TurningPoint Community Church
BFG Lesson
Colossians 2:8-15
6/20/2010
BFG Lesson
Colossians 2:8-15
6/20/2010
Prepared by Robert Moritz
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 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 debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.
v.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."
I like the way this verse reads in the New King James version as it says, "Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit according to the traditions of men..."
Paul starts off this section of Scripture with a warning – the word BEWARE.
The word “beware” means to “Look out for” or to “be on guard against.” But what is Paul warning the Colossians to guard themselves against? “Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit…”
Now that leads us to ask, What does he mean by “cheat?” The word cheat here means to take something from someone while they are unaware.
In other words they have trusted you with their life, their possessions, their reputation, whatever, and you go behind their back and take it for yourself or deliberately ruin their reputation.
Maybe they trust you with their money and then you tell them it is safe and properly invested. Then you turn around and take a vacation with their savings – can anyone say Bernie Madoff?? He cheated people out of billions of dollars.
Unfortunately, this happens all too often under the guise of Christianity too. This past week a friend of mine posted a video on FB, which I reposted, showing some false teachers from the health, wealth, and prosperity gospel fleecing their gullible parishioners out of all their hard earned money.
Now you may ask, “well why is that wrong? Aren’t we supposed to give cheerfully to the Lord’s work?” And of course the answer is yes sure we are.
But the problem here is motive. Remember, God looks at the motive of our hearts before He takes into account our actions. These people were not giving to help the poor or to further Gods kingdom work here on earth, they were giving expecting to received greater financial gain through their good deeds. Do you think God will bless this? Not likely.
These people were being fleeced out of their money to make these false teachers rich. Two very sad things about this:
1) These people actually think this is what God wants, that He will bless this and that they will go to Heaven when they die. Unfortunately these poor deceived people are being led down the broad path to destruction.
2) Is the damage this kind of foolishness does to the name of Christ. The lost world watches this stuff and wrongly concludes that this is what Christianity is all about and they decide they want no part of that nonsense. And who could blame them? Then when they do hear the real Gospel truth they just reject it out of hand believing they have seen that Jesus thing and it’s a bunch of wacko’s giving all their money to a couple of rich preachers.
Well, moving on in v.8, Paul also tells the Colossians to beware of philosophies of the world that are according to the traditions of men and the basic principles of this world and not according to Christ. (NKJ)
If you recall in our introductory lesson I mentioned that not only was Colossea influenced by the Gnostics who taught an empty philosophy of having a supposed “higher” knowledge to attain salvation, but hey also had quite a large Jewish population and their Christian faith was becoming intertwined with Rabbinical law.
John MacArthur says, “Far from being advanced profound knowledge, the false teachers beliefs were simplistic and immature like all the rest of the speculations, ideologies, philosophies and psychology the fallen satanic and human system invents.”
But Paul is saying to the Colossians that they don't need any of this external stuff. That they don't need any of these Jewish ceremonies or rituals. He's saying that Christ is sufficient!
v.9 – “For in Him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily” (ESV)
Basically here Paul just reiterates what he stated back in Chap 1:19 where he said, “For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.”
Isn’t it neat how Paul constantly brings his readers back to Christ? By this one verse alone there’s no mistaking that Jesus is God.
Look at what its saying here – ‘In Christ the “whole Fullness” of deity’ – You can’t get much more 100% than that.
- Does what? Dwells – Dwells how? Bodily – Meaning in the very body, the very person of Christ. Jesus Is God!!! That’s the message Paul is trying to convey here.
This is a very effective answer to the various forms of Gnosticism that were developing in Paul’s day that denied the Lordship of Jesus.
Its also an effective answer to the many cults of our day that also deny the deity of Christ – (the JW, Mormons, Christian Science) just to name a few.
One writer states, “This verse contains 2 distinct assertions: 1) That the fullness of the Godhead eternally dwells in Christ and 2) That the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him, bodily; In the flesh.
Some of the cults I just mentioned will even admit that some form of divinity did dwell in Jesus. Or that He was a lesser type of God. But with this one verse Paul completely and utterly destroys that argument. This verse is identifying all the fullness of the Godhead as being in Christ, in his manhood, in His person.
V. 10 – "And you have been filled in Him who is the head of all rule and authority."
So here we see Paul changing course a little bit – from God to man. He goes from talking about the Godhead dwelling fully in Christ proving that Christ is God, to showing how believers are filled in Him and how he is the Head over all rule and authority.
What Paul is doing here is trying to impress upon his readers that all-sufficiency of the Lord Jesus Christ as well as the perfect standing they have in him.
Of course this does not mean that we as believers are indwelt by all the fullness of the Godhead. The only one for whom that will ever be true is Christ alone.
It also does not mean that just because we are filled in Him that we will never sin again. Unfortunately in this world the old sin nature is alive and well.
What this verse does teach though is that the believer has in Christ all that is needed for life and Godliness.
Spurgeon gives a good definition of our completeness in Christ. He says we are:
1) Complete without the aid of Jewish ceremony
2) Complete without the help of philosophy
3) Complete without the inventions of superstitions
4) Complete without human merit.
Paul then goes on to mention that this ONE in whom we are complete is also the Head of all principality and power.
Remember back when we were studying 1John and I discussed at length what Gnosticism was? I said that they believed you had to attain a higher form of consciousness in order to be saved. And how they denied the humanity of Jesus because they believed and were teaching that all flesh was evil, therefore God could never take on human form?
Well another thing the Gnostics were caught up in was the subject of angels. Paul mentions this later in this chapter in v. 18. Now Dustin is going to be teaching on this section next week and I don’t want to steal his thunder but I just want to take a look at this one verse for a minute.
So looking at verse 18 Paul says, “Let no one keep defrauding you...” See, people want to attack the truth, the simplicity in Christ. They want to attack it with philosophy. They want to attack it with legalism. And they want to attack it with mysticism.
And there are those who get involved in worshiping angels. This stuff goes on even today. Roman Catholicism has been involved in that, in fact there is a whole section in their theology on the veneration of angels. Somehow you can transcend this life and touch the throne of God by connecting with angels.
John MacArthur speaks of a Charismatic woman who said that their plane was wobbling coming into Chicago one night and she looked out the window and there was a big angel holding up one wing. And so this makes her somehow transcendent. This is a woman who’s got a mystical experience. This stuff can be very intimidating to us poor people who are counting on nothing but Christ. He mentions another woman who once said to him, "I don’t really care what the Bible says, I just know what Jesus told me.” Boy, that’s a bizarre statement. You don’t care what the Bible says, you know what Jesus told you? The whole Bible is about nothing else. It lives and breaths Christ!
Evangelicalism is filled with people being defrauded by false visions. Also he says in verse 18, “these people become puffed up without reason by their sensuous mind.” You get proud. And if you ever watch these Charismatic preachers on TV its hard to miss their pride. I mean they are just bubbling over with it. They are full of self importance. They would have to think that they are important if God is speaking to them every day and Jesus stops in and says hello all the time.
I think in some ways, and I’m not trying to pick on people, but I watch these televangelists and I think if there’s anything about them that is hard for me to accept, it is their pride. It’s just over the top sense of importance, self-importance. I mean, you must think you’re pretty important if God talks to you just about every day. Gives you visions, revelations, sends angels to do all these things. All of a sudden Christ isn’t the issue anymore, you are, with all your visions and all your mystical experiences. You cannot exalt Christ and you at the same time, it doesn’t work.
So watch those who want to exalt mystical supposed supernatural experiences that are nothing more than the imaginations of their own mind, designed in many cases to manipulate people into thinking they are some great ones from God and thereby making them, in many cases, wealthy.
We must remember that Christ is head over all the angelic beings, and it would be ridiculous to be occupied with angels when we can have the Creator of angels as the object of our affections and enjoy communion with Him.
v.11 - "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,"
Here Paul talks about circumcision which the Judaizers were trying to say had to be done, physically, in order for you to be accepted by Christ. In other words they were adding to salvation by grace alone. Paul however, is talking about a spiritual circumcision. One made without hands.
Spiritually, it signified death to the flesh, or a putting aside of the evil, corrupt unregenerate nature of man. As it says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things are passed away; behold, new things have come." This is the kind of circumcision Paul is referring to.
If you are a true believer in Christ you have been circumcised spiritually, you have been made a new creation and this is true of everyone who has put his faith and trust in the Lord Jesus.
When Paul mentions "the circumcision of Christ" he is referring to His death on the cross of Calvary. That when Jesus died, we as believers also died - to sin, to the law and to self.
v.12 – "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."
Paul now turns from circumcision to baptism. Just as circumcision speaks of death to the flesh, baptism speaks of the burial of the old self. Being buried with Christ in His death. This of course happens spiritually when we are first saved. But we then express it publicly by going into the baptismal waters.
Baptism represents the burial of all that we were as children of Adam. In baptism we are acknowledging that nothing in ourselves could ever please God, and so we are putting the flesh out of God's sight forever. But it doesn't end there. The great news is that we have also risen with Him to walk in newness of life.
V.13 - "And 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,"
Here Paul is telling the Colossians pretty much the same thing he told the Ephesians that you were dead in your trespasses. Turn to Eph 2 - Read 1-3 Of course the death Paul is talking about here is not physical death but spiritual death. Spurgeon puts it this way:
"The kind of death here spoken of is spiritual death,—death as to higher things than can be grasped by the hand, or seen with the eye, or comprehended by the natural mind. Only the spiritual man knows what spiritual things are, for they have to be spiritually discerned. We cannot teach spiritual things to our fellow-men, because, until they are born again, born from above, they do not possess the faculty with which they can grasp spiritual things. Our Lord Jesus said to Nicodemus, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh,"—and therefore can only lay hold of the things that are fleshly;—"and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit;" and until a man is born of the Spirit, he is without the faculty of understanding and enjoying spiritual things. As far as spiritual things are concerned, man's understanding is dead. He can comprehend the highest and most wonderful of sciences, but he cannot,—or, what is tantamount to it, he will not—understand the things of God."
So we as believers were all once spiritually dead and all once walked according to the flesh but now, as we saw earlier we have all, as believers, but on a new self and put off the old. We have become new creatures in Christ.
But Paul tells the Colossians as well at the Ephesians that before we were saved and made alive in Christ, we were all dead in our trespasses and sins. This means that because of their sins, they were spiritually dead toward God. It does not mean that their spirits were dead, but simply that there was no motion in their spirits toward God and there was nothing they could do to win God's favor.
Spiritually, it signified death to the flesh, or a putting aside of the evil, corrupt unregenerate nature of man. As it says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things are passed away; behold, new things have come." This is the kind of circumcision Paul is referring to.
If you are a true believer in Christ you have been circumcised spiritually, you have been made a new creation and this is true of everyone who has put his faith and trust in the Lord Jesus.
When Paul mentions "the circumcision of Christ" he is referring to His death on the cross of Calvary. That when Jesus died, we as believers also died - to sin, to the law and to self.
v.12 – "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."
Paul now turns from circumcision to baptism. Just as circumcision speaks of death to the flesh, baptism speaks of the burial of the old self. Being buried with Christ in His death. This of course happens spiritually when we are first saved. But we then express it publicly by going into the baptismal waters.
Baptism represents the burial of all that we were as children of Adam. In baptism we are acknowledging that nothing in ourselves could ever please God, and so we are putting the flesh out of God's sight forever. But it doesn't end there. The great news is that we have also risen with Him to walk in newness of life.
V.13 - "And 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,"
Here Paul is telling the Colossians pretty much the same thing he told the Ephesians that you were dead in your trespasses. Turn to Eph 2 - Read 1-3 Of course the death Paul is talking about here is not physical death but spiritual death. Spurgeon puts it this way:
"The kind of death here spoken of is spiritual death,—death as to higher things than can be grasped by the hand, or seen with the eye, or comprehended by the natural mind. Only the spiritual man knows what spiritual things are, for they have to be spiritually discerned. We cannot teach spiritual things to our fellow-men, because, until they are born again, born from above, they do not possess the faculty with which they can grasp spiritual things. Our Lord Jesus said to Nicodemus, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh,"—and therefore can only lay hold of the things that are fleshly;—"and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit;" and until a man is born of the Spirit, he is without the faculty of understanding and enjoying spiritual things. As far as spiritual things are concerned, man's understanding is dead. He can comprehend the highest and most wonderful of sciences, but he cannot,—or, what is tantamount to it, he will not—understand the things of God."
So we as believers were all once spiritually dead and all once walked according to the flesh but now, as we saw earlier we have all, as believers, but on a new self and put off the old. We have become new creatures in Christ.
But Paul tells the Colossians as well at the Ephesians that before we were saved and made alive in Christ, we were all dead in our trespasses and sins. This means that because of their sins, they were spiritually dead toward God. It does not mean that their spirits were dead, but simply that there was no motion in their spirits toward God and there was nothing they could do to win God's favor.
v.14 - "by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross."
In v. 14 Paul then tells the Colossians that God cancelled the record of our debt by nailing it to the cross. Meaning that when He nailed His son to the cross, the believers sin debt was paid in full.
The legal demands mentioned here refers to not only the 10 commandments but also all the Jewish ceremonial laws given to Israel. In the ceremonial law, there were all kinds of commandments with regard to holy days, foods, and other religious rituals. These were all a part of the prescribed religion of the Jews. They pointed forward to the coming of the Lord Jesus. They were shadows of His Person and His work.
In His death on the cross, He took all this out of the way, nailing it to the cross and canceling it as a bill is canceled when the debt is paid. As one theologian put it, “By the death of Christ on the cross, the law which condemned men lost its penal authority, inasmuch as Christ by His death endured for man the curse of the law and became the end of the law.”
“The law is not dead, but we have died to the law.”
V. 15 – "He disarmed the rulers and authorities [2] and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him."
In v. 14 Paul then tells the Colossians that God cancelled the record of our debt by nailing it to the cross. Meaning that when He nailed His son to the cross, the believers sin debt was paid in full.
The legal demands mentioned here refers to not only the 10 commandments but also all the Jewish ceremonial laws given to Israel. In the ceremonial law, there were all kinds of commandments with regard to holy days, foods, and other religious rituals. These were all a part of the prescribed religion of the Jews. They pointed forward to the coming of the Lord Jesus. They were shadows of His Person and His work.
In His death on the cross, He took all this out of the way, nailing it to the cross and canceling it as a bill is canceled when the debt is paid. As one theologian put it, “By the death of Christ on the cross, the law which condemned men lost its penal authority, inasmuch as Christ by His death endured for man the curse of the law and became the end of the law.”
“The law is not dead, but we have died to the law.”
V. 15 – "He disarmed the rulers and authorities [2] and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him."
This verse talks about Jesus’ death being, not defeat, but victory and in so being He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame.
Just think what that must have been like. Here Satan and his demons think they have humiliated and killed the Son of God. And then all of a sudden He arises from the dead and ascends into heaven and all authority is given to Him.
His death, burial and resurrection and ascension were a glorious triumph over all the hosts of hell and of Satan. As He passed up through the atmosphere on His way back to Heaven, He passed right through the very domain of the one who is the prince of the power of the air.
Conclusion
Without a doubt the Gospel is woven all throughout this epistle. And what is the Christian Gospel? Listen to the words of John MacArthur as he beautifully captures the essence of this letter to the Colossians.
“The Christian Gospel is simply this: All the answers you need for time and eternity are in Christ. All the answers for your soul, all the answers for your sin, all the answers for your hope for the life to come, they're all in Christ and only in Christ. There is no other authority in the Bible, there is no other Savior than Jesus Christ and you will find everything you could ever desire or need in Him. That's why, again going back to Colossians 2 and verse 10, "In Him you have been made complete."
We often think today that Christ is a part of our lives. He's maybe an important part but not all. We need Christ plus philosophy...we need Christ plus psychology...we need Christ plus ritual...Christ plus ceremony...Christ plus some miraculous experience or Christ plus some mystical intuition...or Christ plus some bodily self-denial or immolation. We need to do something to hurt ourselves in order to gain merit with God, or we need to do something to transcend this world to have some kind of mystical experience to really know God, or something like that. Or somehow we need to have an angelic visitation, or somehow we need to live a life of conformity to certain ceremonies and certain rituals. But the Bible says its all in Christ and its all in knowing Christ.
This whole epistle, really focuses on Him because if you go back to chapter 1 verse 13 it says, “He delivered us from the domain of darkness,” that is, God did, “and transferred us into the kingdom of His beloved son.” Everybody lives in a kingdom. Everybody has a king. There are two possible kingdoms, two possible kings. You can live under king Satan, or King God. You can live in the kingdom of darkness, or you can live in the Kingdom of light. You can live in the kingdom of evil, or the kingdom of righteousness. God by His grace delivers us from the kingdom of darkness, the domain of darkness into the kingdom of His beloved Son.
And when you come into the knowledge of Christ and he becomes your King, that’s how you enter His kingdom and immediately the Bible says you have redemption, you are brought back from judgment. You are bought back from punishment. You are bought back from hell because Christ paid the price. You have the forgiveness of sins, all the sins you have ever or will ever commit are forgiven because their penalty was paid by the death of Christ. Everything comes down to Christ, everything! It was through him that sinners are reconciled to God. It was through Him that we are transformed and converted and regenerated and born again. Everything comes through Him.
By His stripes we are healed.
Just think what that must have been like. Here Satan and his demons think they have humiliated and killed the Son of God. And then all of a sudden He arises from the dead and ascends into heaven and all authority is given to Him.
His death, burial and resurrection and ascension were a glorious triumph over all the hosts of hell and of Satan. As He passed up through the atmosphere on His way back to Heaven, He passed right through the very domain of the one who is the prince of the power of the air.
Conclusion
Without a doubt the Gospel is woven all throughout this epistle. And what is the Christian Gospel? Listen to the words of John MacArthur as he beautifully captures the essence of this letter to the Colossians.
“The Christian Gospel is simply this: All the answers you need for time and eternity are in Christ. All the answers for your soul, all the answers for your sin, all the answers for your hope for the life to come, they're all in Christ and only in Christ. There is no other authority in the Bible, there is no other Savior than Jesus Christ and you will find everything you could ever desire or need in Him. That's why, again going back to Colossians 2 and verse 10, "In Him you have been made complete."
We often think today that Christ is a part of our lives. He's maybe an important part but not all. We need Christ plus philosophy...we need Christ plus psychology...we need Christ plus ritual...Christ plus ceremony...Christ plus some miraculous experience or Christ plus some mystical intuition...or Christ plus some bodily self-denial or immolation. We need to do something to hurt ourselves in order to gain merit with God, or we need to do something to transcend this world to have some kind of mystical experience to really know God, or something like that. Or somehow we need to have an angelic visitation, or somehow we need to live a life of conformity to certain ceremonies and certain rituals. But the Bible says its all in Christ and its all in knowing Christ.
This whole epistle, really focuses on Him because if you go back to chapter 1 verse 13 it says, “He delivered us from the domain of darkness,” that is, God did, “and transferred us into the kingdom of His beloved son.” Everybody lives in a kingdom. Everybody has a king. There are two possible kingdoms, two possible kings. You can live under king Satan, or King God. You can live in the kingdom of darkness, or you can live in the Kingdom of light. You can live in the kingdom of evil, or the kingdom of righteousness. God by His grace delivers us from the kingdom of darkness, the domain of darkness into the kingdom of His beloved Son.
And when you come into the knowledge of Christ and he becomes your King, that’s how you enter His kingdom and immediately the Bible says you have redemption, you are brought back from judgment. You are bought back from punishment. You are bought back from hell because Christ paid the price. You have the forgiveness of sins, all the sins you have ever or will ever commit are forgiven because their penalty was paid by the death of Christ. Everything comes down to Christ, everything! It was through him that sinners are reconciled to God. It was through Him that we are transformed and converted and regenerated and born again. Everything comes through Him.
By His stripes we are healed.
God bless
