a great
nation. He promised to give
a certain land to Abraham and to his
descendants after him.
Then in Genesis
child of his descendants was to be
circumcised. In verse 11
God said that the circumcision of every
male child was to be
a token of the covenant that God had made
with Abraham. It
was to be a sign to the Israelite people
of the covenant that
God had made with Abraham. In verses 12 and 13 Abraham was
told that even the slaves that were bought
and that were born
them were to be circumcised on the eighth
day. Anyone who
was not so circumcised on the eighth day
after birth and who
would not later submit to circumcision
later was to be cast
out of the land and was to have not part
in the land. No
uncircumcised person was to have a part in
this land.
Uncircumcised Gentiles could visit, but
could not dwell
there.
Now circumcision did come to symbolize other things, but
the covenant between God and Abraham was
the chief thing.
Later it came to symbolize a pure
life. The cutting off of
the flesh in the act of circumcision came
to symbolize the
cutting off all fleshly motivated living and
thus pictured
clean godly living. Moses spoke of himself as being of
uncircumcised lips and thus at that time
of not having his
lips or his words pure in the sight of
God. In Deuteronomy
10:16, God instructed the Israelite people
to circumcise
their hearts and thus to get their hearts
right with God.
Circumcision of the flesh does not cleanse
the heart, but it
symbolized a pure heart, one that has had
all sinfulness cut
away.
In Jeremiah
indicate a willingness to hear and obey
the word of the Lord.
But the chief symbolism involved was the
covenant that God
made with Abraham. This people, this circumcised nation of
people were to be heirs of the land that
was given to Abraham
in the covenant.
I want you to see how all of this applied to
Jesus.
Jesus was circumcised on the eighth day as
God instructed
Abraham and as was later required under
the Law of Moses.
Thus, under the covenant and under the Law
of Moses Jesus
qualifies as an heir to the covenant
promises that God made
to Abraham. If Jesus had not been circumcised, He would
have
been cut off from the land and cut off
from the nation.
There would be no way that He could ever
rule the nation of
marked Him as one of the heirs of the
covenant and of the
land.
Let me add right here that circumcision which is done
for medical reasons do not mark the child
as an heir of the
knows.
As to His life, circumcision pictured the pure and
sinless life that Jesus would live. Circumcision of any man
always pictured that he should live a pure
and sinless life,
but no other man has ever done it
100%. Jesus is the only
man who has ever 100% lived up to the
symbolism involved in
his circumcision.
As to His lips, the lips of Jesus were circumcised lips.
He spoke with absolute purity of
lips. He spoke with
absolute knowledge. He spoke with absolute truth. He spoke
with absolute accuracy. He spoke with absolute authority.
As to His heart, the heart of Jesus was never impure.
There was never any sin. There was never a wrong thought or
wrong motive. The circumcision of His flesh symbolized the
purity of His heart.
As to His willingness to hear and obey God, Jesus was in
perfect obedience to God the Father. In all of His whole
life He never did one single solitary
thing that was contrary
to the will of God the Father. Every word that He spoke and
every thing that He did were in perfect
obedience to the
instructions of God the Father.
II.
The naming of Jesus
"...his name was called JESUS, which was so named of the
angel before he was conceived in the
womb." On the same day
that Jesus was circumcised Jesus was
named. That is, he was
officially named. God had commanded that on the eighth day
the male child was to be circumcised. I find no record in
Scripture that God commanded that the
naming of the child was
to take place on the eighth day. However, by the time of
Jesus that was a custom that had become
well established.
Luke told us earlier that John was named
on the eighth day,
the day of his circumcision. Now he tells us that Jesus was
named on the eighth day, the day that He
was circumcised.
I say that He was named on this day.
I repeat what I
said earlier. He was officially named by Joseph and Mary.
Actually, God already had His name picked
out and had passed
that name on to Joseph and Mary by means
of an angel. When
the angel appeared to Mary, back in
chapter one, verse
thirty-one, the angel told Mary then that
she was to bare a
son and was to call His name
"Jesus." Then later when she was
carrying the child in her womb, that same
angel appeared to
Joseph and told Joseph about the child and
that His name was
to be called "Jesus."
Perhaps you are aware that the word, Jesus, is a Greek
spelling of the Hebrew word, Joshua. In other words, the
word, Jesus, is the word, Joshua, spelled
out in Greek
letters.
It is not a Greek word; it is a
Hebrew word.
Therefore, in order to find the meaning of
the word, Jesus,
we need to look back to the old Hebrew
word, Joshua. The
Hebrew word, Joshua, has two primary
meanings. It can mean
"Jehovah saves." That is the meaning that the word carried
when applied to the Old Testament
character who led the
Children of Israel into Canaan's
land. You are aware that
a man by the name of Joshua led the
children of Israel into
Canaan's land. The word, Joshua, as applied to that man's
name means "Jehovah saves."
Joshua was the leader of the
people, but he was depending on Jehovah to
give the victory
over the enemy.
The second meaning of the word, Joshua, is "Jehovah the
Savior." This is the meaning of the word which is
properly
applied to Jesus the Christ. Jesus is Jehovah God dwelling
in human flesh. He is Jehovah God, the Savior. He is God
born in human flesh and He is the Savior
of men. He is the
only Savior of men.
Men by their nature which that they have inherited from
Adam are sinners. God did not create Adam a sinner. But
Adam sinned. He ate the forbidden fruit and sinned against
God.
As a result, all of Adam's descendants born to an
earthly father have inherited through that
father the sin
nature of Adam. Just as Adam sinned against God, even so
every man born of an earthly father
through Adam has
inherited the sin nature from Adam and,
like Adam, has sinned
against God.
Jesus, on the other hand, was not born to an earthly
father.
Jesus was born of woman. The sin
nature is passed
on down to the child through the father
and not through the
mother.
Since Jesus was not born of an earthly father, He
was not born with a sin nature. Jesus has lived a perfect
sinless life in the human flesh. He lived in a human body,
but it was a sinless body. He lived a sinless life. Jesus
is the one and only human being to ever
live in a human body
without sin.
Because Jesus had no sin of His own He then qualified to
die in the place of others who were guilty
of sin so that
they could go free from the punishment
that they rightly
deserve.
Jesus is sinless Jehovah God in human flesh who has
died on the cross in the stead of all who
are guilty of sin.
He is the innocent one who died for the
guilty. He suffered
the penalty of our sins on the cross in
order that we who are
guilty might be set free from the penalty
of our sins.
Out text informs us that this was God's plan even before
Mary conceived Jesus in the womb. What the text does not
tell us is that this was God's plan even
before the world was
formed.
Revelation 13:8 informs us that this was God's plan
even before the foundation of the
world. Jesus stood "...as
a Lamb slain from the foundation of the
world."
III.
The application of this text to our own lives
Man does not need circumcision in order to qualify for
heaven.
The Jews had to be circumcised to qualify to dwell
in the land, but God has never required
circumcision of the
flesh for one to qualify for heaven. In the days of the
Apostle Paul some of the Jews had a hard
time accepting that
truth.
They thought at first that the only way a Gentile
would ever get to heaven was to submit to
circumcision and
thus become a proselyte Jew. If we had shown up in Jerusalem
before they learned better, they would
have told us that we
would have to be circumcised in order to
qualify for heaven.
In other words, they would have told us
that we would have to
be circumcised in order to be saved. Thank God they learned
better than that before they wrote the New
Testament.
The truth of the matter is that no man qualifies for
heaven by his own works of
righteousness. Titus 3:5 says
that it is not by works of righteousness
on our own part that
we are saved, but it is the mercy of God
that has saved us.
Ephesians 2:8, 9 tells us that it is by
the grace of God that
we are saved. In verse 9 Paul said specifically that we do
not get saved by our works.
Christians do not need to be circumcised even after
salvation as a sign that he is saved. The Jew needed
circumcision as a sign that he is a
Jew. In the New
Testament God has set forth another sign
to show that the
Christian is saved. God's plan in the New Testament times is
that one who gets saved is to follow Jesus
in Scriptural
baptism.
His baptism, then is a sign to the world that this
person is saved. His baptism symbolizes to the world that he
is in covenant relationship with God. The baptism does not
produce salvation. Baptism will not save a man. But baptism
identifies his as one who professes to be
saved. God has not
promised him a home in Canaan's land, but
if he is truly
saved, God has promised him a home in
heaven through Jesus
Christ the Son of God. His baptism symbolizes that he has
been cleansed spiritually by the blood of
Jesus Christ and
that he has a new heart. His baptism symbolizes that this
person is to live a clean life. His heart is clean and he
will life a clean life before the
world. His lips are clean
and he will have a godly mouth before the
world. His ears
are clean and he will hear the word of the
Lord and seek to
obey.
Just as these things were symbolized by circumcision
in the Old Testament, even so they are
symbolized for the
Christian by baptism.
If you are unsaved, God wants you to be saved. If you
are saved, God wants you to follow Jesus
in Scriptural
baptism.
If you are saved, God wants you to have a clean
mouth, a mouth that will honor and glorify
the Lord. If you
are saved, the Lord wants you to live a
clean life. He wants
you to live a life that will honor and
glorify the Lord.