You Received Christ

Context

The section of Colossians we consider today circles back to a theme we saw in chapter one where the Apostle Paul exhorts the Colossians to walk worthy of the Lord (v. 10). Last week, in our consideration of 1:24-2:5, we suggested that believers possess all they need for a life of stability and peace in the midst of a fallen world because of what they have received in their Savior, Jesus Christ. Christ is superior to all that is in the world, including the wisdom of man and He is sufficient so that anyone who is in Him lacks nothing. Paul proceeds to expand upon what it means to walk worthy amidst a world that seeks to lure us away from the one true Savior through it’s offer of counterfeit solutions.

Read

Colossians 2:6–15 ESV

Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. 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.

Pray

Introduction

In the late 1940s, a young evangelist filled arenas across North America with the gospel message. He was an extraordinary orator—articulate, brilliant, and deeply charismatic. His name was Charles Templeton. Before Billy Graham became a household name, Templeton was widely considered by many church leaders to be the premier voice of modern evangelism. He seemed completely sold out for Christ.

The Gospel Coalition

Yet behind the staggering attendance figures and the emotional altar calls, Templeton harbored a growing, unspoken anxiety. He began to feel that standard biblical Christianity was no longer enough to meet the complex demands, intellectual pressures, and rapid advances of the modern world. He slowly began to lean on a different savior: human intellectual autonomy and academic prestige.

By 1957, Templeton publicly announced he had abandoned the Christian faith, declaring himself an agnostic. He replaced the sufficiency of Christ with a modern, counterfeit savior—the promise that human reason, secular enlightenment, and worldly sophistication could offer a higher, safer, and more respectable path. Decades later, near the end of his life, an interviewer asked Templeton what he thought of Jesus. With tears suddenly welling up in his eyes and his voice cracking, the aging skeptic confessed, "I miss Him."

New Hope Chapel+ 2

Charles Templeton didn't walk away from Christ in a single day. He traded the living Christ for a counterfeit savior because he lost his grip on the all-sufficient, unshakeable fullness of who Jesus actually is.

And that brings us face-to-face with a subtle, dangerous truth we must reckon with today: 

FCF

Believers struggle to resist the world’s counterfeit saviors when we lose sight of our complete union with Christ.

When life hits hard, when intellect feels challenged, or when cultural pressure mounts, we are tempted to look elsewhere for our validation, our safety, and our significance. We begin to act as though Christ has left something undone—as though we need the world’s approval, the world's wealth, the world's control, or the world's wisdom to complete us.

But Paul writes Colossians to shatter that dangerous illusion. He reveals that you don't need to shop around in the world’s bargain basement of false messiahs. Why? 

Main Idea

Because we are united to Christ through His finished cross-work, we are liberated to reject the world’s counterfeit saviors.

Before going any further, I want to take a moment to address our union with Christ. What does it mean to be united to Christ?

1 Peter 2:24 ESV

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

What Peter brings out here is that because Jesus’ death on the cross paid the penalty of our sin in full, we are able not to sin and live lives pleasing to Christ. His work on the cross has been applied to His people and healed them of their inability to live righteously.

As Paul put it

Romans 6:8 ESV

Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

This is what it means to be united with Christ. What His death and resurrection accomplished has been applied and belongs to all those who come to God through faith in Christ. And those who are unified to Christ in this way are able to understand what we need. Those who have been made righteous will desire to live righteously, and to pursue righteousness while contending with sin and temptation includes seeing sin for what it is.

Psalm 51:3 ESV

For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.

This is what David said.

John Owen in his work, Communion with God, applies David’s confession to those united to Christ:

Believers gather up their sins and lay them in the balance of the law. They see and consider their weight of evil and what they deserve. The they seriously consider and, by faith, conquer all objections to the contrary that Jesus Christ, by His Father’s will and appointment, had really suffered the punishment that was due to those sins.

In this life, there is much offered to the church that contradicts our union with Christ, but also promises to provide the peace, assurance and sense of identity that we already have in our union with Christ. As destructive as these offers are, their promises are tempting and mst be fought against.

Main Question

How does our union with Christ enable us to reject the world’s counterfeit saviors?

By stabilizing us in submission to Christ (6-7)

By satisfying us fully in Christ (8-10)

By signaling our death to and victory over sin through Christ (11-13)

By stating to us the gospel of Christ (14-15)

So, again, how does our union with Christ enable us to reject the world’s counterfeit saviors?

By stabilizing us in submission to Christ (6-7)

How does our union with Christ stabilize us in submission to Christ?

Our union with Christ roots our ethic in our confession. (6)

Verse 6 begins with the word therefore, which makes clear that the command to walk in Him is based on something previously stated.

Paul articulated his concern that the Colossians mature in the faith. Paul states this as the aim of his ministry in chapter 1:28: that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

And in the same verse, Paul states the means by which he pursued this goal: proclaiming, warning and teaching.

The exhortation to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord in 1:10 and the command to walk in Him in 2:6 were predicated on his ministry’s goal and methodology.

But notice the word received in verse 6. The received Christ Jesus the Lord. What has been passed down to the Colossians is a true confession of Christ, that is, a robust christology. What has this confession confessed up to this point?:

The image of the invisible God (1:15)

the firstborn of all creation (1:15)

the Creator of all things (1:16)

the Sustainer of all things (1:17)

the Head of the body, the church (1:18)

the firstborn from the dead (1:18)

the new temple in which God dwells (1:19)

the reconciler of all (1:20,22)

And add to this, perhaps assumed by many of us, Christ is Lord (1:3; 2:6)

Paul’s point is that our lives should reflect this profession; that Jesus is the Lord.

By exhorting the Colossian believers to walk in Him, the Apostle is reminding the church, once again, that the behavior he is encouraging is grounded in the fact that they have been filled with Him. They have been united with Christ.

In addition to grounding our ethic being rooted in our confession, our union with Christ

Reminds us that our maturity in Christ develops upon Christ our foundation (7)

In verse seven, Paul outlines the means by which the church walks in Christ.

Paul begins at the beginning of our salvation. I see this in the word rooted. The word rooted, as you may have discerned already, is a horticultural term. It speaks to the stability of a plant or tree in connection with the strength of its root system.

But the definition rooted is not what is most significant about the word. The grammar of the word makes clear that our rootedness in the faith was accomplished by God in the act of saving His people. It occured in the past and His work continues to have impact on our lives.

But then there are three more means to Christ-honoring mentioned in verse 7

built up

established and

abounding

What we need to know about these three terms is that God does that work in His people and this work is on going.

So when we apply all this grammar to verse 7, it reads like this:

having been rooted [in Christ] you are being built up in Him, you are being established in the faith… abounding in thanksgiving.

Paul switches the metaphor when he moves from the past into the present. He describes the work God is doing now in His people as a building project. The metaphor is that of a house that for it to be stable must have a solid foundation.

The point here is that having been founded on Christ, the believer will be built up in Him. The language here is very similar to what Paul wrote to the Ephesians:

Ephesians 3:17 ESV

so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love,

Since we have been saved by Christ, in our union with Him, He dwells in our hearts. He resides in His people through His Spirit.

Notice the connection Paul makes to God’s work of building and establishing His people in the faith to the ministry of the word of God: just as you were taught. The teaching of the Apostle Paul indirectly and the ministry of Epaphras directly was used to stabilize the Colossians in the faith.

Paul concludes this section adding to his call to lead a Christ-centered life. Such a life is characterized by thanksgiving. This is the right response to the instruction they have received and to the fat that they have been unified with Christ. The theme of gratitude is significant in Colossians. This makes sense in light what we have seen so far in this epistle:

Colossians 1:3 ESV

We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,

Colossians 1:12 ESV

giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.

and we will see it again

Colossians 3:15 ESV

And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.

Colossians 3:17 ESV

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Colossians 4:2 ESV

Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.

How does our union with Christ enable us to reject the world’s counterfeit saviors?

By stabilizing us in submission to Christ (6-7)

By satisfying us fully in Christ (8-10)

Verse 8 begins Paul’s argument against the false teachers that were promoting a syncretism which sought layer on top of a basic faith in Christ Jewish law-keeping, local philosophical ideas, mystical practices and spirt worship. As we have mentioned before, this caused significant theological confusion and spiritual anxiety among the Colossian church. What false teachers seek to offer is something better than what is already believed. To promise something more satisfying than what is being experienced. The false teachers Paul refutes were saying that Jesus was not enough. That the Colossians needed something more because Jesus and faith in Jesus lacked what they needed and what would satisfy them.

With what does our union with Christ satisfy us?

Clarity on the truth (8)

Paul issues a command in verse 8 to see to it that no one takes you captive. This is an exhortation to not be taken advantage of or to be manipulated by these false teachers.

Paul’s warning is to not allow the teaching of the false teachers to deceive them. The Apostle describes their teaching as philosophy, and what Paul is making clear about this philosophy is that it is empty deceit.

Paul provides three reasons this philosophy is empty deceit:

because it is according to or based upon human tradition. Another way to think about the problem of the philosophy that the false teachers were promoting is that it was not according to or based upon the word of God. Remember what the Apostle Paul said about his own ministry in chapter 1:

Colossians 1:25 ESV

of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known,

This is what they received from Epaphras as well. And we have already seen the emphasis Paul has placed on the importance of sound teaching in verse 7.

2. Another reason Paul gives that the Colossians should regard the teaching as empty deceit is because it was based on the elemental spirits of the world. The exact meaning of this phrase is debated, but in the context of the challenges the Colossian church was facing, it seems best to understand this as a reference to spirit beings. It is likely that the false teachers were teaching that spiritual forces were have significant influence over the affairs of day-to-day life, so they should be engaged through certain worship practices. Paul makes clear that philosophy that is based upon appeasing these spiritual forces is not based upon Christ. And teaching that is based on something other than Christ, marks it as evil.

3. And this brings us to the third reason the false teaching is deceptive: end of verse 8, It was not according to Christ. This final description brings the center of Paul’s argument to the forefront which is that Christ is preeminent. He is superior to all things in heaven and on earth. Any teaching, any idea, any suggestion concerning what is true and what we should do that does not clearly and plainly recognize the supremacy of Christ is false teaching and needs to be called out as such.

Clarity on the truth is satisfying. Knowing what is true means we will be able to identify what is false, and this sense of assurance nourishes our souls.

Our union with Christ also satisfies with

Certainty of His deity (9)

Notice verse 9 begins with the word for or because. Paul is providing the reason why the philosophy of the false teachers is deficient. The message of verses 8-9 is that because all the fullness can be found in the incarnated Christ, one should not be deceived by empty and deceitful philosophy. Verse 9 makes the reason why a teaching that is not according to Christ is to be rejected abundantly clear.

Paul says that in Christ the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily. We want to be clear on what Paul is claiming.

This verse connects with something Paul already said in chapter 1:

Colossians 1:19 ESV

For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,

Both of these verses have as their backdrop:

Psalm 68:16–17 ESV

Why do you look with hatred, O many-peaked mountain, at the mount that God desired for his abode, yes, where the Lord will dwell forever? The chariots of God are twice ten thousand, thousands upon thousands; the Lord is among them; Sinai is now in the sanctuary.

God is said to reside in His own abode on the holy mount. Christ is this abode. This does not mean that God’s presence is in Christ but rather that all that God is dwells in Christ.

Verse 9 also says that the fullness of deity dwells in Christ bodily. This is a reference to the incarnated Christ. Christ’s divine presence has not taken up abode in a physical structure like like the tabernacle or the temple as we see in the OT, but in Christ’s own body.

Thus again, the reason the false teaching of verse 8 is defective is that it leaves out Christ, who is the complete divine fullness in bodily form.

Jesus our Savior is our God. When we come to worship together, we worship Christ. And that our Savior is our God is an enduring reality. The word dwells in verse 9 is an ongoing reality. The whole fullness of deity is dwelling bodily in Christ.

Christ is making intercession for His people now. He is our mediator now. This is what our Savior and our God does for His people.

So, our union to Christ satisfies us with clarity on the truth, certainty in Christ’s deity and

Confidence in His provision (10)

We have been given the presence of Christ. When Paul says that Christians have been filled in Him he means that through union with Christ in faith, we have been provided everything we need for eternal life. Theologians will often break down this fullness in terms of our saving knowledge of God, our justification before God, and our sanctification as God’s people. When it comes to knowing GOd, all that we need is found in the revelation of Christ. When it comes to justification, we have forgiveness of sins through the blood of the cross of Christ. For our sanctification, Christ has sent the Holy Spirit to dwell within us and enables to walk worthy.

We have been provided the protection of Christ. Notice the second half of verse 10: who is the head of all rule and authority. We could spend a long time determining what kinds of spiritual powers Paul has in mind, but the more pressing concern is to know that whatever powers there may be, whether demons or angels, they are all under the control and rule of Christ.

How does our union with Christ enable us to reject the world’s counterfeit saviors?

By stabilizing our submission to Christ

By satisfying us fully in Christ. Third:

By signaling our death to and victory over sin through Christ (11-13)

Paul continues to emphasize that the Colossians are to think of themselves as is Christ. They are unified to Christ, and because they have been rescued from the condemnation of sin.

What does our union with Christ signal about our death to sin and our victory over sin?

That our death to and victory over sin has been secured for us by Christ (11-12)

Notice the first half of verse 11: In Him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands.

We mentioned last week that what the false teachers were promoting included some observance of Jewish law as a means to have peace with God. The false teachers that were among the churches in Galatia were teaching the circumcision was necessary for salvation. I don’t think the issue of circumcision was as central to the false teachers’ agenda in Colossae, but it does appear Paul is responding to something about the false teaching that included the issue of circumcision.

The Colossians, Paul says, were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands. In the OT, circumcision often referred to God’s disobedient people, who are circumcised in their flesh but not in their hearts. For example is Jeremiah’s prophecy:

Deuteronomy 10:16 ESV

Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn.

The stubborn people of Israel may have received the sign of circumcision physically, but the greater concern was a that they circumcise their hearts. In other words, they needed to repent of their rebellion. They needed to rid themselves of their indignation towards God and submit themselves to His will.

But in the OT there a positive use of spiritual circumcision. Again in Deut.:

Deuteronomy 30:6 ESV

And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.

In our text in Colossians, Paul is pointing to the fulfillment of this promise. God has cleansed the hearts of the Colossian Christians through the death and resurrection of Christ.

How do you think of your relationship to sin? Burdened? Enslaved? Oppressed? Defeated? Christian, you have been circumcised in your heart. The penalty that was due you because of your sin has been paid in full by the death of Christ. And because Jesus died for your sin, you can die to sin. Yes, living in a fallen world, and struggling against the temptation to sin, and experiencing the consequences of succumbing to those temptations is wearisome and discouraging. But you are not defeated because you are united to Christ, and that means His death for your sin provides you with the power to die to your sin. To use to tlanguage of the apostle Paul in Rom.

Romans 8:13 ESV

… but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

But included in the imagery of being circumcised in our hearts is the resurrection of Christ. Christ secured victory over sin, so that even on our worst day. Even just after we loose yet another battle against our flesh, we never ultimately loose. Why? Because Christ has already conquered our sin, and this victory has been applied to, that is, given to His people.

But Paul continues

How was the true circumcision of the believers performed?

There are two phrases remaining in verse 11 that we need to consider: putting off the body of flesh and the circumcision of Christ. The key here is to understand the relationship between these two phrases.

As you might imagine, there is a great deal of discussion among scholars regarding the relationship between these two ideas. Here is where I landed:

Both phrases: putting off the body of flesh and the circumcision of Christ should be understood as parallel phrases that describe Christ’s own experience.

Go back to chapter one:

Colossians 1:22 ESV

he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,

his body of flesh clearly points to Christ’s own body that suffered on the cross. We should bring this understanding of the body of flesh to 2:11. I take this connection to make the circumcision of Christ to be a metaphor of Christ’s death.

Verse eleven speaks of the circumcision of Christ and verse 12 references the burial and resurrection of Christ. This is very similar to the what Paul says in Rom 6.

Romans 6:3–4 ESV

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

Here the death, burial and resurrection of Christ are clearly referenced. It seems that Paul is referencing the same in Col. 2:11.

So, in this passage, Paul is speaking of two circumcisions: Believers are circumcised by Christ’s own circumcision, that is, His death. The circumcision of human hands removed a piece of flesh, while Christ’s circumcision was the sacrifice of His whole body for the sake of His body, the church.

So, our death to and victory over sin has been secured for us by Christ and

Verse 12 continues the point that the redemptive work of Christ, and our union to signals our victorious relationship to sin.

It seems that Paul is referring to the spiritual reality to which baptism refers. What we see when someone is baptized by being immersed in water points to our participation in the death and burial of Christ and coming up again from the water points to our participation in His resurrection.

Some argue that Paul is evoking the Jewish rite of circumcision by suggesting that baptism is the sign children (infants) can receive to show entry into the covenant community of the church. If that were the case, and I don’t think that it is, it would be unexpected since this would be the first place in Scripture where circumcision appears as a symbol for baptism. And as we have already suggested, it seems that the circumcision in verse 11 refers to the conversion of believers, which would not match the claim that it is a symbol for baptism which is not claimed to have savng power by paedobaptists.

One more observation: notice in verse 12 that our union with the death, burial and resurrection of Christ is though faith. This seems all-the-more to support that what is addressed in verses 11 and 12 with the imagery of circumcision and baptism is the salvation of believers.

What does our union with Christ signal about our death to sin and our victory over sin?

That our death to and victory over sin has been secured for us by Christ (11-12) and that

Our death to sin and victory over sin supplies us freedom in Christ (13)

After noting the believers’ participation in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, the Apostle explains the implications of such participation for the life of believers as well as for the challenges they face.

Believers are no longer dead in their trespasses and uncircumcision of their flesh. This is very similar to what Paul said to the Ephesians:

Ephesians 2:1–3 ESV

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

This was the status of the Colossians before their hearts were circumcised. They were dominated by their sin. Sin reigned over them.

When Paul describes the sinful condition of the Colossians as uncircumcision, he notes that these Gentiles formerly did not belong to God’s people. Before they were spiritually dead and positionally outside of, alien to God.

I’m sure the promise Peter proclaimed to his audience would have been equally encouraging to the Colossians as I’m sure it was to them:

1 Peter 2:10 ESV

Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Jesus described the state Paul names in the first half of verse 13 in vivid terms:

John 8:34 ESV

Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.

Until God intervenes with His grace, people are in a spiritual prison rom which they cannot escape.

But, Paul proclaims something glorious: God made [us] alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses

God has done done something in us and for us. In us, He has given us new life. He has made us alive together with Him, that is Christ.

Keep this truth in mind as you pray for your childrens’ salvation. As you share the gospel with people you love, people you know, people you don’t know, people you dislike, people who dislike you. Keep this in mind, that God and God alone brings people to life. God alone resurrects the spiritually to life with Christ.

But Paul reminds the Colossians of this truth. They needed to be clear on the freedom they have from their sin because the deceitful philosophy that were hearing from the false teachers sought to load on them burdens they did not have to bear.

The false teachers could not offer them what they needed. The forgiveness of all their trespasses.

Because we are united to Christ through His finished cross-work, we are liberated to reject the world’s counterfeit saviors.

And the final way we will note our union with Christ enable us to reject the world’s counterfeit saviors?

By stating to us the gospel of Christ (14-15)

What is proclaimed in the gospel?

The Gospel Cancels Our Debt (v. 14)

The record of debt that stood against us literally translates, the handwriting against us. This is most likely referencing the written law of God with its legal demands. What this makes clear is that our guilt before God is not some abstract concept. Our guilt is a formal breach of obligation. G.K. Beale points out that the handwriting was used in ancient literature for legally binding documentation of debt, like an IOU that specifies what is owed.

What we need to recognize about the law is that it not only states our guilt but demands the penalty due us be applied.

Christ completely erased the legal certificate of debt that stood against us with its demands, nailing it to the cross. Because your ultimate moral debt is paid in full, world-driven guilt and performance-based counterfeit saviors lose their primary leverage over you.

Have you ever received a notice in the mail or maybe a phone call claiming that you owe payment for an unpaid bill that you actually paid? It’s frustrating to be sure, but what do we do in that case. Seek to prove through documentation that the bill has in fact been paid in full. And when the accusations of our flesh, or the world or the devil come crashing inti our lives, demanding we pay the debt of our sin through torturous shame, or self-loathing, or the relentless yet futile work of saving face, instead point to the notice of the cross: paid in full. It is finished.

Something else that the gospel proclaims to us is that

The Gospel Conquers Our Adversaries (v. 15)

Our chief accusers have been silenced by the cross. When Paul refers to rulers and authorities, he means spiritual enemies who oppose and seek to oppress God’s people. The name Satan means accuser, and it is mainly by accusing us in God’s presence and in our conscience that the devil undermines our salvation.

Three ways in which God has overcome our spiritual adversaries are named in verse 15:

Disarmed: The idea here is taking away weapns and rendering harmless. No doubt, evil is real and Satan and his armies are at work in the world. But keep in mind the promise of the gospel when it comes to evil:

1 John 3:8 ESV

… The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.

put them to ope shame: Here the idea is that Satan was put to public disgrace through Jesus’ victory on the cross. Stan sought to use the injustice of the world and the corruption of man to bring about the death of Christ. What Satan thought was his greatest victory… the death of God the Son was in fact his greatest defeat.

triumphing over them in Him: This refers to the public celebration o Jesus’ victory. This anticipates the return of Christ at the end of this age:

Revelation 11:15 ESV

Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.”

There will be no doubt… no debate. Jesus is victorious.

Through His sacrifice, Jesus disarmed the rulers and authorities, stripping Satan and spiritual powers of their weapons. When the world tries to intimidate you into seeking its false promises of security, the gospel reminds you that those forces have already been disarmed and defeated.