Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Colossians 2:11-13 | Date: February 21, 2021 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

to study, to learn, to hear from you. We pray that you would remove distractions from us and help us to hear and understand well, and help us through it to gain, again, a greater appreciation for the treasures that we have in Jesus Christ. In his name we ask. Amen.

Colossians chapter 2. We have been looking at Paul’s theme here as he develops it, of our sufficiency in Christ. Christ is all we need. He has said that in various kinds of ways, and now in chapter 2, he has come to address head-on some of the false teaching that was going on in Colossae. You remember he was, he is still very patient and very compassionate toward the Colossians. They have not rejected the faith, but they have been infiltrated with some false teaching that he has to address, and so he does address it.

And we are in Colossians chapter 2, and I would like to pick up the reading with verse 8. Today our focus will be verses 11 to 15, although I’m not sure we can get through verse 15.

“Verse 8, see to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily and you have been filled in him who is the head of all rule and authority. 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. 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, and you who were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God has made alive together with him, having forgiven all your trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to his cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him.”

All right, we are, as I mentioned, looking at the theme of the sufficiency of Christ. I should turn off the microphone when I do that. And he has given his theme statements in verses, well, verse three: “In Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” And then again, verse six: “Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him.” You received him as all you need, continue with that. Christ the Lord. And then, verses 9 and 10, he gives some explanation to the sufficiency of Christ. In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. He is God incarnate. And then verse 10, you are complete in Him. You have all you need if you have Jesus.

Now in verses 11 to 15 that we’ll look at this morning, he gives us some explanation as to how this state of our fullness in Christ, our completeness in Christ, came about. Again, “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. Having been buried with him in baptism in which you also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God who raised him from the dead. And you were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh. God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of death that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.”

All right, just first by way of a broad overview of these verses, notice verses 11 through the first part of verse 13. So 11 through 13a, Paul is speaking of God’s transforming work in us. And he uses this with the metaphors of circumcision and death and resurrection in Christ. In Christ, we have been circumcised with a circumcision made without hands. We’ll look at that. And in Christ, we have died and been raised to new life. So this is God’s transforming work in us.

And then, verses 13b through 15, we have God’s justifying work for us. So first, God’s transforming work in us, and then verses 13 to 15, God’s justifying work for us. And this he speaks of in terms of forgiveness, canceling the debt that we had against him, and defeating our enemies. So with these two broad categories, he’s speaking now of our completeness in Christ. How is that grounded? What in summary is our completeness in Christ? One, he has transformed us, made us new. Two, he has justified us, making us accepted to God by canceling the debt and forgiving our sins.

All right, now, still before we move on, and I’ll probably point this out again before we finish up, but you should notice the relationship between those two categories that we have in these verses. Verses 11 to 13a, we have God’s transforming work in us. Verse 13b to 15, we have his justifying work for us. But notice the relationship. Verse 13: “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.” Having forgiven us. That is to say, God’s work in us is grounded in his work for us. Because of what he has accomplished in his cross work—canceling the debt, substitutionary work, paying the debt, and securing our forgiveness—because of that objective work for us, he has then also secured his transforming work in us as well.

Our spiritual death, of course, is because of our guilt. The penalty that was due because of our guilt, and so that was the issue that had to be dealt with first: our objective guilt before God. And having dealt with that, then now he goes on to the transforming work in us as well. So justification is basic. Our transformation can come only if our guilt is removed.

Turn if you would to, I want you to see this a little bit more sharply in Jeremiah chapter 31. Jeremiah chapter 31. Someone read for us verses 33 and 34. Notice here, this is the New Covenant prophecy in Jeremiah. Here again, we have the two dimensions of God’s work. First of all, His transforming work. He’ll write His law on our hearts. It means He’ll change our “want to.” He’ll make us want to follow His law. It’s kind of like, to use a contemporary metaphor, reprogramming the computer. He’s writing His law on our hearts, changing our “want to.” He’ll make us then know the Lord. Why? How can He do that? Verse 34. That is, “because I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sins no more.”

So again, God’s transforming work is grounded in his objective work of canceling the guilt and justifying us, making us acceptable before God. Well, that’s what we have here in Colossians 2 as well. Paul outlines these two broad categories of our completeness in Christ.

Transformed In Christ

So first of all, then, let’s look at that first category, verses 11 to 13a. Transformed in Christ. Christ’s work in us. Let me read it one more time. “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, 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. And you who were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God has made alive together with him.”

Okay, let’s work our way through this. First of all, this expression, “you are circumcised with a circumcision made without hands.” What is that? Well, obviously it’s not ritual circumcision. This is a circumcision made without hands. It’s a spiritual circumcision of some kind. It is something done by God for us. It’s passive here. You were circumcised in a spiritual sense by God. So we have here already some kind of a fulfillment idea. We will see this more specifically when we get to verses 17 and 18 where Paul addresses the fulfillment idea straight on. But evidently, he is looking back here at Old Testament circumcision and saying that prefigured something. The cutting away of the flesh prefigured something else that now Christians have experienced in Christ.

Old Testament circumcision, of course, was the sign of the covenant that God gave to Abraham in Genesis 17. It was also a sign of God’s relationship with Israel, Abraham’s descendants. But already in the Old Testament, circumcision came to take on a figurative sense, prefiguring some kind of soteriological, some saving benefit of God. So, for example, Moses criticized the people of Israel of his day, saying, “I wish God would circumcise your hearts.” In other words, I wish something inside you would change, that hardness of the flesh would be cut away so that your heart would be soft toward God and that you would obey Him. Jeremiah picks up that figure as well: Jeremiah chapter four and verse four. If you’d like the references in Deuteronomy: Deuteronomy 10 verse 16 and Deuteronomy 30 and verse six, where Moses takes it up.

And that evidently is what Paul is picking up on here. He does it also in Philippians 3 verse 3 when he says, “we are the circumcision.” That is, that Old Testament rite prefigured something that is realized now in experience in Christ. Now that metaphor then, “circumcised with a circumcision made without hands,” is defined by the next phrase, “by the putting off the body of flesh.” Circumcised with a circumcision made without hands by putting off or stripping away the body of the flesh.

Now “the body of flesh,” that is a familiar metaphor in Paul: the old self before renewal, self-dominated by sin, the dominating impulse of sinful nature. He is saying here that has been stripped away in Christ. And then it says “stripped away by the circumcision of Christ.” That’s a metaphor of Christ’s work in us, conquering sin, stripping away the sinful nature, as it were; that’s the language we use. This is Paul’s familiar metaphor: “in the flesh” versus “in the spirit.” “In the flesh” is that sphere, that place where we lived before conversion. Dominated by sin, driven by sin, sinful impulses; the dominating factor of life was sin. In the flesh. He also refers to that category as “under law.” In the flesh, just natural, that’s who you are naturally. Romans chapter 8, for example, he draws it out more specifically. Versus, in the Spirit, we were dominated by what is fleshly, what is sinful. Flesh in the sense of a metaphor for sin.

But now we have come in Christ under a new domination. It is no longer sin, it’s no longer the flesh, but it’s the Spirit. The Spirit has come to dominate in us. And that’s Paul’s metaphor in Romans 8. We’re now led by the Spirit; a new dominating force has come. And so we have lived in that old sphere. Now we live in this new sphere. We were dominated by sin. Now we’re dominated by the Holy Spirit. A new compelling factor has come to be our experience in Christ. That’s that spiritual circumcision that he’s talking about here. The old flesh has been stripped away. We’re no longer living under its dominion. We’re living under the dominion of Christ by his spirit.

We’ll probably see this a little bit later, but that’s the same idea as what Paul has in Romans chapter 6 when he speaks of it in terms of baptism. We see that here as well. Buried with Christ, the old man dying, being raised with Christ into a new life. Choose your metaphor. That’s the idea here. Circumcised with a circumcision made without hands by the stripping away the body of flesh. He’s torn away that old sin that dominated us. Sin’s grip has been broken, and now we live under the dominion of Christ.

Now all of that then is God’s work in us, freeing us to live for Him, whether we call it spiritual circumcision, the old man gone, the new man come, or we speak of it in terms, as you will hear, of resurrection to new life. The idea is that of a great renewal, a radical change, which you’ve heard me call before “the great change” that we have undergone in coming to Christ. He has captivated us. He has broken the grip of sin. He has freed us to live unto God, now under the dominion of the Spirit of God.

Now Paul’s use here of this metaphor of circumcision might, I suspect it probably does, it might imply that the false teachers were emphasizing—there was some Judaizing tendency on these false teachers—that the Old Testament rites still need to be observed. And Paul is saying here, no, those Jewish markers are not needed. That is not what distinguishes the real people of God. What is necessary for divine blessing, what is necessary for Christian living, is what we have in Christ. We need for sin’s grip to be broken, we need a new driving, compelling force, and that is what we have in Christ. The old sin has been stripped away, its grip broken, and we’ve been renewed in Christ.

So Paul is saying, that old circumcision, you don’t need that. You have a greater kind of circumcision. Namely, the putting away or the putting off, the stripping away of the body of the flesh in union with Christ. So whatever else circumcision symbolized, or whatever it symbolized, it is now realized in Christ. That rite was given—you’ve heard me say this a thousand times here—that God had a way of, not like us, of making the movie after the fact to commemorate the event. He makes the movie ahead of time. For all of those centuries there, he had all of these institutions and practices and people that symbolized and anticipated something that would arrive later in Christ. And now that has come, and he’s pointing back to this one, circumcision, which was evidently emphasized by these false teachers, and saying, no, what that symbolizes is what you have in Christ. In your regeneration, your conversion experience, you have received in Christ all that you need. So whatever it is that these false teachers were imposing on them as a way to overcome sin and to overcome the flesh, Paul is saying, you’ve already got that in Christ. It’s more of the sufficiency of Christ theme that he’s been pushing. In Christ, sin’s grip has been broken. They’re offering you something beyond what you already have and what you’ve received in Christ. You don’t need it. So in terms of Christian living and enablement for Christian living, even in those terms, Christ is all I need. That’s his point.

Now he expands on that then in verse 12, which I’ve already mentioned, with the more familiar terms of baptism: “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, buried with him in baptism, this points to the symbolism of baptism. We mentioned this last Wednesday in our Bible study at the prayer group. Baptism is, first of all, symbolic, and the reason it was commanded to immerse—that’s what baptize means—it symbolizes the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus. Symbolic of those historic facts that Jesus died, was buried, and rose again. But it’s much more than that. It’s not just a picture of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. It is a picture of our union with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection. United with Him, we died. Or, to use the other metaphor, the old sin was stripped away, its grip was broken. We’ve died with Christ and buried; it’s gone, that old me, that old self is gone. We’ve been raised with Christ now to a new life, to a new dominating factor, a new driving ambition, and that’s the life of Christ. That’s why then, in turn, baptism can take the symbolism of cleansing and other things as well. And ultimately, what baptism means is discipleship. That’s why Jesus commanded it as the sign of discipleship: “Make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” That is to say, in my baptism, I testify, I make a testimony, or I make a pledge—choose your word. I have died with Christ. That old life is gone. Who I am now is, I am in Jesus Christ and I live in him and through him and for him. That’s the testimony we make in baptism.

So again, this is not far from what we have in Romans chapter 6, the familiar passage about being buried with Christ and our resurrection in Him. The idea then is that of new life that we’ve received in Christ; sin’s grip broken, we’re no longer dominated by that old regime, sin. Grace now rules in Christ by the Holy Spirit and we are now enabled to follow Christ. And our baptism, he’s pointing out here, marked that transition point. Because of what it symbolizes, it marks that transition point when we died to sin, our sins were forgiven, and we’ve received new life.

Again here then, notice that baptism is spoken of as our turning point. In baptism, we were buried with Christ. Dead and buried with Christ, the old self gone, dead and buried with Christ, in which we were also raised with him through faith. That’s verse 13a as well, made alive together in Christ. That is, when we were baptized, we were raised to a newness of life, baptism marking the beginning of our experience in union with Christ.

Now, before we go any further, and I want to say more about that with regard to baptism and the language that’s used here, but notice also, this is very important: we were raised with Him, this is verse 12, “through faith.” Buried with Him in baptism, raised through faith. So, baptism is the conversion initiation point, but it’s through faith. This is not something—the Roman Catholic Church has the doctrine of ex opere operato, that is the baptism, it works by the doing of it. When the priest sprinkles the water, justification is given, grace is given. It’s a sacrament in the highest sense. Grace is conveyed and it works just by the doing of it. But you’ll see that that is not this. Because whatever else is true of what happens in baptism, it is an expression of faith. That’s what he says. We are raised with him through faith. So this is speaking of a conversion experience.

Now, that opens up the bigger section. I’ll spend just a minute on this, on baptism as the point of conversion in the New Testament. Often in the New Testament, like here, baptism is referred to as the point of conversion, part of the conversion process. Again, the idea is that baptism carries that symbolic significance. It pictures Christ’s death, burial, resurrection. It pictures our death and resurrection with Him. And so it pictures our discipleship. But then in the New Testament, because that is true and because of what baptism symbolizes, baptism then can be pointed to as the turning point, the conversion point.

So let me read a couple of verses here. Maybe we should… yeah, let’s look up a couple of these. Look at Acts 2, verse 38. Acts 2, verse 38: “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” This is a verse that has given a lot of people a headache, especially Baptists. “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Christ for the remission of sins.” Does baptism grant forgiveness? Some have said that this preposition “for” here should be taken in the sense of “on account of.” So: repent and be baptized in the name of Christ on account of the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. I don’t think that works here. It’s a convenient explanation, but I don’t think that’s right. But notice it’s not baptism alone that conveys forgiveness. “Repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins.” Now that fits well with what I’ve just described of baptism as a symbol and a symbolic expression of our faith. That’s what Paul says it is in Colossians chapter 2.

Since we’re in Acts, look at Acts 22 verse 16. Acts 22 verse 16, this is Ananias talking to the newly converted Paul, Saul of Tarsus. Paul is recounting it here in Acts 22 verse 16: “Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.” Baptism, again, is described as an expression of faith. It is described as the turning point because of what it symbolizes, but it is not separated from faith. It is conversion in the fullest sense. There’s faith, repentance, and so the forgiveness of sins.

All right, as I’ve mentioned, that’s the same in Romans 6, verse 3: “All of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death.” Even in 1 Peter 3, Peter can say that “baptism does now save you.” Well, it’s in this sense. So let’s ask the questions. How are we joined to Christ? How are we united to Christ? Answer: faith, right? Faith. What is baptism? It’s an expression of faith, right? And so faith and baptism on that level can be used interchangeably. How do we receive the forgiveness of sins? Through faith, right? And if baptism is the expression of faith, then we can, on that level, use the terms interchangeably. How do we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit? Through faith. What is baptism? Baptism is our expression of faith, the first expression of the disciple. And so on that level they can be used interchangeably.

I think that’s what happens in the New Testament. The New Testament can link our conversion to faith. It can link our conversion to baptism. It can link our conversion to the receiving of the Holy Spirit. It can link our baptism to repentance. All of these terms can be used as pointing to the turning point, our conversion point, because they all are bound up with the same thing. Faith is the point of conversion, so also then baptism.

I think maybe a helpful illustration of this is—I think I heard Don Carson use this. I thought it was just a very helpful illustration. It’s not as much anymore, but for decades, in the last century especially, conversion was linked to walking an aisle. You raise your hand, preacher prays for you, you come forward, and someone prays with you at the altar, and you are saved. Even the word “altar” is strange that evangelicals would use that. But that was the terminology that was used. And for all of the abuses of the altar call and all of that that I don’t like, in its best form, in its best practice, many people, many people were converted at an altar call. I’m one. And so, many people learn to talk that way. “When were you saved?” “Oh, I walked the aisle back in 1964,” or “I walked the aisle back in…” and they are not, at least in the best of cases, they are not saying in their mind, “walking that aisle saved me.” What they’re saying is, “that’s when I received Christ, that’s when I believed.” I think that’s a helpful illustration of how the New Testament uses this baptism imagery as the point of conversion.

So verse 11, you are circumcised by Christ spiritually. That equals verse 12, you are baptized and raised with Christ. And so verse 12 is, baptism is the expression of faith: “buried with him in baptism in which you were also raised with him through faith.” Baptism as the expression of faith and therefore part of, in the New Testament, the part of the conversion process. Again, Paul’s point is the radical transformation that we’ve undergone in Christ. By being linked, joined to Christ by faith, expressed in our baptism, we are made free and empowered to live unto God. So we have in Christ already everything we need to overcome sin.

All right, any questions about baptism and conversion? Yeah, Mason. Let’s talk about that in a minute. That’s the next question. That’s a good question. Very good question. If baptism speaks of conversion, then what is the rationale for baptizing infants? Yes, Jim. Yeah, I think he is. “Repent and be baptized.” That there is repentance as the condition of baptism. Is that your question? Yeah, I think that’s right. I don’t think that’s… I don’t know how you could deny that. I think the only way to establish then—and here I am going off into the next question—but to establish the idea of an infant baptism is to create a second kind of baptism. Jesus’ commanded baptism was clearly a baptism of disciples. And that’s the pattern we see every time in the New Testament. The only way around it is to create a second kind of baptism, which I think is what they do. Pastor Greg. Yes. Yeah. Everywhere, everywhere in the New Testament, from John the Baptist to Jesus’ command to baptize to the apostles’ reflections on baptism like we have here in Colossians chapter 2, everywhere in the New Testament, baptism presupposes faith, conversion. That’s why I say is to have an infant baptism, you have to have a different kind of baptism than what Jesus commanded.

All right, well then let’s pick up the question, the next one that comes up in this passage that’s denominationally defining, and that is the connection between baptism and circumcision. Paedobaptists, Presbyterians, look at this. Paedobaptists—you all know the word—infant baptizing. Presbyterians will look at this. And they’ll say, okay, circumcision was the rite that was performed on children of the covenant under the old covenant. That here is equated with baptism, and so, here’s the logic: that rite should be applied to our children in the new covenant. So it was a sign of believing parents to give to their children to include them in the covenant. And so believing parents today should have their children baptized to include them in the covenant.

Now there’s just all kinds of questions with that we can’t explore at length here. I would like to start just fundamentally and say the old covenant never, never had in view believing parents giving their children the sign of the covenant. It had no reference whatever to the believing or not believing status of parents. It had reference to Israel, to Abraham. We give the circumcision under the old covenant, they would give circumcision because of our relationship to Abraham. Now if you carry that symbolism into the new covenant, what do you have? Our relationship to Abraham’s seed—Jesus. Again, you have conversion presumed in baptism.

But another point that’s very important in that connection is here, again, and I want to emphasize it, Paul specifically associates baptism with conversion. It is something that is done through faith. Baptism is a symbolic act by which we are buried and raised with Christ, and that through faith. So that rules out baptismal regeneration. A few of the Roman Catholics that you baptize the child and he’s given new life. And it also rules out, I think, this reformed sign of the covenant idea that’s received unconsciously by the infant because of his parents’ faith. Baptism is specifically associated with conversion. Buried, raised with Christ through faith.

If you’re going to find infant baptism, I don’t think you can find it here. I don’t think you can find it anywhere in the New Testament. I think it always presupposes conversion. It’s a symbol of our faith by which the old life is buried and we are raised to new life in Christ. Always in the New Testament. Let me put it in a negative way: baptism is nothing. Baptism serves no function whatever in the New Testament apart from conversion, faith, new life, and identification with Christ. I think at this point, the Roman Catholic doctrine is much more consistent than the Reformed, Presbyterian doctrine of infant baptism. In the Roman Catholic view, baptism saves. Well, it’s tying it together with what we have here, that baptism is always inextricably connected with conversion. Now, if baptism saves, by all means, get the baby under the water. But then we have that other question of “through faith.” So I think this rules out both of the others. Baptism is inextricably linked to conversion. Believer’s baptism is what is in view.

Maybe we should take some time in Sunday school another time and look at the subject of baptism more in depth. Interestingly, I’m sure some of you are familiar with the reformed argument for infant baptism of the household baptisms in the Book of Acts. In virtually every one of those passages where so-and-so was baptized and her house, so-and-so was baptized and his house, the reformed argument is, “Well, there had to be infants in that house.” To which my first response always is, “No, no, no. The youngest person in that house was age 16.” And they look at me like I’m crazy. How do you know that? Same way you know there were babies in that house. Doesn’t say that. More than that, in virtually every one of those passages through the Book of Acts, where they were baptized and their house, and their household—in virtually every one of those passages, you can go back into the passage and see that the Word of God was proclaimed, and they believed, and they rejoiced when they heard the Word of God, and they were baptized. That kind of language.

But I said that’s for another time. I don’t have time to take up this next question of how this came about in us, in Christ’s work for us, in canceling the debt of sin, securing justification. That will have to be next time. Any more questions? Yes, Mason. I’m sorry? Yeah, we should look at that in some detail. The quick answer is—I hesitate saying this because it sounds pejorative; I don’t mean to be mean—but it seems to me that every time Reformed brothers find children, they find water, even though the water is not there in the context. In that passage in particular, in Acts chapter 2, verses 38 and 39. Verse 39, Peter says, “this promise is to you and to your children and to as many as our Lord himself shall call.” Again, it is associated with conversion. And to say that that verse supports the idea of giving your children the sign of the covenant, a covenant which itself signifies conversion, the new covenant—it’s just reading so much more into the verse than is what’s there.

All right, no other questions? All right, Pastor Greg, would you pray for us, please?