Life in God’s Family: The Basis and Nature of the Ten Commandments

How would you describe an ideal family?

Is it a family in which the children always obey every rule the parents make?

We know that is not the case. Indeed, outward obedience to parents can co-exist with deep anger and resentment, as displayed by the older son in Luke 15.

Instead, love and trust characterize the ideal family. There is obedience to parents, yes – but that obedience flows out of love, out of trust, out of a feeling of security and acceptance.

Just so in the family of God. God’s family members surely obey – but not with the outward, formal obedience of the Pharisees. Their obedience instead is joyful and willing, flowing from confidence in the loving character of God.

Consider the Ten Commandments in this regard. These commandments summarize God’s torah, His instructions to His people. Many misunderstand both the nature and implications of these commandments. So let’s examine, first of all, the basis and nature of the Ten Commandments. From these we’ll draw out four implications for all the Commandments. In future devotions we’ll consider the Commandments one by one.

The Basis of the Ten Commandments: Relationship with God

The people of Israel do not come into a relationship with God by obeying the Ten Commandments; they are already in a relationship with Him when He speaks the Commandments.

  • When Moses first approaches Pharaoh, God says, “Israel is my firstborn son” (Exodus 4:22).
  • God told Moses at the burning bush that the people would worship Him at Sinai (Exodus 3:12).
  • God reiterates that plan multiple times in words spoken to Pharaoh (Exodus 4:23, 5:1, 5:3, 8:1, 8:20, 9:1, 9:13, 10:3).
  • When they first arrive at Sinai, God says, “You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself” (Exodus 19:4, emphasis added).
  • Immediately prior to speaking the Commandments, God says, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” (Exodus 20:2, emphasis added).

So the Israelites’ relationship with God precedes the giving of the Law. They enter into a relationship with God through His love, by His grace (Deuteronomy 7:6-8).

Furthermore, they do not remain in relationship with God through keeping the Law. In Exodus 32, they explicitly break the Commandments. God’s judgment falls on a small percentage, but He reveals Himself as “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, … forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin” (Exodus 34:6-7).

Now, He goes on to say He “will by no means leave the guilty unpunished” (Exodus 34:7 NIV) – He is the God of both grace and justice. We only understand fully how God’s grace and justice both hold when we see Jesus’ death on the cross.

But our point for today is this: Neither the Israelites nor we today enter into a relationship with God through obedience to the Law. Neither the Israelites nor we today remain in a relationship with God through obedience to the Law. We enter into a relationship with Him by grace through faith. We remain in that relationship by grace through faith.

 

The Nature of the Ten Commandments: Life in God’s Family

When we hear the word “law,” we normally think of some set of restrictions on our behavior. A sign on I-485 says that there is a law prohibiting you from driving faster than 70mph. If you see a police car in your rearview mirror, you will restrict your driving speed. You will not drive 80mph.

But God’s Law is not fundamentally a set of restrictions on our behavior. Instead, God’s Law fundamentally is a revelation of His character. Through the Law, He tells us what He loves and what He hates: “I the LORD love justice; I hate robbery and wrong” (Isaiah 61:8). God in His holy essence hates and despises sin, He despises evil; in His essence, he loves righteousness and justice.

 

Now, connect this with the idea of God’s people being His family. When we had six little children running around the house needing correction, we would sometimes say, “We’re Pinckneys – we don’t act that way.” We then explained how we behave.

That’s similar to what Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount: “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).

Thus, when God tells us to obey His Law, He is saying, “Become like Me! I have brought you to Myself! You are part of my intimate family! This is your identity; this is who you are. So act like it’s true! Act like Me!”

So God does not give us the Ten Commandments, saying, “Obey these and you will be in My family.” Nor does He say, “Obey these in order to remain in My family.” Instead, He says to the Israelites – and to us! – “You are in the family. And this is how those in my family live. This is how they reflect my character.”

 

Four Implications for Understanding the Ten Commandments

a) The Ten Commandments are positive, not only negative

We don’t become like God simply by avoiding certain actions – we must change positively!

For example, consider the seventh commandment: “You shall not commit adultery” (Exodus 20:14). Many never commit the physical act of adultery, but lust after others. Jesus tells us these too break the commandment (Matthew 5:28). But we can’t just modify the commandment to include a prohibition of lust! Rather, the Commandment exhorts us to take on the character of God. We positively are to honor marriage, to build up own, to assist others to strengthen their marriages, all to the glory of God.

So, in general, each commandment forbids some attitudes and behaviors while commending others.

b) No one will succeed in fully taking on the character of God

Those at the moment outside God’s family are “dead in trespasses and sin” (Ephesians 2:1). God graciously brings the redeemed into His family, making us “alive together with Christ” (Ephesians 2:5). He grants us His Spirit, enabling us to “put to death the deeds of the body” (Romans 8:13), providing a way of escape from temptation (1 Corinthians 10:13) and producing in us Christlike character (Galatians 5:22-23). Yet we all fail; “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8).

The Day is coming after Jesus returns when He does away with sin forever. We will be like Him, seeing Him as He is (1 John 3:2). But until that Day, we will stumble and fall. However much we grow – and we should grow! – we will never be perfect as our heavenly Father.

c) Jesus fully displayed the character of God

Jesus said He came to fulfill the Law (Matthew 5:17) – and He did. He showed us what God is like: “Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). He loved God with all His heart, soul, mind, and strength every minute of every day. He loved every person He encountered as He loved Himself.

d) How then can we be like God? Though union with Jesus!

When we come to God by grace through faith in Jesus, God not only saves us from our sins, wiping out the negatives from our accounts; He also credits us with the righteousness of Jesus – in Him we become “the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). His active obedience to the entirety of the Law is credited to us.

 

Thus, the Ten Commandments do not constitute a law code for ancient Israel (in our contemporary sense of law code). Rather they are a revelation of the character of God, so that those in His family might know Him better and become like Him by His grace. And that happens only via Jesus.

So salvation is not primarily about saving us from hell – it is that, but also much more. Salvation is primarily about being in God’s family, credited with Jesus’ righteousness, transformed to become like Him – partially in this life, completely in the next.

(This devotion is based on the first half of a sermon on Exodus 20:1-3 preached May 9, 2010, “Having Been Saved By Grace, Do You Put God First?” The audio is available here. An earlier blog post covering some of the same material is here.)

Whoever is Not With Me is Against Me

[This Sunday we consider what Jesus means when He says both, “Whoever is not with Me is against me” (Matthew 12:30), and “The one who is not against us is for us” (Mark 9:40). What follows is an edited excerpt from a sermon preached July 7, 2013 on Matthew 12:15-50, which raises similar questions. You can listen to the audio of that sermon at this link.]

Who is Jesus?

Where do you stand on that question?

Do you stand with Him – and thus see Him as the center of all human history, as the Savior of all who will come to Him, as the promised King who will return, right all wrongs, and reign forever? Do you see Him as the promised groom for His Bride, the Church – and thus as your beloved?

Or do you stand against Him? Do you see Him as a threat to what you hold dear? Do you see the Jesus of the Bible as a fake, a charlatan, whose followers have distorted the historical person?

Or perhaps on hearing those questions, you’re thinking, “Well, I’m not an extremist! I don’t see Jesus as the center of all history, but neither do I regard Him as a threat. There are aspects of Jesus I like, and other aspects I don’t like so much. But I’m neither with Him nor against Him. I’m an objective observer; I’m neutral.”

In Matthew 12:30, Jesus says explicitly: “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.” That is: Jesus says, “You cannot be neutral with regard to me.” Indeed He says, “You speak out of the overflow of what is inside you, out of the overflow of your heart, out of the overflow of who you are. And there are no neutral hearts. So come to Me and follow Me! But know: If you don’t come to Me, you are against me. You are my enemy. I am your rightful King, and you have joined the rebellion against me.”

Who is Jesus?

Matthew has emphasized Jesus’ authority previously. He does that again in Matthew 12:38 and following. Jesus claims to be greater than Jonah and greater than Solomon. Think about that: Here’s a young man, in his early thirties, with no wealth, no schooling, no position in society, the son of a carpenter from out in the sticks. And He claims to be greater than one of the greatest leaders in the history of His nation.

This is an audacious claim. And yet Jesus has just said in Matthew 11:28-30, “I am gentle and humble in heart.”

Is a carpenter’s son who calls Himself greater than Solomon humble?

Matthew explains this in Matthew 12:15 and following. After healing many, He commands these folks not to make Him known as the Messiah. In Matthew 12:18-21 the author then explains that Jesus telling others not to make Him known is a fulfillment of Isaiah 42:1-4. As prophesied, Jesus is not a loud, self-promoter. Yet He is God’s chosen, beloved servant; God has placed His Spirit on Him, and given Him a worldwide task as the hope of all nations. So, yes, Jesus is greater than Solomon and Jonah. But He is gentle; if you are faintly burning for Him, shining just a little light, He will not stand back and say, “Burn brighter or I’ll snuff you out!” No. He will trim that wick, enabling your light to blaze, and He will make you the light of the world.

So Jesus is the greatest of all humanity. Yet He came to serve, indeed, to die – for you.

Are You with Jesus?

Matthew gives us a parable from real life in Matthew 12:22 as an example of Jesus’ character. A blind and mute man, oppressed by demons and thus under Satan’s authority, is brought to Him. This man pictures every one of us when we are separated from Christ. Just as with us, Jesus opens his eyes and lips, ending the oppression.

This is the gentle, authoritative service Jesus always renders. He overcomes our oppressors, enabling us to fulfill the purpose of our creation: Praising God and delighting in Him.

How do people respond to this man’s healing? As we’re told in Matthew 12:23, they are amazed, and ask if Jesus could be the Son of David – that is, the Messiah.

That’s how we’re supposed to respond to Jesus: To see Him, to be amazed at His love, His service, His power and authority.

As Jesus explains in Matthew 12:35, these folks are speaking out of the overflow of their hearts. They see what Jesus does, and think: “This is what the prophets said! The blind see! The oppressed are set free! Could this man be our long-promised Messiah, the rightful King?”

Furthermore, Jesus explains in Matthew 12:46-50 that He offers more than freedom from oppression, even more than forgiveness of sin. He invites us into His intimate family: “Whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother” (Matthew 12:50).

So note: Jesus is not asking you simply to accept some propositions. He’s not only asking you to acknowledge His authority, His humility, and His forgiveness. He is saying, “Come to your loving Savior! Be a part of My family! As a part of that family, rejoice from the bottom of your heart in our Father. Speak out of the overflow of that heart – your mute lips have been opened! Exalt your loving Father in every way – and thus do His will. Come into the family – and then act like a beloved family member.”

Are you with Jesus? Do you not just acknowledge His power but love His person? Do you not just believe biblical doctrine but rejoice in the Father’s love?

Or Are You Against Jesus?

The Pharisees in this passage picture the opponents of Jesus. They see what He does, and they reject Him out of hand. Jesus spends much of this passage warning against that attitude – an attitude that explains away all evidence of Who He is, an attitude that will never believe, regardless of what God does, an attitude that is the overflow of what Jesus calls the evil treasure in a person’s heart.

We see this first in Matthew 12:24, when the Pharisees respond to the healing of the demon-oppressed man by claiming that Jesus casts out demons by the prince of demons.

In Matthew 12:25 and following, Jesus responds, saying that claim is obviously false. If Satan’s kingdom is divided like that, it is no threat at all; that kingdom will collapse. Rather than working with Satan, Jesus says He is binding Him (Matthew 12:29). That should be obvious to anyone with eyes to see.

Jesus takes a different tack in Matthew 12:27. There were a number of Jewish exorcists casting out demons in Jesus’ day, and the Pharisees don’t claim that they do so by the power of the prince of demons. So with the same evidence, in one case the Pharisees acknowledge the power of God at work, while in the other they deny it. This shows that the problem is in their hearts rather than in the evidence; they will not see and believe.

Jesus highlights this is Matthew 12:28, saying in effect: “This Kingdom has been prophesied for centuries. Here it is! It has come upon you in My person! Quit disbelieving! Acknowledge what is before your eyes! The promises are fulfilled!”

But the Pharisees keep their eyes closed. They see plenty of evidence that the Holy Spirit is at work, but they reject Jesus and claim He is doing Satan’s work. This is blasphemy against the Spirit (Matthew 12:31-32); that sin cannot be forgiven, because if you willingly and persistently close your eyes to the evidence of the Spirit’s work, you never will repent.

The author brings this out further in Matthew 12:38 and following. The scribes and Pharisees ask for a sign – that is, for evidence that Jesus really is who He claims to be. But they have just seen a sign – the healing of the man – and they rejected that sign. Obviously no sign will do any good to those who will reject every sign.

Jesus is not their performing animal: He will not produce miracles at their command. But in Matthew 12:39-40 He says they will indeed receive another sign: He will be in the grave three days, and then rise from the dead. And how do the Jewish leaders respond when they that happens? They reject it. They claim the disciples stole the body, though they well know that is not the case (Matthew 28:11-15).

So, are you with Jesus? Or against Him? This entire passage warns us: You cannot be neutral towards Him. And don’t be satisfied with taking a few steps in His direction – coming to church, reading the Bible, cleaning up a few parts of your life. You must be all in for Him. You must be His intimate family. If not, You are against Him – you are His enemy.

For Jesus not just an interesting teacher. He is not just a person with great insight; He is not just a good person whose example we should follow. He claims that He is greater than Solomon or Jonah; He claims that when He is present, the Kingdom of God has come.

Do you think you need more evidence? Be careful that you are not simply looking for excuses not to believe – that your rejection is not just displaying the overflow of a rebellious heart. But if you are genuinely looking, you will find Him – a “faintly burning wick” he will not snuff out. So pray, “I believe, Lord – help my unbelief! I submit to you; open my blind eyes, open my mute mouth!”

God created mankind to be part of His family. And Jesus says: “I am your rightful King, whether you acknowledge Me or not. And I can be your beloved husband, the source of your great delight. So come to Me, whatever your burden – and I will give you rest!”

 

Reflections on a Graduation and a Bike Ride

Last weekend our youngest child, Joel, graduated from UNC Chapel Hill. During those four years of college, Joel and thousands of his classmates worked hard at their academics, spurred each other on to excel, developed deep friendships, and grew to love their university. Indeed, the graduation ceremony emphasized again and again: “Chapel Hill is home. You can always come home. This place is your home forever.”

Speakers exhorted the new graduates to be true to themselves, forging their own path, not allowing others to define them; to continue to practice and develop critical thinking in order to live a good, moral life; and to continue to pursue higher learning, for in that way they will find fulfillment. Indeed, when acting like this, we were told, there is no limit to the good they can do.

Prior to graduation weekend, I participated in the 2017 Law Enforcement Bike Ride to DC, an annual ride from Charlotte covering about 500 miles in four days, to honor law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty. During those four days, more than a hundred cyclists worked together, persevering through the long miles and the cold, wet weather. Many placed a picture of a deceased officer they knew personally on the rear of their saddle. A support crew accompanied us and served us faithfully; churches and volunteer fire departments opened their doors to warm us and feed us. Like Joel’s classmates, we all – riders and support crew – developed a strong sense of camaraderie, and rejoiced to accomplish a challenging task together.

I delight in Joel’s hard work and fine education, as well as in the privilege of biking last week with so many dedicated riders. Joel grew and changed in positive ways through his four years at UNC Chapel Hill; those four days of riding had an impact on me. Praise God for such opportunities to stretch ourselves, to step out to accomplish something difficult, and to be able to carry it through to the end.

Both experiences point to eternal realities revealed in Scripture. God made us for something larger than ourselves individually. He created us to accomplish His tasks together. He made us for Himself, so that together we would be His intimate family – so that we would be truly at home with Him forever.

As humans made in the image of God, we long for that home. We long for that sense of belonging, that sense of accomplishment, that sense of camaraderie in working together for a vitally important task. Throughout our lives, we experience pointers to that real home, that real sense of purpose, that real camaraderie. But these pointers are most helpful and valuable to us only if we look through them to see the much greater reality they signify. Our home forever is not our alma mater; our great accomplishment is not persevering through challenges to fulfill an earthly academic or physical goal. Our home is with God, through union with Christ, with all the redeemed from every tribe and tongue and nation. Our great accomplishment is to disciple all these people groups, and then to worship our King with them in word and deed forever and ever, never ceasing to increase our delight in Him.

Along the way, we may need to forge our own path if others are leading us away from God; but we also need to deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow Jesus. We would do well to develop critical thinking skills and to apply them to help us understand better both Scripture and the world around us;  but critical thinking in service of our fallen desires will lead to the opposite of the good life. Higher learning subject to God’s revealed truth can help many to understand that truth in a deeper way; but when not subject to God, such learning easily puffs us up, and God opposes the proud. We can forge our own paths, think critically, and achieve the highest standard of learning – and yet do great evil in the world.

So pursue tasks you love; word hard together with Christians and non-Christians in education, in sports, in service. Enjoy the sense of common purpose, the joint accomplishment of a difficult task. But remember to look through the sign to the signified reality. God invites us to participate in the greatest accomplishment of all time; He welcomes us into the only eternally, perfectly loving family; He grants us the greatest joy and fulfillment imaginable. Don’t focus on pursuing the sign and then miss out on the reality.

 

The Joyful, Obedient Family of God

In Mark 3, Jesus has become the center of public attention. Thousands are coming to Him, following Him wherever He goes, even to the point that He could find no opportunity to eat (Mark 3:31). Mary and Jesus’ brothers hear of this, and are concerned: Is Jesus out of His mind? How can He not even be taking care of Himself? (Mark 3:32). They go to Him in order to intervene.

When they arrive, they send a message to Jesus while He is teaching the crowd. When word reaches Him, the crowd expects Him to go see His family. But He responds:

“Who are my mother and my brothers?”  And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers!  For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.” (Mark 3:33-35)

That is: “Those who are closest to Me are not My blood relatives. Those who are closest to Me are those who follow God, those who obey Him with joy, trusting the heavenly Father to guide them in His good and perfect ways. Such people are my intimate family.”

Yet in our natural state we rebel against the good and loving commands of our God. As Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” So we rightly sing, “Prone to wander – Lord I feel it! – prone to leave the God I love.” Thus God put reminders of His commands into the everyday life of the people of Israel. For example: After the people rebel at the edge of the Promised Land, refusing to enter in for fear of giants (Numbers 14), God tells them to wear tassels on each corner of their garments so that they will remember His commandments “to do them, not to follow after your own heart and your own eyes, which you are inclined to whore after” (Numbers 15:39). And why is obedience important? Because He is their God; He brought them out of Egypt to be their God; they are to be holy, set apart for their God (Numbers 15:40-41).

Just so with us today. God brings us out of rebellion, out of slavery to sin, out of our own Egypts. He rescues us – not so that we, freed from slavery to sin, can be free to follow after our own heart and our own eyes. No. To follow after our own heart is to be enslaved once again to sin. Our desperately sick and deceitful heart makes us believe we are freely pursuing our own good, but that way that seems right to us leads only to death and destruction (Proverbs 14:12).

God plans something much better for those whom He rescues from slavery. He brings us to Himself. He adopts us into His family. He calls us to be set apart for Him. And He tells us what that means in this world by giving us commandments for our good (Deuteronomy 10:13).

So obedience is characteristic of those in God’s family. Loved by Him, chosen by Him, empowered by Him to obey, we respond with loving, joyful obedience to His commands that are for our good.

Yet what happens when we fail? What happens when we disobey? What happens when that desperately sick, deceitful heart leads us again in a wrong direction? If we don’t obey God’s commands, are we kicked out of the family?

Jesus Himself provides the solution. As in good human families, God the Father never leaves or forsakes the children who are His. As the Apostle John writes, “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin” (1 John 2:1). That is, we’re part of the family. We are to be obedient to our loving Father. To sin is to deny Who He is and what He has done for us. “But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.  He is the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 2:1-2). In His family, the penalty for sin is paid. Jesus took the just punishment on Himself for the sins of those in the family. Yet this is not an excuse to sin: “And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments” (1 John 2:3).

So Jesus invites us – He invites you! – to be part of the joyful, obedient family of God. To do this, we must recognize our sinful, deceitful hearts, and acknowledge that apart from God’s loving guidance we will go astray, we will rebel, we will wander, to our own harm.  But in the family of God, we are loved; we are cherished; we are forgiven by the blood of Christ. So, set apart for Him, we live lives worthy of our calling, knowing that through us(!) “all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD” (Numbers 14:21).

Being Part of God’s Family

Romans 2:28-29  For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical.  But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.

We looked at these verses in the May 10th sermon. Paul uses the word “Jew” here to refer to one of God’s people – someone loved by God, in covenant with God, part of God’s family. God had given circumcision as the sign of His covenant with Abraham in Genesis 17. Paul says that God intended physical circumcision as a sign pointing to an inner reality – the inner reality of a circumcised heart, effected by the Holy Spirit.

What is a circumcised heart? Consider Moses’ words to the people of Israel in Deuteronomy 10:

And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD, which I am commanding you today for your good?  Behold, to the LORD your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it.  Yet the LORD set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day. Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn. . . . You shall fear the LORD your God. You shall serve him and hold fast to him, and by his name you shall swear. He is your praise. He is your God. (Deuteronomy 10:12-16, 20-21a, emphasis added)

Moses sums up all the initial commands in telling the Israelites to circumcise their hearts. Thus, to have a circumcised heart is to fear God, to follow Him, to love Him, to serve Him with all your being, from the heart – and thus to keep His commandments, which, after all, will lead to good and not harm, fulfillment and not slavery. To have a circumcised heart also includes recognizing the great privilege of being loved by the God of all creation, and thus to praise Him, to rejoice in Him, to recognize Him as your God.

With that in mind, think again about Romans 2:28-29. Paul there echoes the truths of Deuteronomy 10 in saying the physical sign is precious when accompanied by this inner reality of a circumcised heart. However, the physical sign without the inner reality is worthless. The physical sign means nothing on someone who is stubborn, who resists God, who does not walk in His ways, who does not love or praise God.

Imagine a sign declaring, “Pot of Gold 20 Yards Ahead!” That sign is quite valuable if it indeed points to a pot of gold. But if there is no pot of gold, the sign is worthless – indeed, it is worse than worthless, it is deceptive. It causes others to divert their time and energy to look for something valuable which is not there in reality.

So in Romans 2 Paul says: “Being part of God’s family consists of much more than having an external, physical sign. Anyone who is in God’s family is His on the inside. Indeed, the Holy Spirit miraculously transforms the hearts of God’s true children. They then care nothing about the praise of men – they instead are seeking praise and glory and honor from God alone.”

As a student of the Hebrew Scriptures all his life, Paul would have been familiar with the concept of heart circumcision. But at a key moment in the Apostle’s life, God used the voice of a condemned man to sear Paul’s soul with this truth.

In Acts 7, Stephen is brought before the Jewish council, on trial for speaking words against the temple and the Law. Stephen concludes his speech

“You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you.  Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered,  you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.” (Acts 7:51-53, emphasis added)

Paul was there (Acts 7:58)! The future Apostle was right there, watching and listening – and approving of the stoning (Acts 8:1)! He heard Stephen call the Jewish leaders – call him! – stubborn, resistant to the Holy Spirit, uncircumcised in heart. And he heard Stephen say that his listeners did not keep the Law. And everything in Saul/Paul must have rebelled against that statement: “I keep the Law! I am righteous! I am circumcised in heart! I am advancing in Judaism beyond my age mates! I follow the traditions of the forefathers. This man, this Stephen is blaspheming against our God, against our Law, against our Temple; indeed, this is slander against me.”

But the Holy Spirit took those words of Stephen, and they did not return to God void. After Saul/Paul’s encounter with the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus, he saw his insolence (1 Timothy 1:13), his stubbornness – he saw that his heart was indeed uncircumcised. He did not love God; instead, he rejected His work, he rejected the true nature of His Law – he worshiped his own law keeping, not the One Lawgiver. Saul/Paul saw that he could not make himself part of God’s family – instead, his very attempts to accomplish that were driving him further away from God. He needed a righteousness from God. He needed a Redeemer. He needed Christ Jesus.

God reached down in mercy to this arrogant persecutor of the church, and made him His own precious child. God brought this man into His family – and circumcised his heart.

Just so with us. We cannot produce love for God, service from the heart for God, fear of God, and obedience to God from our inner resources. We, like Paul, will instead just add to our rebellion if we think we’ve succeeded.

But God in His mercy extends the offer of intimacy in His family to whoever calls on the Name of the Lord (Romans 10:13). So humble yourself before Him. Ask, “Would you circumcise my heart? Would you in your mercy change even a sinner like me? Would you forgive me in accordance with the perfect sacrifice of Jesus?” Jesus is the atoning sacrifice for our sins. And God the Father never despises a broken and contrite heart (Psalm 51:17).

“Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn.” May we all obey – and be brought into God’s intimate family by the blood of Jesus.