What is "the circumcision made without hands?"
God's answer to the flesh is the "circumcision made without hands." Circumcision is the idea of the cutting away of a fleshly part for the sake of cleansing. God performed a circumcision on each believer the precise moment he became a believer. He cut away our flesh which was dead and contrary to the new man God made us. Hence, our old man, and therefore our flesh, was buried with Him. "Old things" are indeed passed away, and all things now have become new. Faith reckons the flesh dead, and because he is dead, we have no more dealings with him, as one cannot have a relationship with a dead man. When people talk of the daily surrender of the old man, or flesh, they in essence have resurrected a dead man. When they speak of yielding or submitting themselves to God, they recognize the old man as alive to be yielded or submitted. When people say they crucify the flesh daily, they recognize the flesh as being alive to be crucified. Simply put, they have placed themselves back under a Performance-Based-Acceptance system. The issue then becomes one's ability to do something. The problem is that our verses above state that the flesh was put off, crucified and put to death by the one baptism in this age of Grace. We then are risen with Christ, made alive in our Spirit, made a New Man, made free from sin, made free from the law of sin and death. What victory Grace has wrought for you and me! We then are placed into an Identity-Based Acceptance system. This has nothing to do with us, and everything to do with our identity in Christ! Our condition is stated by Paul as being a state of completeness, lacking nothing in Christ! The reality of it all is that my identity changes me, not my performance.