O' Sweet Exchange!

Colossians – Jesus Holds It All

O’ Sweet Exchange!

September 9, 2016

What does God want to give us?

What has God done for us?

Colossians 2:11-15 NIV

“In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”

God wants to give us a fresh start.

V. 12 – “Buried in baptism – raised with him through the power of God”

• We get to participate in his death and resurrection – so we too may live a new life!

• Jesus surrendered himself to death on the cross. We surrender ourselves to death in baptism.

• Baptism has the appearance of a “public bath” – removing the old clothes of our past and putting on the new clothes of a redeemed future.

The history of the Easter Vigil – Sundown on Holy Saturday, with candles lit, people would be baptized as a sign that they, too, were participating with Christ in his resurrection!

Baptism is an outward protest of sin’s attempt to win an inward war.

Water baptism marks us as family.

• Baptism is when we go public with our faith! We belong!!

• In many cultures, people will believe in Jesus, but will not be water baptized.

• We’re allowing another person to immerse us in water!

God has forgiven all our sins.

v. 13 – “When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins.

The sins of yesterday, the sins of today and the sins of tomorrow.

And this forgiveness is a gift!!

What do we do when someone who loves us offers us a gift?

Receive it.

Say “thank you”.

v. 15 – “Having disarmed all the powers and authorities …”

Public spectacle – military parade where captured soldiers were humiliated in a public parade

Jesus endured the most humiliating of all punishments – death on a cross. Therefore, we have been set free from the humiliation of our sins.

Crucifixion was meant to terrorize and strike fear in the captured populace. Jesus took the worst punishment and turned it upside down.

He turned epic defeat into epic victory!!

The Table:

The innocent one has assumed the charges of the guilty one so the guilty can become innocent.

When our wickedness had reached its height, and it had been clearly shown that its reward, punishment and death, was impending over us…

He Himself took on Him the burden of our iniquities! He gave His own Son as a ransom for us,

the holy One for transgressors,

the blameless One for the wicked,

the righteous One for the unrighteous,

the incorruptible One for the corruptible,

the immortal One for them that are mortal.

For what other thing was capable of covering our sins than His righteousness? By what other one was it possible that we, the wicked and ungodly, could be justified, than by the only Son of God?

O sweet exchange!

From The Epistle of Mathetes to Diognetus, circa 130 A.D.