Chapter 16. Justification Was Never Effected by Circumcision. Christ Did Not Abrogate the Decalogue.
Chapter 16
1. From Scripture itself, moreover, we learn that circumcision was not given by God to effect perfection of holiness, but as a sign that the race of Abraham might continue to be recognized, as we learn from Scripture itself, which says, God said to Abraham, “Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall circumcise in the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you.” The Prophet Ezekiel said the same about the sabbaths, I gave them also my sabbaths, as a sign between me and them, that they might know that I the Lord sanctify them. And in Exodus God said to Moses, You shall keep my sabbath, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations. So these things were given as signs. But the signs were not without symbolic meaning, that is, without significance or useless, since they were given by a wise artist. Now, circumcision according to the flesh looked forward to circumcision according to the spirit. For, as the Apostle says, we have been circumcised with a circumcision made without hands. And the Prophet said, Circumcise the hardness of your heart.
The sabbaths, however, taught that the service toward God was to last through the whole day. For we were regarded, the Apostle Paul says, all the day long as sheep to be slaughtered; that is, we have been consecrated, and we are in the service of our faith all the time and persevere in it; and we abstain from all avarice, neither acquiring nor possessing treasures on earth. [The sabbath] was pointed out as God’s rest from the things that had been made, that is, the kingdom in which man who perseveres in serving God will rest and partake of God’s table.
2. Further, that man was not justified by these things, but that they were given as signs for the people is shown by the fact that Abraham, without circumcision and without the observance of the sabbaths, believed in God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness, and he was called the friend of God. Lot, too, without having been circumcised was led out of Sodom and obtained salvation from God. Noah, likewise, who was pleasing to God, was not circumcised, still he received the measurements [of the ark] for the world of the second race [of men]. Enoch, too, being pleasing to God without circumcision, functioned as ambassador to the angels, though he was a man, and was transferred [to heaven] and is preserved until now as a witness of God’s just judgment, because the angels who had transgressed fell to earth as a punishment, but the man who was pleasing [to God] was transferred to salvation. Moreover, all the rest of the multitude of the righteous before Abraham, and of the Patriarchs who lived before Moses, were justified without the things mentioned and without the Law of Moses, Moses himself said this to the people in Deuteronomy, The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. Not with your fathers did he make the covenant but with you.
3. Why, then, did the Lord not make a covenant for the Patriarchs? Because the Law is not laid down for the just. Now, the just Patriarchs had the power of the Decalogue written in their hearts and souls; namely, they loved God who made them and abstained from injustice toward their neighbors. Consequently, it was not necessary for them to be admonished by corrective written [laws], because they had within themselves the justice of the Law. But when, in Egypt, this justice and the love for God had gone into oblivion and became extinct, God, because of his great benevolence toward men, necessarily revealed himself with a living voice and led the people out of Egypt with power, so that man might again become God’s disciple and follower. And he afflicted the disobedient that they might not contemn him who created them, and he nourished them with manna that they might receive the spiritual food, as Moses says in Deuteronomy, He fed you with manna, which your fathers did not know, that you might know that man does not live by bread alone but by every thing of God that proceeds out of his mouth. It also commanded love toward God and insisted on justice toward one’s neighbor, so that man might not be unjust to and unworthy of God. God prepared man by the Decalogue for friendship with himself and for concord with his neighbor. These things were useful for man, but God was in need of nothing from man.
4. It is for this reason that Scripture says, These words the Lord spoke to all the assembly of the sons of Israel at the mountain, and he added no more. For as we have said, he needed nothing from them. Then, too, Moses said, 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, and to serve the Lord your God, with all your heart and with all your soul? Now these things made man glorious, supplying what was wanting to him, namely, God’s friendship. But they profited God nothing. God, really, did not need man’s love. But God’s glory was lacking to man, which he could not acquire in any other way than by obedience to God. And so Moses again said to them, Choose life, that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice, and cleaving to him; for that means life to you, and length of days. For the sake of preparing man for that life, the Lord by himself spoke the words of the Decalogue to all alike. And so they equally remain among us, having been extended and strengthened, but not abolished, by his coming in the flesh.
5. But the commandments for servitude were given separately to the people by Moses. They were suitable for their disciplining, as Moses himself said, And the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you the statutes and ordinances. So these commandments that had been given to them for servitude and [were given] as a sign, he abrogated by the new covenant. But the commandments that are the natural and free and general laws of all people he strengthened. Moreover, by adoption he generously gave to men without envy, to know God the Father and to love him with his whole heart, and to follow his Word without deviating, not only by abstaining from evil actions, but also from desiring them. But he also strengthened the fear, for the children must fear more than the servants, and must have greater love toward their Father. For this reason the Lord said, On the day of judgment men will give an account for every careless word; and, Everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart; and, Everyone who is angry with his brother without cause shall be liable to judgment. This he said that we might know that we will give an account to God not only of our deeds as servants, but also of our words and thoughts, as those who have received the power of liberty, in which man is tested all the more about whether he will reverence and fear and love the Lord. Peter, too, said, without using your freedom as a pretext for evil, but for testing and manifesting the faith.