Colossians 2:8-15 [NLT]
January 9, 2013
Oak Park Baptist Church – Wed Bible Study Series
Colossians Bible Study
Paul’s explains the exclusivity of Christ:
Paul has just told the believers in Colossae and Laodicea about how special it was for them to know and have Christ in their lives!
Paul was wanting to push across the message of WHY Christ was better… of WHY Christ was exclusive… of why they should ignore these false teachers who downplayed Christ and uplifted the works/deeds of humanity.
Paul tells them first in v6-7 --- first of all you have Christ so don’t let them fool you with their slick words or the fancy packaging of their message. Christ is superior… and in v8-15 we find Paul explaining WHY Christ is more excellent!
8Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ.
Ok, v8 is Paul’s continued encouragement for the believers in Colossae. Here is Paul saying ONCE again how they should not be fooled by these people!
V6-7 refer to the believers being ‘In Christ’ and with Christ dwelling in them… they should NOT fall prey to these well crafted arguments… no matter how persuasive they may seem!
The word here in v8 for capture is a military word for prisoner of war. What Paul is implying here is that if these believers accepted the false teachings of these people that they would be taken captive by this teaching…
taken captive away from their witness and serving God. Paul is not speaking to salvation here, but the misleading of God’s people with false teaching!
When a believer listens to one who is teaching a false doctrine or false gospel… they are led astray, and it is like being taken captive! You are then OUT OF the game!
You can no longer serve Christ as He wants you to serve Him… but you are captive to a false teaching! Here Paul warns these believers to NOT fall prey to this sort of thing…
Then Paul launches into a beautiful explanation of WHY they can be confident in Christ and WHY they should not be led astray by false teaching!
9For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body.
The first reason is found in v9 where Paul speaks to the completeness of Christ! These false teachers were spreading the teaching that Jesus was not actually here in the flesh but he only appeared to be in the flesh… Their philosophy sounds super spiritual, but it fails God’s test!
They taught that all spirit was good and all flesh was bad… while true that all flesh has sinned and had fallen short… while it is true that the sin nature was passed down thru the flesh… Christ came born miraculously of a virgin!
Many of us see Jesus being born of a young woman who was a virgin as being the great miracle of Jesus’ birth, but that was minor compared to this…
Jesus was born FROM sinful man, but yet was born without sin! This is the miracle of Christ’s birth! Christ wrapped himself in the sinful flesh of humanity and yet did not sin!
God uses the flesh to paint a picture of His love through the presence and life of His Son, Jesus! God overcame the sin nature and so this approach from these teachers sells God short and incapable.
We know that God is neither… God is not short-sighted and God is not INcapable! God overcame sin and conquered evil in the conception of Jesus!
All of who God is… was wrapped up in the fleshly body of Jesus Christ! He was truly God with us… God wrapped in flesh! Paul wanted these believers to understand this… I want US to understand this… God was physically present here in this world wrapped as Jesus of Nazareth.
In v10 Paul continues his explanation:
10So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.
In this verse we find Paul giving great encouragement to many… These false teachers had taught that these people in Colossae lacked for the deeper spiritual truths and therefore were NOT part of God’s circle.
The truth was NOT as they saw it… the truth was and still is that Jesus was God wrapped in the flesh, and because you are IN CHRIST… YOU are completely saved! Your hope is found solely IN CHRIST! There is nothing to add… you can take nothing away from Christ!
You are ‘In Christ’ and because of His authority that God gave to Him… you are covered… you are saved completely! Isn’t that great and wonderful news!!? Because Jesus was and is completely God… YOU are completely saved and need no other thing/teaching!
11When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature.
Paul continues his explanation…
He tells them that because they are IN CHRIST that they are separated from the world! God has set them aside… made them holy… Paul uses the illustration of the physical circumcision which they would have all understood!
Circumcision was the defining physical trait for any man that revealed that he was Jewish… Here Paul says that just as circumcision separates you from the rest of the world as a Jew… Christ separates you from the rest of the world as a Christian!
But not only were we set aside from the world… our very sin nature has been ‘cut out’ by Christ! We become new creatures under his deliverance and guideance!
12For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead.
In v12 Paul explains that when you are ‘In Christ’ that you were a new person… Paul paints the symbolic picture of baptism here… Baptism simulates a death, burial and resurrection, just as Jesus did!
Baptism reveals to the world that you are no longer the person you used to be, but that you have been changed by Christ to be a NEW person IN HIM! As God raised Christ from the dead… so shall we be raised to a new life IN HIM!
13You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins.
Your condition was far beyond your control… Paul teaches us here that we were DEAD because of our sin… that we were separated from God because of our sin… But because of Christ and Christ alone… we are NO LONGER there, but have been delivered from our sin and given eternal life!
14He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.
In this verse we see the grace of God at work in a mighty way. The work of Jesus changes us from guilty sinner to redeemed saint!
It is NOT thru our perfection or effort that we experience this… BUT only thru the work of Christ on the Cross of Calvary.
The person we WERE as sinners… they died on the cross with Jesus on that fateful day; the sins of our past, present and future have been nailed to the cross and defeated!
When we accept Christ as Savior… we are freed from the penalty of our sin, no longer guilty but stand justified and blameless before God!
This must have been glorious reassurance for these believers as the false teachers were teaching that they were ALL less spiritual and that they had to ACHIEVE true spirituality thru their own works! But what Paul tells us here is that Jesus did it ALL and we don’t have to do anything but accept Him!
In v15 Paul gives a end result to Jesus’ actions on the Cross…let’s read
15In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.
Paul tells them… ‘because Jesus died on the cross… because Jesus defeated sin and nailed our sin to the cross…’ AND when He did that he took all the power away from the Enemy.
The enemy no longer has power or control over you… you have been redeemed by Christ! The power Satan thought he had has been stripped away! He never really had the power, but Christ publically defeated him… he has been put down and humiliated from an eternal perspective!
He knows he will NEVER win… He knows he can NEVER reach you and tear you away from Christ! So he has been beaten by Christ on the Cross!
The message that Paul had for these believers in Colossae and in the Lycan Valley…was simply this: Jesus is the unique way to God and that any teaching that limited Christ or downplayed Christ and lifted up human effort… was a FALSE teaching and they need to rely upon the Gospel they first heard in Paul.
People this is STILL the truth… this truth is universal and eternal! Jesus is the way, the truth and the life and there is NO OTHER way to the Father except through Him… and by His sacrifice!
We cannot become more spiritual to get closer to God… we grow closer to God only thru a personal and ongoing, obedient relationship with Jesus as our Lord!
I pray our hearts capture this message and apply it always to our daily walk!
