Reality and Symbols of Reality
(Colossians 2:11-15)
1. All of us know what it is like to search for something that is broken or wrong.
2. Perhaps your car won’t start: it is not the battery or alternator. What is it?
3. Somewhere you have a hole puncher; it is not with the stapler, ruler, and office supplies. Where?
4. You took something apart, repaired it, and put it back together. But you have some extra parts left over. Where do they go?
5. Your stomach is not right. Not your gall bladder; they have ruled out an ulcer. What could it be?
6. We spend lots of time, energy, and money in our attempt to solve mysteries.
7. The errors Paul was combatting in Colossians are a mystery. We can only take our best guess.
8. What was the Colossian heresy? Or were there several? Perhaps a proto-gnosticism that said the body was evil but the spirit good. This belief took two directions. Some said, because the body is evil and spirit good, it doesn’t really matter what you do in life because only at death will the spirit be released from the body, so live it up. The other viewpoint suggested that, because the body was evil, we should strictly discipline it to develop our spiritual nature now.
Biblical faith says neither of the above. The body and soul are both created as good, but both have been messed up because of the curse that came about when our first parents sinned. The problem is not our bodies, per se, but the evil inclination we call the flesh or sin nature. The good inclination — what we call the spirit — is intensified through the new birth.
Main Idea: The salvation we have in Jesus is pictured for us in symbols, is based on forgiveness made possible through his atoning death, and ultimately results in an altered universe.
I. The SYMBOLS of Salvation (11-12)
We must assume that the false teachers adopted a mechanical view of rituals, that altering physical things could effect spiritual changes. Paul demonstrates, however, that physical rites foreshadow or remind us of spiritual realities, they do not create them. A war of rituals is taking place here.
A. CIRCUMCISION (11)
1. Symbolizes the new BIRTH (regeneration)
2. Symbolizes the work of Jesus on the CROSS
According to Ex. iv. 24-26, the circumcision of the first-born son was omitted by Moses, and the Lord therefore "sought to kill him"; whereupon "Zipporah took a flint and cut off the foreskin of her son, and made it touch [A. V., "cast it at"] his [Moses'] feet," saying, "A bridegroom of blood art thou to me." Thus Moses was ransomed by the blood of his son's circumcision. [Jewish Encyclopedia.com]
3. Symbolizes saying “no” to the FLESH (sinful nature)
B. BAPTISM (12)
1. Our BURIAL with Jesus
2. Our RESURRECTION with Jesus
The proto-gnostics may have portrayed the body as a tomb from which we must escape, but Paul says that Christ already provided for our resurrection and we begin experiencing a spiritual resurrection when we come to Jesus, as portrayed by the Christian initiation rite of baptism…[ideas from Keener]
3. The actuality of all these truths is realized by FAITH
C. Temptation: To make salvation MECHANICAL and confuse symbols with what is symbolized
The salvation we have in Jesus is pictured for us in symbols, is based on forgiveness made possible through his atoning death, and ultimately results in an altered universe.
II. The BASIS of Forgiveness (13-14)
A. God makes we who were spiritually dead ALIVE with Jesus
1. About one half of the verses in Ephesians are also found in Colossians in very similar language.
2. The detailed exposition of this process is found in Ephesians 2:1-10
B. God forgives our SIN
C. He does so because Jesus legally paid our DEBT
1. This refers to I.O.U’s. Every time we sin, we owe God (sins = debts); the Law makes sin clear
2. Jews believed sins blotted, repented in prep for Yom Kippur…but really when Jesus died [paraphrased from Keener, IVP Bible Background Commentary]
3. Jesus is a redeemer; he is not merely a philosopher or enlightened man, but a redeemer; those who do not see the need for redemption try to turn Jesus into some sort of guru or peacenik.
D. So much anguish over GUILT
If people could be freed from guilt, the course of the world would change dramatically. People expend great effort to suppress guilt, and they try to change society so that society says what they are doing is not wrong, or, if it is wrong, it is justifiable. People drown themselves in alcohol or drugs or any of a variety of addictions to escape the pangs of conscience. The best well to deal with guilt is forgiveness and cleansing through Jesus Christ.
1. Suppose you forged your father’s will so that you got more of the inheritance, cheating your brother. Your brother has suddenly died. How do you make it right?
2. You repent, confess your sins to Jesus (forgiveness with God) and then make restitution as best you can (forgiveness with man). Maybe you pay for his children’s college expenses, or give the money to his widow. Or perhaps you give to a charity or cause he supported if he has no heirs.
The salvation we have in Jesus is pictured for us in symbols, is based on forgiveness made possible through his atoning death, and ultimately results in an altered universe.
III. The COSMIC Effect of Jesus’ Work (15)
A. The evil spirits behind the world have been DEFEATED
1. Jesus won the victory with his cross and resurrection, and we experience the spiritual benefits now, under the New Covenant; we can tell Satan, “In the Name of Jesus, leave!”
2. He will begin to claim the victory over the world with the Tribulation
3. He will take the throne during the Millennium
Isaiah 24:21-23 speaks of the time that the world’s leader — presumably the evil spirits behind them — are cast into the pit with Satan for the duration of the Millennium and then judged, if my interpretation is correct:
On that day the Lord will punish the host of heaven, in heaven, and the kings of the earth, on the earth.
They will be gathered together as prisoners in a pit; they will be shut up in a prison, and after many days they will be punished. Then the moon will be confounded and the sun ashamed, for the Lord of hosts reigns on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and his glory will be before his elders.
B. The Lord will laugh in victory when the Son claims his KINGDOM (Psalm 2)
Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.”
He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.”
I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.”
Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
The salvation we have in Jesus is pictured for us in symbols, is based on forgiveness made possible through his atoning death, and ultimately results in an altered universe.
