Circumcise yourselves to the Lord,

    circumcise your hearts,
    you people of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem,
or my wrath will flare up and burn like fire
    because of the evil you have done—
    burn with no one to quench it. Jeremiah 4:4

            Circumcision (the removal of the skin from around the tip of the penis) was an action meant to “mark” a Jew as a Jew.  It was a commitment of the parents to raise their legacy in obedience to God.  Since the male penis produces the seed of the child, the action metaphorically worked and reminded a man every day of that promise.

            The removal of the flesh from ourselves is also what happens when we give ourselves to Christ.  The “flesh” nature draws us to sin and death, but Christ (in the flesh) died for the sins of our flesh and put that flesh nature to death.  When we accept Christ’s death for our own death, then we are raised to a new life, governed by the Spirit.

            Jeremiah’s call to the people to remove one’s own flesh is the same call Jesus and Paul emphasized over and over again.

“Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”  Matthew 26:41

For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.  Romans 8:13

For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.  Galatians 5:17

            We choose whether we will follow the flesh or the spirit.  Remove yourself from the flesh and choose the Spirit.