Near the end of Deuteronomy, Moses, speaking to the people, said,

“See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; in that I command thee this day to love The LORD thy God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply…I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: that thou mayest love The LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey His voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto Him: for He is thy life, and the length of thy days…” [Deut 30:15-16, 19-20]

In all that was spoken, reminding Israel of what God had done and what He had said, Moses concludes with these words. He had set before the people “life and death, blessing and cursing.” Life, if they would choose it; life, if they would love The LORD and obey Him, clinging to Him. And death, if they would not. Moses laid the choice to the people and said, “choose life.” Neither Moses nor The LORD desired the people to choose death; and yet, no doubt some of them would. For though there is a clear path which leads to life: clinging to and loving The LORD, yet there are some who would yet choose their own path and own way, a path that even leads to death. Though there are ways and paths which seem as if they shall fare better, than that which The LORD has chosen, yet those all, without exception, lead to death. “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” [Prov 14:12] These same sentiments are communicated through Ezekiel as well. There The LORD says,

“…Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith The Lord GOD: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.” [Ezek 18:30-32]

The LORD urges Israel, and He would urge each of us too, to repent: to turn from our sins and turn to Him. It is something that He cannot force any to do, for God will not make a breach upon any man’s free will. Cast away the sin! God would say, and come to me for “a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel?” It is a good question; a profound question: “why will ye die?” Having both paths: that of life and that of death, laid before a man, why would any choose death? It seems as simple as the question posed by Christ to a certain man who was lame in his feet, “wilt thou be made whole?” [Jn 5:6] And to you, dear reader, the same question is posed today. As “the power of The Lord was present to heal them” [Lk 5:17] upon a certain day, so too the power of The Lord is present now. And so the question is posed to you: that fateful and eternal question: “wilt thou be made whole?” Do you desire life? Or death? Blessing? Or cursing? The choice is up to you. The choice is up to all of us. But know this, dear reader, The LORD has no pleasure in the death of him that dies, having a strong desire that none should perish. “[The Lord] is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” [2 Pe 3:9]

And so, what was the solution posed by Moses in that day, and what is the solution proposed to us – how might a man receive and lay hold of this life being offered? It was chiefly to love God, and out of love, obey Him and cling to Him. “Choose life…that thou mayest love The LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey His voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto Him: for He is thy life…” [Deut 30:19, 20] But as it was in that day, so I am sure it is in this day as well. That any man who would set forth to obey this command, to love The LORD with all that he has, (and that, Jesus says, is the greatest command [Mt 22:37-38]), would assuredly discover his inability to carry out such a command. He would discover in an instant, as perhaps you have too, dear reader, that which is written, “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” [Jer 17:9] or of that which Paul wrote, crying out, “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” [Rom 7:24] Though the command is a simple one, yet the carrying out of it is not. Earlier in Moses’ discourse, he wrote of what The LORD said to him,

“And now, Israel, what doth The LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear The LORD thy God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve The LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, to keep the commandments of The LORD, and His statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?” [Deut 10:12-13]

And furthermore, he gave the means by which such a thing might be accomplished, saying, “circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked.” [Deut 10:16] As with physical circumcision and the cutting off of flesh, so too The LORD commanded: “circumcise…your heart.” There was flesh upon the heart, sinful flesh, preventing belief and love and obedience, and it was necessary for it to be removed. But who could do such a thing? Who could, of their own power, get themselves a new heart and new spirit? Ah, my good man, that is just the point. For, “the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” [Gal 3:24] And, “by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” [Rom 3:20] That which leads to life: love and obedience to The LORD, a steadfast abiding in The LORD – as simple as it sounds – is yet impossible in and of ourselves. For we are infected with that sinful flesh, and as Paul writes, “the flesh lusteth against The Spirit, and The Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.” [Gal 5:17] For those who have not experienced deliverance by Jesus, who have not been set free from their flesh and from sin, (yes, and from the law too), they have no power to overcome in this battle, and as such, shall always, in the end, fall short of that simple command: to love God with all the heart, mind, soul, and strength. As it stands, we are doomed: for that command which is ordained to life, we find to be unto death, not having the power to accomplish it. “And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.” [Rom 7:10] In alignment with this, The LORD speaks through Moses later in Deuteronomy, shifting the responsibility and revealing the means by which we shall be able to do such things. He says,

“And The LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart…to love The LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.” [Deut 30:6]

And so, at last we see the solution: a sovereign act of God. In order to experience and choose life, we need The LORD’s intervention; His supernatural empowerment. But how shall we acquire such help? How shall we obtain this circumcision of the heart, yes, and get a new heart: a heart which is not desperately wicked, but which truly yearns after God’s commands and loves Him? It shall happen by means of the New Covenant. For this circumcision is spoken of by Paul, who writes,

“For in [Jesus] dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead in bodily form. And ye are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power: in whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: buried with Him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.” [Col 2:9-12]

It is from Jesus, and from Jesus alone, in whom we are complete, that we receive this spiritual circumcision. Through Jesus Christ we can become, by faith, “children of Abraham,” [Gal 3:7] having been joined to “the Israel of God,” [Gal 6:16] in our reception of this spiritual circumcision by faith: because in Jesus Christ “there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision…but Christ is all, and in all,” and, “in Christ Jesus ye who were sometimes far off [from the commonwealth of Israel] are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For He is our peace, who hath made both one…” [Col 3:11, Eph 2:13-14]

“He is not a jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter…” [Rom 2:28-29]

Whether Jew or Gentile, male or female, all of us must receive this circumcision of heart which brings us near to God through Christ, and near to His promises, allowing us to lay hold of them and enjoy them. This is the circumcision which enables us to love God, and it is that which gives us a new heart and spirit, something which The LORD promises as a part of the New Covenant, saying through the prophet,

“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.” [Ezek 36:26-27]

Thus, we see that the circumcision which The LORD commanded through Moses is fulfilled in Jesus Christ, who by The Spirit’s coming into our heart, cuts off the old man – that is, circumcises our heart – and we become new creatures, thus receiving a new heart and spirit. For, “if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” [2 Cor 5:17] And this happens through faith, even as Deuteronomy explains. For none of us are saved by our own works, but by grace through faith.

“For this commandment which I command thee this day, is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.” [Deut 30:11-14]

This word in Deuteronomy is explained in Romans, when Paul quotes it, saying,

“The righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, say not in thine heart, who shall ascend into heaven?...or, who shall descend into the deep?...but what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach.” [Rom 10:6-8]

The commandment is near, not far off. The command to believe, to have faith: it is not far up in heaven nor down beneath the sea. It is near and accessible to all, the glorious word of faith: that is, faith in Jesus Christ. For Paul then says, explaining the faith: “that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” [Rom 10:9] Is there any command so simple? So strikingly simple? We are told by God to believe in The Lord Jesus – and to the world, this simple command is as foolish as Namaan the Syrian thought Elisha’s word; as Paul says regarding the cross in which we believe, “to them that perish [it is] foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.” [1 Cor 1:18] The simple preaching of and believing in the cross of Jesus: how that Jesus took our sins upon Himself, died upon the cross as a trespass offering for our sins, and rose again three days later, is foolishness with the world. It is to them altogether too simple, and illogical. But as it is written, “the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” [1 Cor 1:25] Is God foolish? Is God weak? God forbid: no! But even if there were something of His intellect or reasoning which were foolish, even if there were something of God that were weak: it would yet be a thousand thousand times wiser and stronger than the world’s best. And God has chosen this simple, pure faith as a means of salvation, for one, because as it says,

“But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: that no flesh should glory in His presence.” [1 Cor 1:27-29]

The word of faith, that which brings salvation, is simple. It is near to each and every one of us. For all of the unbelieving world – yes, each and every soul – they are but a word away from salvation. They are but a single word uttered from genuine belief in Jesus, from acquiring eternal life. Try as they might, and try as we might, salvation cannot and does not come from our own strivings, energy, thoughts, ability, or heart. It comes through simple faith in Jesus Christ, God’s Son, and in Him alone. The circumcision of the heart, of which we speak, and which was spoken of in Deuteronomy to be the necessary thing in order to truly love and serve God and thus experience life, is not something we can conjure up. Neither is it something that is difficult to obtain or far off. It is a simple solution, as we have already seen again and again in this book. The solution is a continued, genuine, simple faith in Jesus Christ: who He is and what He has done. For even a mustard seed of faith, even the smallest of faiths, in that simple truth, is powerful enough to utterly transform any heart and any mind; powerful enough to change for good even the vilest of sinners.

The wonderful and simple answer is this: faith. Faith in Jesus Christ, for there is none other. It is not by our own works, effort, diligence, merit, or anything else we might possess. Salvation is for those weak men and women: to those who are poor and broken; to those sinners who see their need and cry out for Christ.

Something that we all must come to realize, is that there is none among us who can serve God. In our own power, our own strength, we cannot serve Him nor draw near to Him. In our own strength, we cannot be saved. Even as Israel could not, (and neither can we), circumcise their hearts. This is something Joshua pointed out to Israel, and something we would do well to take heed to as well. For without Jesus we cannot serve God, approach God, love God, or be saved; without Him we can do nothing.

When Israel heard the law of God, and was very zealous to do it, saying, “God forbid that we should forsake The LORD, to serve other gods…therefore will we also serve The LORD; for He is our God,” Joshua pointed out the grim truth: “ye cannot serve The LORD: for He is an holy God; He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins.” [Josh 24:16, 18, 19] As it is written elsewhere, “who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with the everlasting burnings?” [Isa 33:14] For “our God is a consuming fire.” [Heb 12:29] We cannot but chance one step into His presence on our own merits or abilities, for again, He is “dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto.” [1 Tim 6:16] Who can serve Him? Who can stand in His presence? For we are all laden with impurity, wickedness, and sin, and it is written, “thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity;” [Hab 1:13] and, “what communion hath light with darkness?” [2 Cor 6:14] Therefore we cannot serve God. Joshua speaks correctly. And the word, to love God with all our heart, to serve Him with the uttermost of our soul, is likewise unreachable: for we, as men, are utterly lost.

Oh, but praise God. For though we cannot serve God; for though we cannot dwell with Him or approach Him, yet Jesus can. And it is He who is our mediator and high priest, who intercedes for us. It is through Jesus Christ that we can serve God and draw near. As it is written,

“And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David…That He would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, In holiness and righteousness before Him, all the days of our life.” [Lk 1:69, 74-75]

And,

“Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh; And having an high priest over the house of God; Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.” [Heb 10:19-22] 

Praise Jesus who has given us a new heart and spirit. Praise Jesus who has gifted us salvation and made us fit to enter God’s presence. Praise Jesus who makes it possible for us to serve and love and obey The LORD. Praise Jesus for that He has circumcised our hearts. Yes, praise Him for all things: for without Jesus we are nothing and can do nothing.

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