Colossians 2:12-14 - Our Debt Nailed to the Cross (Session 12)

 This episode is a verse-by-verse Bible study of Colossians 2:12-14, exploring the historical context, theological meaning, and faithful application of the passage within the Christian faith. 

Ever pondered about Abraham's faith before his circumcision and how it ties with our faith in Christ? Well, hang tight! This journey will unravel how the Lord performs an unseen surgery that separates us from our sinful nature and connects us with the righteous identity declared by God through our faith and trust in Jesus. We'll traverse through the passages of Colossians 2:12-14, Romans 4 and Galatians 3, shedding light on the circumcision performed by Christ and how it is faith, not actions or ceremonies by which believers are declared as righteous.

Now, let's shift gears and tackle the deep-rooted concepts of salvation and the forgiveness of sins. Brace yourselves as we pierce into the reality of being 'dead in our transgressions' and how God's forgiveness breathes life into our very souls. Guided by Romans 8:10 and Colossians 2:14, we'll dissect when salvation occurs and the profound meaning of 'canceling out the certificate of debt'. Finally, we'll stand in awe of the ultimate price Jesus paid for our infinite debt. Don't miss out on this opportunity to delve into the Bible and grasp the essence of your faith like never before.

Transcript

Circumcision and Faith in Christ

Speaker 2 0:14

You know , in the book of Romans , the apostle Paul talks about being chained to a body of death . He talks about that in Romans , chapter seven , and he talks about this body of death being this old , sinful body . And towards the end of Romans seven , paul screams out who will deliver me from this body of death ? Well , here in Colossians , chapter two , we've got the answer the person that delivers us from this body of death is the Lord , jesus Christ . He actually delivers us by doing surgery on us , and we're going to talk about that today on reasoning through the Bible .

Speaker 1 0:49

I'm glad that we have a great physician to take us and do that surgery on us .

Speaker 2 0:55

And , as we learned last time , the surgery that it mentions in Colossians chapter two is a surgery done without hands and it's done by the great physician , the Lord Jesus Christ . That's what we're going to learn . If you have your copy of the Word of God , then open it to Colossians chapter two . We'll be going through that today . For those of you that might be new to our study here , my name is Glenn and this is Steve .

Speaker 2 1:17

We have this ministry , reasoning through the Bible , and what we do is , verse by verse , bible study and we look at these things in detail and reason through them as we go .

Speaker 2 1:26

What we learned at the end of our last one is that in Colossians chapter two , verses 11 and 12 , we were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands , and we learned last time that circumcision was both the removal of an unclean part of a body and it is also a symbol of being part made into God's people , a seal of a covenant , if you will . So let's look at this verse , because we hadn't quite finished going through this . It says at the end of Colossians two , 11 , the last part of that verse that in the removal of the body of flesh by the circumcision of Christ , and then in verse 12 , having been buried with him in baptism . At the end of 11 , it talks about the removal of the body of flesh by the circumcision of Christ . The removal of the body of flesh , with the flesh in the Bible , is representative of what , steve . When it says the flesh , what is it talking about ?

Speaker 1 2:29

Well , it's talking about that unclean part , that symbolism related to the unclean part that's been cut off , and the circumcision also was a sign of the covenant that the Israelites had with God . But the bottom line was cut off , that unclean part .

Speaker 2 2:46

He did surgery . He did surgery on his hands and he cut away all the old unclean part . That's what he's talking about . And what I think of , steve , is , you know how , like if you go and you have to do some work and you get hot and sweaty and dirty and you can come in and take a shower and you just get clean . Well , that's what I think of here is that he did a circumcision and it made us clean . He took away all the unclean part . Isn't it great to have something unclean taken away to where you can just smile and take a deep breath and say I'm clean . And if you're , when you realize you're dirty and then you get clean , you remember that feeling of what it's like to be clean . That's what it's like to be in Christ is to be clean before God .

Speaker 1 3:33

And it is great , and it is a great feeling , as long as we can understand that that is true as a true statement and that there's nothing in addition that we need to do . Paul is very clear here that we're made clean , that Christ has taken this and made us clean by the removal of that unclean thing from the body .

Speaker 2 3:54

So the real question for us is not whether we've been through some ceremony or whether we joined some church or whether I said some words to somebody somewhere . No , the question is whether I'm in Christ and if I'm in Christ , he has performed surgery on us and cut away the old flesh . Now , another point to make here if we look at again at Colossians 2 , 11 and 12 , it talks in here about both circumcision and faith . Verse 11 talks about circumcision made without hands , and then in verse 12 , raised up with him through faith . So it's talking about both circumcision and faith . We have to pause for just a second and deal with the connection there , because there's a very , very strong connection , or at least description , between circumcision and faith .

Speaker 2 4:50

And to really understand this , if we look at Romans chapter 4 , most of the entire chapter of Romans chapter 4 is the word of God explaining to us the relationship between obeying through they use the example of circumcision and when we are declared righteous .

Speaker 2 5:12

And what he quotes there in Romans chapter 4 is a verse out of way back in Genesis , chapter 15 , abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness . In Romans chapter 4 , he quotes that verse Abraham believed God , he had faith in God and it was counted as righteous , and the apostle Paul mentions that again in the book of Galatians . Galatians 3 , 6 also quotes the same verse , genesis 15 , 6 . Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness . So both in Romans 4 and Ephesians 3 , 6 , the apostle Paul is making the exact same point Abraham believed God , had faith in God , therefore he is counted as righteous . In Romans 4 , he then goes on to ask a question Was Abraham declared righteous before he was circumcised or after he was circumcised ? If it was after he was circumcised , then Abraham could claim something because he did something , he obeyed . He had obedience . But what's his answer ?

Speaker 1 6:29

His answer is no , it was before he was circumcised .

Speaker 2 6:31

It was before he was circumcised and again , it was before obedience . The point that Paul makes in Romans 4 and in Galatians 3 , and again here in Colossians , the point he's making is that it's the faith . It's the point where God declares us in Christ and he declares us righteous . And again the point is made exactly in Romans 4 . Is it before we obey God in anything or is it after we obey God ? And he's making the point it's before . The point of all of this is that Colossians 2 , 11 and 12 talk about circumcision . They talk about baptism and in both of those instances it is a human doing something . Yes , it's a work of God , but we have to obey . And what is the point of being declared righteous ? It's not at the point of obedience . It makes this point over and over again . It's not at the point of obedience . It's not at the point of obedience , it's a point of faith . And if it was because of obedience , it's not a faith . And that's the message that he's making in Romans 4 , and it's the message he's making here .

Speaker 1 7:45

I think you're right there , in line with what Paul is talking about . And then verse 12 , when he talks about in him , with him , being Christ , with him through faith . The next words there I think are important . It says through faith in the working of God . So it's God doing the working who raised him , him being Christ from the dead . It's not what we are doing . There's no additional thing that we need to do .

Speaker 1 8:14

What is true faith , it's believing in the promises of what God has said and the promises that Jesus Christ has said that we have through belief in him . That's the faith , that is the essence of faith , and here it's faith in the working of God . God does the working . We express the faith If we're going to think that , okay , okay , I believe in Jesus Christ , I believe that I have eternal life , I want Christ to be , I want to have a relationship with God , I believe that he's the only way , and then we turn around and say , but I hope that I have eternal life . The question is , have you really expressed faith ? And I'm kind of smiling at that is because it's a little bit ironic to say I have faith in Jesus Christ and I have faith that he has saved me , and then turn around and say but you know , I hope that I have eternal life or that you're still somehow unclean because you didn't quite obey enough .

Speaker 1 9:22

Yes , are any of the things that Paul is talking about here and in other epistles as well ? I just would like for us to be able to look at these things that Paul is talking about in Christ . You have these attributes , you have these characteristics , and that's it , and there's nothing else that we that we have to do in order to add to it , and that's some of the false teaching that he is writing to these people at Colossae about that . He writes in other epistles about false teachers coming in . They want to add something else to God's plan of salvation . It's God's plan of salvation . Just being human beings wanting to add something to it , we're not expressing the faith in just believing that this is God's plan of salvation and the way that it works out . Therefore , that's it and we don't have to do anything else .

Speaker 2 10:23

Too many people just feel like , ok , I'm forgiven , but I have to do something else . My response is Romans 4-10 . Human obedience is not the point where righteousness is credited to us . Galatians 3-6, . Human obedience is not the point where righteousness is credited to us . God makes it crystal clear that righteousness is credited at the point of faith and that it's Jesus Christ's full righteousness to where we are qualified , we are complete . We are complete enough to appear before Him .

Speaker 2 10:59

It says in Colossians . And therefore , when we get to Colossians 2 , 11 and 12 , that compares circumcision and baptism as the working of God . Then , yes , the work of God happens at the point of faith , not at the point of obedience . It's not at the point of obedience where grace is imparted . It's not at the point of obedience where our forgiveness happens . It's not at the point of obedience where the Holy Spirit is given . It's at the point of faith where all those things happen .

Speaker 2 11:33

Baptism does not result in the working of God to impart grace , nor the Holy Spirit , nor the forgiveness of sins . Yes , colossians 2 , 11 and 12 compares baptism with circumcision and that is a sign or a symbol or a seal of a covenant . Yes , and it also says here that it is a working of God through faith , not through obedience . No act of human obedience is a means by which God gives grace or souls are saved or the Holy Spirit enters or sins are forgiven . All of those things happen at belief . Because ? Why ? Because Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness . It was accounted to him for righteousness , not earned . We say that over and over again just simply because too many Christians get it wrong .

Speaker 1 12:26

And I think that's what Paul is exactly saying in the next verse , in verse 13 . If we look at it there , he says when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh , he made you alive together with him , having forgiven us all our transgressions . So he's saying exactly what you just said . It was before they were circumcised . We were still uncircumcised whenever we were forgiven of our transgressions and made alive .

Speaker 2 12:58

And I just find that to be such an important thing and it needed some time and attention . So in verse 12 , it says here that we're buried with him in baptism and then raised with him through faith . So the baptism there is a picture of the burial and the raising . Again , okay , it's a seal of a covenant , I get it because it makes the connection with circumcision but the picture is describing in verse 12 is a burial and a resurrection . So why should we be baptized ? Because we've been spiritually raised . That's what he's saying , am I right ?

Speaker 1 13:37

That's exactly right . We've been spiritually buried and we've also been spiritually raised , and it's that depiction . Our hope is in the resurrection of Jesus Christ . Paul had said that if Christ has not been raised from the dead , then everything about the gospel and everything that they've been preaching is in vain . So this is very much a direct picture of that being raised up also with him . That's what our hope is in and our salvation is in .

Speaker 2 14:05

So if our question is , why do we get baptized ? It's because of what it says right here in Colossians 2.12 . We get baptized because it's a picture of dying and rising again , which is what happened not only to Christ , but it's what happened to our old , unclean self . Our old , unclean self died and was resurrected again by Christ . That happens when we're in Christ . When you're resurrected , are you still dead ? No , no , you're made alive .

Speaker 2 14:36

So , yes , baptism is an act of obedience , it's a way of identifying with Christ and it's a picture of being dead and being risen again , which is what happened at the point of faith . Again in verse 12 , not only were we buried with him , but we were also raised with him . Through what was it ? Again ? Through the working of God , working of God through faith . So it's connecting in verse 12 , the fact that Jesus rose from the dead with our resurrection from being spiritually dead and sin . The picture is that we were dead and sin and that we're baptized when we're raised up again to walk in newness of life . So one more sign of this dramatic change from the state of a lost person to a state of a saved person is that we're circumcised , with a circumcision made without hands , which means where all the unclean part of us is taken away and the part of us that was dead is raised again Again . Dramatic , dramatic change from one to the

Understanding Salvation and Forgiveness of Sin

Speaker 2 15:38

other .

Speaker 1 15:38

So , steve read the next verse 2 13 . When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh , he made you alive together with him , having forgiven us all our transgressions .

Speaker 2 15:51

So it says there . It speaks of being dead and sin . So here's a question , steve If you're dead , is it possible to raise yourself up and make yourself alive again ?

Speaker 1 16:00

No , it's not . And whenever I see this , this dead , I always ask the question of dead to what , or dead to who , or dead in what ? And it's clear here that he's talking about that . We're dead in our transgressions against God .

Speaker 2 16:17

So what it's saying here very clearly is , especially in the middle of 13 is that we are dead in our sin . We are dead in our sin . That has basically killed us before God . We don't have any spiritual life left in us to be able to go do anything before God . We can't do a good work before God . And the old King James version says in the middle of verse 13 , it says he quickened us together with him . Or the newer translation say he made us alive . So the next question is if we're dead in sin , who's the only one that can make us alive again ?

Speaker 1 16:53

Well , God is the only one that can make us alive again . I think he's clear on that in that through Jesus Christ . So if we're in Christ , we're made alive again .

Speaker 2 17:03

So the description here in verses 11 , 12 and 13 is that we were dead in sin , we had faith and became alive again and then we obey in baptism as a picture of that death and resurrection again . Jesus died in our place because of our sin and was risen again . Our old , unclean self was dead and he made us alive again . So the picture here again , this radical transformation , is that there was a part of us that was spiritually dead and we can't go and do enough good works to make ourselves right before God . So he has to raise us again and he does that at the point of faith and that's just a tremendous thing . And a dead person obey enough to please God .

Speaker 1 17:53

No , he can . I think a parallel verse or a verse that we can give a little bit more flavor to this is over in Romans 810 . And it says if Christ is in you . So again this , this idea that Paul has of being in Christ . It says if Christ is in you , though the body is dead because of sin , yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness . So Paul is very clear there that because the body is dead because of sin , we're made spiritually alive because of the righteousness that we're given by being in Christ .

Speaker 2 18:27

My next question is this if I'm dead and my trespasses and sins and I realize that I can't all my own work myself to God , so I have faith I want to get baptized . Is it the case that a spiritually dead person can then go obey enough in baptism in order for salvation to happen at the point of baptism ? Can a dead person that is not alive , that's dead in trespasses and sins , then say OK , I'm going to go obey and get baptized and that's the point of salvation ? Can that happen or seem to me that a dead person can't do a good work ?

Speaker 1 19:13

Well , yeah , now you're getting into the different areas of when salvation actually takes place . I think it's clear by what we've talked about and what Paul has made in his one argument that he makes about Abraham , that salvation is at the point of faith . It's not at the point of baptism .

Speaker 2 19:31

Right and again . Look at again verse 12 . Having been buried with him in baptism , which you were raised up with him through faith in the working of God , what raised us ? The faith raised us . We were raised through faith . It wasn't anything else that raised us . The becoming alive again was through faith . The baptism and the circumcision in 11 and 12 are not given in logical chronological order . He's describing there a work that God does , but it's the faith that does it . He makes that completely crystal clear . And then again at the end of verse 13 , how many of our transgressions did Jesus forgive ?

Speaker 1 20:11

All of our transgressions .

Speaker 2 20:14

All of our transgressions . So the answer there is very clear . The teaching he just keeps pounding on it we're separated from God . Which is what dead means Separated from God . We're dead in our trespasses and sins . A spiritually dead person can't decide hey , I'm going to go make myself alive again . We need him to come and raise us . That happens at the point of faith . Then we obey in baptism . He circumcises our heart and all these wonderful things happen , makes us prepared to appear before him . Wonderful , wonderful teachings .

Speaker 1 20:48

And I believe that there's also with him in verse 13 , with him having forgiven us all our transgressions . So we're forgiven of those transgressions when we're in Christ .

Speaker 2 21:00

Now dead in trespasses and sins has a lot more implications to it . It'll take us a little while . What I want to do is for our listeners tune in next time , because we're going to take a few minutes and kind of go down a rabbit trail with dead in trespasses and sins . So that's sort of a teaser for next time . So don't miss that . It'll be quite , quite important . If you're at all interested in dead in trespasses and sins , let's go on and read the next verse , which is Colossians 2 , 14 . Steve , can you read that ?

Speaker 1 21:28

one , having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us which was hostile to us , and he has taken it out of the way , having nailed it to the cross .

Speaker 2 21:40

It says canceled the certificate of debt , or some of the translation says canceled the written code . So what is he talking about there ? What is this written code , the certificate of debt , and what does it mean to cancel it ?

Speaker 1 21:55

Well , a certificate of debt was a document that was written out that had all different types of listings of whether it might be actual monetary debt or maybe other some type of other assets that you might have owed people or whatever it might have been . But it was a document that had all of these things that were listed and if you wanted to get out of that debt , you had to pay back those items that were listed . You had to go through and then , once you did that , you would receive that certificate . It might be akin today of whenever we buy a house there's a mortgage on the house . Once we pay off that mortgage , we get a certificate back that says this person has paid off all the debt for this house and he actually owns the mortgage is transferred from the bank who we had the debt , who carried our debt over to us Something similar to that it's implying that we then had this certificate of debt before God .

Speaker 2 22:53

That's the whole point of the exercise . Right , we had a debt before God . What is this debt that I had before God ?

Speaker 1 22:59

Well , our debt of sin , our debt of our transgressions against him , our uncleanliness that we had , all of these things that we have were in the dark . All the things that Paul gives descriptions about of what lost people have are people that don't have a relationship with God , that are not in Christ . Those are all the things that we have a debt to owe to God .

Speaker 2 23:22

The Jews were held to the Old Testament moral law that was found in the law of Moses . It had all these moral obligations to it and every person had broken that , even those moral codes that were not given to the Gentiles . As far as the law of Moses , the moral law sometimes called natural law , was indeed put on all people Throughout the Old Testament , god held other nations to violations of God's moral law . Many of the prophets spoke against these other nations because they had sinned against God's moral law . So we have here in this verse in Colossians . He's saying you broke this law . There's a certificate of debt . You owe something here . Because you violated this , you owe a certificate of debt . It's a certificate of sin . You broke the moral law . You have to pay it . And guess what ? You're broke . You don't have any money , any ability to pay it . But the good news is what he canceled it , nailing it to where , Nailing it to the cross .

Speaker 1 24:27

And I think another thing that Paul mentions here in verse 14 is that all of those decrees look there it says all of these decrees were hostile to us . These things were not things that were good for us , they were hostile to us . Therefore , when Christ has paid those and nailed them to the cross , now we have that reconciliation with God and we have peace with God .

Speaker 2 24:52

Do all people have a certificate of debt before God ?

Speaker 1 24:56

Yes , they do .

Speaker 2 24:58

All people start out with a certificate of debt , and unless he canceled it , like it says here in Colossians chapter two , then you still got your certificate of debt . And guess what ? The bill collector is going to come at some point and demand payment , and your payment is your life . We have a choice . We either pay with our life . We're not going to get out of it because there is a written document out there , a certificate of debt , and you're going to pay it . The good news is somebody already paid it for you . All you have to do is claim it .

Speaker 1 25:29

There was a sermon that was made by a pastor many , many years ago and the title of the sermon was Pay Day Someday , and that's exactly what he was talking about in that sermon . We have a debt that we owe and at some point in time , that debt's got to be paid . The question is , is it already paid by being in Christ , or is it yet to be paid without being in Christ ?

Speaker 2 25:55

The idea here in this context what happened to people that had a debt that they couldn't pay ? Well , they became bond slaves . You had this debt , you had to go work it off and you had to go work off the bond . Well , what it's saying here is that this certificate of debt was paid for by Christ at the cross . So that means he paid for our sins . We've all heard he paid for our sins . Well , he paid the debt and bought us . He owns us . We are in debt to Christ . He paid the price . This is a legal proclamation . He went to court and paid my debt . That's what it's saying . They stamped the certificate . It is finished . The same thing he said is the last word on the cross to tell us that it is finished is here . The certificate was paid for .

Speaker 1 26:47

You know , glenn , we spent three sessions when we went through Exodus going into great detail about this concept of being a bond slave and owing a debt , and one of the things that you brought out in those sessions was that the mindset in that era was that it was immoral for people to owe a debt and not pay their debt . In our societies today , we think , oh , we'll just declare bankruptcy if we can't pay the debt and just leave the creditors hanging . But that's not how it works with God . There's a debt and the debt's got to be paid , and it's got to be paid by somebody . It's a great thing that we have the ability for Christ to be able to pay that debt and cancel it , nail it to the cross , as Paul has mentioned here

Debt and Salvation in the Bible

Speaker 1 27:31

.

Speaker 2 27:31

The picture throughout the entire Bible is that this debt has to get paid for with blood . It's going to get paid for with you're in my blood or it's going to get paid for with Christ's blood . And all the Old Testament sacrifices made a substitute to atone for my sin , and Jesus was the substitute . He's the one that paid the price for all of us , and because he was who he said , he was all the fullness of Christ in bodily form . Then his body could pay an infinite debt for you and for me . The only question we have is are we in Christ , have you accepted this debt payment , or are you still out there trying to die on your own ? That's the invitation he gives to all of us is accept his free gift of having your debt paid for . And isn't it great , steve , to not have any debts .

Speaker 1 28:21

It is , and what you just mentioned there , you just brought in a concept from a few verses before . So now , by going through these verses over these last two sessions , we're starting to see it all come together and coming into a little bit of a conclusion before Paul moves on to his next topic .

Speaker 2 28:37

And next time we'll get into some of those conclusions , we'll get into debt and we'll kind of summarize some of the things that's been happening throughout up to this point in the book and really kind of pound home how that impacts several doctrines and teachings and theology . And we're going to continue to reason through the Bible and we trust that you will as well .

Speaker 1 28:56

Thank you for watching and listening . God bless you .