Colossians 2:11-15: The Blessings of the Gospel

Colossians 2:11-15: The Blessings of the Gospel

We’ve been working our way passage by passage through the book of Colossians, and today the next passage we come to is Colossians 2:11-15. Hear now the words of the Living and True God:

11 In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 having 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. 13 And 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, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him. 

May God bless the reading of his Word.

]Let’s pray: Father, every word we find written in this passage is a priceless treasure because it’s your self-revelation. Thank you that we don’t have to guess about who you are or how we can know you or live in the realm of your blessing. You’ve already told us in your Word. So help us to understand everything we need to understand and be changed in every way we need to be changed through the power of the Holy Spirit. It’s in Jesus’ name we pray, amen. 

Imagine waking up one day and discovering that you have amnesia. Despite your best efforts, you’re unable to recall who the current president is, the address of your home, or even what you’re supposed to be doing during the day. To say the least, that would be extremely disruptive to your life in almost every way imaginable—particularly if your memories never came back. 

Yet the fact is that those of us who are Christians are often prone to experiencing what we might call “gospel amnesia,” in which we know the gospel in our minds but nevertheless lose sight of the gospel in our day-to-day lives. In other words, we might have very extensive knowledge about Jesus and what he’s done to rescue us from our sins but nevertheless find that that gospel message simply isn’t the controlling influence in our lives much of the time. 

As a result, we often find ourselves merely going through the motions of Christian obedience—doing the things we do not primarily because we love God but simply because that’s what we know we’re supposed to do. You might compare it to a young boy being told to apologize for something he’s done. Let’s say he’s called his sister a not-very-nice name, so their mom tells him to apologize. And although he might say the words “I’m sorry,” there’s a very good chance he’ll say it in such a way that makes it plainly evident that he doesn’t really mean what he’s saying. He’s just saying he’s sorry because he’s being required to say it. 

Likewise, when we lose sight of the gospel message of what Jesus has done for us, we have a tendency to simply go through the motions of various things that we know we’re supposed to do like attending church and living a moral life. Our focus is primarily on performing our duties to God rather than on loving God. Instead of living for God because we love him and are so grateful to him for saving us, we do what we think he wants us to do but do so in a relatively joyless manner. And that’s simply not what Christianity is supposed to be. God doesn’t want our joyless obedience. 

This is why it’s so vital for us to keep our gaze fixed on the gospel and seek to acquire a deeper understanding of the gospel throughout our lives. As Tim Keller has said, the gospel isn’t just the ABC’s of Christianity but rather the A through Z. It’s not just something we learn in five minutes in order to be saved and then move on to “deeper” things. Rather, it’s what should be continually driving us and shaping us as we gain a deeper understanding of the gospel itself. Another way to say it is that the gospel isn’t just one class that we take at the beginning of our degree program but rather the entire course of study. 

So, that’s the mentality I believe we should have as we come to Colossians 2:11-15. This is a passage in which the gospel is absolutely front and center. The main idea of this passage is that all the blessings of the gospel are ours through our union with Christ. Again, all the blessings of the gospel are ours through our union with Christ. And we’ll learn more about what exactly “union with Christ” means as we go along. 

So, let’s begin with verse 11. Speaking of Jesus, Paul writes, “In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ.” Now, this might initially seem like a rather odd thing for Paul to say, but when you understand some of the biblical background, it makes a lot more sense. The false teachers who had infiltrated the Colossian church were claiming that circumcision is a requirement for salvation. However, this claim is a terrible distortion of how circumcision was meant to function. 

In the Old Testament, God had originally commanded Abraham to be circumcised—along with his descendants—as a sign of his covenant with Abraham. A covenant is simply a sacred agreement between two parties. So, God made a covenant with Abraham in which he promised to bless Abraham in some truly wonderful ways and then instituted circumcision as the sign of that covenant. It’s in this way that circumcision became a critical component of Israel’s national identity. It marked them off from all other nations as God’s chosen people. 

And you might be wondering, why would God command something like this? Like, there are lot of physical alterations God could have commanded instead as a sign of his covenant. So, why not a small tattoo on the shoulder or clipping off the tip of an earlobe or something like that? Did the sign of the covenant really have to involve making a cut on such a personal and rather sensitive area? 

Well, there’s actually a reason why God established circumcision specifically as the sign of the covenant. Cutting away the foreskin of the male reproductive organ was intended to signify the need all of us have for the sin within our hearts to be cut away. And, according to the Bible, the sin within our hearts is passed down from one generation to the next. Each generation inherits a sinful nature from the previous generation. So, that’s why the cut took place on the organ responsible for producing subsequent generations. Both Abraham and all of the generations that would come from him needed to have sin cut away from their hearts. 

That’s why we find several commands in the Old Testament for the Israelites to “circumcise” their hearts. In Deuteronomy 10:16, for example, God tells the Israelites, “Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn.” Also, in Jeremiah 4:4, he says to a particularly rebellious generation of Israelites, “Circumcise yourselves to the Lord; remove the foreskin of your hearts, O men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn with none to quench it, because of the evil of your deeds.” So, circumcision was always intended to be not merely an external ritual performed on the flesh but also an internal experience within a person’s heart. 

And this circumcision of the heart wouldn’t be experienced in its fullest sense until the New Testament era. This is what Paul means in verse 11 of our main passage when he says that it’s in Jesus that we’ve experienced spiritual circumcision: “In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ.” This circumcision is “made without hands” in the sense that it’s spiritual rather than physical in nature. And it involves “putting off the body of the flesh” in the sense of putting to death our sinful nature. 

So, basically, Paul’s saying that becoming a Christian involves experiencing a supernatural change within our hearts in which God transforms us in a profound and radical way. And it’s important to understand that it’s out of this changed heart that we live a changed life. You know, people often wonder how the Christian teaching of salvation as an unmerited gift from God—received exclusively through faith—doesn’t naturally lead to Christians continuing to freely indulge in a life of sin just as they did before becoming Christians. If people know that they don’t have to do anything to earn God’s favor and they’ll be forgiven of any sins they commit, what’s to stop them from sinning all the more? 

And the answer is a changed heart. Becoming a Christian involves God changing our desires and passions so that we now have an all-consuming desire to live for him and a passion to glorify him through every aspect of our lives. The reason we don’t freely give ourselves over to a life of sin is that a life of sin simply isn’t what we want anymore. 

You might compare it to what keeps a person from eating rotten fruit. There’s no law against eating rotten fruit or rule that says eating rotten fruit is prohibited. So, why don’t we eat rotten fruit all the time? Well, it’s pretty simple. We find rotten fruit to be repulsive. Now, if we were pigs, I imagine we’d find rotten fruit to be delightful. But we’re not pigs and are instead human beings. So, we find rotten fruit to be repulsive and know that it’ll probably make us vomit if we try to eat it. That’s why we don’t eat rotten fruit. And that’s also why a Christian doesn’t freely give themselves over to a life of sin. God has changed their heart—their very nature—so that they simply don’t desire a life of sin any longer. And whenever they do find themselves falling into a sin, it makes them absolutely miserable until they vomit it out, so to speak, in repentance. 

So, what about you? Do you show signs of a changed heart? Do you have a genuine love for God that makes you actually want to obey him? Have you come to hate the sins you once loved? Do you have a desire for God himself rather than merely for the ways you think he’ll bless you? And do you have a passion to see God glorified in the world? 

Please understand that being a Christian involves a lot more than just doing “Christian things.” It involves experiencing a profound inward transformation in which God changes you in the most fundamental ways. And that transformation of heart is what Paul’s referring to here in verse 11 when he speaks of “the circumcision of Christ.” God cuts away our desire for sin and replaces it with a desire for him. 

Then, moving forward in the passage, Paul continues his thought in verse 12: “having 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.” So, the Christian ordinance of baptism symbolizes a spiritual reality that’s absolutely central to our salvation—and that is our union with Christ. 

This is one reason why our church believes baptism is properly administered by immersing people in water. When we go down into the water, it symbolizes us being united with Christ in his death and burial, with the result that we’re now dead to our old way of living. And when we come up out of the water, it symbolizes us being united with Christ in his resurrection, with the result that we now live as the newly transformed people God has made us to be. By the way, lest we think that the act of baptism has any saving power in and of itself, Paul also clarifies that it’s “through faith” that we’re united to Christ rather than by any outward ritual. 

And it’s important to understand that our union with Christ—referred to in this verse—is the channel through which we receive all the blessings of the gospel. There’s not a single gospel blessing that those of us who are Christians enjoy that doesn’t come to us through our union with Christ. 

In some ways, it’s similar to the source code that’s behind all the programs on your laptop and all the apps on your phone. For example, if you’re using Microsoft Word, there’s a source code behind that program. You can’t see the source code, but the only reason you’re able to use Microsoft Word is because of the source code behind it. Similarly, we might talk about various gospel blessings such as having our sins forgiven, being declared righteous in God’s sight, being reconciled with God, becoming a new person, being adopted as God’s children, experiencing a progressive growth in godliness throughout our lives, and one day enjoying our eternal inheritance in heaven. But the only way all of these blessings come to us is through our union with Christ.

And as you might expect for a doctrine this central, it’s found in a lot more places than just in our main passage. In fact, the New Testament refers to our union with Christ over 200 times. In Romans 6:5-8, Paul writes, 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. So, the basis of us dying to our old way of life and living as new people is our union with Christ in his death and resurrection. 

In addition, perhaps you’re familiar with Ephesians 2:4-6. Paul writes, 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” And 2 Corinthians 5:21: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” So, the reason we’re clothed with the righteousness of Christ is because we’re united with him. Indeed, this is the only reason we’re not condemned. As Paul says in Romans 8:1, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

It's also by virtue of our union with Christ that we’re born again and become new people. 2 Corinthians 5:17: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” And indeed, every other spiritual blessing we enjoy only comes to us by virtue of our union with Christ. As Paul states in Ephesians 1:3, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.” And all of this only scratches the surface of the verses in the New Testament about our union with Christ.

So, to state it concisely, we’re loved because God loves Jesus—and we’re in him. We’re viewed as righteous because Jesus lived a perfectly righteous life—and we’re in him. We’re forgiven of our sin and dead to our old way of life because Jesus died on the cross—and we’re in him. We’re new people and are looking forward to having glorified resurrection bodies one day in heaven because Jesus was raised from the dead—and we’re in him. 

Perhaps a good way to say it is that God the Father “thinks of us” in this way. Union with Christ means that God thinks of us as sharing in the perfect obedience of Christ, the sacrificial death of Christ, the victorious resurrection of Christ, and, for that matter, the heavenly ascension of Christ and the eternal reign of Christ. God thinks of us as being united with Christ in all of these ways, which means that we get to enjoy all of the blessings that belong to Christ as if we ourselves had earned them. 

Perhaps a couple of illustrations would be helpful. I think I’ve used the illustration before of being in an airplane. Whatever happens to that plane happens to you. If the plane goes down, you’re going down. If the plane, on the other hand, reaches its destination safely, you reach your destination safely. To a certain degree, your welfare is inextricably linked to the welfare of that plane. Whatever happens to the plane happens to you, and whatever it accomplishes is what you accomplish. That’s similar to the way in which we’re “in Christ” and united with him. 

Another way to think of it is like a joint checking account. Imagine that the entirety of Elon Musk’s wealth was in a checking account and that your name was also listed on that checking account as well. That would mean, in a certain manner of speaking, that the entirety of Elon Musk’s fortune belonged to you. You would own it all and would be legally permitted to draw from the vast riches of Elon Musk whenever you desired. All of his vast financial resources would be fully available and accessible to you at any time. That would be pretty cool. Yet, dear friends, the glorious truth of the gospel is that we have a joint checking account with someone infinitely wealthier and greater than Elon Musk, Jesus Christ. And because of our union with Christ, we can freely draw from all of his infinite riches and resources at any time as if they were our own. In a certain manner of speaking, they are our own.

So, when Paul speaks in verse 12 of our main passage about our union with Christ, he’s talking about something that’s absolutely central to every aspect of both our eternal salvation and our everyday lives. Understand that as you seek to grow spiritually and become the person God wants you to be—which is a process the Bible refers to as sanctification—every bit of that flows out of your union with Christ. The Puritan writer Jeremiah Burroughs says it like this: “From Christ as from a fountain sanctification flows into the souls of the saints: their sanctification comes not so much from their struggling, and endeavors, and vows, and resolutions, as it comes flowing to them from their union with him.” 

Of course, we do have a role as well. Our role, as Paul explains in Romans 6:11, is to “consider [our]selves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” That is, we have to reckon our union with Christ to be a reality and make sure all of our striving to walk in godliness is based on that fundamental reality. 

Then, returning to our main passage, Paul continues in verses 13-14. He writes, 13 And 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, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

Notice our condition before God worked in us. We were “dead in [our] trespasses and the uncircumcision of [our] flesh.” We weren’t merely injured or sick or nearly dead. We were completely dead—utterly lifeless spiritually and therefore unable to do anything pleasing to God or take even one step closer to God in any way. That’s the extent to which sin dominated our hearts. 

You know, people sometimes talk about God’s offer of salvation as if he’s throwing out to us a life preserver ring that we have to grab onto. According to this illustration, we’re supposedly in the process of drowning out in the ocean somewhere, but God throws out to us his life preserver ring, which represents Jesus. And we then have the responsibility of grabbing onto that life preserver ring in order to be pulled to safety. And that might initially sound like a great illustration, but there’s only one problem: we’re dead. We’re not floating on the surface of the water with the ability to grab onto a life preserver ring. No, our body is totally lifeless and might as well be encased in a block of concrete at the bottom of the ocean. We have no ability whatsoever to do anything except continue in our sin. 

This is why God has to take the initiative in bringing us to spiritual life. As Paul says in verse 13, “God made [us] alive together with [Christ].” This means that God works in our hearts and enables us to turn from our sins and put our faith in Jesus. We come to Jesus because of God’s initiative rather than our own. 

Paul then talks about God “forgiv[ing] us all our trespasses.” God does this, verse 14 says, “by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.” Imagine a certificate with an extraordinarily high sum of money written on it—far beyond our ability to ever repay. This was the debt that we owed to God’s justice because of our sin. However, Paul says that Jesus took that certificate of debt and nailed it to the cross. Jesus died on the cross in order to pay the massive debt we owed. He functioned as our substitute and suffered God’s wrath against our sin so we wouldn’t have to. As a result, our debt is fully and forever cancelled—nailed to the cross and never to be seen or heard from again. 

I recently read about Martin Luther having a dream in which Satan visited him at night and made him write out a thorough record of his own life, focusing on the many sins he had committed. Satan then went through what Luther wrote page by page, asking him over and over again, “Is this true? Did you commit the sins described on this page?” And each time, Luther had to confess that it was true. He was indeed guilty of all the sins described on each page. By the end of it, Luther had been brought down into the lowest depths of despair. However, just as Satan was about to depart from him, Luther called out to him and said, “Although every word of what I’ve written is absolutely true, write across it all: “The blood of Jesus God’s Son cleanses us from all sin”—quoting 1 John 1:7. 

And friends, that’s the reality for those of us who are Christians as well. Although each of us is indeed a great sinner, Jesus is an even greater Savior. To quote Tim Keller once again, “If you were a hundred times worse than you are, your sins would be no match for his mercy.” Don’t let Satan bring you down by making you feel guilty for sins you’ve already repented of. The record of those sins has been utterly done away with—having been nailed to the cross. 

Yet Paul isn’t done yet but has one more thing to say in our main passage. Speaking of Jesus, he writes in verse 15, “He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.” When Paul speaks of the “rulers and authorities,” he’s referring to the demonic entities—led by Satan himself—that have widespread influence throughout this world. And before Jesus came and died on the cross, these “rulers and authorities” were able to make legitimate accusations and bring legitimate charges against us because of our sin. But by dying on the cross, Jesus “disarmed” these “rulers and authorities.” He took away their ability to bring any charges against us because he dealt with our sin once and for all, suffering the punishment our sins deserved. 

And Jesus’s victory over these demonic entities was so decisive and complete that Paul says he “put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.” In writing this, Paul’s using imagery from the Roman Empire of a triumphant general returning from a successful military campaign and parading captives he had taken through the streets of Rome. Such a parade was a customary way to celebrate military victories in the Roman Empire.

And to get an idea of what this was like, listen to this description of the three-day festivities that took place on one particular occasion—when the Roman General Aemilius Paulus returned from conquering the region of Macedonia: “Great scaffolds were erected in the forum and along the boulevards of Rome for spectator seating, and all of Rome turned out, dressed in festive white. On the first day, 259 chariots displayed in procession the statues, pictures, and colossal images taken from the enemy. On the second day, innumerable wagons bore the armor of the Macedonians. Following the wagons came 3,000 carrying the enemies’ silver in 750 vessels, followed by more treasure. On the third day came the captives, preceded by 120 sacrificial oxen with their horns gilded and their heads adorned with ribbons and garlands, next Macedonian gold, then the captured king’s chariot, crown, and armor. Then came the king’s servants, weeping, with hands outstretched, begging the crowds for mercy. Next came his children. Then King Perseus himself, clad entirely in black, followed by endless prisoners. Finally came the victorious general, … seated on the chariot magnificently adorned, dressed in a robe of purple, interwoven with gold, and holding a laurel branch in his right hand. All the army, in like manner, with boughs of laurel in their hands, divided into their bands and companies, followed the chariot of their commander; some singing verses, according to the usual custom songs of triumph and the praise of Aemilius’s deeds.”

That’s what a triumphal procession in the Roman Empire was like. And according to Paul, that’s likewise the manner in which Jesus leads his enemies—those demonic entities—in triumph up and down the streets of this universe. Although they may have initially thought that the cross spelled Jesus’s defeat, it actually spelled their own defeat. Because after Jesus died, he was raised from the dead and is now eternally triumphant over them. Jesus now reigns supreme and will reign supreme throughout all eternity as the one who has not just defeated his enemies but utterly conquered them. 

And since we’re united with Jesus, his victory is our victory. You know, everyone always wants to be on a winning team. Well, Jesus is the winning team, and we share in his victory through our union with him. This means that we don’t have anything whatsoever to fear, either now or in the future. The battle is won, and our salvation is secure. 

And as I mentioned, it’s critical for us to keep this gospel message always before our eyes because this is what motivates us to live for God. Most of you have probably heard about the Great Commandment. And if you attend our church regularly, you’ve also undoubtedly heard about the Great Commission. But there’s one more thing “great” thing for us to be aware of, and that is the gospel as the Great Motivation for the Christian life.