“Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.” (Deuteronomy 30:19b-20)
The Lord offered the Israelites a choice: serve Him and be blessed or abandon Him and perish. Yet as they pledged to serve Him and walk in obedience, they had to understand the consequences for any future sin and apostasy. If and when they lapsed, the people would be punished. Yet the punishment was always designed to bring them back to Him for the Lord promised that there would always be a way back. He would restore their blessings if they repented of idolatry and walked again in obedience. After all, He loved them and cared for them.
The commands the Lord gave the Israelites proved to be impossible to follow due to the corruption of the flesh. And the Israelites committed the same sin all humans commit: they thought that perfect obedience was possible without any help from God. It is not. What is required is a circumcised heart. Physical circumcision was the outward sign that one belonged to the Chosen people, but did not guarantee that one was really committed to the Lord or even acceptable in His sight.
Inward circumcision is the sign that marks all true believers. It is a heart of faith and humility not one that was self centered or worldly. By faith believers realize that they are sinners who are incapable of obedience. They throw themselves on God’s mercy. He them enables them to obey and to live as members of His kingdom.
We are all sinners, all in need of a savior. Perhaps those who came to faith later in life understand this better than those who were brought up in the church. I was one. I was painfully and sorrowfully aware of my guilt and shame. I knew the pain and despair over the realization that I could never atone for my sins, never make myself right with God. Yet when Jesus granted me faith I experienced the overwhelming joy and peace of the gospel of grace and mercy in Christ Jesus, that while I was an enemy of God, Jesus died for me, for all sinners. We follow Christ by faith in His works, not our own. We should desire to share that truth with all sinners.