The Children For Christ by Andrew Murray

taking away of the foreskin of his flesh, it was in token of the
defilement there is in our natural birth, a foreshadowing of that Holy
One who should be begotten of the Holy Ghost, and of that second birth
in Him, not of the will of the flesh, but of God, which was to be the
blessing of the new covenant. It was a type of the circumcision not
made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the flesh, in the
circumcision of Christ, being buried with Him in baptism. The seal of
the righteousness of faith under the Old Testament was the sign of the
need of regeneration, a sign for the quickening and instruction of
Abraham’s faith, and the setting him apart as a father for the service of
God.
Circumcision could not be to the infant Isaac essentially different from
what it was to Abraham. It was to him too a seal of his participation in
that spiritual covenant of which God’s promise and man’s faith were
the two marks. All unknowing, he had been taken, with his father, and
for his father’s faith; into the favor and covenant of God. It was to him,
as to Abraham, a seal of faith — faith already existing and accepted.
Not his own, but his father’s; for Abraham’s sake the blessing came on
him. We find this distinctly stated later on (Gen. 26: 3, 5): ‘I will bless
thee, because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my
commandments, and my statutes, and my laws.’ And again (ver. 24): `I
am the God of Abraham thy father; fear not, for I am with thee, and will
bless thee, for my servant Abraham’s sake.’ Abraham had not believed
for himself alone, but for his child; the faith that was counted for
righteousness had entirely reference to God’s promise about his child;
as a father he had believed and received the child in faith from God; the
sign of circumcision in the child was the seal to the child of the father’s
faith. God dealt with father and child as one; the father believed for
himself and his child as one; the child had the same place in the
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