How did Jesus circumcise us?

[guevaraj]

Brothers and Sisters, happy Sabbath to all, beginning this Friday, February 28, 2025, at 10:36 AM EST! The following passage speaks of past obedience to the Ten Commandments and not just of a future where disobedience is eliminated from Judaism to fully obey the Ten Commandments as Jesus modeled the "Spirit" of obedience, correcting Judaism's model of disobedience to what was written in stone.

Remember your leaders who taught you the word of God. Think of all the good that has come from their lives, and follow the example of their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. (Hebrews 13:7-8 NLT)​

Jesus confirmed obedience to God's Ten Commandments by eliminating the human traditions of disobedience found in Judaism. Jesus "circumcised" Judaism for those of us who follow Jesus' "Spirit" model of obedience and not Judaism's model of disobedience.

Jesus replied, “You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote, ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commandments from God.’ For you ignore God’s law(nomos)/commandment(entolé) and substitute your own tradition.” Then he said, “You skillfully sidestep God’s law(nomos)/commandment(entolé) in order to hold on to your own tradition. For instance, Moses gave you this law(nomos)/commandment(entolé) from God: ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and ‘Anyone who speaks disrespectfully of father or mother must be put to death.’ But you say it is all right for people to say to their parents, ‘Sorry, I can’t help you. For I have vowed to give to God what I would have given to you.’ In this way, you let them disregard their needy parents. And so you cancel the word of God in order to hand down your own tradition. And this is only one example among many others.” (Mark 7:6-13 NLT fixed)​

United in our hope for the soon return of Jesus, Jorge

 

[guevaraj]

Brothers and sisters, to clarify my thinking above about Jesus being the “Spirit” that Paul speaks of, which is misunderstood by most as the Holy Spirit, I present to you the following evidence. The translators responsible for the following passage have used the Holy Spirit as a replacement for the Ten Commandments written in stone when that is not what Paul teaches. The translators added the word Holy before the word “Spirit” when that is not in the original inspired word of God, because it does not refer to the Holy Spirit, but to Jesus as our model “Spirit” because God is “Spirit.”

The old way, with letters etched in stone, led to death, though it began with such glory that the people of Israel could not bear to look at Moses’ face. For his face shone with the glory of God, even though the brightness was already fading away. Shouldn’t we expect far greater glory under the new way, now that the Holy (added by the translators) Spirit (not the Holy Spirit but Jesus as the model "Spirit" to image as in a mirror) gives life? If the old way, which brings condemnation, was glorious, how much more glorious is the new way, which makes us right with God! In fact, that first glory was not glorious at all compared with the overwhelming glory of the new way. So if the old way, which has been replaced, was glorious, how much more glorious is the new, which remains forever! (2 Corinthians 3:7-11 NLT fixed and overlaid with commentary)​

The "Spirit" Paul speaks of is external to us in Jesus for us to model as one would look into a mirror and not the internal Holy Spirit. Jesus is our model "Spirit" to do likewise! In the following passage, Paul is not talking about a hidden inside Spirit, but an externally visible "Spirit" in Jesus, because God is Spirit. Where we must "image" or copy ourselves to the pattern of Jesus' example, as we "see" our lives "reflect" Jesus as we would see ourselves externally in a mirror, comparing ourselves to Jesus' in the flesh model of obedience instead of Judaism's disobedience, which leads to death in a "veil" of obedience to replacement human traditions that disobey the Ten Commandments, contradicting the purpose of the Ten Commandments to remove sin. A "veil", like our modern Sunday human tradition, replaces God's true Sabbath in the book of Hebrews, when Paul tells us such replacements that keep the sin God's Ten Commandments are meant to remove kill and only obeying the Ten Commandments as Jesus shows us how to obey them saves from sin. Notice the external nature of reflecting what we see in Jesus in the flesh is an external example-Spirit, an external-visible example "Spirit" of obedience. Jesus, in the flesh life of obedience, is the "Spirit" to "image", because Jesus is a visible in the flesh "Spirit" for us to model after His obedience instead of Judaism's disobedience.

But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil (not knowing they were disobeying the Ten Commandments) is taken away. For the Lord is the Spirit (Jesus is the model "Spirit" to follow who obeyed properly the Ten Commandments as our example and Paul is not referring to the Holy Spirit as an excuse to disobey the Ten Commandments), and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom (from sin and not from God's Ten Commandments). So all of us who have had that veil (not knowing they were disobeying the Ten Commandments) removed can see and reflect the glory (character) of the Lord (in obeying the Ten Commandments). And the Lord—who is the Spirit (Jesus is the model "Spirit" Paul is telling us to follow and not the Holy Spirit, whose job is to tell us things through prophets and remind us of Jesus as the model "Spirit" to follow)—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image. (2 Corinthians 3:16-18 NLT overlaid with commentary)​

United in our hope for the soon return of Jesus, Jorge

 

[guevaraj]

Brothers and sisters, happy Sabbath, beginning this Friday, April 11, 2025, at 12:05 p.m. EDT! Jesus is the one who "circumcises" us, rather than humans, to enter the New Covenant. You are not part of the New Covenant unless you are "circumcised" by Jesus, who takes away the sin of disobeying the Ten Commandments, as Judaism teaches.

When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure/human hands. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature. For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead. (Colossians 2:11-12 NLT fixed)​

Jesus is “circumcising” us in the following passage from Judaism’s sin of disobeying the Ten Commandments written in stone when Paul replaces the Ten Commandments with Jesus as our superior in the flesh, role model “Spirit” of obedience superior to the disobedience taught by Judaism to the Ten Commandments.

But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil (not knowing they were disobeying the Ten Commandments) is taken away. For the Lord is the Spirit (Jesus is the model "Spirit" to follow who obeyed properly the Ten Commandments as our example and Paul is not referring to the Holy Spirit as an excuse to disobey the Ten Commandments), and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom (from sin and not from God's Ten Commandments). So all of us who have had that veil (not knowing they were disobeying the Ten Commandments) removed can see and reflect the glory (character) of the Lord (in obeying the Ten Commandments). And the Lord—who is the Spirit (Jesus is the model "Spirit" Paul is telling us to follow and not the Holy Spirit, whose job is to tell us things through prophets and remind us of Jesus as the model "Spirit" to follow)—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image. (2 Corinthians 3:16-18 NLT overlaid with commentary)​

Jesus' model of obedience in the flesh as the "Spirit" is superior to Judaism's disobedience to the Ten Commandments written in stone for us to obey what they disobeyed by having only what was written in stone when we have more with Jesus as our model in the flesh as the "Spirit" to follow, superior to their teaching of disobedience.

Jesus replied, “You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote, ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commandments from God.’ For you ignore God’s law(nomos)/commandment(entolé) and substitute your own tradition.” Then he said, “You skillfully sidestep God’s law(nomos)/commandment(entolé) in order to hold on to your own tradition. For instance, Moses gave you this law(nomos)/commandment(entolé) from God: ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and ‘Anyone who speaks disrespectfully of father or mother must be put to death.’ But you say it is all right for people to say to their parents, ‘Sorry, I can’t help you. For I have vowed to give to God what I would have given to you.’ In this way, you let them disregard their needy parents. And so you cancel the word of God in order to hand down your own tradition. And this is only one example among many others.” (Mark 7:6-13 NLT fixed)​

United in our hope for the soon return of Jesus, Jorge

 

[guevaraj]

Brothers and sisters, happy Sabbath that began this Friday, April 18, 2025, at 12:10 p.m. EDT! Yesterday, I had a pastoral visit and was able to share with my pastor that Paul is replacing the Ten Commandments with Jesus as our model of obedience, superior to the written Ten Commandments, which Judaism failed to obey by adding human traditions that canceled the purpose of the Ten Commandments to eliminate sin, allowing Judaism to maintain the sin that the Ten Commandments were meant to eliminate, which leads to death.

Jesus replied, “You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote, ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commandments from God.’ For you ignore God’s law(nomos)/commandment(entolé) and substitute your own tradition.” Then he said, “You skillfully sidestep God’s law(nomos)/commandment(entolé) in order to hold on to your own tradition. For instance, Moses gave you this law(nomos)/commandment(entolé) from God: ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and ‘Anyone who speaks disrespectfully of father or mother must be put to death.’ But you say it is all right for people to say to their parents, ‘Sorry, I can’t help you. For I have vowed to give to God what I would have given to you.’ In this way, you let them disregard their needy parents. And so you cancel the word of God in order to hand down your own tradition. And this is only one example among many others.” (Mark 7:6-13 NLT fixed)​

Under Jesus' aforementioned "circumcision," which removes from us the human traditions that canceled God's word, we can fully obey the Ten Commandments, which Judaism does not obey because of its added human traditions.

When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure/human hands. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature. For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead. (Colossians 2:11-12 NLT fixed)​

My pastor was looking for a way to refute my point of view and settled on the following part as the opposite. Apparently, in his mind, "the Spirit of the Lord" means that the Spirit is separate from the Lord, when I don't see it that way, but he had found an excuse to defend the translator's idea of forcing Paul to refer to the Holy Spirit and not Jesus as the Spirit, as Paul tells us in context, because God is Spirit, which means all three are Spirit.

We are confident of all this because of our great trust in God through Christ. It is not that we think we are qualified to do anything on our own. Our qualification comes from God. He has enabled us to be ministers of his new covenant. This is a covenant not of the letter, but of the Spirit. The letter ends in death; but the Spirit gives life. The old way, with letters etched in stone, led to death, though it began with such glory that the people of Israel could not bear to look at Moses’ face. For his face shone with the glory of God, even though the brightness was already fading away. Shouldn’t we expect far greater glory under the new way, now that the Holy (added by translators and not found in the original word of God guaranteed by the prophets) Spirit gives life? If the old way, which brings condemnation, was glorious, how much more glorious is the new way, which makes us right with God! In fact, that first glory was not glorious at all compared with the overwhelming glory of the new way. So if the old way, which has been replaced, was glorious, how much more glorious is the new, which remains forever! Since this new way gives us such confidence, we can be very bold. We are not like Moses, who put a veil over his face so the people of Israel would not see the glory, even though it was destined to fade away. But the people’s minds were hardened, and to this day whenever the old covenant is being read, the same veil covers their minds so they cannot understand the truth. And this veil can be removed only by believing in Christ. Yes, even today when they read Moses’ writings, their hearts are covered with that veil, and they do not understand. But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image. (2 Corinthians 3:4-18 NLT)​

United in our hope for the soon return of Jesus, Jorge