Colossians 2:11-15

Our Total Forgiveness in Christ

Jesus is our crucified conqueror, and we are totally forgiven by Him.

Colossians 2:11–13a HCSB

You were also circumcised in Him with a circumcision not done with hands, by putting off the body of flesh, in the circumcision of the Messiah. Having been buried with Him in baptism, you were also raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And when you were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive with Him and forgave us all our trespasses.

Colossians

Jesus Christ is fully God, and we are full in Him.

We see that Paul uses 2 metaphors to explain our full salvation

Circumcision

Baptism

The point of these metaphors is that we are saved totally and exclusively through the work of God, not through any human activity.

No religious ritual can make us alive with Christ.

Circumcision was a physical sign of the Abrahamic covenant. Every male was to be circumcised as tangible testimony that he was in a covenant relationship with Yahweh.

The Jews began mistakenly to think that the physical ritual was sufficient all by itself.

The Bible is clear even in the O.T. (; ) that physical circumcision saves no one.

Paul is talking about a spiritual operation of putting away or cutting away - not of a piece of flesh - but the putting off of the sin-ful nature as referred in .

What we were in Adam-sinful, fallen, corrupt - Christ destroyed.

The baptism Paul is talking about is the spiritual baptism where we are united and identified with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection.

Colossians 2:13b–14 HCSB

And when you were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive with Him and forgave us all our trespasses. He erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it out of the way by nailing it to the cross.

The reality of spiritual fullness is total forgiveness - the cancellation of a debt we could never pay.

Two things comprise this certificate of debt:

the regulations of the law.

and our offenses.

Both of these stand against us and highlight our debt.

What does God do with this signed confession of guilt?

He cancels the debt.

God erases the document.

God not only erased the document, but he also took it away, by nailing it to the cross.

When Jesus died, the condemning document was destroyed. We are fully forgiven.

Colossians 2:15 HCSB

He disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly; He triumphed over them by Him.

Spiritual fullness means complete salvation, full forgiveness, and absolute victory.

Verse 15 tells us that Jesus Christ triumphed over the powers and authorities by the cross.

The cross was the consummation of a life of conquest of Christ over satan.

In , God promised that a conqueror would come to crush the head of the serpent.

Jesus defeated satan and his evil league on the cross - first by being there and then by abolishing sin’s condemning power.

Jesus also disarmed the powers and authorities.

He broke their power and stripped them of their controlling influence over humans

Jesus celebrated his victory by making a public spectacle of the conquered powers.

On the cross, Jesus won a decisive victory, making clear to the universe that satan is a vanquished foe. This does not mean that we will not have conflict. The devil has been defeated, but he has not yet conceded defeat. He has been overthrown, but he has not yet been fully eliminated. Satan continues to harass us. When we understand our identity in Christ, we can live above Satan’s control.