Indeed, by this does he not persuade them finally to pass to other views concerning circumcision? Does he not wish them to think that circumcision was given to the forefather Abraham only as “the seal of the faith which he had while uncircumcised” (Rom 4:11), but also to understand in it something greater and spiritual? Therefore we must inquire and examine carefully what this circumcision in the spirit is. We must ask what is symbolized by circumcision performed in the flesh, and why a man is circumcised not on any given day, but only on the eighth.
Certainly no one will doubt that, if our appointed purpose is to strive for union with God through Christ, then those who ascend through faith to union with the all-holy Master must first be purified and sanctified in every way. As the best pattern of this, let us take what God said to holy Moses: “Go down, testify to the people, and sanctify them today and tomorrow. Let them wash their garments and be ready for the third day, for on the third day the Lord will come down upon Mount Sinai” (Ex 19:10-11). By the preliminary sanctification He shows His desire that we strive to acquire a good character. By the washing of garments He indicates the purification of the body itself, for the body is, as it were, the garment and clothing of the soul.
Therefore, since those who strove for communion with the holy God, to return to the first and most important subject of the discourse, had to be sanctified beforehand in every way, according to His word, “Be holy, for I am holy” (Lev 19:2), the ancients were given a symbol of sanctification through circumcision of the flesh. But how? Let us speak of this. If we carefully examine the nature of our moral experiences, we shall find that pleasure precedes every sin. Some burning desire summons us to sin. It always precedes the action and anticipates the reason of the soul. Thus it finally compels one to take the beaten road toward carrying out the intention.
The disciple of Christ reveals the truth of this reasoning when he cries out: “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted by God,’ for God is not tempted by evil, and He Himself tempts no one. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own desire. Then desire, having conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin, when accomplished, brings forth death” (Jas 1:13-15). Do you see how the first conception of vice occurs in desires, and how the first seeds of sin are conceived in shameful pleasures?
For this reason the Lawgiver and God commands the circumcising iron, the knife, to be applied precisely to that part of the body in which and through which the begetting of desire occurs. By this, as through a riddle, He teaches you that we can never appear pure unless we receive into the heart the keenest operation of the divine word, and receive into the mind the sword of the Spirit (Heb 4:12). We must put far away from ourselves desire for everything shameful. We must do nothing according to our own desires, even if they seem to offer us the sweetest delight. Instead, we must obediently perform and love what is pleasing to God.
If true circumcision has this meaning, then it will rightly be said to those accustomed to boast in the flesh alone: “Circumcise yourselves to God, and circumcise the hardness of your heart, men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem” (Jer 4:4). Truly, he who circumcises his flesh is circumcised for the flesh alone. But he who has received circumcision in the spirit through faith in Christ is truly circumcised for God alone.
We receive circumcision in the spirit, which leads us up to communion with God, on the eighth day, that is, on the day of the Savior’s Resurrection. We set this forth as a sign that circumcision in the spirit is the cause of life. In a certain way, through the act itself, we consent to live together with Christ, according to Paul’s word: “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory” (Col 3:3-4). Indeed, is it not right to say that he who renounces the pleasures of the world for God must die to the world? The divine Paul shows himself to be such when he says: “But I do not wish to boast except in the Cross of Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Gal 6:14).
Having become a partaker of Him through the Spirit, Who circumcises in us without hands every impurity, we must die to the world and live a better life for God. Therefore circumcision is performed on the eighth day for the sake of Christ’s Resurrection, and not before the eighth day. For the gift of the Spirit is not given before the Resurrection, but after it, or at the very time of the Resurrection, when He breathed on His disciples and said: “Receive the Holy Spirit” (Jn 20:22).
Thus circumcision by iron is entirely fitting for the Jews, for they are still slaves and under a chastising law; and iron is a symbol of chastisement. But for us, as free and spiritual, there is purification through the Spirit. It destroys every defilement of our souls and brings in the perfect purity of piety through faith.
That the highest degree of perfection in piety is attained through true and spiritual circumcision can again be confirmed by considering what is written about the patriarch Abraham. It is written of the forefather Abraham that, when he was ninety-nine years old, God deemed it useful to establish the law of circumcision. He made this the clearest sign that circumcision is, as it were, a doorway and preliminary entrance into the perfection of virtue. More precisely, by this He clearly indicates that no one will ever attain it unless he has the purification foreshadowed through circumcision. Indeed, the number one hundred is a symbol of perfection. Thus circumcision is given before perfection. Since it precedes perfection, it easily leads us up to it.
Yet the benefit of circumcision for us, I mean circumcision in the spirit, is not limited to this alone. We shall find it necessary even for those who are free in Christ. Without doubt, the man free in Christ is he who has cast off slavery to the devil and the yoke of sin, “bursting their bonds,” as it is written (Ps 2:3). He has put on the glorious praise of righteousness, free from tyranny. I mean the righteousness of faith in Christ.
THEOSIS