Parties

God said to him... "I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant..." -- Genesis 17:7 (ESV)

Conditions

• ... to be God to you and to your offspring after you.
• And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.” -- Genesis 17:7-8 (ESV)

Confirmation

And God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you:

Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring, both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money, shall surely be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant.

-- Genesis 17:9-13 (ESV)

Penalty

Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.” -- Genesis 17:14 (ESV)

Response

Then Abraham took Ishmael his son and all those born in his house or bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham's house, and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very day, as God had said to him. Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. That very day Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised. And all the men of his house, those born in the house and those bought with money from a foreigner, were circumcised with him. -- Genesis 17:23-27 (ESV)

Relevancy

And when Peter saw it he addressed the people: “Men of Israel... you are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham,

‘And in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’ -- Genesis 22:18

God, having raised up His servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness.”

And as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.

-- Acts 3:12,25-4:2 (ESV)

Peter also pointed out that "circumcision" was intended for Jesus' ancestors as a reminder of hope of the expected "seed" which would be the Christ which was fulfilled by Jesus' birth. Circumcision was never intended to be a means to salvation:

But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”

And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question. So, being sent on their way by the church, they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and brought great joy to all the brothers. When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they declared all that God had done with them. But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses.”

The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter.

And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God, Who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as He did to us, and He made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith. Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?

But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will...

my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God.”

-- Acts 15:1-11,19 (ESV)

Paul reminds the gentiles:

Therefore

• remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called “the circumcision”, which is made in the flesh by hands —
• remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

1. For he himself is our peace,
2. who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances,
3. that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and
4. might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And
5. he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.
6. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but
7. you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

-- Ephesians 2:11-22 (ESV)