Gen 17:14\u00a0 \u201cBut an uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
![\"Circumcision\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mmoutreach.org\/wim\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/2_circumcision.jpg?w=640\")
<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Who did the circumcision?<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n
Note: \u00a0my blog has moved to a new home.<\/strong> The new address for this post is http:\/\/www.mmoutreach.org\/wim\/2008\/03\/10\/circumcision-the-woman-and-the-kinsman-redeemer\/<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0Comments should be posted on the new location. Don\u2019t forget to sign up to follow the new blog to have access to new posts.)<\/p>\n It is an interesting fact that babies did not circumcise themselves. Also, the failure of the father to cut off his son\u2019s foreskin would result in that baby being cut off from the people of God.\u00a0 This means that the physical act of circumcision was done by a father to his son without the son having done anything sinful of his own.\u00a0 This was a generational sign done to the next generation and then passed on to the following generations.\u00a0 When Israel disobeyed God in the wilderness for 40 years, one of the ways they disobeyed Him was their failure to circumcise their sons. After the fathers all died in the wilderness, Joshua took the responsibility to circumcise all of the males who were the sons of the disobedient fathers who fell in the desert. Joshua did the circumcisions so that these sons would be included in God\u2019s covenant and enter into the promised land.\u00a0 The females were allowed to go into the promised land without restriction.<\/p>\n To understand God\u2019s restriction on males and how it relates to the Kinsman Redeemer we need to understand the physical and spiritual sign that God gave as a symbol for sin.\u00a0 The scriptural symbol for sin is the foreskin of the male.<\/p>\n Deuteronomy 10:16\u00a0 So circumcise your heart, and stiffen your neck no longer.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Deuteronomy 30:6\u00a0 Moreover the LORD your God will\u00a0 circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Jeremiah 4:4\u00a0 \u201cCircumcise yourselves to the LORD And remove the foreskins of your heart, Men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, Or else My wrath will go forth like fire And burn with none to quench it, Because of the evil of your deeds.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The spiritual symbol of sin is called the \u201cforeskin\u201d of our heart.\u00a0 It needs to be cut off from our heart so that we can be right with God. \u00a0The\u00a0Abrahamic covenant focused on the fleshly sign of sin, the fleshly foreskin on the males, the New Covenant in our Lord Jesus focuses on the spiritual sign of sin, the uncircumcised heart.\u00a0 We must circumcise our heart through repentance by turning away from sin (Deut. 10:16.) However, God himself does the actual work by completely removing our sin (Deut 30:6) and God gives us a new heart.<\/p>\n Ezekiel 36:26\u00a0 \u201cMoreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n While a female also have a piece of physical skin that will be removed when she is married,\u00a0her\u00a0skin of\u00a0her\u00a0virginity is a symbol of purity, not a symbol of sin. This is important because the Messiah had to come through a\u00a0virgin<\/strong>\u00a0alone and no male would be involved in passing on of the seed of Adam to the Messiah. \u00a0The male alone has the physical symbol of sin in his body, so the Messiah\u2019s birth through a virgin woman would produce an untainted, and sinless Messiah with no sin nature.<\/p>\n Circumcision was created to be a sign of righteousness, but it was also created to be something that was\u00a0done<\/em>\u00a0to a person, not something that one\u00a0does<\/em>\u00a0for one self. \u00a0Circumcision symbolizes that righteousness does not originate from us but given to us through the grace of God.\u00a0 Romans 4:11 explains:<\/p>\n Rom 4:11\u00a0 and he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while uncircumcised, so that he might be the father of all who believe without being circumcised, that righteousness might be credited to them,<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Circumcision was a seal of righteousness.\u00a0 It was a seal, a sign of the cutting off of sin that results in a righteous standing before God.<\/p>\n The physical sign of sin had to be\u00a0cut off<\/strong>\u00a0in order for a male to enter God\u2019s Abrahamic covenant.\u00a0 Only the males carried this sign of sin in their body. \u00a0The cutting off of the sign of sin was the seal of righteousness. \u00a0It was a sign of the physical, fleshly standing before God.\u00a0 Abraham received this sign while he was yet uncircumcised. Abraham\u2019s circumcision was God\u2019s work of grace, not a work that Abraham accomplished.\u00a0 This is why the cutting off of the physical sign of sin was done to babies who could not accomplish this \u201cwork\u201d for themselves.<\/p>\n themselves.<\/p>\n Why is there a physical sign of sin only on the males when the spiritual sign of sin is on both males and females?\u00a0 The answer is shown in the sin nature that we all inherit from Adam. \u00a0The sin nature comes through the one man, but we add to that our own burden of sin. Because we have a sin nature, and because we ourselves practice our own sin, we are under a double condemnation of sin.<\/p>\n The first condemnation of sin is the sin nature that we have inherited through Adam.<\/p>\n Psalms 51:5\u00a0 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Psalms 58:3\u00a0 The wicked are estranged from the womb; These who speak lies go astray from birth.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n We all have inherited a sin nature that causes us to sin from a little child onward.\u00a0 No one needs to teach a child how to lie. \u00a0A little child sins naturally because the child is born with a sin nature.\u00a0 Scripture also says that sin entered the world through one man.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t say that it was just corruption and decay that entered the world, but \u201csin\u201d itself entered the world.<\/p>\n Romans 5:12\u00a0 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned\u2014<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Notice in this Scripture that the death that came through sin \u201cspread\u201d to all men.\u00a0 The Greek word that is translated as \u201cspread\u201d is\u00a0dierchomai<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0and it means to pass through.\u00a0 How did death pass through all humans?\u00a0 The literal Greek says:<\/p>\n Romans 5:12\u00a0 Because of this as even as through one human the sin into the world entered and through the sin the death and thus into all humans the death passed through on which all sinned.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n It is clear from the literal translation that the sinful rebellion that entered the world is passed through all humans. As a result of\u00a0having a sin nature, all humans are subject to\u00a0death. Because we have a sin nature, we ourselves sin.\u00a0 The Greek says \u201con which\u201d all sinned.\u00a0 It is what has been passed through to us, \u201con which\u201d or on the basis of this, all sin.<\/p>\n Romans 5:14\u00a0 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n We enter the world in a dying body because we have inherited the sin nature from Adam and death follows to all who are descendants of Adam by his seed because these are the ones who were \u201cin\u201d Adam when he sinned.\u00a0 All of us are the seed of Adam and all of us were there inside him in the form of his seed when he sinned.\u00a0 It was Adam\u2019s one sin that caused us to start our life as dying beings.\u00a0 The fact that we enter the world in a body that is susceptible to sickness and death proves that we inherit Adam\u2019s sin nature since death follows sin.\u00a0 There would be no death if sin didn\u2019t exist first.<\/p>\n Romans 5:15\u00a0 But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n It wasn\u2019t just that we enter this life in a dying body, we also enter into a fleshly body that has inherited the sin nature. We were created as sinners because of Adam\u2019s sin.\u00a0 Adam\u2019s sin caused both a physical death and a spiritual separation from God.\u00a0 The very day that Adam sinned, he was separated from God and kicked out of the garden.\u00a0 We inherit this separation from God because we were \u201cin\u201d Adam when he sinned. \u00a0Romans 5:19 proves that it wasn\u2019t just our death that came as a result of Adam\u2019s sin, but we were made sinners through Adam\u2019s sin:<\/p>\n Romans 5:19\u00a0 For as through the one man\u2019s disobedience\u00a0the many were made sinners<\/strong>, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n How is it through one man\u2019s disobedience\u00a0the many were made sinners<\/strong><\/em>?\u00a0 \u201cThe many\u201d were made sinners because Adam\u2019s sin was spread to us by inheritance.\u00a0 By the one man\u2019s sin, we inherited his rebellion, and this spread to all of\u00a0Adam\u2019s offspring,\u00a0tainting us even in our mother\u2019s womb. We are tainted from the beginning because we are the seed of Adam.\u00a0 Romans 5:19 makes a strong point that one man\u2019s sin\u00a0made<\/strong>\u00a0the many to be sinners.<\/p>\n Scripture also makes it clear that this sin is brought into the world, not by Eve and through her seed, but by Adam.\u00a0\u00a0Scripture also makes it clear that the one who would pay for our sin must be a Kinsman Redeemer belonging to Adam\u2019s line, yet without sin.\u00a0 Jesus must be the last \u201cAdam\u201d not the last \u201cEve\u201d or the last \u201cAbraham\u201d.\u00a0 The one who started the sin must be redeemed by the life and work of the \u201clast\u201d Adam.\u00a0 The word Redeemer in the Hebrew is \u201cgaal\u201d and it means to act as a redeemer to a deceased kinsman, to redeem or buy back from bondage.\u00a0 Jesus is that Kinsman Redeemer who buys back from bondage all that was lost by Adam\u2019s sin. For Jesus to be the Redeemer, he must be a perfect sacrifice without sin or blemish.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Jesus was born from a virgin without having a human father so that he would not have the inherited sin nature that comes through the seed of the man.\u00a0 Jesus is the only human born who is not a seed of Adam.\u00a0\u00a0Jesus was not in Adam when Adam sinned<\/strong><\/em>. \u00a0When God showed in his word that the male has the only one who had the physical sign of sin, God was giving the word that the Messiah would not come through the seed of the man. The foreskin is a powerful symbol of sin.\u00a0 It must be cut off because the foreskin is identified with the sin and rebellion of Adam.<\/p>\n Scripture also tells us that the father can affect the seed within him.<\/p>\n Hebrews 7:9, 10 And, so to speak, through Abraham even Levi, who received tithes, paid tithes, for he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n If scripture reveals that the seed within the father can be credited with the act of the father, then the seed within the father can also be credited with the sinful rebellion when Adam fell just as scripture says.\u00a0 Scripture very clearly says that Adam brought\u00a0sin<\/strong>\u00a0into the world.\u00a0 He brought sin into the world just as surely as Levi paid tithes while he was in his father\u2019s loins.<\/p>\n If it is true that the male transfers the sin nature of Adam (Adam\u2019s seed) to Adam\u2019s fleshly descendants, then why was Jesus born with a foreskin that needed to be cut off?\u00a0 The reason that Jesus had a foreskin, is because Jesus\u00a0had\u00a0to be made like us in all ways, yet without sin.<\/p>\n Romans 8:3\u00a0 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son\u00a0in the likeness of sinful flesh<\/strong>\u00a0and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Jesus was sent in the \u201clikeness of sinful flesh\u201d.\u00a0 What was that \u201clikeness\u201d of sinful flesh?\u00a0 Jesus was born without inherited sin, but he did have the symbol of sin in his body just as all other men had.\u00a0 Jesus had a foreskin, and this foreskin had to be cut off in order to fulfill the law.<\/p>\n Although Jesus was without inherited sin because he received his humanity through the woman\u2019s seed alone, Jesus still had to fulfill all of the law on our behalf.\u00a0 In the same way, although Jesus had no sin of his own, Jesus had to fulfill the law by being baptized.\u00a0 Baptism symbolizes the washing away of sin by cutting off the foreskin of the heart, yet Jesus had no sin to be washed away and no foreskin of his heart that needed to be cut away.\u00a0 But because he was to fulfill the entire law on our behalf, Jesus needed to go through each of these acts in order to be identified with us in our sin so that he could be our sin bearer.<\/p>\n As the sin-bearer of the entire human race, and as the last Adam, Jesus needed to be a descendant of Adam, yet not come through Adam\u2019s tainted seed.\u00a0 How is that possible?\u00a0 God bypassed the man\u2019s seed by going through the woman\u2019s seed which had not been tainted with Adam\u2019s sin.\u00a0 God bypassed the one who brought sin and stain into our lives by going through the very one who had been deceived by Satan.\u00a0\u00a0Click here to read how God did this by reading my article on Adam as head of the family<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n To sum up the importance of circumcision and the importance of cutting off of sin, we need to see that:<\/p>\n 1. \u00a0Only Adam\u00a0brought sin into the world. In answer to the question about circumcision, this rite of entrance into the Abrahamic covenant was not a lifting up of the male as more important than the female.\u00a0 Females were not given circumcision because sin does not pass through from the seed of Eve.\u00a0 The sign of circumcision was God\u2019s finger pointing toward the birth of the Messiah through the seed of the woman. Praise God that\u00a0he knew\u00a0a way to bring the Messiah as our kinsman Redeemer without the stain of inherited sin.\u00a0 Christ and Christ alone was the unblemished lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Circumcision, the woman, and the Kinsman Redeemer In dealing with women in ministry, the question has been asked of me, isn\u2019t circumcision a proof that God only wants men to minister through leading and teaching since God gave the sign of circumcision for males only to his people in the Old Testament?\u00a0 Did God give preferential treatment to males when he brought them into the Abrahamic covenant in the Old Testament through circumcision? While some believe that the entrance into…<\/p>\nGod\u2019s restriction on males<\/h2>\n
![\"Sign](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mmoutreach.org\/wim\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/physical_sin.jpg?w=640\")
\nWhile only males carried the symbol of sin in their body, both males and females carried the spiritual symbol of sin. God said the spiritual symbol of sin must be cut off to be right with him.<\/p>\n![\"heart](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mmoutreach.org\/wim\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/heart_sin.jpg?w=640\")
<\/p>\nSpiritual symbol of sin<\/h2>\n
Sign of righteousness<\/h2>\n
Our inheritance<\/h2>\n
Sin entered the world<\/h2>\n
Spiritual separation<\/h2>\n
Only Adam<\/h2>\n
![\"4](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mmoutreach.org\/wim\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/4_circumcision.jpg?w=640\")
<\/p>\nWhy was Jesus born with a foreskin?<\/h2>\n
The Sin-Bearer<\/h2>\n
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Summary<\/h2>\n
\n2. Adam alone was kicked out of the garden as the one whom God pinpointed as the one who would continue to rebel against God\u2019s rules and eat from the tree that was no longer available to him.
\n3. Adam\u2019s seed was not used to bring the Messiah into the world.
\n4. Only the males have the physical sign of sin (foreskin)
\n5. Death is passed through to each one of us because of Adam\u2019s sin.
\n6. The sin nature that we inherit causes us to practice sinning on our own.
\n5. Jesus was made in the image of the first Adam and Jesus had a foreskin as the physical sign of sin, although he himself was not sinful.
\n6. Entrance into God\u2019s family requires the removal of the foreskin of our hearts and this is a requirement of both males and females.
\n7. We are saved by grace through faith and it is God who removes the symbol of sin from our hearts and He is the one who makes us clean.<\/p>\nWas the male more important than the female?<\/h2>\n