1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty; walk before me faithfully and be blameless. 2 Then I will make my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.”3 Abram fell facedown, and God said to him, 4 “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. 5 No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. 6 I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. 7 I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. 8 The whole land of Canaan, where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.”9 Then God said to Abraham, “As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come. 10 This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised. 11 You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. 12 For the generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, including those born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner—those who are not your offspring. 13 Whether born in your household or bought with your money, they must be circumcised. My covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting covenant. 14 Any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”REFLECTIONSWritten by Stephen SheadThis passage reminded me of Romans 4 – and it made me give a little cheer when I remembered that we are included in the spiritual descendants of Abraham, the “many nations” who share his faith and have come into God’s family through Jesus.But as I read it, I was also so relieved that the new covenant in Jesus doesn’t depend on whether I can walk blamelessly before God and keep his covenant. It doesn’t require cutting off any bodily bits. It only depends on clinging to what Jesus did for us by shedding his blood on the cross, to forgive all our sins, cut off our “whole self ruled by the flesh”, and give us new hearts that want to love God and live for him (see Colossians 2:11-14).ABOUT THE AUTHORStephen is our Senior Minister and leads our Bossley Park Congregation