Jesus Christ is fully God, and we are full in him. But what does spiritual fullness mean and 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 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.
No religious ritual can make us alive with Christ. Paul picks two familiar rituals in these verses, but he clearly is not talking about the physical acts of circumcision and baptism. Instead, he is talking about the spiritual reality behind the physical rite. For all our modern medical advancements, no operation or procedure can remove or cut out our sinful nature and give us new life. This is an operation only God can perform. Paul tells us it is not done by the hands of men (v. 11).
Spiritual fullness means complete salvation, full forgiveness, and absolute victory. The resurrection was a declaration of power that Jesus is the Son of God; it is a public demonstration that confirms that his death had been effective for the forgiveness of sin.
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. (ESV)
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
- Total forgiveness in Christ. The cancellation of a debt we could never pay
- The victor, Jesus, conquered death, and He forgives us.
- Jesus Christ alone is sufficient for our every spiritual need because all of God’s fullness is in Him.
- We are identified with Christ because He is the Head of the body and we are the members of the body
- Identification with Christ
- Paul explained our fourfold identification with Jesus Christ: circumcised in Him (v. 11), alive in Jesus (vv. 12-13), free from the Law because of Christ (v. 14), and victory in Jesus (v. 15).
CLOSER LOOK:
Verses 11–12: Paul turned from the theological errors of the false teachers to their practical errors—from “Gnosticism” to legalism. The Gentile Christians in Colosse had no need to conform to Jewish rules and regulations, such as circumcision. For in Christ they had been circumcised. Whereas all Jewish males were required to receive physical circumcision, the circumcision that is from Christ is “without hands” (Deut 10:16). This spiritual “circumcision” was done by Christ, not by man. It was in fact a crucifixion or putting off of the body, a circumcision of the heart (cf. Rom. 2:29; Eph. 2:11). Rather than the mere removal of flesh, Christian circumcision is the spiritual removal of sin from the heart, taking part in the New Covenant of Jesus Christ. Their sinful nature (written here as “the body of the flesh”)[1] was decisively put off by Christ’s death and resurrection. What people were in Adam—sinful, fallen, and corrupt—was destroyed by Christ. Now “in Christ” a believer is a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). And a believer has a new authority for his life—not the Law of Moses but the life of Christ.
The word “removal” is from the noun apekdysei (“total breaking away from”),[2] which occurs only here in the New Testament. This removal or putting off of the old life occurs at the moment of salvation, when a believer is “buried with” Christ “in baptism” by the Spirit (cf. 1 Cor. 12:13) and is raised with Him to new life. This co-burial and co-resurrection are pictured in baptism. Baptism is the symbol of the believer’s association with Christ’s death on the Cross. In water baptism, immersion portrays burial with Christ, and coming out of the water depicts the resurrection by the power of God to “live a new life” (Rom. 6:4).[3] Water baptism itself does not bring forgiveness of sins, but Paul uses the rite to help explain the work of the Spirit. The early church would never have understood the idea of an unbaptized Christian. Baptism and faith were considered to be the outward and inward realities of being a Christian (Acts 2:38; 10:47-48; 16:33; Rom 6:3-5). Some have highlighted Paul’s close association of baptism and circumcision in this passage as an indication that water baptism is a sign of the New Covenant, just as circumcision was a sign of the Abrahamic Covenant.[4]
When Jesus Christ died and rose again, He won a complete and final victory over sin. What the Law could not do, Jesus Christ accomplished for us. The old nature was removed so that we need no longer be enslaved to its desires. The old sinful nature is not eliminated since we can still sin (1 John 1:5–2:6). But the power has been broken as we yield to Christ and walk in the power of the Spirit.
Verses 13–14: Before a person is liberated to this new life in Christ, they are dead in their sins and in their sinful nature.[5] Death means separation, not annihilation. Even the unsaved still bear the image of God (Gen. 9:6; James 3:9), but they are separated from God. Cut off from spiritual life, they still have human life. But now God made us alive with Christ (cf. Eph. 2:1–6). “The same ‘power’ (energeias; cf. “energy” in Col. 1:29) that raised Christ from the dead (2:12) resurrects believing sinners to spiritual life (v. 13).”[6]
This new life came when God had forgiven all our trespasses (sins) because He canceled the record of debt (“written code”). Before God’s written Law, His “record of debt,” people stood condemned (cf. Rom. 3:19), so it worked against them and opposed them. But in Christ, the Law is fulfilled (Rom. 8:2) and done away with (Gal. 3:25; Heb. 7:12). “Legalism is wrong because believers are dead to the Law in Christ. He fulfilled its demands in His life and by His death, and Christians are in Him.”[7]
Paul stated that God made the Colossians alive while they were unbelievers. He did this in Christ. It is difficult to think about, but salvation is God’s action on behalf of sinners while they are still sinners. God saved them while they were spiritually uncircumcised. Paul used the terms “dead” and “uncircumcised” to describe their former condition. Death calls for a resurrection, which believers have in Christ. Uncircumcision calls for circumcision, which believers also have in Christ. “In these equations, “dead” and “uncircumcision” form a semantic field so that they refer to the same condition. They both confirm the fact that believers’ circumcision occurs at salvation and reaffirm that the “unhandmade circumcision” corresponds to being made alive.”[8]
This record of debt, the Law, was like a handwritten “certificate of debt” (NASB). Since people cannot keep the Law, it is like a bill of indebtedness. Subsequently, people, unable to pay the debt, are criminals. But Jesus took away this criminal charge, this certificate of indebtedness, by His death. It is as if He were nailing it to the cross with Him, showing He paid the debt. He wiped the slate clean. Not only were our personal sins forgiven at the Cross, but those rules that condemned us have also been removed by the death of Jesus.[9] The word canceled also means “to wipe out, wash over, or erase.” God erases the document and cancels the debt. When Jesus died, the condemning document was destroyed. We are fully forgiven.
Verse 15: By fulfilling the demands of the Law, Christ disarmed the demonic powers and authorities (cf. 1:16; 2:10), triumphing over them (cf. 2 Cor. 2:14). The sovereignty of Christ is evidenced in His relationship to other spirit beings. They were disgraced; he deserves the honor. “Rulers and authorities”[10] (sometimes translated as principalities and powers) allude to Satan and the fallen angels. Paul is describing Christ’s victory on the Cross over the powers that opposed Him and that were against God’s faithful people. To describe this victory, Paul uses the spectacle of the military triumph, when prisoners of war were stripped and paraded before the populace behind the conquering general. Satan and his forces thought the Cross would be their victory and Christ’s defeat. In reality, at the Cross, the Lord vanquished His foes, took away their weapons, and put them to open shame (made a public spectacle or display of them). This is a dramatic contrast to the victory that Satan had over our first parents in the garden. Satan was the victor in that instance, but at the Cross, he was the clear loser.
On the cross, Jesus won a decisive victory, making clear to the universe that Satan is a vanquished foe. This does not mean that we will not have conflict. The devil has been defeated, but he has not yet conceded defeat. He has been overthrown, but he has not yet been fully eliminated. Satan continues to harass us. When we understand our identity in Christ, we can live above Satan’s control.
[1] cf. Col 2:18 which means “the mind of the flesh.”
[2] Strong’s 555. BDAG – “removal, stripping off of clothes; only figuratively. In stripping off your fleshly (i.e. sinful) body, because Christians have, as it were, a new body.”
[3] Norman L. Geisler, “Colossians,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, eds. John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton: Victor Books, 1985), 678.
[4] Earl D. Radmacher, Ronald B. Allen, H. Wayne House, eds., Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Commentary (Nashville: Nelson, 1999), 1565.
[5] See “earthly nature” in 3:5 and the “old self” in 3:9.
[6] Norman L. Geisler, “Colossians,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, eds. John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton: Victor Books, 1985), 678.
[7] Norman L. Geisler, “Colossians,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, eds. John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton: Victor Books, 1985), 678.
[8] Melick, Richard R. “Colossians,” in The New American Commentary. N.p.. Nashville, Tenn: Broadman Press, 1991.
[9] Earl D. Radmacher, Ronald B. Allen, H. Wayne House, eds., Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Commentary (Nashville: Nelson, 1999), 1565.
[10] ἀρχή (archē) and ἐξουσία (exousia). Both have a multiple meanings but both include a meaning of “supernatural power.”