We’re working our way through the book of Colossians in this series of posts. In this lesson, we’ll look at one of the four elements of false teaching being espoused in Colossae, Jewish legalism, and how our union with Christ makes legalistic requirements unnecessary.

At the bottom, you’ll find a complete list of the other posts in this study on Colossians.

Our Union with Christ – Colossians 2.11-15

Background

The church at Colossae was founded by a man named Epaphras. Epaphras had traveled to Rome to visit Paul and share his concerns about the presence of false teachers in his beloved church. The book of Colossians was Paul’s response. In it, he gives a beautiful explanation of the preeminence of Christ, shares amazing gospel truths, and explains how those truths should be lived out in the life of the believer.

If you missed the previous posts, here are the links:

Introduction to Colossians

The Preeminent Christ & Why It’s Important | Colossians Part 2

What Does Christ’s Preeminence Mean to Me? | Colossians Part 3

A Summary of the Christian Life | Colossians Part 4

The Unfolding Plan of God, Crimes of Passion & Our Hope of Glory | Colossians Part 5

Rooted & Established in Christ | Colossians Part 6

The Danger of a False Gospel | Colossians Part 7

Colossians Part 8 | The Power of God in Us Part 8

The Fullness of Christ & the Power of God

In the last post, we looked at Colossians 2.8-10 and some incredible truths about the fullness of Christ and the power of God that is resident in us as His children. We discussed how knowing and understanding those truths exposes false doctrines and gives us the confidence to live the Christian life well. In those verses, Paul said:

⁸See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. ⁹For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, ¹⁰and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.

And then he went on to talk about our union with Christ.

Our Union with Christ – Verses 11-15:

¹¹In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, ¹²having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. ¹³And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, ¹⁴by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. ¹⁵He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

Jewish Legalism & Circumcision

Now let’s look a little closer at today’s passage starting in verse 11:

¹¹In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,

There were four elements to the false teaching in Colossae: mysticism, astrology, philosophy, and Jewish legalism. In this section, Paul is addressing the fourth element, Jewish legalism, beginning with circumcision.

While the Judaizers in Galatia taught that keeping the Jewish law and circumcision was necessary for salvation, the Gnostic Judaizers in Colossae taught that keeping the law would help them become more spiritual.

But Paul made it clear that circumcision was only a shadow pointing us to the circumcision of the heart that God desired. That was true even under the old covenant.

¹²“And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, ¹³and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good? ¹⁴Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. ¹⁵Yet the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day. ¹⁶Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn (Deut. 10.12-16).

And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live (Deut. 30.6).

Circumcision of the Heart

But as believers who are united to Christ, our hearts have already been circumcised. We have been freed from the power and penalty of sin. Legalistic requirements are no longer necessary. In fact, it would be sinful to live as if Christ’s work on the cross was not enough.

But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God (Rom. 2.29).

Let’s take a minute and consider the contrast between the two kinds of circumcision. Jewish circumcision was external whereas we have an internal, spiritual circumcision of the heart. Jewish circumcision involved only one part of the body, while the whole “body of sin” (Rom. 6.6) was dealt with at the cross. Our spiritual circumcision is done without hands as opposed to the circumcision of the flesh. And finally, Jewish circumcision did nothing to help with a person’s struggle against sin but the circumcision of the heart that comes from our conversion enables us to overcome sin.

Warren Wiersbe says this:

What the Law could not do, Jesus Christ accomplished for us. The old nature (“the body of the sins of the flesh”) was put off–rendered inoperative–so that we need no longer be enslaved to its desires. The old sinful nature is not eradicated, for we can still sin (1 Jn. 1.5-2.6). But the power has been broken as we yield to Christ and walk in the power of the Spirit.

Baptism & Our Union with Christ

After addressing circumcision, Paul turns to the subject of baptism:

¹²having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.

The word baptize is used in two different ways in the New Testament. It is used in a literal sense and a spiritual sense. Literally, the word means to be dipped or immersed in something. Spiritually it means to be identified with something or someone.

The reference here is to that second usage. Spiritually, we were baptized into Christ when we were converted. Just as the nation of Israel was identified with Moses when they crossed over the Red Sea (1 Cor. 10.1-2), we have been identified with Christ and his finished work. The ordinance of water baptism is merely a picture of that reality, a public declaration of our identification with the body of Christ.

When He was buried, we were buried. When He was raised, we were raised with Him. And when He was made alive, we were made alive in Him. We have died to our old sinful nature and have been raised to walk in a new kind of life.

³Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

⁵For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his (Rom. 6.3-5).

¹¹If 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 (Rom. 8.11).

Dead in Our Trespasses

Verse 13 talks about our spiritual condition apart from Christ:

¹³And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, ¹⁴by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. ¹⁵He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

We were spiritually dead. Dead people have absolutely no power to do anything for themselves. We could do nothing to save ourselves, nothing to make ourselves right with God.

It was God who made us alive through Christ’s work on the cross. Purely out of His love and mercy, Jesus died in our place. He paid the price our sins deserved. When He died, the record of our debt was nailed to the cross. And when He was raised from the dead, He triumphed over death, hell, and the grave. Now we are free to live a life of obedience because the penalty we owed has been paid and the power of sin over us has been broken. Hallelujah!

When Sharing the Gospel

The fact that salvation is completely a work of God should free us to witness without trying to make something happen. Too often we think we need to convince people to believe or somehow stir up their emotions. As I heard someone say recently, all we can do is be faithful to share the gospel and pray. It’s freeing to know that we are not responsible for the results.

Next time we’ll talk more about false teachers and Paul’s warnings that can help us avoid their lies.

We were spiritually dead. Dead people have absolutely no power to do anything for themselves. We could do nothing to save ourselves, nothing to make ourselves right with God. But God … #salvation #Jesus #soulsurvival

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Those who belong to Him, who have put their trust in Him alone, God has made alive through Christ’s work on the cross. #Jesus #Christ #God #Christians #soulsurvival

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