Metaphors of the Church: Israel of God, Seed of Abraham, True Circumcision

The Church is the people of God, not to the exclusion of Israel as God’s people, but as those who are in Messiah Jesus, who is the ultimate Israel. The Israel according to the flesh (1 Corinthians 10:18, Greek) will one day be converted (Romans 11:25-27) and there will be one people of God. But for now the Church of Jesus Christ is the Israel of God.

¹² Those who want to impress people by means of the flesh are trying to compel you to be circumcised. The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ. ¹³ Not even those who are circumcised keep the law, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your circumcision in the flesh. ¹⁴ May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. ¹⁵ Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation. ¹⁶ Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule—to the Israel of God. (Galatians 6:12-16)

There are those who have been representing themselves as the true Israel and demanding that Gentile Jesus followers must be circumcised in order to be saved, but it only those who are new creations by faith alone who are the true Israel, the true sons of Abraham.

If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. (Galatians 3:29)

Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. (Romans 4:16)

And believers in Jesus are the true circumcision because we have been spiritually circumcised in Christ:

For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh. (Philippians 3:3)

¹¹ In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, ¹² having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. (Colossians 2:11,12)

The physical circumcision of Israel’s males was symbolic of the spiritual cutting away of our sin, of our uncleanness, the circumcision of the hardness of the heart promised in the New Covenant (Deuteronomy 30:6; Ezekiel 36:26,27; Romans 2:28).