this meant something very precise. It meant being a Jew or a Gentile is ultimately unimportant and only one thing counts—namely, our rebirthing by the Father with Christ in whom is the new reality, as the human’s new life.
Circumcision or uncircumcision…. What does that mean for us? It can mean something very definite, but at the same time something very universal. It means no religion, as such, produces the new-creation-race being. Circumcision is a religious rite observed by Jews. Sacrifices are religious rites observed by pagans. Baptism is a religious rite observed by Christians. Since these rites represent, in the words of Paul, the whole religion to which they belong, we can say that no religion matters, only a new state of being.
Christianity is Not a Religion at all. Let us think about this striking assertion of Paul’s. What it says, first, is that Christianity is not a religion at all. It is basically the message for the new-creation-race people. When Christianity is made to be a religion, it is like circumcision or uncircumcision… no more, no less. In our present world, Christianity encounters several forms of circumcisions and uncircumcision.
Old things must pass away so it is difficult for those who have been born again to immediately and radically relinquish all these myths and rites, many of which were God-given and God instructed in the Old Testament and even in the Gospels. Yet, to allow any of these to participate equally with the new life in Christ Jesus or to be equal with the … new commandment. The new covenant of love is to be, as Paul said as the Gentiles. It is not necessary to advocate any of the old ways which were devoid of