Spiritual warfare takes many forms. Since we are learning from past battles, let’s revisit the circumcision issue, one of the greatest internal problems Christians faced in New Testament times.
Some [Christian] men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” (Acts 15:1)
For Jews, circumcision was all-important. It was the fleshly sign of God’s covenant with Abraham (Genesis 17:9-14), and essential to the Old Covenant (Exodus 12:48; Leviticus 12:3). At the time of Acts 15, so far as the record goes, no one had said, “You shall no longer require circumcision.” What Christians did know was that Christ poured out His blood for the New Covenant (Luke 22:20). They knew Jeremiah’s prophecy that the New Covenant would not be like the Old, which implied a new order and the end of the Old. The Holy Spirit confirmed this truth in the Jerusalem meeting (Acts 15), and later in books like Hebrews, Romans and Galatians. Salvation by grace through faith necessarily rules out other ways to be saved.
This truth becomes basic in our understanding of the New Testament. The Acts 15 issue was not whether Jesus was the crucified and risen Messiah. The Judaizers who insisted on circumcision were “believers” (Acts 15:5). Their issue was how to respond to the Gospel. They added a condition—the Law’s physical circumcision. However, the new order has a far better circumcision.
In [Christ] you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised with Him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised Him from the dead. (Colossians 2:11-12 cf. Romans 6:3-4)
Rule-makers are still trying to add conditions. But Satan also seeks to take away from the biblical response. He misleads genuine faith by having people believe in ‘another Jesus’ different from the Christ revealed in the New Testament. He can remove repentance, reasoning that grace allows sin to continue (Romans 6:1). He can subtract baptism, as the Pharisees and lawyers did (Luke 7:30). Had the Ethiopian asked today’s leaders about baptism, many would reply, “Don’t do that! Baptism is a ‘work of merit’ that tries to earn salvation.” Of course, the Bible never treats it that way. It is passive—“be baptized” (Acts 2:38)—which hardly characterizes work. As Colossians 2 shows, baptism is faith responding as Jesus required, faith in God’s resurrection power. It appeals “through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 3:21).
Go into all the world and proclaim the Gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. (Mark 16:15-16)
Mark 16 gives two responses for salvation, but just one response for condemnation. Obviously, an unbeliever will not receive biblical baptism. Sadly, in today’s spiritual warfare, many have fallen for the lie that contradicts Mark 16.