Text: Colossians 2:8-14
Introduction: John 3:16 is a simple verse, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” 1 John 3:16 is also a simple verse … and says pretty much the exact same thing, “We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us …”
Those two verses aren't about the fact that God loves His creations, but the manner in which He has demonstrated love. God SHOWED us love by sacrificing His Son. Jesus SHOWED us love by dying on a cross. But isn’t it interesting that modern churches spend so little time discussing the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ? Oh, there are songs sung about the cross, but usually they are devoid of any real doctrinal content … and those who sing them probably give more thought to the beat of the music than the blood of the cross.
But coming into contact with Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection is the supreme will of God for mankind. This should be of the utmost concern to the people of God. Making contact with the death, burial and resurrection of Christ is how God demonstrated His love and wooed us, how we enter into Christ, and how we stay in fellowship with Jesus. Our text is found in Colossians 2:8-14, and begins with …
I. The Recognition of Divine Authority vs. 8-10
“See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. [9] For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, [10] and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority;”
First, we recognize that this isn't about man. It's not about our troubles. It's not about our achievements. It's not about living a good life. It's about living a very specific life in submission to the One who “is the head over all rule and authority.” As Jesus said, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10).
For many people, Christianity is just living the same life that they always lived … only this time with Jesus' blessing. This is why church's are failing. They have not – and will not – submit to Christ.
But according to our text, that's the first step. We must be Captured by Christ, v. 8. “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.”
This is why so many fail. Oh, they do church, but it is about finding one that fits their personal philosophy. Churches are being administered by “pastors” who are sharing their personal philosophies. Congregations are directed by elders leading according to their personal philosophies. According to our text, it's nothing but “empty deception.” It's like a bowl of fake fruit. It may look tasty, but in reality it's hollow. Today's churches have produced a spiritual GMO, if you will. They say it's better, but really it's just going to slowly kill you. According to 1 Timothy 4:6, To “be a good servant of Christ Jesus,” is to be “constantly nourished on the words of the faith and of sound doctrine.”
Many are captivated by the charisma of great speakers, whether their words are true or not. Many are captivated by the things of the world and traditions that are comfortable and reassuring. But the real Christian is captivated wholly by Christ … the things of Christ … the words of Christ.
If we have been captured by Christ, we will first and foremost recognize His authority. And if we recognize Him as having all authority, then we will work to subject ourselves totally to His will. In 2 Corinthians 10:5, the apostle Paul says, “We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.” This is the foundation of our allegiance to Christ. It’s the only way we can ever be made Complete in Christ, vs. 9-10. “For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, [10] and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority;”
You have been given fullness in Christ. You have been made complete in Christ. What Christ has done is not in question. What is in question is our response to Him. How have we responded to His mercy and grace? How have we responded to His generosity? Is gaining Christ worth more than the things of the world? Are we willing to live the kind of life that He lived in order to be resurrected to eternal life? The fact is, we will not be complete until we fully submit to His authority.
Two things then are necessary to become complete in Christ: The recognition of His authority, and the removal of the sin that has corrupted us and caused us to question His judgment.
It all starts with coming into contact with the cross of Christ. It was at that point that the benefit of the work of Christ was bestowed upon man. The cross was the ultimate revelation of Christ’s authority. In John 10:17-18, Jesus says, “For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. [18] No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.” And the cross was also the ultimate rejection of sin – Romans 8:3 says, “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.” Jesus condemned sin in the flesh. Therefore, we have to condemn sin in the flesh. So let’s go back to our text. Paul talks specifically about …
II. The Removal of Sin vs. 11-14
“[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; [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. [13] 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, [14] 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.”
Sin is a divider. Sin is never a good thing. For the modern church to spend so much of its time rehashing their sinfulness - “Oh, we're all just sinners.” - shows that they have no idea how devastating sin is nor the lengths that God went to in order to remove us from the bondage of sin.
The prophet Ezekiel understood sin and its effect … and submission to the Lord and its effect. Ezekiel 18:20-21 says, “The person who sins will die. The son will not bear the punishment for the father's iniquity, nor will the father bear the punishment for the son's iniquity; the righteousness of the righteous will be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon himself. [21] But if the wicked man turns from all his sins which he has committed and observes all My statutes and practices justice and righteousness, he shall surely live; he shall not die.”
Personally, I’m looking to avoid the death penalty. To do that, we must be Associated with Christ, v. 11. “... 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.”
In the OT, the Jews believed that they were directly associated with God based on the physical act of circumcision. Paul corrects such thinking in Romans 4, telling us that Abraham was justified by faith before circumcision was ever practiced.
And we are still saved by faith. The circumcision that Paul speaks of in our text is a spiritual circumcision, “a circumcision made without hands.” The prophet Jeremiah referred to such spiritual circumcision in Jeremiah 4:3-4, “Break up your fallow ground, and do not sow among thorns. [4] Circumcise yourselves to the LORD and remove the foreskins of your heart, ... or else My wrath will go forth like fire and burn with none to quench it, because of the evil of your deeds.”
You see, to be associated with Christ the hardness of our heart must be broken up and the sin removed which would condemn us eternally. Church leaders don't need to be standing up talking about what sinners they are, but showing real righteousness. I pulled this quote right off the front page of Southeast Christian Church, which is the largest Christian Church in the United States: “We are just a group of imperfect people striving to live a life for God.”
The Bible never uses such language about the saints of God. Listen to 1 Corinthians 6:15-20, “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be! [16] Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says, “THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH.” [17] But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.[18] Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. [19] Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? [20] For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.”
See? This is about doing away with sin, not reveling in it or using it as an excuse for a lack of holiness. So the question is: How do we submit ourselves to the Lord? How do we make contact with the cross? Our text tells us exactly what happened. First, we were Buried with Christ, v. 12a. “… having been buried with Him in baptism …”
In fact, I think a great verse which connects baptism and the removal of sin with the death, burial and resurrection of Christ is in 1 Peter 3:21, “Corresponding to that (to the boat which saved Noah and his family), 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.” This is what our text is stressing. “Having been buried with Him in baptism,” we were Raised with Christ, v. 12b. “… in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.”
Paul makes the argument in 1 Corinthians 15:17, “... if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.” There is no removal of sin without coming into contact with the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Romans 6:4-7 says, “Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. [5] For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, [6] knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; [7] for he who has died is freed from sin.”
There's the process by which we became Christians. If we died with Him, if we were buried with Him, then we were raised with Him and freed from our sins. By making contact with the cross, our text tells us that our sins are Forgiven by Christ, v. 13. “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.”
In submission to Christ, we obeyed His commands – after all, “He is the Head over all rule and authority.” We have done what He asked us to do. His sacrifice has not been in vain. Our conscience is clean as long as we obey the commands of our King. Because of Him, we are Free in Christ, v. 14. “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.”
By coming into contact with the cross, we are healed of that which would have destroyed us. Our old life was one of straying in the paths of sin … pleasing ourselves. But now, because we have recognized Christ’s authority and have had our sins removed, we have placed our souls in the hands of the Great Shepherd. Death to sin means now we can live the real life that God intended … a spiritual life in fellowship with Him and His Son. This is a life that will transcend the physical world. It will overcome all physical difficulties and produce eternal life.
Conclusion: But it all goes back to a recognition of Christ’s authority. Let's hit the high points one more time. Rather than letting the world capture our attention, we must allow ourselves to be captured by Christ. He is the only One who can fill us and make us complete.
Then, there must be a removal of sin. It is not an association with Abraham, or with any man that will save us. It is not our association with a particular congregation or denomination that will save us. We must be associated with Christ. “There is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Remember, this is all about making contact with the cross.
We must be buried with Christ … that’s the association which will bring about the removal of sin. If we are buried with Christ – our text says – we will also be raised with Christ. God makes us alive … with Christ. We are forgiven … by Christ. We are free … in Christ.
In fact, this is all about Christ. There is nothing in this world … in this life … more important than making contact with the cross of Christ. As Paul said in Philippians 3:7-11, “But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. [8] More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, [9] and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, [10] that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; [11] in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”
Introduction: John 3:16 is a simple verse, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” 1 John 3:16 is also a simple verse … and says pretty much the exact same thing, “We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us …”
Those two verses aren't about the fact that God loves His creations, but the manner in which He has demonstrated love. God SHOWED us love by sacrificing His Son. Jesus SHOWED us love by dying on a cross. But isn’t it interesting that modern churches spend so little time discussing the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ? Oh, there are songs sung about the cross, but usually they are devoid of any real doctrinal content … and those who sing them probably give more thought to the beat of the music than the blood of the cross.
But coming into contact with Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection is the supreme will of God for mankind. This should be of the utmost concern to the people of God. Making contact with the death, burial and resurrection of Christ is how God demonstrated His love and wooed us, how we enter into Christ, and how we stay in fellowship with Jesus. Our text is found in Colossians 2:8-14, and begins with …
I. The Recognition of Divine Authority vs. 8-10
“See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. [9] For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, [10] and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority;”
First, we recognize that this isn't about man. It's not about our troubles. It's not about our achievements. It's not about living a good life. It's about living a very specific life in submission to the One who “is the head over all rule and authority.” As Jesus said, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10).
For many people, Christianity is just living the same life that they always lived … only this time with Jesus' blessing. This is why church's are failing. They have not – and will not – submit to Christ.
But according to our text, that's the first step. We must be Captured by Christ, v. 8. “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.”
This is why so many fail. Oh, they do church, but it is about finding one that fits their personal philosophy. Churches are being administered by “pastors” who are sharing their personal philosophies. Congregations are directed by elders leading according to their personal philosophies. According to our text, it's nothing but “empty deception.” It's like a bowl of fake fruit. It may look tasty, but in reality it's hollow. Today's churches have produced a spiritual GMO, if you will. They say it's better, but really it's just going to slowly kill you. According to 1 Timothy 4:6, To “be a good servant of Christ Jesus,” is to be “constantly nourished on the words of the faith and of sound doctrine.”
Many are captivated by the charisma of great speakers, whether their words are true or not. Many are captivated by the things of the world and traditions that are comfortable and reassuring. But the real Christian is captivated wholly by Christ … the things of Christ … the words of Christ.
If we have been captured by Christ, we will first and foremost recognize His authority. And if we recognize Him as having all authority, then we will work to subject ourselves totally to His will. In 2 Corinthians 10:5, the apostle Paul says, “We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.” This is the foundation of our allegiance to Christ. It’s the only way we can ever be made Complete in Christ, vs. 9-10. “For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, [10] and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority;”
You have been given fullness in Christ. You have been made complete in Christ. What Christ has done is not in question. What is in question is our response to Him. How have we responded to His mercy and grace? How have we responded to His generosity? Is gaining Christ worth more than the things of the world? Are we willing to live the kind of life that He lived in order to be resurrected to eternal life? The fact is, we will not be complete until we fully submit to His authority.
Two things then are necessary to become complete in Christ: The recognition of His authority, and the removal of the sin that has corrupted us and caused us to question His judgment.
It all starts with coming into contact with the cross of Christ. It was at that point that the benefit of the work of Christ was bestowed upon man. The cross was the ultimate revelation of Christ’s authority. In John 10:17-18, Jesus says, “For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. [18] No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.” And the cross was also the ultimate rejection of sin – Romans 8:3 says, “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.” Jesus condemned sin in the flesh. Therefore, we have to condemn sin in the flesh. So let’s go back to our text. Paul talks specifically about …
II. The Removal of Sin vs. 11-14
“[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; [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. [13] 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, [14] 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.”
Sin is a divider. Sin is never a good thing. For the modern church to spend so much of its time rehashing their sinfulness - “Oh, we're all just sinners.” - shows that they have no idea how devastating sin is nor the lengths that God went to in order to remove us from the bondage of sin.
The prophet Ezekiel understood sin and its effect … and submission to the Lord and its effect. Ezekiel 18:20-21 says, “The person who sins will die. The son will not bear the punishment for the father's iniquity, nor will the father bear the punishment for the son's iniquity; the righteousness of the righteous will be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon himself. [21] But if the wicked man turns from all his sins which he has committed and observes all My statutes and practices justice and righteousness, he shall surely live; he shall not die.”
Personally, I’m looking to avoid the death penalty. To do that, we must be Associated with Christ, v. 11. “... 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.”
In the OT, the Jews believed that they were directly associated with God based on the physical act of circumcision. Paul corrects such thinking in Romans 4, telling us that Abraham was justified by faith before circumcision was ever practiced.
And we are still saved by faith. The circumcision that Paul speaks of in our text is a spiritual circumcision, “a circumcision made without hands.” The prophet Jeremiah referred to such spiritual circumcision in Jeremiah 4:3-4, “Break up your fallow ground, and do not sow among thorns. [4] Circumcise yourselves to the LORD and remove the foreskins of your heart, ... or else My wrath will go forth like fire and burn with none to quench it, because of the evil of your deeds.”
You see, to be associated with Christ the hardness of our heart must be broken up and the sin removed which would condemn us eternally. Church leaders don't need to be standing up talking about what sinners they are, but showing real righteousness. I pulled this quote right off the front page of Southeast Christian Church, which is the largest Christian Church in the United States: “We are just a group of imperfect people striving to live a life for God.”
The Bible never uses such language about the saints of God. Listen to 1 Corinthians 6:15-20, “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be! [16] Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says, “THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH.” [17] But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.[18] Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. [19] Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? [20] For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.”
See? This is about doing away with sin, not reveling in it or using it as an excuse for a lack of holiness. So the question is: How do we submit ourselves to the Lord? How do we make contact with the cross? Our text tells us exactly what happened. First, we were Buried with Christ, v. 12a. “… having been buried with Him in baptism …”
In fact, I think a great verse which connects baptism and the removal of sin with the death, burial and resurrection of Christ is in 1 Peter 3:21, “Corresponding to that (to the boat which saved Noah and his family), 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.” This is what our text is stressing. “Having been buried with Him in baptism,” we were Raised with Christ, v. 12b. “… in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.”
Paul makes the argument in 1 Corinthians 15:17, “... if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.” There is no removal of sin without coming into contact with the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Romans 6:4-7 says, “Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. [5] For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, [6] knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; [7] for he who has died is freed from sin.”
There's the process by which we became Christians. If we died with Him, if we were buried with Him, then we were raised with Him and freed from our sins. By making contact with the cross, our text tells us that our sins are Forgiven by Christ, v. 13. “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.”
In submission to Christ, we obeyed His commands – after all, “He is the Head over all rule and authority.” We have done what He asked us to do. His sacrifice has not been in vain. Our conscience is clean as long as we obey the commands of our King. Because of Him, we are Free in Christ, v. 14. “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.”
By coming into contact with the cross, we are healed of that which would have destroyed us. Our old life was one of straying in the paths of sin … pleasing ourselves. But now, because we have recognized Christ’s authority and have had our sins removed, we have placed our souls in the hands of the Great Shepherd. Death to sin means now we can live the real life that God intended … a spiritual life in fellowship with Him and His Son. This is a life that will transcend the physical world. It will overcome all physical difficulties and produce eternal life.
Conclusion: But it all goes back to a recognition of Christ’s authority. Let's hit the high points one more time. Rather than letting the world capture our attention, we must allow ourselves to be captured by Christ. He is the only One who can fill us and make us complete.
Then, there must be a removal of sin. It is not an association with Abraham, or with any man that will save us. It is not our association with a particular congregation or denomination that will save us. We must be associated with Christ. “There is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Remember, this is all about making contact with the cross.
We must be buried with Christ … that’s the association which will bring about the removal of sin. If we are buried with Christ – our text says – we will also be raised with Christ. God makes us alive … with Christ. We are forgiven … by Christ. We are free … in Christ.
In fact, this is all about Christ. There is nothing in this world … in this life … more important than making contact with the cross of Christ. As Paul said in Philippians 3:7-11, “But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. [8] More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, [9] and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, [10] that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; [11] in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”