Now all the tax collectors and the sinners were coming near Him to listen to Him. Both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble, saying, ‘This man receives sinners and eats with them.’ (Luke 15:1)
So…Jesus told this large assembly “The Parable of the Lost Sheep” and “The Parable of the Lost Coin.” These stories bring to mind a phrase – ‘the fullness of time,’ from Galatians 4:4-6:
But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”
In our passage we learn something about the nature of this fullness. There is tension in it. Heaven is prone to rejoicing, yet the stewards of the Law on earth are grumbling. And what is the source of their grumbling?
By this time a lot of men and women of doubtful reputation were hanging around Jesus, listening intently. The Pharisees and religion scholars were not pleased, not at all pleased. They growled, “He takes in sinners and eats meals with them, treating them like old friends. (The Message)
This suggests that in the fullness of time, the stewards and adherents of God’s Law had missed the spirit of God’s assignment so badly that they were persecuting people responding to Jesus – the actual fulfillment of the Law! Paul tells us that, “Because of you (Jews who were mishandling the Law) God’s name is blasphemed among the nations.” In attending to the letter of the law, they totally missed the spirit of it. In Romans, Paul, a former steward of the law, elaborates:
The ‘Jew’ isn’t the person who appears to be one, you see. Nor is ‘circumcision’ what it appears to be, a matter of physical flesh. The Jew is one in secret; and ‘circumcision’ is in the heart, in the spirit rather than the letter. Such a person gets ‘praise, not from humans, but from God. (Romans 2:28 N.T Wright translation)
In a study of Romans I was recently involved with, we had a few who thought Paul was a bit hard on the Jewish leaders. They commented, “They had been given the Law and they were simply doing their utmost to obey it.” I suppose, in a sense, that was true, but we have to keep in mind that Jesus’ stories are designed to help us see what we’re not seeing. Outward obedience to a code in anticipation of reward was never what God wanted from us. That is what men do with God, in their flesh and without the Spirit. We need to keep in mind that it is the heart, and, apparently, its circumcision, in which God is interested.
Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life. (Proverbs 4:23)
The Holy Spirit is focused on the why (or the spirit of the matter), while man, in his flesh, is hung up on the what (or the letter of the matter). God, as He perpetually endeavors to transform us into the image of His Son, is intent on why we do what we do. This happens along the way as we experience the circumcision of the heart. If we do not, we will be destined, like the Jews, to focus on external obedience and to repeat history—misrepresenting God to the very people He wants to reach.
In our Romans study, a number of questions came up, which I pray we might find answers to. One in particular stands out: “Is the circumcision of the flesh a one time affair, or is it an ongoing one?”
I believe the answer is ‘Yes!’ Physical circumcision takes place once in a baby boy’s life. It is something done by others to him. Flesh is cut away. I believe this happens once to us as well when we place our confidence in Christ as our new Life. Our rebirth is accomplished by the giving and receiving of His Spirit, something that God does to us—thus accounting for our new hearts which were promised as a part of the new covenant. And while it is a mystery, our flesh was crucified with Christ. In the unseen eternal realm the reign of our flesh is over. It is cut away.
Recall that it was circumcision of the flesh that was the evidence of being a partaker of the old covenant and its Law. It is circumcision of the heart that is evidence of the new birth and of being a partaker of the new covenant. Also keep in mind that we have been saved and are being saved. I believe in this being saved aspect of our lives (this working out of our salvation) his apprentices will also experience an ongoing circumcision of the heart. Those whose hearts are being formed into the image of Christ will see the scalpel again in the fullness of time when it becomes necessary to cut away aspects of our fleshly life which have yet to be surrendered to His rule.
I believe the idea of living-in Christ has been cut away from the normal Christian life in western culture. Living actively with Christ as Lord within our hearts is not well taught or modeled. Living fully in Christ, for the most part, has become an optional track for those who have been “called” into full-time ministry or into the “deeper” Christian life (as it has unfortunately been labeled). This is more than most signed up for when they asked Jesus into their hearts or performed whatever external ritual to join the church.
Could the widely acknowledged malaise in western Christianity be traced to the circumcision of discipleship (living in Christ) away from the Christian life? Could this error account for millions of believers who are anticipating God’s kingdom when they die, when in fact, unbeknownst to them, it’s already here? How are we different than the Jews who were in trouble for their stewardship of the covenant entrusted to them? Is there sufficient transformation into Christ’s image to prevent His name from being blasphemed by us in our age? Isn’t this already happening?
But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”
So many of us are laboring in our obedience to live lives that are pleasing to God. If we are to measure ourselves by New Testament standards (and not our own present culture’s) there are a few litmus tests we can use. The first one I see is this: when God’s will is being done on earth as it is in heaven, joy will always accompany it (certainly not grumbling).
A second: persons of questionable character will be drawn to the salvation which they see worked out by the adopted sons and daughters whose identities are being altered and whose character is being reshaped – saints who are infected with celebrant, childlike joy and gratitude. Sadly though, people will continue to be repelled by joyless lives attempting to comply with the letter of a particular religious code, however hard they labor to please God. Always, the Spirit gives life, but the letter of the law kills.
Is being a disciple really a deeper Christian life or is it just the normal one which has been, of necessity, cut away from western Christian culture so that we can focus on the here’s and now’s of a temporal, material world without troubling our consciences?
Father, We have rejected the disciple’s life in Christ for so many wrong reasons and not surprisingly we are failing in Your commission to go and make disciples. Let now be the fullness of time. Let authentic renovation of our hearts take place. Deliver us from all the heart-errors that contribute to our misrepresentation of You. Awaken us and restore to us our new hearts, which do not see your reign as a heavy burden, rather as the very Spirit of righteousness who indwells and animates us. Work within our hearts until our realization of being Your sons and daughters spills out into a flood of stories honoring Your holy and precious name.