You're the Word of God as you find it in Paul's letter to the Colossians, the second chapter beginning at verse 11 In him that is in Christ You were also circumcised With a circumcision made without hands By putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ Buried with him in baptism, in which you also were raised with him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead And you being dead in your trespasses and the un-circumcision of your flesh He has made alive together with him having forgiven you all trespasses Having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us And he has taken it out of the way having nailed it to the cross Having disarmed principalities and powers He made a public spectacle of them try something over them in it so Let no one judge you in food or in drink or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths Which are a shadow of things to come but the substance is of Christ Let no one cheat you of your reward taking delight in false humility and worship of angels intruding into those things which he has seen vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind and Not holding fast to the head from whom all the body nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments Grows with the increase that comes from God The word of the Lord Thanks be to God Let us pray together Father it is for freedom That Christ has made us free and so we ask you That as we consider your word that you would grant your spirit that your spirit would come That your spirit would enable us to see that because of what Jesus has done. We have indeed Then made free Father, I pray that these things would be pressed home to us. I pray But they wouldn't just land in our heads But that they would be worked down Into our hearts into our souls So that by this truth by these things we would be made free We ask in Jesus name Amen You may be seated So we make our way continue to make our way through this letter of Paul to the Colossians were at a place where it's appropriate to be doing some applying and to be Thinking through the implications of the things that he is writing to these young Christians to this new church which has been planted and which is being threatened Being threatened by some errors being threatened by some teachings that would draw these Colossians away from Simple faith in Christ and from resting in Christ and leaning upon Christ and Having Christ as their only confidence and their assurance and their great hope It's appropriate to be thinking what difference does this make? These things that we've been talking about the fact that Paul has been trying to press home to these Colossians that Jesus in his person and Jesus in his work is all that we need Jesus is sufficient What's the significance of all of that? What difference does that make? Whenever you read Paul's letters, but whenever you read the gospels or you read the letters of other people You have that That kind of thinking going on where a particular teaching will be set forth and then the one who has spoken that teaching will either summon you to think through implications yourself or we'll say Because of this this is what necessarily flows. This is what necessarily follows and Paul begins to do that in verse 16 and in verse 16 and verse 20 and then in verse One of chapter three you have him working out some of the consequences some of the implications of the things that he's been saying verse 16 So let no one judge you in other words because of what has been said don't let anybody judge you with respect to these other matters Verse 20 therefore Because of what has been said this is an implication. This is the Application this is the necessary conclusion that you come to verse one of chapter three if then you have been raised up with Christ This is what flows from that. This is the implication of that See these things that we talk about this Christology this theology of the person and work of Christ Has implications for us it has Application to our lives. It's not theoretical science, but the best theology in fact the only theology the only real Tristology the only real teaching about Christ is teaching which has to do with us With how we think about ourselves and how we live our lives the things that we do And and the joys and the liberties and the freedoms That we're to know so this is a question we ought always to be asking ourselves what difference does it make that Christ is died buried and risen for me What difference does that make What difference does that make what effect does all of this have upon my life Now, let me put what we have been talking about what we've been observing about the sufficiency of the person of Christ and the sufficiency of the work of Christ Let me put it to you in this way. Let me ask you to be thinking about this question And in a very sensuous sort of a culture a culture which is Feeling and experience driven. It's somewhat dangerous to do this and I recognize the danger, but I want to do it And take that risk. Let me ask you to think about it in this way What does Christianity feel like to me? What does Christianity feel like to me?
Does it feel does it feel like a bondage Does it feel like chains or does it feel like a freedom Like a liberty does it produce fear and uncertainty or does it set my heart At liberty What does it feel like For you to be a Christian or if if maybe you're not a Christian and if you're wrestling with these things What is the anticipation the possible anticipation of being a Christian Feel like if you're not yet a Christian or wrestling with whether or not you're a Christian If you've maybe not yet crossed over what does this feel like for you is the prospect and ominous Prospect or is there something enticing here something tantalizing Something liberating. Listen to what the scriptures say There's so many passages that could be recited in this regard, but let me just mention one Let me from the words of Jesus from the lips of Jesus
Let me read this. This is John 8 beginning at verse 30 as he spoke these words many believed in him And then Jesus said to those Jews who had believed in him if you abide in my word you are my disciples Indeed and you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free
Making free it's Christianity Feel like a freedom to you
So feel like something has so markedly changed That you've been set free or does it feel like chains as we've considered verses 11 through 15 Already while there are somewhat technical A right view Particularly of verse 11 is is a very significant and important thing And that's why I wanted for us to consider it again this morning. What is in view here Paul in verse 11 says in him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands By the stripping away of the body of flesh by the circumcision of Christ. That's a literal rendering What is in view here in this circumcision? What we've suggested already Is that the circumcision in view is not the circumcision which Christ performs a spiritual circumcision Of the heart, but it is the circumcision which he undergoes himself It is the circumcision which he experiences for his people Isaiah 53.8 he was cut off out of the land of the living Cut off Out of the land of the living Jesus fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah 53.8 Suffering the curse of God on the cross
Jesus in his death upon the cross fulfills What is predicted By the Old Testament right of circumcision He is the one who in his flesh is stripped off Experiences in his body The judgment of God upon him. Why? Is it right to understand that the circumcision in view here is that circumcision which Christ Experiences and not the circumcision which Christ performs upon the heart. There are several reasons Some of this again is rehearsing what we saw last week But it's important to have this in mind in the first place The focus of this passage the whole passage the larger context collations 111 through 15 Is on the work of Christ which he accomplishes in behalf of his people and in which his people participate By virtue of their union with him. They're being connected to him A connection which is affected or accomplished as they hear and receive the gospel and are united to him by faith You see that's the way it works. That's the way salvation works Salvation is something which Christ accomplishes for his people and he accomplishes it for his people Because his people are utterly and entirely powerless to accomplish it for themselves They can't do it And let me just say this again parenthetically the gospel isn't simply the intellectual content Which a non-Christian needs in order to come to faith in Christ But the gospel is what is necessary for anyone to be utterly and entirely and completely say Which means that the gospel the person of Christ and the work of Christ Are what this center needs every moment of his life Every moment of his life yesterday. We have the extraordinary privilege in our Presbytery of seeing 11 men Share their testimony of conversion to Christ and their call to the ministry and those 11 were received under the care of the Presbytery And they now begin the process toward ordination and I was asked to charge those men Not a fee But I was I was charged with responsibility for admonishing them and I read to them From Paul's first letter to Timothy the fourth chapter in the 16th verse Take heed to yourself and to your doctrine take heed to your life and to your doctrine Continue in them for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you Paul is writing to Timothy He's a Christian he's involved in ministry and he says to Timothy pay attention to your life and pay attention to your doctrine Because if you continue in them If you continue in them then you will save both yourself and your heroes
He is to continue in the gospel because continuing in it Leads to his final ultimate salvation the gospel isn't just what somebody needs to become a Christian The gospel is what you need to stay at Christian and it's the gospel that will bring you finally at the end Into the full enjoyment of all of the benefits of the work of Christ Christ secure for his people what they cannot secure for themselves And they derive the benefit of the work of Christ By abandoning themselves and trusting in him not just a moment in the past But every moment of their lives abandoning themselves and trusting in him and his finished work That's how this works and Paul continues to set before these collations the person of Christ and the work of Christ In all of their sufficiency and in this particular paragraph in this particular passage It is that work of Christ which is the focus his substitutionary work in behalf of his people his work which involves his death upon the cross His being a curse for his people his work which involves his being buried And his work which involves his being raised overcoming sin and the grave And that is the work that is here the circumcision of Christ is his death upon the cross Followed by his burial followed by his resurrection that one work is in behalf of his people And whoever trusts in Christ of that person it may be said It is as though you died it is as though you were buried it is as though you were raised You know all of the benefits of the work of Christ In the first reason for understanding this circumcision to be that curse which Christ experiences is the general context of this whole passage but second The circumcision of the heart Is normally in the New Testament associated with the work of the spirit It is a work which Jesus accomplishes through his spirit Romans 229 is an example of this he is a Jew who is one inwardly and the circumcision is one that is of the heart by the spirit He is the spirit who normally in the New Testament is associated with the circumcising of the heart Or the changing of the disposition of the soul so that sinful Inclinations now give way to spiritual Inclinations and impulses that's the work of the spirit By which a person is born again and changed on the inside So that that person now loves things that he never loved before Well, he has still enticed and seduced sometimes by the things that he or she used to love but now there's a new impulse you see That is the work of the spirit The circumcision of the heart Then there's a third reason the phrase body of flesh in verse 11 is also in chapter 1 verse 22 Verse 21 of chapter 1 and you who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works yet now he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death
The body of the flesh there is exactly the same phrase as you find in chapter 2 verse 11 and so rather than understanding The body of the flesh to be a metaphor for the spiritual nature It's more in keeping with the larger context of the whole letter and with Paul's concern to set forth the person in work of Christ to understand in 211 The body of the flesh refers to Christ's body refers to Christ's body
Then fourth the graphic language of 211 the stripping off of the body of the flesh that is consistent with centuries old and very familiar practice among the Jews Centuries old and very familiar practice among the Jews the practice of circumcision the sign of the covenant itself The sign of the covenant itself was to be a teaching tool in Israel and the teaching tool was this That to know the blessings of the covenant will involve pain To know the blessings of the covenant Will involve the shedding of blood to know the blessings of the covenant Requires a cost
Every time a son was born in Israel the drama of circumcision which pointed not to itself Which was not an end in itself which was not simply a national emblem But which was a sign that pointed beyond itself to a greater fulfillment Every time that drama was played out to the thinking israelite the israelite would hear that scream The tortured cry of the one circumcised Would know that there was pain involved Would know that there was the shedding of blood involved Would know that there was a cost involved in securing the blessings of the covenant Christ is the fulfillment of that Old Testament right Circumcision doesn't exist for itself. It is not simply a national sign It points to something outside itself beyond itself. It points to Christ and his work and Christ now has been cut off He has been cursed and having become a curse for his people
He has suffered in himself the full and unmitigated measure of the wrath of God against sin Christ is cut off Christ was banished In the very presence of the Father Christ was dragged out of the city Jesus was dragged out of that place where God had been pleased for his name to dwell Jesus was dragged into a wilderness barren place like the scapegoat of the Old Testament Upon whose head the priest confessed the sins of the people and once those sins were imputed to that goat It was let out into the wilderness and a goat in the New Testament and in the Old Testament throughout the scriptures The goats are the ones who are cut off. It is the sheep who are the ones who know the blessing of the presence of God But the goat bearing the sins of the people goes out into the wilderness They're bearing those sins away from the presence of God there to die In the wilderness place and Jesus was removed from the presence of God bearing the sins of his people Paul puts it in this very graphic language in verse 14 He says that by this work of Jesus All of the handwriting of requirements that was against us has been wiped out You've heard me use this imagery before
It is like a marker board a white marker board Unstained unblemished and on that white marker board in black ink Every violation of the law of God which you have ever committed or might be committing right now and make no mistake about it I'm not unmindful of the fact that with a hundred folks here 80 or a hundred folks here somebody Is paying attention to things other than what we're considering here Somebody is preoccupied with a basketball game or a golf match Somebody is preoccupied with something other than the supremacy of the person in work of Christ Who knows what you might be preoccupied with Who knows what you might be doing right now But all of those accusations written on that whiteboard and that black ink The apostle says has been wiped Every single one of them right clean. In fact, they have been transferred from you. They have been entailed upon across They have been nailed to that cross They have been incarnated They have been given to Christ where Christ impaled upon the cross thrust up violently upon the cross Has borne the wrath of God in the place Paul says in 2nd Corinthians 5 21 God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us That in him we might be the very righteousness of God
It's time you see The point is Then on the basis of the finished work of Christ the one who knows that he is a sinner and who comes to embrace Christ in embrace that cross that person benefits From that work of Christ And the benefit is this Paul says in Romans 5 1 there is therefore now peace Having been justified by faith we have peace with God Romans 8 1 he says there is therefore now no condemnation no threat of judgment No double jeopardy you know what double jeopardy is Double jeopardy is paying twice for the same crime If the crime has been paid for it is an injustice on the part of the judge To make you pay again The injustice John writes to those whom he loves in his first letter says if we confess our sins God is faithful and Just to forgive us our sins do you see the weight and the significance for you of that word just
He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins you see because God has been pleased to have his son bear his wrath Upon the cross God has placed himself under a moral and legal obligation to forgive you your sins
He's not unwilling to do it you see but the thrust and the force of the language is that God's own Justness requires of him that because Christ has died you must be forgiven and the handwriting must be wiped out And not only is the handwriting wiped out but the latest thrown away Because there is no possibility anymore that any charge could ever be blocked against you. There is no fear for you No fear of God no threat of judgment. What does that feel like? What does that feel like to you? Is it cause your heart to sing? Does it cause your heart to say it doesn't matter what anybody thinks Paul says in verse 16 Don't let anybody judge you with respect to what you eat what you drink The festivals that you observe Don't let anybody hold these man-made standards up before you and require of you that you conform to them
You're free You're free from the threat of judgment
Free from the fear of men You know the only audience in the whole universe that matters The only person whose judgment about you matters is the God of heaven and earth And if there is peace between you and God there is peace for you period Period are you free?
There's another kind of freedom Second Freedom from fear of God Which leads necessarily to a fear to a freedom from the fear of men The Paul also says in verse 15 That in addition to dealing with the problem of sin he has dealt with the problem of Satan He has dealt with the problem of the accuser
He has disarmed the principalities and powers Who would rise up to accuse you who would rise up to trouble your soul who would rise up to put you back in bondage
It's interesting at the same language is used in verse 15 that's used in verse 11. It's translated in the new king James having disarmed These principalities, but it literally means having stripped them away In a violent overthrow of their power God in the cross Has disarmed Satan the accuser the one who would cast you into despair
I've read this Passage to you before From Martin Luther's Lectures on Paul's letter to the Galatians
Luther was one Who prized the finished work of Christ because it was the finished work of Christ that saved him He came to the edge of the abyss. He looked into the blackness. He experienced the blackness But it was the finished work of Christ that shed light in his heart Luther had this ongoing conversation with Satan This principality this power that would seek to cast him into despair
This is what he writes in his commentary And Paul's letter to the Galatians when the devil accuses us and says you are a sinner
Therefore you are damned Then we can answer him and say because you say I am a sinner therefore I shall be righteous And be saved no says the devil You will be damned No, I say For I take refuge in Christ who has given himself for my sins therefore Satan you will not prevail against me as you try to frighten me By showing me the magnitude of my sins and to plunge me into anguish, loss of faith, despair, hatred, contempt of God and blasphemy
Luther doesn't say this but I would say this to you That you Satan even when to use well-meaning, well-intentioned people who seek to constrain me By some form of manipulation to conform to their standards of behavior And when I fail to conform to their standards of behavior you likewise cast me into despair contempt for God and contempt for his people
When you do either of those things Satan When you say either yourself or through some well-intentioned person that I am a sinner You provide me with armor and weapons against yourself so that I may slit your throat with your own sword and trample you underfoot You yourself are preaching the glory of God to me for you are reminding me a miserable and condemned sinner of the Fatherly love of God who so loved the world that he gave his only son You are reminding me of the blessing of Christ my Redeemer on his shoulders not on mine lie all my sins For the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all And for the transgressions of his people he was stripped Therefore when you say that I am a sinner You do not frighten me But you bring me immense consolation See what Luther is seeing that the mere reminder of his own sinfulness thrusts him back to the glorious sufficient and finished work of Christ Wherein the entirety of his sin is dealt with forever and as a result he is a forgiven man and he is a free man Free and free at last Not because political chains have been thrown off Not because social constraints have been cast aside because But because finally and forever The overwhelming threat of judgment has been cast away That's all with us folks What is your Christianity feel like to you
And let me put it in the form of another question a question which Jack Miller used to ask folk Are you living As a child Are you living as a slave God give us grace to be set free by the gospel of Christ Let us pray together Father these are your people These are those who you have loved for a long long time And these are those who struggle in their consciences Profound With their own sin and corruption and their own weakness and their own failures Father these are those who are cast down by those failures Who despair from time to time because of those failures Give them grace to see that all of it But are known or not known Whether done in a premeditated way or not
All of it has been thrust upon Christ as he has been thrust upon and impaled upon the cross there To receive in himself the full measure of your wrath Against sin Help us oh God to see But because of that We are indeed forgiven and we have been set free God give us grace to live in the freedom which is ours in Christ Free of the fear of God Free of the threats of men free Of the accusations of Satan Do this for Jesus's sake and for our good In his name we pray