Day 6 – September 6, 2025: Genesis 17-20 and John 10-11

Once again God establishes a covenant with Abraham and this time there is a visible sign of God’s invisible grace which is circumcision. This act of cutting off the foreskin becomes the marker for the people of Israel to separate them from those around them. Now, the separation was also that they worshipped the one and only true God, but circumcision served as the sign of the covenant that God establishes with Israel.

Today that is no longer the covenant sign that God has with us through Jesus Christ. The covenant sign that God has with us through Jesus is that of baptism. No longer is it reserved just for the males of God’s people, but rather for all people. This act of baptism is much less brutal, no blood is required to be shed, and it is something that Jesus himself endured, similar to circumcision, as a child.

As Presbyterians we do not shy away from infant baptism, and we believe that baptism is necessary and important as a marker of being a child of God. Infant baptism, like circumcision, is the marker of being a child of God and it demonstrates that God has chosen us even before we could choose God. This is the beauty and the power of predestination. God has predestined us to be His children, not by our choice, but by his grace. This is the difference between a believer’s baptism and infant baptism, the emphasis is on God in the latter and on our action in the former. God’s choosing us is what is important, and our response ought to be us choosing him.

Jesus’ raising of Lazarus is one of those stories that contain so many important theological truths. We find Martha professing that Jesus is the Messiah. We see Jesus telling Martha that he is the resurrection and the life, something that we all need to remember as the resurrection is one of those necessary doctrines which is not fungible. We will be raised from the dead as Jesus was raised from the dead.

I love seeing and reading about Jesus weeping. It makes me think that maybe I don’t have things as wrong as I think I do when I find myself somewhat overcome with emotion.