Editorial – The Mastered Race

Abraham was circumcised in two places. That’s why his hope is the answer to anti-Semitism and every form of racism – is yours?

Anti-Semitism is rarely out of the headlines these days, social media are awash with vitriol from one side or another – yet this ancient hatred is a symptom, not a primary cause. The multitude of racists who spread their poison never suspect that they are mere pawns in the service of the arch-Racist whose target is not only Jews, but the entire human race. There is only one racist, Satan – and only one solution to his genocidal intentions for the planet. The Bible calls it ‘One New Man’…

Here’s a Jew writing, in the first century, to non-Jews: “…remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands – remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” (Ephesians 2:11-13) Nor are these the words of a Jew who was, by nature, conciliatory and broad-minded. For years, his zeal for religious purity made him the violent persecutor of the first Christians. He saw these – predominantly Jewish – disciples as enemies of God, criminals who were undermining his own nation. He watched them die as they cried out for God to forgive their killers, he cast men and women into prison and advanced to the point where he had a roving commission – and military escort – to ‘seek out and destroy’ – every last enclave of the followers of Jesus of Nazareth.

Ancient hatred, eternal antidote

His generous warmth towards the Greek-speaking Christians of Ephesus represents perhaps the greatest about-turn in any man’s biography: (see Galatians 1:23) His God-breathed thirteen letters which are the backbone of the New Testament are. solid proof that the solution to every form of racism, bigotry and unreasoning hatred has been around for at least 2,000 years. I say “at least”, because the timeless, indiscriminate love of God for all races was on display even before Jesus Christ walked the earth…

Abraham, of whom God said: “my friend” was plucked out of Babylon’s idolatrous culture and given an unconditional covenant in which the Creator promised that this first Hebrew man would bring divine blessing to people of every culture: “I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonours you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:3) If prejudice, bigotry and ‘hate speech’ are features of modern life, they did not originate with Abraham’s faith or his people or his God… Quite the opposite.

Thus, we are not surprised to find that, when God saved His chosen people from famine in Egypt, He saved the Egyptians too – and had a Hebrew slave promoted to Pharaoh’s number two to make it happen! Then we discover that, when the only safe place in Egypt on Passover night was indoors under the blood of God’s lamb, provision was made for non-Jews to share in God’s salvation – but there were conditions: “If a stranger shall sojourn with you and would keep the Passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised. Then he may come near and keep it; he shall be as a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person shall eat of it. There shall be one law for the native and for the stranger who sojourns among you.” (Exodus 12:48-49) – and, would you believe it? That principle of circumcision still pertains today! Now Christians… Don’t panic! Don’t burn your copy of Sword! We still believe Galatians 5:6! All will (I hope) become clear below…

How did Saul, the religious extremist become Paul, the self-forgetting servant of all humanity? In his own words: “one new man” – this, he explains is the great accomplishment of Jesus Christ, a victory so sweeping that the ancient Jew-Gentile antipathy is resolved at a stroke in the body of one Man – murdered by sinners, but vindicated and resurrected by God and eternally alive to reconcile all races, first to God and then to each other. Great News! But is that it? Did the Son of God leave his glory above, suffer the humiliation of a mortal existence, murderous persecution by the religious establishment and, ultimately, the unjust, tortured death of a crucified criminal just to help Jews and Gentiles ‘play nice’? Or is this racial harmony He has made possible merely the fragrant by-product of a much greater plan? Apostle John summed up what the Twelve had ‘seen and heard’ with the minimal statement: “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8) – surely then, that would involve… reversing the Fall? Well… yes it would…

Amazed enough to love

Let’s just check… are we forcing the text of Ephesians here? It’s irrefutably clear that, when Paul introduces the concept of ‘one new man’, he’s speaking of Christ offering Himself as the representative of all sinners – Jew and Gentile – terminating sin and providing both groups with equal access to the Father by the One Spirit: “For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.” (Ephesians 2:14-16). Paul has been totally transformed and turned around by his encounter with Jesus. All 4 former earthly prejudices are now polar opposites to the extravagant love of Christ which “compels” the apostle to suffer relentless violent persecution to save his opponents with the good news of Jesus Christ. He is so amazed at the grace he has been given by the Jesus he had persecuted that he is no longer amazed that God’s extravagant love also extends to his enemies!

I know, I know… you’ll need to re-read those last two paragraphs because you’re still thinking about that circumcision thing. OK, let’s be brave and think it through… First, circumcision was not given to Judaism, it was given to Abraham. It was given as a sign of God’s unconditional covenant. Nothing was required of Abraham except that he would trust God to do all He had promised. It was given when Ishmael was thirteen years old and Abraham and Sarah needed to learn that God did not need their help or their surrogate ‘make do’ plans. Ninety year-old Sarah was going to be a proper mum and Abraham was going to be a dad in his hundredth year – no science… just the power of God! No wonder they called the child Isaac (‘laughter’) !

Isaac’s father proved worthy of the covenant sign when he reasoned from God’s faithfulness to the probability of resurrection for his son should that be the only way for God to keep His promises (Hebrews 11:9) – final proof that Abraham would father not a ‘Master Race’ (hellish parody) but the ‘Mastered Race’ – the people whose God is the Lord, with no competitor. In his God-orchestrated helplessness, he trusted the Helper. When God commanded the circumcision of Joshua’s army, He waited until any possible retreat was cut off by the flooding Jordan river – inside enemy territory! Thus, an Israelite army was prepared for victory by becoming impotent and vulnerable unless they were shielded and empowered by God – confident self-reliance in their military prowess was not an option.

As a sign of God’s covenant, circumcision is a disabling initiation. The covenant relationship is one of divine omnipotence meeting man’s impotence, but the mark in the flesh has always called for a corresponding circumcision of the heart – the heart that embraces helplessness because confidence is not in self but in God who keeps His promises – especially when it seems impossible. This circumcised heart is a divine requirement for this life and a qualification for the life to come. The clear proof of this is Calvary. “While we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6); it was when we were “dead in trespasses and sins” – and self-evidently incapable of saving ourselves – that God “made us alive together with Christ” (Ephesians 2:1,5); it was “while we were enemies” that “we were reconciled to God” (Romans 5:10). No room here for boasting, far less ‘DIY salvation’.

‘Sheepish’ is good…

It is surely significant that, when Jesus promised “one flock and one shepherd” He depicted us as creatures who, apart from Our Shepherd, are utterly helpless, vulnerable, silly, prone to wander and incapable of getting ourselves out of trouble. “Sheep without a shepherd” invoke His compassion, not His condemnation – He is the ‘help of the helpless‘. The uncircumcised heart is self-reliant, independent, in disagreement with Proverbs 3:5-6 and John 15:5, generally disconnected from spiritual reality, unconvinced of its ‘sheepish’ state. The Last Adam’s race (Jesus, the One New Man is the firstborn of one new humanity, Jew and Gentile) has discovered the ‘strength of weakness’ because human ‘strength’ has been exposed by God’s grace for the fiction that it is. This new humanity glories in every human weakness that provides opportunity for the perfect expression of God’s power. These are the people of the circumcised heart who alone will populate the New Jerusalem.

So, are we saying, after all, that this Jew/Gentile church has replaced Israel in God’s plans and affections? Not even close. What we are saying is that, just as no foreigner could eat of the Passover without accepting the covenant sign of circumcision (confessing his own helplessness to keep himself alive), neither will any Jew ever be a true Israelite without a circumcised heart. Long before the time of Christ, Israel’s prophets bravely thundered their warning that Israelites must share Abraham’s faith, not just his surgery: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will punish all those who are circumcised merely in the flesh – Egypt, Judah, Edom, the sons of Ammon, Moab, and all who dwell in the desert who cut the corners of their hair, for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.” (Jeremiah 9:25-26, see Romans 2:28).

Jews are not saved by Moses and Gentiles by Jesus. Moses agreed with Jeremiah: “Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart and be no longer stubborn.” (Deuteronomy 10:16) The astonishing reconciliation which Paul preached takes place at the cross of Israel’s Messiah – and on no other ground.

For that ‘life from the dead’ (Romans 11:15) to happen on earth which Paul prophesied, Israelites “will look on him whom they have pierced” (Zechariah 12:10) and, just like fire-breathing Saul on the Damascus Road, their hearts will be instantly circumcised, Abraham’s unconditional trust in God will flood Abraham’s nation and the Lion of Judah will rule the nations from David’s throne.

Meantime… we (believing Jew and Gentile) must learn to “boast all the more gladly of [our] weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon [us]” (2 Corinthians 12:9). The world needs urgently to see the confident faith of the Mastered Race.