What actually takes place in salvation? God uses many analogies in the Bible to describe how one is born from above, or becomes saved.
One such picture is circumcision. God informs us that physical circumcision could accomplish nothing in and of itself, but was merely a sign pointing to a far greater spiritual reality, which Romans 2:29 addresses: “But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God.”
When God refers to the “heart” and the “spirit,” He is speaking metaphorically of our soul, the invisible part of our personality that will exist forever.
For this reason, Philippians 3:3 adds, “For we—that is, believers—are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.”
God often speaks of circumcision in terms that can only be properly understood to mean spiritual circumcision.
Titus 3:5-7 depicts yet another spiritual portrait: “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour, that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”
