07 - What Great Things He Has Done 2009

Saw last time the danger of syncretism—the mixing of different beliefs, faiths, or religions into a sort of spiritual pot pie. We are not called to invest our hearts in different slices of the spiritual pie being offered out there. We are called to grow in Christ, the same Christ that saved us from our sins.

Paul continues this thought in Colossians 2:9-10

“For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. 10 So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.”

We are not kind of complete, so that we are in need of finding our completion in someone or something else.

COMPLETE: to fulfill or to “fully fill”, literally, as one would cram a net to its maximum with fish; or, to fully furnish a room; to satisfy, to finish a task, to perfect something. Our completion and fulfillment are found in Him!

The Greek would literally read, “And you are in Him, having been filled full, with the present result that you are in a state of fullness.”

The Bible is telling us that, in Christ, our every spiritual need is fulfilled.

Then Paul says:

11 “In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ.”

PUTTING OFF: a phrase meaning the same thing as getting out of one’s garments. But it’s even stronger than that. It also entails the idea of getting away from your old garments. So when it talks about “putting off” the sins of the flesh, it also means getting far away from them.

THE BODY OF THE SINS OF THE FLESH: the “body” he mentions is our physical body, and the “sins of the flesh” is talking about indwelling sin.

The BODY that was put off when the Colossian saints were saved was the physical body that was dominated by the totally depraved nature.

While the believers were still in possession of their body, it was “put off” in that it was rendered inoperative so far as the constant control of the evil nature was concerned.

Paul teaches exactly the same thing in Ro. 6:6 when he says, “We know that our old (unrenewed) self was nailed to the cross with Him in order that [our] body [which is the instrument] of sin might be made ineffective and inactive for evil, that we might no longer be the slaves of sin.”

The best picture of what God has done with our sinful nature is to picture Jesus on the cross while still alive. He is breathing but He is held down. He cannot walk, move about or function.

Our old nature is just the same way. It is still there but it is crucified with Christ, unable to function and operate as before.

BIG IDEA: On the cross the power of the sinful nature was broken, and has therefore been deprived of its control over the body.

If you read Romans you will find that the first 5 chapters deal with our "sins", while chapters 6, 7 and 8 deal with us, our Old Man!

What did God do with our OLD MAN? He crucified it! And we are told to reckon this to be a FACT!

Ro. 6:11 “Even so consider yourselves also dead to sin and your relation to it broken, but alive to God [living in unbroken fellowship with Him] in Christ Jesus.”    

On the cross, Jesus took care of 2 things: our sins committed, and the sinful nature that committed the sins.

Paul teaches that our old self was crucified with Christ—Who we are, the way we act, the former man as defined by sin—was crucified with Christ and we identify with that death in the picture of water baptism.

Knowing that this is the case and that Christ has been raised from the dead, we can now walk in newness of life. Death is no longer a master over us for we (the old sinful nature and lifestyle) have died.

TWO POWERS AT WORK IN WORLD

There are two “dominions or powers” at operation in the world today: Grace or Sin! Sin is powerful but Grace is even more powerful!

Lusts and desires are what motivated Adam and Eve to go against God by obeying them. Until we too come to the cross then we too will be destroyed by our choosing to be separate from Christ, by obeying our own selfish lusts and desires.

But if we are alive from the dead (Galatians 2:20) then let us reckon ourselves to have been crucified with Christ but alive unto righteousness.

Gal 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ [in Him I have shared His crucifixion]; it is no longer I (my old sinful nature) who live, but Christ (the Messiah) lives in me; and the life I now live in the body I live by faith in (by reliance on and complete trust in) the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”

PAUL CONTINUES TO THE COLOSSIAN CHURCH:

12 For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead.”

 13 You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins.

Jesus took care of our sins, and of our sinful nature. It’s not that the evil nature is completely removed, but that its power has been broken. The physical body that was dominated by the evil nature has been put away in favor of a physical body now dominated by the divine nature!

Next, Paul says that:

14 “He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.”

What were the charges that were against us? We had all broken God’s law. Like a prosecutor in court, Satan had a genuine case against us. We had, as it were, warrants out on us. We were guilty. Consequences loomed on the horizon. Penalties had to be paid. Justice had to be meted out.

But when Christ died and shed His blood on the cross, that blood cancelled the charges out.

The phrase “TOOK IT OUT OF THE WAY” means literally TOOK OUT OF THE MIDST.

Jesus’ death on the cross abolished our debt. It is no longer “in our midst”, in the foreground, like a debtor’s obligation is perpetually before him, embarrassing his whole life.

THEN PAUL TELLS US WHAT THIS DID TO OUR ADVERSARY, THE DEVIL:

15 In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.

The spiritual rulers and authorities in this verse are the same as those in Ephesians 6. It is the demons of Satan in the atmosphere of this earth.

The Lord Jesus, after His death on the Cross, needed to present Himself at the heavenly Mercy Seat in His glorified body, as the great High Priest, in order to complete the atonement.

This fulfilled the O.T. type when the High Priest on the Day of Atonement killed the sacrifice at the Brazen Altar and then carried the blood into the Holy of Holies, sprinkling it on the Mercy Seat, thus completing in type the atonement for sin.

In order to do this, Jesus had to pass through the kingdoms of Satan in the air. The demons opposed Him there. Jesus proceeded to take them captive and display them boldly, making an example of them, leading them in a triumphal procession of victory. These are the captives that were taken by the Lord in His ascension as He left the tomb.

Eph. 4:8 “Therefore, when He ascended on high, He led captivity captive [He led a train of vanquished foes] and He bestowed gifts on men.”

SUMMARY:

Jesus is our completion and fulfillment.

On the cross He took care of our sins committed, and took care of the sinful nature that committed the sins that we would no longer be slaves to sin.

By His blood He took away the charges that were against us due to our sin, and…

Proceeded to lead the demon powers in a victory procession following His resurrection.