Colossians: Already Done

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Talk intro:

We’re continuing our journey through the book of Colossians today and as a reminder Paul is writing to a relatively new group of believers to help them understand 2 important truths. He is telling them who Jesus is and what difference He makes in their life.

He is trying to help them see that Jesus is above all things including their gods and religious systems.

Turn with me to Colossians 2:11-12 and let’s read it…..

In the previous few verses Paul has been revealing the supremacy of Jesus over all things and our completeness in Him. There’s almost a ‘formula’ here in that The Godhead is completely in Christ and Christ is in us so we are complete in Christ. The image is that the bottle is in the ocean but the ocean is in the bottle.

Now in the next few verses Paul begins to show us what it means to be complete in Christ. And in verses 11-12 he goes right at one of the first issues they will be confronted with.

You could say that circumcision was the first ‘law’ that a Jew had to obey. When a male child was 8 days old it was to be circumcised. It was the outward symbol that they were a Jew and under the law of God. In fact circumcision became interchangeable with the term Jew.

But by its very nature circumcision was exclusive and incomplete because it was limited to Jewish males. The point being that circumcision, like the law, was impossible to completely fulfill. Circumcision was a symbol of the law and a symbol of our inability to keep the law. In fact that’s what God said in…

Deuteronomy 30:6 "And 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, that you may live.

And then Paul wrote in….

Romans 2:29 but [he is] a Jew who [is one] inwardly; and circumcision [is that] of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise [is] not from men but from God.
What this means is that the only way that we can fulfill the requirements of the law of God is if God does it for us. And that’s what Jesus has done.

What Paul is saying is that when someone comes up to you and says “Hey, you have to be circumcised and become a Jew to become a Christian.” You can say “I already am because it’s been done in Christ.” Keep in mind it’s not just people who will try to tell you that you ‘need to do something’ to be a good Christian, Satan will too.

Have you ever noticed that Satan will always use the law to condemn you? He’s always there reminding you that you don’t measure up and that if you’re not a ‘real’ Christian. The thing we have to remember is that in Christ the requirements of the law have been completely met and since He is in us we are complete in Him and it been done in Christ.

That’s what Paul means when he writes “putting off the body of sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ.”

That’s why Paul says in Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

It’s not just talking about the feeling of condemnation and guilt; it’s about the actual condemnation of the law. Whether it’s Satan or people who try to condemn us the answer is always the same: I am complete in Christ.

Then in verse 12 Paul talks about baptism which is the new symbol of the Spiritual circumcision that is open to everyone. When we are baptized it is the outward sign of the inward work of Christ. We are buried with Christ as we are immersed and when we rise in newness of life when we are lifted from the water because of our faith in the work, or power, of God in our hearts.

Circumcision did not make a man a Jew and baptism does not make us a Christian but both serve as symbols of something else.

Circumcision symbolized entry into the people of God and baptism symbolizes the entry into the kingdom of God in Christ where the rulers of this world have no authority.

Circumcision symbolized the requirements of the law and baptism symbolizes the fulfillment of the law in Christ where we are free from condemnation.