Our Total Forgiveness In Christ Jesus

Welcome, what do you do with the statement Christ Jesus is fully God, and we are full in Him? What does spiritual fullness mean? How is it ours? In verses 11-15, Paul completes the argument of verses 9-10. Paul begins his explanation of fullness with complete salvation. The metaphors that Paul chooses to explain our full salvation are circumcision and baptism. The point of these metaphors is that we are saved totally and exclusively through the work of God, not through any human activity.

Whether those who were promoting the false religion pressed circumcision as a divine command, as a prevention against fleshly sin, as a talisman against evil spirits, or as a badge of superiority like their Jewish teachers we do not know. What we do know is that this must have become a point of contention between the false teachers and the Church in Colosse. Other wise Paul would not have used it to address total forgiveness, in Christ and not through human hands.

Col 2:11-15

11 In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.

13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

1. Not Through Human Hands (vs. 11)

Our old nature, which is corrupt in its natural state is in rebellion against God. I know that we don't like to think that, instead we like to think of ourselves as good people. And we may be good people, by our standards or the standards of those around us. But how do we measure up to God's standard? Isaiah wrote, “For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; (Isaiah 64:6). And in Romans 3:23 we see, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” 

 

The false teachers used the Old Testament and some Jewish text like that of Essene's “the Dead Sea Scrolls” to say that man can deal with the problem of sin themselves. They said that rituals such as circumcision and baptism could enable one to overcome the evil impulse to sin. God did require the Israelites to be circumcised as part of the Abrahamic Covenant (Genesis 17). But those who were preaching a “new” kind of gospel promoted the idea that the Colossians could do something to rid themselves of sin and it's impact. Thereby adding to the work of Christ Jesus or negating it altogether. 

 

You have to give up the ways of the “flesh,” and stop trying to obtain salvation yourself. You can not earn your salvation. Christ Jesus is the only one who can take away your sin and He is the only one who can make you a new creation. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. 2 Corinthians 5:17

Are you still trying to earn your salvation or counting on works to save you and not Christ Jesus?

Since children were regularly baptized in medieval Europe, rejection by God from salvation was practically rendered irrelevant for all living within Christendom. However, Augustine’s doctrine of predestination saw a restore to life as a result of the Black Death (1347–1350), wherein one-third of Europe’s population perished in the bubonic plague. Since many of those who died, although baptized, had not received the last rites, they were popularly thought to have perished in a state of mortal sin and were destined for hell. Pre-Reformation theologians like John Wycliffe (ca. 1330–1384) and Jan Hus (ca. 1369–1415) argued that baptism was not the ratio praedestinationis (per-existing in someone who did not yet exist) and did nothing to ensure one’s election. Wycliffe and Hus insisted that people could not indirectly control divine election through baptism or through sacramental reception in general, as election was purely the sovereign choice of God. Consequently, only God knew who out of the institutional, visible church belonged to the true or invisible church (Allison, Historical Theology, 577).

In other words just being sprinkled with water or dunked under water does not save a person. But you can be saved and made alive.

2. Made Alive (vs. 12-13)

Baptism is the visible expression of your faith placed in Christ Jesus. In the ordinance of baptism, going under the water represents burial and coming out of the water represents being raised to a new life found in Christ Jesus. Paul in these verses compares your salvation experience to baptism. Christ Jesus died on the cross because of your sins: For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). Peter says in his letter to the church: and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed. (1 Peter 2:24). 

Christ Jesus died for the sins of mankind, but if you have not invited Him into your life you are still dead in your sins: For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23).

Paul was writing to the Christians in Colosse, those who had already asked Christ Jesus into their lives as their Lord and Saviour. So as Christians they should have already experienced baptism. Paul was reminding them that they had been buried with Christ Jesus and raised with Him. Was it the one who dunked them under the water that saved them? No, it was not! Look at verses 12 again, it says, “you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.” Who was it that raised Christ Jesus? Was it the religious leaders of His day? Was it the traditions and laws of religion? Was it the disciples? Was it any man or anything man-made? No it was not, it was God who raised God, it was God/man, Christ Jesus came out of that tomb by His own will! 

 

What about the new believer? What was it that they were raised to a new live with? Once again was it man-made tradition or religion? Was it a secret or mystic knowledge? Was it by physical circumcision? Was it by anything that they did? That's a trick question, it was by something they did, the only thing they could do to receive God's free gift. What was it that they did to ensure their salvation? They accepted God's free gift of grace and mercy by placing their faith in Christ Jesus. Now how about you will you accept God's gift and start your eternal relationship with God right now?

A popular monk in the Middle Ages announced that in the cathedral that evening he would preach a sermon on the love of God. The people gathered and stood in silence waiting for the service while the sunlight streamed through the beautiful windows. When the last glint of color had faded from the windows, the old monk took a candle from the altar. Walking to the lifesize figure of Christ on the Cross, he held the light beneath the wounds of the feet, then His hands, then His side. Still without a word, he let the light shine on the thorn-crowned brow.

That was his sermon. The people stood in silence and wept. They knew they were at the center of mystery beyond their knowing, that they were looking at the love of God, the image of the invisible God, giving Himself for us—a love so deep, so inclusive, so expansive, so powerful, so complete that thought of the mind could not comprehend nor measure it, or words express it.

Paul knew that too. He comes back to it again and again: the purpose and power of the Cross. It took the sacrificial love of Christ Jesus, fully expressed on the Cross, to bring the change necessary for persons to “come back” to God. So for Paul, the love of Christ on the Cross had the power to turn man’s sin to repentance, rebellion to surrender, hostility against God into love. The very essence of Christianity is the restoration of a persons’ lost relationship with God. The purpose and power of the Cross was for that restoration.

3. Nailed To The Cross (vs. 13-14)

The scope of the Cross was infinitely greater than the sacrificial system of the Old Testament. So, while we may see in the Cross an extended application of the principle underlying the Levitical sacrifices, it was far more expansive. Christ Jesus in His death, burial, and resurrection erased your sin debt: Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, "It is finished!" And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit. (John 19:30).

What are the obligations of the debt we owe? It is death and eternity separated from God: But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust (desire). Then when lust (desire) has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. (James 1:14-15). 

 

Christ Jesus, God/man and thus sinless willingly went to the cross for the sins of all mankind. He shed His blood on the cross so that the sin barrier that keeps you from a restored relationship with God is broken. Like the curtain of the temple it had been torn in to. Because of Christ Jesus' death on the cross you now have access to God the Father.

God not only erased your sins, He took them away by nailing them to the cross. When Christ Jesus died, the death sentence of sin was destroyed. You are fully forgiven. That is if you have admitted that you are a sinner, that your sins need to be forgiven. That you have acknowledged that only Christ Jesus, the Son of God can do that, and asked Him to be the Lord of your life. 

 

Conclusion: Spiritual fullness means complete salvation, full forgiveness, and absolute victory. You have spiritual fullness because of your participation in the conquest of the cross.

On the cross a cosmic drama was played out as God, in Christ Jesus, battled and gained victory over the powers of evil. In verse 15, Paul tells us that Christ Jesus not only won a decisive victory over Satan and all host of supernatural beings who were in league with him. Christ Jesus crushed them, just like the promise in Genesis 3:15 said He would.

We have a tendency to think of the death of Christ Jesus as His defeat and the resurrection as His victory. Not so, Christ Jesus won the victory over sin and Satan on the cross. The resurrection was God's declaration of the victory already won. It was just the icing on the cake so to speak.

Not only did Christ Jesus beat Satan and sin, He also broke the power the Jewish religious leaders and of the false teachers. In Him you will find the conquering king. This does not mean you will not have conflict. Satan has been defeated, but he has not yet conceded defeat. He has been overthrown, but not fully eliminated. Satan will continues to harass you. However, when you experience total forgiveness in Christ Jesus, you can live above Satan's control.