Jeremiah 4:3

"For thus saith Jehovah to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns. Circumcise yourselves to Jehovah, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn so that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings."

Here God's Word is directed to Judah, the Southern Israel, with a call for their true repentance and conversion, coupled with a threat of drastic punishment.

"Break up your fallow ground ..." (Jeremiah 4:3). `Fallow ground' refers to land that had not been recently cultivated, indicating that conditions in Judah were not at all favorable for the planting of God's Word; and the practical import of the admonition is that they should get rid of all their idols, no longer visit the shrines of the fertility gods, and produce the kind of environment that would encourage godly living. It appears to this writer that McGee's comment about our own country's needing this same kind of advice is appropriate:

The fallow ground needs to be broken up. We are a nation in danger. We say we are one of the greatest nations in the world, but we could fall overnight. Babylon the great fell in one night. Rome fell from within ... Our nation is decaying from within. Morality is deteriorating. Someone needs to say something about it. We are still preaching, but we are sowing the seed among the thorns.[5]

"Circumcise yourselves to Jehovah ... take away the foreskins of your heart ..." (Jeremiah 4:4). The second clause here explains the first. Circumcision was observed for all Jewish males; but the kind of circumcision they needed was not physical but spiritual. Cutting off the foreskins of their hearts meant removing from their thoughts and affections all of the sinful indulgences to which they were so addicted. As Harrison commented, "Inner cleansing of the heart is the only alternative to destruction by fire, a theme prominent also in the New Testament (Matthew 25:41, etc.)"[6]

Some have difficulty understanding the part that man must play in his own conversion, repentance, and regeneration. The passage before us declares that the men of Judah and Jerusalem were to "circumcise their hearts"; but Deuteronomy 30:6 declares that, "The Lord thy God will circumcise thy heart!" Is this a contradiction? Certainly not.

The simple fact is that man is both active and passive in regeneration. The text here (Jeremiah 4:4) stresses his activity, and the passage in Deuteronomy stresses his passivity.[7]

This is the way it is in the New Birth. The sinner must "Arise and be baptized and wash away his sins" (Acts 22:16); but the actual cleansing and the convert's reception of the Holy Spirit are from above, the convert being passive in their reception. It is for this truth that Paul could say, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" (Philippians 2:12). Yes indeed, there are things for the sinner to do if he is ever going to be saved.