Colossians 2:12,13
by Dr. Grant C. Richison
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Colossians 2:12
"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."
This verse explains when the circumcision of verse 11 occurred. God puts
off our old life at the moment of salvation. At that time a believer is
buried and raised with Christ.
This verse is a statement of what Jesus achieved by his death on the cross.
It boils down to our incorporation into his status before God. This is
our positional union with Christ in God's eyes.
The third result of the work of Christ on the cross is our burial with him.
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"buried with Him in baptism"
The words "buried with" mean to bury together, join in burying
or to be buried with. The word "with" indicates a "co"
relationship with Jesus Christ. This is a co-burial. We must bury anything
dead. When Jesus was buried, we were buried. God buried us along with
Jesus Christ! This obviously does not mean that God put us into the same
tomb as Jesus and laid down beside him!
Colossians describes this as already taken place. We are already identified
with Christ in his burial. The Bible uses "buried with" in the
figurative sense only (Rom. 6:4). We are identified with Christ in his
burial as set forth in his baptism.
"Baptism" here is not water baptism. It is Spirit baptism. Spirit
baptism is an action of the Holy Spirit whereby he puts the believer into
the body of Christ (i.e., our salvation). Water baptism simply is a physical
demonstration of what the Holy Spirit did. Water baptism is simply the
movements of Spirit baptism. We should not put undue emphasis upon the
physical object; the importance is what the Holy Spirit did at our salvation.
PRINCIPLE: The Christian is both buried and raised with Christ positionally.
APPLICATION: Positional truth is like a prisoner who has been made legally
free but he remains in prison not knowing that he is free to walk out the
door. The Christian is legally free from the penalty and consequences of
sin. God strips the flesh of its legal power over us. As God reckons he
identifies us with Christ. God cannot see us for Jesus. That person that
we were before Christ is dead in the sight of God. That person is dead
and buried. God wants us to reckon like he reckons. Our position in Christ
is eternal, infallible and unalterable.
When we act like we did before we came to Christ, we act out of character.
It is like putting on a Halloween mask. When we act like that we fool
those around us. We masquerade in make believe. We play the hypocrite.
No one else may know but God does. God does not want us to pretend that
we are not Christians. He will haul us off to the wood-shed if we do it
too often. He will not put up with trifling. God will allow us to go so
far and then he will pull us up short.
The fourth result of the work of Christ on the cross is we were raised with
Christ.
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"in which you also were raised with Him "
The words "were raised with" mean to raise together. It means
to participate in the resurrection of Christ. This is a co-resurrection.
When Jesus rose, we arose. God identifies us with Christ in his resurrection.
God did this to us at the moment of salvation (passive voice). We were
dead spiritually but Jesus caused us to live again.
Immersion into water baptism portrays the burial of Christ and coming out
of the water portrays the resurrection of Christ. However, this passage
is dealing with spiritual resurrection. God views us as raised with Christ
in the sense he identifies us with him in heaven today.
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"through faith in the working of God"
The word "working" means active power (1:29; Eph. 1:19; 3:7; 4:16).
God accomplishes salvation through resurrection power. This is God's great
work. When God goes to work, he always does a wonderful job. God's work
here is the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Christianity is
not a philosophy, a system or gimmick. It is a living relationship with
a living Christ.
The parallel verse to the verse we are studying is, "Therefore we were
buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised
from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in
newness of life" (Rom. 6:4). This verse teaches the same thing as
Colossians 2:12.
God raises us up through faith, not feelings (II Cor. 5:7; Eph. 2:8,9).
We have stopped trying to save ourselves by personal effort. We have given
up trusting anything but the grace of God. Faith in the finished work of
Christ is the means whereby God identifies us with Christ.
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"who raised Him from the dead"
Since God raised Jesus from the dead, the Christian has assurance of his
position before God. If God is able to raise Jesus Christ from the dead,
he can raise us to new life.
PRINCIPLE: Faith is the operating principle by which we engage positional
truth.
APPLICATION: It is by faith in God's work that we receive positional burial
and resurrection. God joined us to a living Savior at the moment of salvation.
It is when we personally experience positional truth that the fact becomes
real to us. If positional truth remains a cold doctrine we will benefit
from the privileges it affords us. We need to take it out of the deep freezer
and apply it to our experience.
Colossians 2:13
"And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision
of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you
all trespasses"
Jesus Christ canceled the legal claims against the Christian. He did this
through the cross (vv. 13-14). This is the fifth result of Jesus' work
upon the cross.
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"And you"
These two words express great emphasis in Paul's thought: "You and
only you." These words emphasize our relationship, not our function.
The purpose of this phrase is to make every believer sense that they are
a part of the plan of God. If you have received Jesus Christ as your Savior,
you are a part of the eternal plan of God. You are just as much in the
plan as any other person who ever lived.
PRINCIPLE: Every Christian is part of the eternal plan of God.
APPLICATION: Some believe that clergy are first class Christians and laymen
are second class. God's viewpoint is that all Christians regardless of
giftedness or position are equal in God's program. There is no such thing
as clergy and laymen in the Bible. Clergy is special and everyone else
is a peon. This is not true. Everyone is in full time service in God's
eternal plan.
God does provide leadership in the local church. The Bible labels such
terms as "pastor" and "elder" for that leadership.
These are terms of rank of authority but not of spiritual privilege.
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"being dead in your trespasses "
This is "dead" spiritually, not physically. Before we received
forgiveness in Christ we were dead to God by our violation of his standards.
That is the predicament of the lost. It is the past of the child of God.
Instead of being dead to God he is alive to God. Instead of being dead
in trespasses, the Christian is dead to sin. This is the violation of God
in act.
The word "being" indicates our status quo of death. As a non
Christian we were in the status quo death. Unbelievers are outside the
eternal plan of God for salvation.
Death means separation, not annihilation. Before we came to know Christ,
we were cut off from God (John 5:24,25; II Cor. 5:14,15; Rom. 6:13). Those
in sin are dead in sin. As death deteriorates the body so sin corrupts
the soul. As a dead man is unable to help himself, so a man dead in sin
is unable to help himself. He is dead to God so he cannot pray. They have
no capacity for knowing God (I Cor. 2:14). They have nothing with which
to know God.
A "trespass" is the crossing or violation of a standard.
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"and the uncircumcision of your flesh"
Our nature was "uncircumcised," that is, separated from God.
This describes our state of being before we came to know Christ. We were
dead in our state to God. The corrupt moral condition in which the desires
of the sin capacity still operate in the believer. This is the violation
of God in principle.
The term "uncircumcised" refers to both male and female. All
human beings have fallen sin capacities.
PRINCIPLE: Every Christian has a factory that produces sin -- the sin capacity.
APPLICATION: The Christian cannot live the Christian life by operation
bootstraps. The sin capacity undermines our ability to live before God.
That is why we must go to the cross and depend upon Christ to the Christian
way of life.
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"He has made alive together with Him"
Jesus exchanged his death for our life. We are now spiritually alive to
God in Christ. We are not now alive physically anymore than we were before.
This is spiritual aliveness, the life of God (Eph. 2:4,5).
Death is a result of having a sin capacity. Before Adam sinned he did not
have a sin capacity so he never experienced death. Once he sinned, he acquired
a sin capacity he experienced both spiritual and physical deaths. "The
wages of sin in death" (Rom. 6:23). The good news is Jesus took our
death so we can have his eternal life (John 1:4; 14:6; I Jn. 5:10-12).
We receive physical life from our parents at our first birth; we receive
spiritual life and eternal life at our second birth.
"Has made alive together" means to endue life with, produce alive
with, preserve alive with. At our conversion we received spiritual life
with Christ (Eph. 2:5). God imparts this life to us at the moment of our
salvation. In our union with Christ, God makes us alive in Christ. When
a person receives Jesus Christ as their Savior, God performs a divine operation
of giving them his life.
PRINCIPLE: When we receive Christ God gives us his very own life -- eternal
life.
APPLICATION: The dead feel no pain. The reason non Christians do not feel
lost is they cannot feel anything. No dead person feels dead. A person
does not have to feel lost; they are lost. The unbeliever is in the process
of perishing.
When we were "made alive" we entered into union with Jesus Christ
for eternity. Do you have eternal life? You receive eternal life by accepting
God's gift of Jesus' death for your sin. When you do that, you receive
eternal life.
The sixth result of the work of Christ on the cross is that God forgives
us by grace. That is a great blessed benefit of being born again.
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"having forgiven you all trespasses"
The verb "having forgiven" connotes forgiveness as the result
of grace or an act of love. It means to bestow a favor unconditionally.
The favor bestowed unconditionally here is the remission of debt against
God. That is the act of forgiveness (Eph. 4:32; Col. 3:13). This is God's
merciful act of sovereignty.
The Greek indicates that forgiveness precedes "made alive." Before
we can come alive to God, God must forgive us first (I Jn. 2:12; Eph. 1:7;
Acts 10:43; 13:38,29). The principle is that God cannot exercise grace
until he satisfies his righteousness. God cannot act inconsistently with
his own character. God cannot under maudlin sentiment pour out his love.
God forgives our sins at the cross. Because of the cross, God is free to
give us eternal life and exercise his grace in time. He is free to do this
because his righteousness is satisfied by the suffering of Christ. Jesus
took the judgment for our sins.
Note that God forgives "all" trespasses, not some. That will
enable us to sleep at night. We do not truly rest until we rest in the
work of Christ.
PRINCIPLE: God cannot exercise his grace until he satisfies his righteousness
by the death of Christ.
APPLICATION: We are natural born sinners. We are sinners by nature, choice
and practice. It is easier to do wrong than right; it is easier to tell
a lie than tell the truth. Unless and until God forgives, sin stays on
us. Our sin separates us from God. The cross of Christ purifies us from
sin. The religions of the earth invent substitutes. Not one of them can
take us to heaven.
The cross of Christ satisfies God's perfect righteousness. God can therefore
exercise his grace and mercy toward us. The crucial consideration for eternal
life is to accept God's way of dealing with our sin -- the cross of Christ.
Do you trust the cross for eternal life? Are you depending on that as
God's exclusive way to possess the life of God?
Copyright © 1995, Dr. Grant Richison. All rights reserved.
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