The Sufficiency of Christ
Colossians 2:11-15
11In 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, 12having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. 13When 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, 14having 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. 15And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
Intro: After having sufficiently defended the authenticity and actuality of Christ before the Gnostic and pagan ideologies found within the Colossian heresy, Paul now turns his attention to the Jewish legalism found in the heresy.
Gnostic legalism was not quite the same as the brand of legalism espoused by the Judaizers. The Jewish teachers that Paul encountered insisted that circumcision and obedience to the Law was essential for salvation. The Gnostics manipulated Jewish customs and dogma (the Law) teaching that by employing these rituals they would help believers to become more spiritual. If a person were circumcised, and if they observed the holy days managing their diets, then they could become part of the spiritually elite.
In this text, Paul makes a clear statement to those attempting to pervert the Gospel by pluralizing the death, burial, and resurrection with Jewish customs and beliefs. Paul teaches that in Christ we have a complete salvation providing complete forgiveness, because Christ experienced complete victory on the cross.
I A Complete Salvation
Verse: 11In 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, 12having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.
Note: Circumcision – a sign of God’s covenant with the Israelites (Gen. 17:9-14).
Word: Hebrew: covenant (beriyth) a pledge or compact made by passing between pieces of flesh.
Greek: covenant: (diatheke) a disposition, a contract, a testament.
circumcision (karaith) to make an alliance or bargain. To make a covenant by cutting flesh
Note: These two words together mean a pledge or compact made by passing between pieces of flesh.
Note: In Genesis 15, God makes a covenant with Abraham. God made several promises to Abraham leading Abraham to ask God how he would know that the promises would be his. God had Abraham to bring animals and then cut them in two. Then God walked between the pieces sealing His covenant with Abraham.
Then, in Genesis 22, we find Abraham being put to the test by God asking him to have faith. Amazingly, Abraham willingly offered to sacrifice Isaac. Obviously, this would demand a lot from anyone, but why was it greater for Abraham?
God had promised to make Abraham a great nation through his seed. To confirm His covenant, God required something of Abraham – a sign of faith – circumcision. The circumcision was to serve as reminder of the covenant made between God and man.
Note: While circumcision was a physical operation performed on all Jewish boys on the eighth day after his birth, the ritual obviously had a greater spiritual significance. The cutting away of the male foreskin was a graphic way to demonstrate that a man needed cleansing at the deepest level of his being and that it could only occur as a result of being in a covenant relationship with God in which God provided a satisfactory sacrifice to cover the sin of man. And just as it was for Abraham, the physical act of circumcision was to be a symbol or outward demonstration of the cutting away of sin from the heart of man.
Issue: The problem for the Israelites was that they trusted in the physical and not in the spiritual. And a mere physical act cannot convey spiritual grace. Throughout the Old Testament, we discover that God never intended for circumcision to take the place of grace. In fact, God often warned His people to turn from their sins and experience a spiritual circumcision of the heart (see Dt. 10:16; 30:6; Jer. 4:4)
Note: People make the same mistake today when they depend on baptism and the Lord’s Supper for salvation.
Note: Paul’s uses of the word baptism in this text in a figurative sense. No amount of water could bury a person with Christ or make him alive in Christ. Water baptism is merely a symbol or picture of a genuine spiritual transaction. Like circumcision, it is intended to be an outward demonstration of an inward commitment.
Truth: God has always been and will always be concerned with heart of man and not with a physical rite. The issue at hand is the nature of man. The cravings of our flesh imprison us to sin and death. Christ came to assassinate the fleshly nature of man that stands opposed to the spiritual nature and to give us freedom from the power, pain, and penalty of sin. Gal. 5:17 tells us that His Spirit within us and our human nature are constantly at war with one another.
Idea: The flesh craves to gratify the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. It has no other interest than to be satisfied. And Satan preys on our humanness to prevent us from knowing God.
Idea: God is not interested in slapping a coat of paint on you to cover the blemishes, He wants to completely restore and regenerate His lost creation from the inside out. God desires to cut away the sinfulness of our inner man so that our hearts can be in tune with His heart. But this is not an event that can be accomplished by man. It can only be accomplished by a divine action (i.e., a circumcision without hands)
Note: Through the finished work of Christ on the cross, when I receive His grace by faith alone, I was crucified with Him (Gal. 2:20), buried in the tomb of spiritual baptism, and raised to walk in a new life under the leadership of the Holy Spirit.
Verse: 1What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. 5If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. 6For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—7because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. 8Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. 14For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace. 15What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. 18You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. Rom. 6:1-18
Truth: The very moment that I am saved, I am released from the prison of sin and I am empowered with the Holy Spirit of God to enable me to live a life that would be honoring to God in a fallen world. Jesus did not give me a partial salvation that needs further acts of grace or another divine intervention to complete the task, He gave me everything I need to be cleansed, redeemed, and empowered until His return.
II A Complete Forgiveness
Verse: 13When 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, 14having 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.
A Our Condition
Idea: We were spiritual dead, totally depraved, incapable of having a relationship with God, and condemned to the consequences of the law of sin and death.
B His Provision
Idea: Through Christ we have been redeemed. Notice that God initiates the redemptive process. In fact, not only did God provide a satisfactory sacrifice in Christ, but according to John 8:44, He also employs the Holy Spirit to convict and woo a man unto salvation. Before a man can respond to God for salvation, God has to have called, convicted, and convinced a person of his need to receive a grace that only God could provide.
C The Result
1 Life
Word: Made alive (souzooproieo) to make alive together.
Truth: We have been moved from death into life – and have been given life in a spiritual union w/ Christ.
2 Forgiveness
Note: He forgave our sins by canceling the written code by nailing it to the Cross
Word: written code (cheirographos) something written with the hand; an autograph. A certificate of indebtedness issued to a debtor explaining the parameters and particulars of repayment of a debt.
Idea: We owe a debt we cannot pay. The law given to us by God was not to provide a means of salvation but to reveal to man that He was a sinner in need of being saved. No man can perfectly keep the law. – James 4 tells us that if I stumble just once, then I am held in contempt and am guilty as if I had broken every law.
Story: In the story of the Rich Young Ruler (Mt. 19:16-29), we find a man who thought that he had kept the law and was good enough to be one of Jesus’ disciples, that is until Jesus exposed to him that no one has ever truly kept the law. And the man went away sorrowfully.
Word: canceled (exaleipho) to wash over or wipe out. The word was used for wiping out the memory of an experience, or for canceling a vote, annulling a law, or canceling a debt. In particular, it was used when a scribe would wash off a mistake or to reuse a papyrus.
Idea: In Christ, God wipe off our sin debt. He cancelled our indebtedness and the penalty we were due to incur leaving no trace of evidence to be held against us.
Truth: Because of Christ death on the cross we have been granted full and complete immunity – we are forgiven.
III A complete Victory
Verse: 15And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
Idea: At the Cross, Jesus not only dealt with the law and with sin, but He also dealt with Satan and His forces. At the cross, Jesus experienced three great victories.
1 He disarmed Satan and his legions
Word: disarmed (apekduoamenos) – stripped away; to put off as one would take off a garment.
Idea: Jesus stripped Satan of his power and of his domino and rein serving him notice of His return and final conquest. Not only did Christ strip Satan and his legions of power, but He gave us His power to fight Satan when he attacks us.
Truth: Satan cannot harm a believer unless the believer allows Satan and his legion to come upon himself. When we drop our guard and cease to watch and pray we become Satan’s prey.
2 He made a public spectacle of them
Idea: He exposed Satan for who he really is and for how he works. Jesus pulled back the veil and revealed to us all the schemes of the enemy and how to conquer him when he attacks to kill, steal, and destroy.
3 He triumphed over them
Idea: Whenever a Roman general won a great victory on foreign soil gaining new territory for Rome, he was honored by an official parade known at the “Roman Triumph.” In this parade, the Roman general was paraded through the streets with his army to support him and with his captives in tow.
Idea: At the cross and resurrection, Jesus secured certain victory and then proceeded triumphantly to His Father’s side having disarmed, disgraced, demoralized, and defeated His enemy. Satan no longer can thwart the redemptive work of God. It is both complete and secure. The only thing Satan can do now is try to prevent men for receiving God’s grace and redemption personally.
Exegesis
In Christ alone you were circumcised as God cut away the sinfulness that surrounds your spiritual heart. Not with a physical surgical procedure performed by human hands, but with a spiritual surgical procedure performed by Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection. As a result, you have been crucified with Christ on the cross, buried in the tomb of spiritual baptism, and raised to walk in a new life under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. This occurred through the execution and transaction of your faith alone in the sole energy and power of God who resurrected Christ Jesus from the state of death.
At a point and time before you put your faith in Christ, you were in a state of death in which you could not resurrect yourself because of your sin and because your heart had not experienced the spiritual cutting of the sinful nature from around the heart of your human nature. Yet now, because of the work of Christ on the cross, God has made you alive together with Christ. He forgave you of all your sins having canceled the written code by wiping away the memory and washing over your mistakes that caused you to stand in opposition with the law and with the nature of God. He took it away forever when He nailed it to the cross. And now as a result, Satan and his legions have been disarmed, that is stripped of all power as one would take off his cloak. He made a public spectacle of them by exposing them for who they are and for the tactics they used to kill, steal, and destroy. Furthermore, He conquered them by triumphing over them and taking them captive by winning complete and total victory at the cross where He not only disarmed Satan and his legions, but He also disgraced, demoralized, and defeated them.
