Lesson #06

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Colossians

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January 20, 2010

Lesson #02

January 20, 2010

RETURN TO LIST OF LESSONS

COLOSSIANS 2:11-17
Lesson #06
CIRCUMCISION, BAPTISM, AND LEGALISM

• Memory Verse: Col 2:13

• In chapter 2 we have learned that true wisdom comes through Jesus Christ, the living Word. We discussed Paul’s warning against false philosophies and doctrines that say they have the truth without Jesus Christ, the creator of this universe.
• There is more in Jesus Christ than wisdom and truth.
  • Read Eph 3:19
    • All the riches of God, the Father are at our disposal through Jesus Christ.
      • These high concepts in the book of Colossians are more than the human mind can contemplate. Because of that, there is a big difference between what Jesus has provided for us and the daily experience of where the Christian actually lives in this fallen world.

THE SOURCES AND RESULTS OF CONFLICT IN A BELIEVER’S LIFE

	Level 1 Col 2:10	Level 2 Col 2:7	Level 3 Col 2:6
Spiritual Aspect (of the Spirit of God)	A believer that lacks the assurance of salvation. Eph 2:1-3	He lives his Christian life walking according to the flesh. Gal 5:19-21	He is insensitive to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Heb 5:11-14
Rational Aspect (reasoning)	A believer is darkened in his understanding.	He involves himself in a wrong belief or a wrong philosophy of life. 1Col 2:8	The evidence in his life is pride. 1Cor 8:1
Emotional Aspect (emotions)	The believer lives with fear. Mat 10:26-33	Anger and anxiety are the characteristics of his life. Eph 4:31 1Pet 5:7	The result is continual discouragement, depression, and sorrow. 2Cor 4:1-18 Gal 6:9
Volitional Aspect (of the will)	Rebellion is the believer’s attitude toward God. 1Tim 1:9	The believer displays a lack of self-control.He is compulsive. 1Cor 3:1-3	The believer’s life is undisciplined. 2The 3:7-11
Relational Aspect (relationships)	Rejection of the things of God and the fellowship of other believers. Eph 2:1-3	The believer lives his life with a lack of forgiveness toward other people. Col 3:13	The end result is isolation and a selfish attitude. Phi 2:1-5 1Cor 10:24

• Read Col 2:9-13
• What was the value of Old Testament Circumcision in man’s relationship to God?
  • Circumcision was a sign of faith of the covenant that God made with Abraham. Water baptism is the sign of faith under the New Covenant in our dispensation of time.
    • Therefore, for Abraham and the believers in the Old Testament, the act of circumcision of the flesh was a cutting of the flesh to indicate a covenant relationship with God under the conditions of the Abrahamic Covenant.
• If circumcision was for the Old Testament times, then what does verse 11 mean?

 

• “In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.”

 

(11)
• Old Testament circumcision was an outward sign of a spiritual reality. It was not the outward sign that God desired. It was the inward reality of a changed heart that pleased God.
  • Therefore, the circumcision made without hands is the renunciation of sin when a person is born again. The spiritual circumcision is accomplished by God when a person receives Jesus Christ into his heart. Spiritually speaking, God cuts away the flesh nature from the heart of the believer in Jesus Christ.
    • Read Rom 2:29
• Evidently false teachers told the Colossian people that they needed to be physically circumcised in the same way as in the Old Testament, and that action would save them
• In Col 2:11, “putting off the body of sins of the flesh”, the phrase, “putting off”, is a combination word in Greek that means = taking off your garment and getting away from it.
  • Therefore the born-again experience is taking off our sin nature and abandoning the sins related to that sinful nature.
• Because of that born-again experience that results in a spiritual “circumcision of the heart”, the believer is ready for water baptism.

 

• “Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.”

 

(12)
• Of what value is New Testament baptism in man’s relationship to God?

THE MEANING OF WATER BAPTISM BY IMMERSION
COL 2:11-13 AND ROM 6:3-6

THE BAPTISM OF JESUS’ DEATH	THE BELIEVER’S PHYSICAL ACT OF BAPTISM	THE SPIRITUAL SIGNIFICANCE OF BAPTISM
Jesus was crucified and buried in the earth.	The believer’s body is put under the water.	The believer identifies himself personally with the death and burial of Christ when he is submerged in water. Col 2:12
Jesus was raised from the dead to a new resurrected body.	The believer’s physical body is raised up out of the water.	The believer is raised spiritually to a new life in Christ. Col 2:12 Gal 2:20
Therefore, Water Baptism is a physical act that testifies of our spiritual experience of being born again.

• Read Col 2:14-17 Warning
  • Three heretical beliefs that Christians must avoid. These three basic beliefs are common to the religions of Gnosticism. They are legalism, mysticism, and asceticism.
    • Legalism:
      • What is legalism?
        • Legalism is the establishment of rules formed to help others avoid some specific problem. It is the extension of rules of one group to other people.
          • Organized religion often codifies these rules for the purpose of the conformity of behavior.
          • These codified rules by organized religion are a declaration that God needs man’s help in the process of salvation.
        • God established a list of rules in Exo 20. However, Judaism attached thousands of codified rules to God’s rules for which Jesus reprimanded the Pharisees and Sadducees for keeping the letter of the law but not the Spirit of it.
      • Jesus’ answer to legalism:

 

• “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross.” (14)

 

• When Jesus died on the cross, he put an end to the rules and regulations of Judaism.
• The phrase, “blotting out” is an accounting term.
  • When we borrow money, we sign a contract. Our names on the contract acknowledge the debt. In ancient times, such a transaction would be hand written. The handwriting of charges described a writer’s confession of debt. When the debt was paid, the debt was blotted out of the book, cancelling the debt.
  • Two types of writing materials were used. Papyrus was similar to our paper, but vellum was made of certain kinds of animal skin. The ink contained no acid. When it was used to write, it did not bite into the paper or skin. It simply adhered to the surface. It would dry and could be read, but it was not indelible. The surface could be wiped clean without a race.
• The word, “ordinances” are commandments. The word refers to God’s laws in Exo 20.
  • Man did not measure up to the law of God in Exo 20. Therefore, there is a list of written grievances brought against man to which each person’s name is signed
    • Man is guilty of breaking God’s commandments. Therefore, Paul says that these ordinances bring legal charges “contrary (against) to us”. (14)
      • In God’s economic ledger, man is a debtor. He has no assets.
      • The words, “contrary to us” is a very strong phrase in Greek. The spiritual ledger that we signed at physical birth acknowledges that man is a debtor beyond his ability to pay. However, it is more than that. It means that there is hostility toward man because he cannot pay his debt.
      • Man’s debt hounds him just like a bill collector.
• Jesus nailed our debt to the cross. He paid the debt with his blood on the cross. The spiritual economic ledger that is now marked, “paid in full” is nailed to the cross.
  • How do we know that our debt is paid in full?
    • In Joh 19:30 Jesus said, “it is finished.”
    • The charges are not just blotted out so that they cannot be read, they are wiped clean without a trace. God took the record of our debt out of the way so that nothing of it remains.

 

• “And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.”

 

(15)
• The word “spoiled” means = to disarm.
• The words, “principalities and powers” refer to Satan and his demons
• Read Heb 2:14
• Read Mat 27:52-53
  • The phrase, “made a shew of them openly”
    • From these scriptures, we see that Jesus’ death on the cross took authority over Satan and death so that they are currently defeated enemies of man.

 

• “Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days.”

 

(16)
• The word, “judge”, means = to take to task and put under condemnation; to enslave.
  • Because of what Jesus did for the believer in verses 14 and 15, the believer should not let anyone put legalistic rules on him to guide his behavior.
    • The Holy Spirit is supposed to guide the behavior of the New Testament believer.
  • Paul lists the legalistic things that were common to the Jews.
    • Food and drink.
      • The Jews believed in eating things “kosher”.
      • The Jews believed in eating and drinking in a ritualistic manner.
    • Feast days
      • The Jews kept the legalistic Jewish feasts established in Lev 23.
    • New moon
      • The Jews established the annual calendar around the appearance of the new moon.
    • Sabbath
      • The Jews had an entire Sabbath system that contained a Sabbath day, a Sabbath week, a Sabbath month, and a Sabbath year.
  • All of these Jewish practices had a purpose. Paul tells us that the purpose was to be a shadow or a prefigure of Jesus Christ. (17)
    • All these things from the Old Testament were designed by God to teach us about the person of Jesus Christ and who He is.
    • All these things from the Old Testament were designed by God to teach us about the work of Jesus Christ and what He accomplished for us.
• Application:
  • The believer that is free in Jesus Christ will not let anyone judge him with regard to ritual.
  • The believer in Jesus Christ will not judge another with regard to ritual.
    • The believer’s attitude toward ritual:
      • Ritual is not wrong for the word, ritual, refers simply to a pattern of doing things many times over.
      • Ritual may awaken our emotions, stimulate our thoughts, strengthen our faith, or provide vehicles of truth. However, ritual becomes meaningless when it is a substitute for Jesus Christ, the reality of truth.
  • Paul wrote the whole book of Galatians to counter the false doctrine of legalism in the New Testament church.
    • We learn from Galatians that laws accomplish the following things:
      • Law makes human nature want to rebel and do exactly what the Law forbids.
      • Laws make man a judge over others that do not keep the laws, and for that laws divide instead of unify.
      • Laws focus man’s attention on his inability to keep the laws.
        • God’s purpose for the Law was to reveal man’s inability and point him to Jesus Christ.
      • Laws cannot save man or make man perfect.

HOMEWORK
COLOSSIANS 2:18-23
This is a self-study. Please do not send homework answers to the teacher forcorrection.

• Application of Col 2:11-17
• In which of the following areas of your life do you need to rectify in your thinking about Christ and the Christian life?
  • Water baptism as a testimony of a born-again experience.

 

• Legalism of an exterior religion without the internal power of a changed life by the power of the Holy Spirit.

 

• Preparation of Col 2:18-23
• Read Col 2:18-23
  • What specific false doctrines do you find in these verses?

 

• Memory Verse: Rom 9:32