Chico Alliance Church
“Identification Verified”
Review
I. Paul exhibits proper prayer
II. Paul exalts God’s terrific transfer program
III. Paul explains his personal ministry 1:24-2:5
A. The heart of the minister
B. The heart of the ministry
1. Christ indwells us
2. Christ unites us
IV. Paul encourages proper thinking 2:6-3:4
A. The principle of the Christian’s daily walk vs 6-7
1. Christ firmly rooted us in Him.
2. Christ continually builds us up in Him.
3. Christ continually builds our faith in Him.
B. The basis of the Christian’s daily walk (life) 2:8-15
1. All the fullness of deity dwells in Christ in bodily form
2. You have been made complete in Christ
3. Christ is the head over ALL rule and authority
4. You were also circumcised in Christ
Having been buried with Christ in baptism
God intends that the things described in this passage keep us from being deceived and led astray in our thinking.
Paul longs to garrison these believers against heresy or false teaching by highlighting truth vital to their understanding of Christ. He spends little time detailing the error being spread. Commentators can only surmise the error being taught by studying the truth being emphasized by Paul. I suppose there might be a place for the critical examination of false teaching but perhaps more to the point would be to take Paul’s approach.
When we concentrate on the truth, any error becomes immediately apparent. We focused last week on the wonderful truth of a canceled and completely eradicated certificate of debt.
The register of rules and laws designed by God for man’s own protection and disregarded by the creatures in their willful rebellion against God has been taken out of the picture.
The law no longer has the power to incite to sin or interfere with our relationship with God.
Romans 8 powerfully reinforces this teaching.
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren; and whom He predestined, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Romans 8:28-34
Our relationship with God is settled because of our identification with Christ. The focus is no longer on whether we keep or don’t keep a set of rules but vital relationship with the rule maker. All our offenses so far as the law is concerned were attributed to Jesus as He hung on the cross. He became a curse for us!
Stop bringing them up.
Stop obsessing on things done in the past.
Stop condemning other people by their offenses.
All the fullness of Deity dwells in Christ.
Christ dwells in the believer.
Every believer is complete, fulfilled in Christ.
Introduction
This morning I want to look more closely at this identification with Christ. Verse 11 of Colossians 2 affirms the fact that we were circumcised in Him. What is God saying? What does this circumcision without hands mean?
What difference does it make in my everyday walk? We must remember that Paul wants these believers to think right so that they can live right. Until we think right regarding our salvation, we will continually struggle to walk right. In order to work out the wonderful salvation that He has worked in with awe and enthusiasm we must have a sufficient understanding of that salvation.
4. You were also circumcised in Christ
Lets us start with some basic facts given here in this passage and then draws some other principles from some other passages.
1. It is not physical by spiritual.
2. God performed it not by human hands.
3. It involved the laying aside of the body of flesh.
4. It was based on our co-burial and co-resurrection with Christ.
The principle
Circumcision was a physical rite performed on male Jews illustrating a commitment to the Covenant. It set the Israelites apart from all other nations.
It was a sign of commitment; an act indicating a commitment to keep the law. Paul in Romans 2 calls those who keep the requirements of the Law “circumcised” even though they were not physically circumcised. Since no one has ever been able to keep the law, we are all under the penalty of death by reason of our transgressions and our uncircumcision. Circumcision was a sign of those committed to keeping the law.
1 Corinthians 7:19 Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but what matters is the keeping of the commandments of God.
We inherited a sinful flesh. David speaks of being born in sin. Psalm 51 We have no hope of keeping the law.
No matter what sign we offer to God that we will keep His law, we can’t, and we didn’t and we will never be able to keep the law enough to gain eternal life. We have the sentence of death. Paul illustrates here a very powerful principle. We have been circumcised as a sign of one who is wholly committed to God and His ways.
How can that be?
Because Christ took the penalty in His body of flesh in order that He may present us before the Father as law keepers. Holy, blameless and without reproach. Col 1:22
Paul affirms in Gal 5 that if you want to go the law-keeping route apart from Christ you are under obligation to keep the WHOLE law on your own.
Galatians 5:4 You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.5 For we through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness.6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love.
Gal 6:15 “For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcison, but a new creation.”
You see our only hope is through Christ.
It was Christ who fulfilled the law requirements for us.
Romans 8 is clear.
THEREFORE there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
Paul brings up this issue in Colossians of the certificate of debt and decrees against us being canceled and taken out of the way.
This declaration comes right on the heels of Paul’s lament in chapter 7 concerning his
struggle with life in a body of sin. Law keeping is no longer the issue. Relationship and citizenship in the kingdom become the issue. Paul describes the present process later in chapter 8.
Romans 8:9 However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.10 If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
The difference between circumcision and uncircumcision is the difference between a life generated from the Spirit in the spirit and a life generated from the flesh by the flesh. The circumcision of Christ took the flesh out of the driver’s seat.
Paul describes the characteristics of the true circumcision.
Philip 3:2 Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision; for we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh
How do we get to this point? Paul says it comes by reason of our identification with the death burial and resurrection of Christ. That is what Paul means by baptism. He is not speaking of water baptism. He is speaking of the identification with Christ and placement in the family of God by the Holy Spirit that is so aptly illustrated by water baptism. You see, when God drew us to Himself in our sorry uncircumcised state of rebellions and sin and we responded by putting our faith in Christ, we died as sure as Christ died.
At that point, law keeping is no longer an issue. You cannot prosecute a dead person. But God did not leave us in that condition. We were also given newness of life. We now live according to the law of life in Christ that set us free from the law of sin and death. Our present struggle is due to a yet unredeemed body with a well-engrained bent to sin.
Paul describes this struggle in Galatians 5.
Galatians 5:16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.
We are not under the law because we died. The Spirit leads us because we were regenerated, quickened by the Spirit. Our identification with Christ in His death and resurrection is the foundation of our relationship with God and our Christian walk.
Paul applies these truths here in our current passage.
Therefore let no one act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day-- things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God.
If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, "Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!" (which all refer to things destined to perish with the using)-- in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men? These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence. Col. 2:16-23
THEREFORE
Stop letting anyone act as YOUR judge
In what areas?
? In regard to what you eat and drink (ceremonial)
? In regard to particular celebrations or ceremonial observances.
Reason?
These things are only a shadow of what is to come.
They all point to the reality, Christ.
ILLUS
If I take a picture of my wife on a trip with me it is a reminder of a reality.
If I continue to relate only to the picture after I get home I missed the point.
I have been robbed of a wonderful experience.
Stop letting anyone defraud you of your prize (relationship with Christ) by delighting in:
? self abasement
? worship of the angels
? visions seen and still seen inflated by the fleshly mindOur delight, our life choices and activity must be based on “holding fast to the Head” The word used here is a strong Present tense verb meaning to seize, grab hold tightly. If there is hope for the body both personal and corporate it is through relationship with Christ.
He supplies
He holds together
He causes growth.
So Paul continues
Since you have died with Christ to the law and the elementary principles…
Why do you base your relationship with Him on the law and ceremonial things?
Do not handle.
Do not taste.
Do not touch
All of these are based on the teaching and traditions of men not God.
These look godly. They have the appearance of spirituality but are of no value when it comes to dealing with the struggle with the flesh. What IS of value, is holding fast to the head. In Him dwells all the fullness of Deity.
He dwells in us and gives us hope of restored glory. We are complete in Him.
We have new life in Him having died to the law. We have the sign of circumcision to verify our identification with Him. It is all a work done by God for us in response to our faith in Him. He is our sure foundation. He is our Rock.
He is our Hiding place. He is our strength. He is our hope.
Next week we will explore further our identification with Christ in His death and resurrection and move on into chapter 3 which encourages us to keep our focus on Him.
Conclusion
This week, rest in Christ’s work.
Stop trying to earn what has already been done for you. Get to know Jesus.
