EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/8/2026
9:02 PM
My
Worship Time
Focus: “The Circumcision and Naming”
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference: Luke
2:21
Message of the verse: “And when eight days had passed, before
His circumcision, His name was then called Jesus, the name given by the angel
before He was conceived in the womb.”
Now it was in obedience to the law’s requirement which
is seen in Genesis 17:9-14; Lev. 12:3, that Joseph and Mary circumcised their
newborn Son, and as the text says this happened And when eight days had
passed, before His circumcision. This
happened eight days after His birth.
MacArthur states that circumcision has “three purposes. First, along with the other dietary and
sanitary regulations prescribed in the law, circumcision had health
benefits. As the sign of the Abrahamic covenant,
circumcision was a spiritual object lesson of the need for cleansing from the
depravity of sin, which is passed to each succeeding generation through
procreation. Circumcision was a physical
symbol of the spiritual cleansing of the heart that takes place as salvation
(cf. Deut. 10:16; 30:6;l Jer. 4:4).” I
think that it is necessary to quote these verses here.
(cf. Deut. 10:16; 30:6;l Jer. 4:4)
“16 Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your
heart, and be no longer stubborn.”
“6 And the LORD your God will circumcise your
heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God
with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.”
“4 Circumcise yourselves to the LORD; remove the
foreskin of your hearts, O men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my
wrath go forth like fire, and burn with none to quench it, because of the evil
of your deeds.’”
“But why was Jesus circumcised,
since He was sinless (Isa. 53:9; John 8:46; 2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 4:15; 1 Peter
2:22; 1 John 3:5) and did not need to have His heart cleansed? The answer lies in understanding that He came
to fulfill the law. In the words of the
apostle Paul, Jesus was ‘born of a woman, born under the Law’ (Gal. 4:4). Like His baptism, Jesus’ circumcision served
to ‘fulfill all righteousness’ (Matt. 3:15).
He could say with David, ‘I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your Law
is within my heart’ (Ps. 40:8), and He alone kept God’s law perfectly
throughout His life. Only because He did
so could His righteousness be credited to believers. At the cross God treated Jesus as if He had
lived their sinful lives. He is,
therefore, able to treat them as if they had lived Jesus’ perfectly righteous
life.
“In keeping with prevailing Jewish
custom, the Child’s name was then (at His circumcision) called Jesus,
the name given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb. The name Jesus is the Greek
equivalent of the Hebrew name ‘Joshua,’ which means ‘Yahweh saves.’ It is a fitting name for the One who was born
to ‘save His people from their sins’ (Matt. 1:21).
“One of the most egregious
misrepresentations of biblical truth by the Roman Catholic Church is its
portrayal of God as a reluctant Savior. The implication of Catholic theology is that
the Father is angry, vengeful, and hostile toward sinners. Jesus is slightly more sympathetic, but the
truly gentle, compassionate, approachable one is Mary. Sinners are thus well advised to approach her
for salvation because Jesus cannot resist His mother’s requests. So pervasive is this view that Rome elevates
Mary to the status of co-redemptrix with Jesus.
“Such a portrayal of God is
completely false, since the Bible reveals Him to be a saving God by
nature. In Deuteronomy 33:29, Moses
said, ‘Blessed are you, O Israel; who is like you, a people saved by the Lord.’ David referred to God as the “God of our salvation’ (1 Chron. 16:35),
while in Psalm 7:10 he exclaimed, ‘My shield is with God, who saves the upright
in heart.’ Psalm 106 chided Israel
because ‘they forgot God their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt.’
Isaiah called God the Savior of Israel,’ who has saved His people ‘with an
everlasting salvation’ (Isa. 45:15, 17; cf. 45:22; 59:1; 63:1, 8). Jeremiah described Him as the ‘Hope of
Israel, its Savior in time of distress’ (Jer. 14:8).”
Now we will move to the New
Testament where Mary referred to God as her Savior (Luke 1:47), 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. Paul described Him as “God our Savior, who
desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth’ (1 Tim.
2:3-4; cf. 4:10; Titus 1:3; 2:10; Jude 25) and affirmed that it is “God who has
saved us” (2 Tim. 1:8-9; cf. Titus 3:4-5).
There is nowhere in the New Testament is God’s tender, compassionate,
saving nature more clearly depicted than in the case of the prodigal son which
is seen in Luke 15:11-32.
MacArthur writes “Even more
significant than what others said about Him are God’s repeated declarations
that He is a Savior. ‘For I am the Lord
your God,’ He said in Isaiah 43:3, ‘the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.’ In verse 11, He added emphatically, ‘I, even
I, am the Lord, and there is no savior besides Me.’ In Isaiah 45:21, God described Himself as ‘a
righteous God and a Savior’ (Cf. 49:26; 60:16; Hos. 13:4).
“The ultimate proof that God is a
saving God is the reality that He ‘so loved the world, that He gave His only
begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal
life’ (John 3:16; cf. 1 John 4:14).” “14
¶ And we have seen and testify that the
Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.” “In the Old Testament Isaiah predicted that
God would be ‘pleased to crush Him [Christ], putting Him to grief’ (Isa. 53:10).
To the Romans Paul wrote, ‘For while we
were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly’ (Rom. 5:6)
and, ‘He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how
will He not also with Him freely give us all things?’ (Rom. 8:32). In 2 Corinthians 5:21, the apostle described
the profound theological implications of God’s sacrifice of His Son: ‘He
made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the
righteousness of God in Him.’ ‘In this
is love,’ wrote the apostle John, ‘not that we loved God, but that He loved us
and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins’ (1 John 4:10).
“The Father’s choice of the name ‘Jesus’
for His Son is appropriate, reflecting the reality that He is ‘a Righteous God
and a Savior’ (Isa. 45:21).
4/8/2026
9:49 PM
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