As Paul the apostle
continued to show the Colossian church members how Jesus was indeed
God come in the flesh, which refuted the lack of deity in Christ that
the Gnostics were promoting, he also began to demonstrate how they
were “complete” in Jesus and had no need of additional
works to earn salvation. This argument refuted the Judaizers who were
false-teachers who claimed following the law of Moses was a
requirements for salvation. In chapter two and verse eleven of his
letter to the Colossians, Paul uses the example of “circumcision”
to demonstrate how faith in Jesus was sufficient for salvation. We
read:
In whom also you are
circumcised with the circumcision made without hands,
in putting off the
body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:
The
verse begins, “In whom also you are circumcised with the
circumcision made without hands,...” One
of the rules the Judaizers were promoting was that every male who was
a Gentile and came to a faith in Jesus was also to be circumcised as
the Jews were. Paul addressed this idea by showing the Colossians
that in Jesus they “are circumcised”
which means “to cut around” and was a symbol of being “separated
from the unclean world and dedicated to God, and denoted as the
extinguishing of lusts and the removal of sins” “with the
circumcision made without hands” which means it was
accomplished by God and not by man. In the book of Genesis which is
the first book of the Bible in chapter seventeen, God instructed
Father Abraham to circumcise himself and his sons as a symbol of
being separate from the world and all other nations, so when a Jewish
male turned eight days old his parents were to take him to the priest
to be circumcised. This was a work of the flesh that demonstrated the
cutting off of the world and the lusts thereof. Jesus spiritually
“cut off” the Colossian church members from the “unclean world
and the lust thereof” by His sacrifice on the cross, and when they
believed in Him as Savior, they too were “separated” from the
world.
The
verse continues, “... in putting off the body of the sins
of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:” Paul
tells how Jesus “cut them off” from the world “in
putting off” or “laying
aside” “the body of the sins of the flesh”
which means “missing of the mark of the sensuous physical nature of
man” “by the circumcision”
or “separation from the world and dedication to God” “of
Christ”. What could not be
done in the spirit by the hands of man, Christ accomplished by His
death on the cross. He was “cut off” in the Colossian church
members' place, and circumcision of the flesh could never do what
Jesus did spiritually for them.
As
we ponder this verse, let us allow ourselves to realize just what
Jesus did for us as well. The cutting away of the flesh was only an
outward symbol of what was supposed to be inside, and when Jesus died
on the cross and rose from the dead, he essentially “cut away”
anything that was necessary to separate us from the world. The
Christian is to be separate and unique from the world and the lusts
thereof, and by Jesus' sacrifice, the work has been completed and
accomplished. There is nothing more that can be added, and “The
body of the sins of the flesh”
is gone because Jesus was in effect “cut off” in our place. We
may now rejoice in the separation from the world that was afforded by
Jesus, and if we shouted “Glory be to God” it would only begin to
give thanks for His wonderful gift.
Next
time Paul shares the significance of baptism,
so read ahead, and we shall join together then.
Until
tomorrow...there is more...
Look
for the daily devotional book “Equipped for Battle – From
Generation to Generation”, the marriage book “So, You Want to Be
Married”, and the new devotional “One Year in the Sermon on the
Mount” in all major bookstore sites, www.amazon.com ;
www.barnesandnobles.com ; download to e-books, and find it locally at
www.mrzlc.com/bookstore.
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