False spirituality, Colossians 2:16-23

Last week in the previous passage we looked at what Paul describes as the fullness of our salvation.  We said that in Christ we have all the benefits of our salvation complete.  There is no need to seek some sort of higher knowledge, or add some philosophy or secondary experience in order to have all that need.  We are  completely saved in Christ.

This week, we’re looking at the remainder of this chapter in which Paul continues with that line of thought, but he now is going to counter specific false doctrines which were being circulated in the church of Colossae.  In these last eight verses, Paul  gives us three areas of false teaching that were pervasive in the Colossian church, and I believe are still in effect in the 21st century church as well. 

These three areas of false teaching Paul addresses are legalism, spiritualism or mysticism, and asceticism. And I hope to explain what those doctrines look like as we go through this passage. There is an ancient Chinese proverb which says, “Know thy enemy.”  And I think it is very helpful to us to unmask these false doctrines so that we might know better how to defend our faith against the deception and attacks of the enemy. 

So first of all, Paul warns against what we may call legalism.  He says in vs 16, “Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day—“  Now as we have always been taught to do, we must look back to see what “therefore” refers to.  Because what he says after “therefore” is contingent on what he said previously.  And as I said a moment ago, “therefore” refers to the fullness of salvation which we have in Christ.  Our salvation needs nothing other than what Christ has procured for us through His death and resurrection.  We don’t need Christ plus mysticism or Christ plus legalism, or Christ plus asceticism.  Christ alone is sufficient for all our spiritual needs.

But Paul wants to address some specific false docctrines that were being taught at the church in Colossae. And the first one is that of legalism. In previous messages we have called the false teaching that was being offered in the Colossian church Gnostic Judaism.  Gnostic Judaism refers to the early Jewish mystical traditions that paralleled the development of ancient Gnosticism  during the rise of Christianity. It seems that Paul’s emphasis on the worship of angels and the subject of spirituality indicates that the roots of Gnosticism had already begun infiltrating the church at Colossae. 

Judaism of course refers to the religion of the Pharisees - Jews that put a great deal of emphasis on the outward appearance of things in relation to the law, but of whom Jesus said they were like whitewashed tombs  - clean and white on the outside, but rotten and corrupted on the inside. But the system of Judaism claimed spirituality based on keeping the law and ceremonies, as well as certain traditions passed down from their leaders.

So combining those two false teachings produced what we call Gnostic Judaism.  Paul first describes those areas which we might term as legalism.  They have to do with the law, or the keeping of the law.  It would seem that they refer to Judaism and the practices of eating only certain foods and drink. 

Some of those restrictions on diet had been given to the Jews in the Mosaic law.  The reason God established them was either to create a unique social situation or to keep them from eating something that would be harmful to them physically or nutritionally. But primarily the issue in the old covenant was that God wanted a peculiar people. God wanted a people set apart from the rest of the world, and one of the ways He did that was by prescribing a different diet. Because of their diet, the Jews were socially distanced from the people of the country they were living in because they couldn’t eat together. And that was the plan of God for them. He didn’t want them to intermingle. He wanted them to be separate from the pagan world. 

So God gave these laws to the Jews, but in the new covenant, those laws were set aside.  In Acts 10, there is the account of Peter on the rooftop when God gave him a vision of all sorts of clean and unclean animals and God told him to kill and eat, and that all meat was declared clean.  Then in Acts 15 that principle is elaborated upon by the apostles in Jerusalem to say that none of the old dietary restrictions were to be put upon the Gentile church. And that principle is echoed repeatedly in the New Testament.  For instance, Romans 14:17 says, “for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

But as you probably are aware, the Jews didn’t stop with just restrictions on food, but they had added all types of traditions to the law, very often with elaborate ceremonies like hand washing which were not dictated by the commandments. And it would seem that sort of thing was being advocated in Colossae. 

So to paraphrase Paul, he says, “Don’t be deceived; don’t be tricked. Don’t let anybody judge you on the basis of what you eat or drink. Don’t let anybody evaluate your spirituality on that basis.”  And you know the same thing happens in Christianity today in many circles. Some sects teach that you must keep the dietary laws of the Jews.  Others teach you must be vegetarian. There will always be people who want to judge everyone’s spirituality by what they do externally: how they eat, what they eat or drink, whether they keep certain rituals and requirements which they think are necessary to be spiritual.  

But the problem with that kind of spiritual evaluation is this: that somebody who isn’t a true Christian can think they qualify on the basis of their works.  So as a test of your Christianity, it produces a false positive, so to speak.  It’s not that real Christians won’t manifest a different behavior than the world, but the problem is that those who aren’t  can always conform to some external standard. And so conforming to that type of standard doesn’t produce true spirituality.

Galatians 5:1 speaks to this principle, saying,  “For freedom, Christ has set us free; therefore, stand fast and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” Christ set you free to live as free; so don’t go back to legalism. That’s the yoke of bondage which Peter said neither they nor the patriarchs had been able to bear.

And then Paul adds in vs 16, “Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day—” - don’t let these false teachers try to define your spirituality by whether you observe the Passover, or Pentecost, or the Feast of Tabernacles, or the Feast of Lights, or any of those ceremonies and holy days which were prescribed by the law – “or a new moon” – Numbers 28 tells us that the sacrifice was made on the first day of the month of the new moon – “or of a Sabbath day.”

So you have annual observances, and monthly observances and weekly observances. Rituals, ceremonies, which were called holy days.  That’s where we get our word holiday, by the way, from holy days.  There are a number of various groups through the church age who have advocated either a return to the Jewish Sabbath, which is Saturday, or they want to ascribe Sabbath restrictions to Sunday, as the Sunday Sabbath. But the scripture doesn’t teach either  of those positions.

I remember a time back in my twenties when I was not living for the Lord.  And I came under the influence of someone who was a Seventh Day Adventist.  I had never given much thought to the Sabbath before that time.  But because I was introduced to Seventh Adventist teachings I became really confused about whether or not it was necessary to keep the Sabbath and return to Saturday observance.  And a strict reading of only the Old Testament leads one to believe that to be true.

But this passage here makes it clear that no one is to be your judge in regards to keeping the Sabbath.  Romans 14 says “One person regards one day above another, another regards every day alike.”  And in the early days of the church there were people who were being converted out of Judaism, and their conscience bothered them concerning the Sabbath.  Paul allowed such to do as their conscience dictated.  But it was never ok to be taught that that keeping the Sabbath is a necessary requirement for salvation, or to achieve some higher spiritual plane. 

The Sabbath is a ceremony that speaks of a future fulfillment in Christ.  Hebrews 4:9 teaches that the Sabbath rest is fulfilled in Christ for us,  having accomplished His finished work on the cross, having sat down at the Father’s right hand. So as was the practice of the early church, we worship on the Lord’s Day, the first day of the week, which is Sunday. And we have been set free from the restrictions of the Sabbath.

The same error was going on in the Galatian church.  Paul said in Gal. 4 that he was concerned about them, because they observed days and months and seasons and years. “I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain.”

Now the rebuttal to all these legalistic doctrines is found in vs 17. [These] “things which are a [mere] shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.”  These ceremonial, ritualistic things prescribed in the law were a foreshadowing of what was to come. But the reality, the fulfillment is Christ. All these laws and all these legalistic things, they were just shadow. A shadow just anticipates the arrival of somebody, and when He comes, and you no longer need the shadow. Or another way of saying it, they were pictures, and when you have the reality, you no longer need the picture. 

Here’s the principle. Spirituality is not a matter of adding some external ritual or ceremony, but  its’a matter of the invisible attributes, a matter of the heart and your relationship with Jesus Christ.   So Paul is saying don’t let anybody intimidate you by the fact that if don’t do something, therefore you’re not spiritual.” It’s a matter of the heart, not external rituals.

Now the second area of concern in this false teaching in Colossae is what I am calling spiritualism or mysticism.  And we find Paul’s admonition concerning that in vs 18 and 19. “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.”

Now don’t be confused, we are to be spiritual, but spiritualism is not spiritual.  It’s perhaps better called mysticism. Well, what is mysticism?” Mysticism is a deeper or higher experience which one believes gives them an exalted knowledge of God or the mysteries of God. It’s like saying, “Well, I’ve had an experience that I can’t define, but I’ve touched God, or have come to understand something from God.”

Now what Paul says is that kind of thing can make you believe you have missed out on all that God has for you because you haven’t had a particular experience. He says that teaching defrauds you of the prize.  What is the prize?  It’s a full, complete, relationship with Jesus Christ.  It’s knowing all that He has for you and being content in that knowledge. It’s peace with God.  It’s assurance.  And as Paul indicates in this statement about the growth of the body it’s spiritual maturity. You cannot have spiritual maturity if you think that it comes from a false source rather than from following Christ completely.  If you’re seeking spiritual maturity from some sort of fake mystical experience then you’re going to miss out on the real prize of spiritual maturity.

Now Paul gives some examples of mysticism, or false spirituality which were being promoted in the church.  “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.” 

Delighting in self-abasement is another way of saying they delight in humility.  I would suggest he’s talking about fake humility.  It’s humility on parade.  The Pharisees loved to be seen fasting and wearing sack cloth and ashes.  That’s a false humility on parade.  I’m afraid we see a version of that today often times at Lent, with people advertising that they are fasting by going around with ashes on their face. 

Another way that is done is through restrictions in dress, by only wearing certain somber colors, or not allowing cosmetics or jewelry, or even avoiding hygienic practices. A look at church history reveals many things like that in practice from time to time. But whatever means by which it occurs, they were advocating some sort of self abasement by which they thought they achieved spirituality. 

And next, Paul says they worshipped angels, verse 18. What does that mean? This is where the Gnostic influence comes in, by the worship of angels.  They believed that they could achieve higher knowledge through the angels.  But the scripture says that there is one mediator between God and man. And who is that? Jesus Christ. But they were being urged to worship angels, or to seek the mediation of angels, and in effect denying the one mediator between God and man who is Christ Jesus.

There is ample evidence at this particular time in Colossae that angel worship was very prevalent. But the scripture tells us that angel worship is forbidden. In Revelation, when John tried to worship an angel, twice the angel said, “Get up, do not worship me; I am a fellow servant of yours. Worship God.” Even the angels forbid us to worship them, unless, of course, they are fallen angels.  And I think that perhaps a lot of angel worship is really worship of fallen angels who have disguised themselves as angels of light.

The next example he gives of false humility is those that take their stand on visions they have seen. You know, it’s funny but  I’ve never had a vision. In 67 years I’ve never seen anything. But these people who want to tell you the latest dream they had, the latest vision, the word that God spoke to them can be sort of intimidating. They are typically super pious, self-humiliating, having talked with angels, seen visions, received special revelations, claiming all sorts of amazing stuff. But the rest of us poor folks, we’re left to sit around at Bible study, just trying to understand what it says on the page.

And that indicates the heart of the problem.  Rather than the word of God being sufficient, these people seek another revelation, a more distinctly personal word from God, a special vision from God.  And that serves to undermine the authority and sufficiency of scripture.  They dare not say that God’s word is not authoritative, but in practice they reveal it’s not enough, they want God to speak directly to them.  I can’t tell you the number of people that I have talked to that claim that God has verbally, distinctly spoken to them in an audible way.  And when those people say that sort of thing, there is nothing you can really say in return, other than “that’s nice.”  But in my mind I want to say, “why you?”  

I mean, the prophets in the Bible record may have only heard from God once in their lifetime or not at all, and there are hundreds of years in biblical history when there is no record that anyone  heard a word from God, and yet God seems to speak to these people frequently, and about the most mundane subjects, like where to find a parking space at the mall.  It’s amazing.  It’s false spirituality.  It’s false humility.  But as Peter said, we have the prophetic word made more sure.  We have God’s word written down for us.  And it is more than sufficient for every need.

2Tim. 3:16-17 says, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;  so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” Everything for life and godliness is found in the word of God.

The last example may just be more of summary of their attitude, rather than a false doctrine, per se.  Paul says they are “inflated without cause by his fleshly mind.”  In other words, they have a big ego, but they have no basis for it. A big ego is a person that is prideful. Paul says they have nothing to be prideful about. They are fleshly.  That’s the opposite of spiritual.  They think they are spiritual, but they are fleshly. I see that every time I turn on TBN.  I try not to turn that stuff on.  About the only time I ever see it is when I’m in a hotel room and I turn on the TV.  But these people parading around as super spiritual, claiming all sorts of special powers, hearing from God, naming and claiming all sorts of things, and yet their lifestyle reveals that they are all about the flesh.  They are all about money.  And they fly private jets and live in lavish houses and so forth.  Inflated without cause in their fleshly minds.

Against that false spirituality Paul gives the correct principle in vs19 “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.”  Spiritual maturity, spiritual growth, comes from holding fast to the head.  And the head of the body is Christ.  It’s not Christ plus something else.  It’s just Christ.  He is sufficient. His word is sufficient. Obedience to Christ produces spiritual maturity.  It’s very notable that those who want to claim all these experiences usually tend to put a very low value on obedience.  They value experience, but they don’t value obedience.  But spiritual experience does’t produce spiritual maturity, it only produces mysticism, which is the devil’s duplication of the real thing.

The third area of false teaching pervading the church of the Colossians is asceticism. The dictionary defines an ascetic as somebody who lives a life of rigorous self-denial. An ascetic is somebody who sells everything and goes and lives in a monastery. Self imposed discipline and abstention.  The idea that the only way to be truly spiritual people  is to become monks or nuns and go live in a monastery. Or the only truly spiritual people are the people who have nothing, sell everything and live in absolute, abject poverty.

Paul speaks to that false teaching in vs 20-23;  “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 use)--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.”

Paul says if Christ is your representative, and you are in Christ, then you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world. Things like eating, drinking, being consumed with bodily functions, with the basic principles of living.  With Christ we have died to the natural man, and now we live in the spirit.  That doesn’t mean we stop eating or sleeping or working, etc.  But those things are no longer the primary focus of our life.  We have a higher purpose. And since these elementary things no longer control us, neither does neglecting them or depriving yourself of them lead to a higher spirituality. 

Spiritual purity, holiness is not found in denial of the body.  The ascetics of the past have thought that the path to holiness was to deny any bodily pleasure, to eat only bread and water, to forego sex in marriage, to go live on a mountain alone, to go without washing, or living without basic human necessities.  But Paul is saying if we are saved, then the body has already died with Christ.  Those things do not rule us.  But we now live in the Spirit.  And to deny these things of the flesh does not affect our spirituality.

Look at vs 21, “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!” You can almost hear the super pious tone in which someone might say that.  As if denying such things invoked a higher spiritual quality. He says saying such things refer to things destined to perish with use. The question then is why are you attributing eternal value to that which is passing away? 

Now when he says “in accordance to the commandments and teaching of men”  I think Paul is referring here to the commandments and the traditions of the Jews which had the semblance of holiness, but in fact were not a means of holiness.  They were for a time and a particular people, to be a picture of what was to be true in Christ.  I think this is further evidence of the Gnostic Judaism type of false doctrine that was pervasive in the church.  It somehow incorporated these ascetic restrictions on food and handling and touching of various things which were considered unclean. 

Paul gives his rebuttal to this false teaching in Vs23, “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.”

On the outside, it looks like you are holy because of these restrictions you have.  But Paul says that these outward manifestations are of no real value when it comes to indulging in the lusts of the flesh. 

So how do we guard against fleshly indulgence? Gal 5:16 tells us, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.”  Walk by the Spirit is not worshipping angels, or seeing visions, or having so called spiritual experiences, it’s simply living according to the word of God which is authored by the Holy Spirit.  There is nothing mystical about it.  There is no mystical bypass around the spiritual discipline which produces spiritual maturity.  Just walk in the footsteps of Jesus, following His example. As Jesus said, “you are my disciples if you do what I command you.”  God has given us His word that we might know all that He has for us, and all that He requires of us.  Let us devote ourselves to that, and do not let anyone mislead us to think that we can achieve spirituality apart from clinging only to Christ.

The only way to be spiritual is to be born again in the spirit. Jesus said, You must be born again. Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”  How can one be born again by the Spirit? By an appeal to God to save you and give you eternal life, which is spiritual life. And we do that through faith in Jesus Christ.

Rom 10:9-10  “if you confess with your mouth Jesus [as] Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;  for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”

The fullness of our salvation, Colossians 2:9-15

Some of you here this morning are on vacation.  And one of the interesting things to experience after your vacation is unpacking your car and your suitcases when you get home. And if you’re like most people, in addition to the musty towels and bathing suits, there are a few souvenirs from your trip at the beach.  Maybe a box of Fisher’s popcorn.  Maybe a few sea shells. And probably a lot of sand that you didn’t really want to bring home.  Well, in a similar way, there is a lot to unpack today in this passage.  But I am happy to say that it is all good stuff.  Nothing bad is in there.  In fact, what Paul is presenting here are souvenirs of our salvation by which we can remember what Christ has accomplished in our salvation.

But first, as a reminder of the general context of this epistle so far,  Paul is writing  to the Colossians attempting to turn them away from deceptive “higher knowledge” which had infiltrated the church.  And of particular note in chapter one he had given a liturgy of sorts of Christology, the doctrine of Christ. And he does so because this those false teachers pushing this “higher knowledge”  were teaching that Christ alone was not sufficient.  That Christ was just one of an order of angelic beings that they could learn about God from, but there were also other angelic beings, and other philosophies and wisdoms and mysteries that could give a person a higher knowledge. And you really needed that higher knowledge in order to be complete.

And this false teaching was pervasive in all the Gentile churches in that region. That’s why Paul said in Gal 1:8 “But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed!”  It’s interesting to note that the Koran was supposedly dictated by the angel Gabriel.  And the Book of Mormon was supposedly given to Joseph Smith by an angel named Moroni. 

So Paul is presenting an argument to the Colossians that Christ alone is sufficient, and in Christ alone is our salvation, and from Christ alone is our source of knowledge and wisdom.  So in vs 9 he reiterates that doctrine by saying, “For in Him (that is in Christ) all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form.”  Now we should really thank God that Paul felt the need to restate that principle.  Because if there is one constant source of demonic attack it is on the deity of Jesus Christ. If there is one common denominator of most of the cults and false religions of the world it is on this point of Christ’s deity. 

Now this is not the only place in scripture that attests to Christ’s deity, of course, but it is a very solid one.  But Christ also made the claim that He was God saying, “I and the Father are One.” And, “if you have seen Me, you have seen the Father.” Such claims were either the claim of a madman, or the God/man.  No one can be a  good man, and make such a claim, unless He was also God in the flesh.

The Koran by the way says about Jesus,  “He was a servant of Allah, a true prophet, blessed in the gifts of prayer and charity.  But no more than a man, to call him the son of Allah is to derogate from Allah’s majesty.”  But Jesus cannot be a good prophet and claim to be One with God.

Now there are a number of scriptures that make the claim of Christ’s deity, not the least of which is chapter one vs 19 of this epistle, which says, “For it was the [Father's] good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him.”  That statement is expounded for us in chp. 2 vs 9, “In Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form.” They both say virtually the same thing, chapter one just shortens it.

But I would also point out Hebrews 1:1-4 which says, “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways,  in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.  And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,  having become as much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they.”  Now that statement at the end of vs4 answers the question of the Colossians about angels that possessed some sort of mystical insight about God, had the Colossians had access to that book at that time, which they did not.

But to go back to our text, Paul says that Jesus is fully God, or completely God.  And Jesus Himself said that He was the manifestation of God, which is directly correlated by Hebrews 1 which says that He is the exact representation of God’s nature.  Now that is a tremendously important doctrine.  Because if Jesus is not God, then Jesus cannot save.  The death of Jesus as just a man could never atone for the sins of the world. No matter how good a person it is who dies, their goodness cannot possibly be enough to extend to save another person, much less the world.  Only God could atone for the sins of the world.

Now to that doctrine of the sufficiency of Christ Paul adds a number of qualifying statements or illustrations. And all of these statements are designed to illustrate the sufficiency of our salvation in Christ.  Paul uses another word though instead of sufficiency.  He uses the word complete.  He says, in vs 10, “and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority.”

So as Christ is the fullness of God in bodily form, we are made full, or complete in Him.  Now what does that mean, “ in Him?”  If you notice in our text, Paul uses that phrase “in Him” in vs 9, 10 and 11.  Then notice that he changes the phase to “with Him” in vs 12 and 13, and then in vs 15 he changes it again to “through Him.” Now I hope to deal with each of these phrases in order.

But first, what does it mean to be “in Him?”.  Let me give you a bad analogy, but perhaps a pertinent one since we are in an election season. It’s like saying you are in the Republican party, or the Democrat party, and you have a representative of that party who is your   candidate.  You are in effect, represented in that candidate.  You derive your benefits from that candidate.  He is your representative, and what he does in  that capacity directly benefits you.

Now thankfully, being “in Christ” is a lot more beneficial than we can expect from the elected candidate.  Not the least of which is that our benefit of being in Christ is eternal, whereas the best we might get from our elected official is only temporary.

What Paul is saying here though is that by being in Him, we are made complete.  We receive the fullness of salvation.  There is nothing more that can be gained through any other person or entity. There is no need for a secondary experience where we can get more from God. There is no need or benefit to seeking another intermediary or from some other source of higher knowledge.  He is above or the head of all rule and authority.  That speaks of not only earthly dignitaries and government officials and so forth, but also, and maybe primarily, that He is over angelic principalities.  If we are in Christ, then He is superior to any other source, any other power, be it angelic or spiritual or of this world.  

For those of you who have come out of Catholicism, there is no benefit to going through an intermediary, be it Mary, or the Pope, or a priest, or a dead saint.  To use the analogy of politics again, if you have direct access to the office of the President, then what added benefit could there be to going to a lower ranked administration official?  We have complete, full access to God through Christ because He is fully God.

The second benefit of being “in Him” comes in vs 11, “and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.”  Now what’s interesting is that Paul is speaking here to a predominately Gentile community.  They did not practice circumcision. And yet he says that in Christ they are circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands.  

So first of all, we must understand that he is not talking about physical circumcision, but spiritual circumcision.  Even though physical circumcision was a rite performed under the law by the Jews, yet there are multiple references in the scriptures to a more necessary circumcision of the heart.  That cut made in the flesh was just a symbol of the cutting away of the sin nature that has to occur in the heart.  As Moses wrote in Deut. 30:6  "Moreover the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.”

And also in the NT Paul wrote about spiritual circumcision in Rom 2:29 saying, “But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.”  So the benefit of circumcision was to be a sign of God’s covenant people.  However, if we are in Christ, even though we are not physically circumcised, we are still circumcised in Christ’s circumcision.  What He has done, has been done also in us as our representative man.

Paul speaks of this circumcision of Christ being applied on our behalf, so that there is “the removal of the body of the flesh.”  In physical circumcision, the flesh was cut away which symbolized the sin nature which was passed on from generation to generation.  But in spiritual circumcision, the sin nature is cut off so that we might live in the newness of the spirit.  

I was speaking to someone not long ago who was talking about their previous life of addiction.  And they said when they surrendered to Christ, then they discovered that Christ had removed the old nature, the old desire for that sin.  They had a new nature.  But that didn’t mean that it was impossible to go back to that old life.  It was still there, they just no longer were enslaved to it.  

Though you have a new nature, you still live in your old body.  And as long as we are in the body there is still the possibility that we might go back to it.  So it’s necessary to die daily, to consider it as dead.  It’s necessary to constantly put off the old man, and put on the new man.  To walk in the spirit, and not in the flesh. There has been a spiritual operation in which the old nature has been cut off, and we’re given a new nature. New desires. Old things have passed away, all things become new.  That’s spiritual circumcision.

There is another benefit to our salvation, in how we have been made complete, and that is found in vs 12.  And now Paul changes that phrase from “in Him” to “with Him.”  So “in Him” being something that Christ does for us as our representative, “with Him” signifies something we do in conjunction with Him.  He does it, and we do it as well.   Let’s read what that benefit is in vs 12.  

Vs 12, “having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.” This rite of baptism is something that we do with Christ.  We that are saved are physically baptized in solidarity with Him.  

But like the rite of circumcision, Paul is saying that there is a spiritual component which is more important than the physical aspect of being immersed in water.  Being immersed and then raised out of the water signifies a spiritual death and resurrection with Christ.  In baptism, we identify with the death of Christ by dying to sin, and being raised from the water we signify that we are raised with Him to walk in newness of life.  

What baptism indicates then is that the power of God to give life to the dead is employed on our behalf as we identify with Christ by faith, so that we have the power of God to walk in newness of life. We haven’t got the power to walk in this new life unless God gives it to us. We cannot walk in sanctification unless God gives us the power to do so. And as God had the power to raise the dead and give life to Christ so that same power is available to us as well.  Our identification with Christ provides the power of God in our lives to live the life that He has given us. As Phil. 4:13 says, “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.”

Now Paul expands upon that principle in vs 12 and 13, explaining how that process happens.  He says “When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions,  having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.”

The premise of our salvation is that before Christ we were spiritually dead. Paul echoes this passage in Ephesians, detailing the deadness due to our sin, and the means by which we received new life.  He says in Eph 2:1-7 “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,  in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.  Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.  But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,  even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),  and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly [places] in Christ Jesus,  so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” 

Now Paul says that is illustrated in baptism which we participate in with Christ.  Signifying that we were dead in sin, buried with Him indicating our old nature was done away with, and then raised up with Him, so that we are positionally already seated with Him spiritually, and we live in the new life which God has given us, and empowered us to live.  What tremendous benefits are given by our salvation, not the least of which is that we have been forgiven.  All the things that we have done, all the laws that we have broken, all the people we have wronged, all the sins that we have committed, God has forgiven us.  Forgiven is a concept that we should contemplate more than we do.  Quite a bit of our mental anguish in life comes as a result of guilt.  But in Christ we are forgiven.  God has punished Jesus Christ for our sins.  So that we might be forgiven.  He has cast them as far as the east from the west and they will not be remembered any more.

We may talk about forgiving someone, but we can’t ever forget, can we?  We may want others to think we forgive and forget, but deep down we don’t forget. But the Bible says that God forgets our sin.  Hebrews 8:12 says, “For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.”  And Isaiah 43:25 says, “I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.”

Paul says back in our text that He has cancelled out the certificate of debt against us.  That means that whatever sins we have been charged with have been cancelled.  Forgiven.  Expunged.  Forgotten. He says God nailed them to the cross, and Jesus paid for them.  There is a legal term called double jeopardy, which means that you cannot be charged twice for the same crime.  And that is true in the justice of God as well. If Jesus was charged for our sin and paid the penalty for our sin, then it would be unjust for God to charge it to our account as well.  And God is not unjust.  His justice requires that the penalty for sin has to be paid, but His mercy caused His stripes to fall upon Jesus, so that we might be set free.

Then finally, let’s look at the last illustration of the benefits of our salvation and that is found in vs 15. “When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.”

As I indicated earlier, when Paul speaks of the rulers and authorities, he is not talking here about earthly dignitaries, but he is talking about spiritual rulers and authorities. Now he just referenced that Jesus was nailed to the cross to pay the penalty of our sin, but what is amazing about His death that is that though it appeared at the time to be a defeat for Christ, it was actually a victory for the kingdom of heaven. 

In Ephesians 4:9 Paul speaks of Jesus upon His death descending into the lower parts of the earth, that is Hades. Hades is the abode of the dead, which according to Jesus has an upper and lower compartment divided by a great chasm which no one can cross.  Jesus Himself said in Matthew that the Son of Man must go into the lower part of the earth for three days even as Jonah was in the belly of the whale for three days.  He furthermore said to the thief on the cross that today you will be with Me in Paradise.  Paradise refers to the upper chamber of Hades.

Peter elaborates on what Christ accomplished in Hades in 1 Peter 3:18-22 saying, “For Christ also died for sins once for all, [the] just for [the] unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;  in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits [now] in prison,  who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through [the] water.  Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you--not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience--through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him.”

It’s interesting that Peter also alludes to the rite of baptism in that passage as an illustration of our salvation.  But the main point I want to emphasize that is made in this passage is the last phrase; “after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him.”  Peter is speaking of those fallen angels and principalities and powers of the realm of darkness.  Satan is called the accuser of the brethren.  But our accuser and his satanic hosts have been defeated at the cross.  Jesus broke the power of Satan.  Because the power of Satan is death.

Hebrews 2:14 says “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.” 

This victory is the tremendous blessing of our salvation that Christ has accomplished for us, and Paul says that He did so through the cross.  Through His death, He rendered powerless Satan, our enemy.  Paul goes on to refer to the triumph that Christ has accomplished. 

Vs 15, “When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.”  A triumph in Roman times was something like  a victory parade in our country.  But what was unique about a triumph was that they also paraded their enemies as captives in their train.  And so the conquering victors would parade into the city in triumph, In a parade of sorts, with their defeated enemies held captive in the rear, subject to the mocking jeers of the citizens.

That imagery is  what Paul alludes to in this passage, showing Jesus Christ as the victorious general leading His army in a victory parade, and those fallen angels and principalities who are our enemies, our accusers, who went about like a roaring lion seeking to devour us, those same foes are already defeated, their power being broken, awaiting their final day of punishment. 

What tremendous benefits we see illustrated there of our salvation.  And in all these examples, we see that Christ has fully completed our salvation.  We participate, we benefit through faith in what He has done.  But He is the One who has conquered sin and death and given us life.  By faith in Christ as our Savior and Lord we are the benefactors.  We are His citizens.  He is our King, our Victor, our Conqueror. And we as His citizens receive all the blessings of being in His kingdom through His salvation.  In Him, with Him, and through Him.  We have peace with God.  We have the blessing of God. We have life in Him.  

Jude 1:24-25 “Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present [you] faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, To the only wise God our Saviour, [be] glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.”