Signed and Sealed

Exegetical idea: Christians should keep themselves from the Jewish-Platonic philosophy because through forgiveness, union, and baptism, they participate in Christ’s triumph.

Theological Idea: Through forgiveness, union, and baptism, Christ gives believers more of a triumph than the empty and demonic philosophies of the world ever could.

Homiletical Idea: In Christ, God gives us more of a triumph than worldly philosophies ever will.

Outline

Introduction:

Marxism - This side sees history as a neverending progression of time. And history is made up of the oppressed and the oppresors. And the oppresed always end up winning against hte oppressors. So groups of oppressed people, racial minorities, women, poor people, need to rise up to put the oppressors in their place.

Traditionalist Utopianism - On the other side, you ahve this group that sees that there is this decay in scoiety. So it tries to constsantly pull us back to some golden age in the past, because that was pre-decay.

Worldly Philosophy (8)

Philosophy: The Philosophy that Paul encountered was probably a fusion of Greek and Jewish ideas. It probably transplanted Jewish customs onto a pagan and Platonic understanding of mankind. So in some ways, this had some very traditionalist elements to it, and on the other, it had some really insidious progressivism to it.

Empty - But underneath there is nothign to back to this up. They promise a lot, but they never make good on their promises.

According to Human Traditions - when you trace many of the traditions that these have, they are manifestly made by men.

According to the Elemental Spirits - Now, what we see is that underneath, the demons were trying to use these philosophies to enslave and seduce. (Gal 4:3, 9) Do you see that? That often things that seem good on the outside are motivated by the demonic on the inside.

The Promise of Being in Christ (9-10) - Paul contrasts that with the promise of being in Christ.

Christ has the fullness of God dwelling in him. - He is fully divine.

On the other hand, it dwells bodily, he is fully human.

By being in him, we are filled. I take that to mean with the Spirit.

He is the head of all rule and authority. - He is over all rulers and authorities.

Baptism (11-12)

Circumcised in a circumcision not made by human hands - Now, circumcision was supposed to be a sign and seal in the Old Covenant. That is, that circumcision in teh Old Covenant was to, on the one hand, indicate to both the believer and to everyone else who saw, that this person belonged to God. And on the other, it was a “seal.” That is, it was a means of grace, a means by which God’s people experienced God’s faithfulness to them.

“not made by human hands - This word for “not made by human hands” is almost certainliy referring to idolatry. Typically the word “made by human hands” (Lev 26:1) refers to idols. So when Paul says you were circumcised by a circumcision not made by human hands, he is almost certainly referring to a circumcision that is not idolatrous, that is a circumcision that is true. Here this is a polemic against Jews who were accusing Christians of being idolatrosu. And he says, “no, you are trusting in your own idolatrous work, we are not.” Yet, a similar compound is used to refer to the resurrection. So Paul kind of has this double thrust, saying, we’re not trusting in idols, we’re trusting in teh resurrection.

Having been buried with him in baptism In which you were also raised with him - So what is this circumcision? It is baptism. In baptism we are united with Christ in his death and resurrection. We go into the water, and in doing so we come out of the grave. IN baptism we are marked out as those who believe in Christ. It is a sign and a seal. We receive God’s grace. We hear the voice of God say to us in Christ, “this is my beloved child in whom I am well pleased.” The sacrament of baptism is the circumcision of hte New Covenant.

Putting off the body of the flesh - This circumcision is a “putting off” of the body of the flesh. Now this word for “putting off” means something like “disarming.” So listen, baptism actually benefits us in our walk, because it disarms the pwoer of sin in our lives. It neuters shame. It reminds us again and again that we are children of God. It gives us confidence. In other words, when we are baptized, it actually does something.

Does this mean we baptize infants? So the natural question is, if baptism is the circumcision of the New Covenant, and in teh Old Covenant they circumcised infants, does that mean we baptize infants? And there are a couple of reasons that I would say no. Now I have plenty of friends who are Christians who love Jesus who were baptized as infants. And God bless them. But look at what it says here....

Through faith in teh powerful working of God who raised him from teh dead - It says that baptism works through faith. So baptism does not mark you as a child of God unless you have faith. That is different from teh Old Covenant. Baptism is in many wyas the sacrament of the resurrection. So it is fitting here that it is faith in the resurrection, and not just in some vauge idea of “life after death” but in the God who raises people from the dead, that baptism works. That is something “new” in the New Covenant, is that the normal way believers are supposed to receive baptism is only after they have faith

Union (13) - Now, this sacrament of baptism is an outward sign of an inward reality. That while baptism is outward, the union that we have with Christ is inward.

We were dead - Now, the emphasis of this passage that formerly we were dead in our trespasses and the uncircumcision fo the flesh. What he means here is that we were like zombies, that is like the walking dead. What this is referring to is our sinful old self. We were utterly wicked. The theological word for this is depravity. We were depraved in that we lacked godliness, we lacked the ability to follow God, we lacked a right standing before God.

God - It was in our brokenness that God stepped in. God moved to us when we stood still. Notice here that you do nto make yourself alive. Dead people cannot decide not to be dead anymore. Rather, dead people stay dead. But if you are the God who made life itself, if you are the great I am, if you are the God who brought Christ from the grave like water from a well, you can make alive.

made alive together - It was in this deadness, the brokenness, this lifelessness that God made us alive togehter with Christ. The theological word for this is regeneration. We were born again. We were given new life. We were made alive. To be regenerate is to be a Christian. You and I are regenerated when God makes us alive.

With Christ - How? with Christ. We were raised with Christ. Dear Christian, to be born again, to have eternal life, to be alive spiritually, is to be in Christ. This union that we have with him is everything. You see, we have life in Christ because God gave Christ life. And if we are in Christ, then we get the same life that Christ got.

Forgiveness (13-14)

having forgiven us all our trespasses - Now, this is an incredibly difficult phrase to translate in the English for a number of reasons. And the ESV and most translations give a somewaht ambiguous translation, which means they are playing it safe. BUt if I could make it a little more emphatic, as near as I can tell what this means is that because we are in Christ we are forgtiven. IN other words, the forgiveness that we have comes because we are united to Christ. So not only does our union with Christ give us new life, our union with Christ gives us forgiveness.

canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands - So Paul goes into more detail here and says the debt that you have before God, the sins you’ve committed, the shame you’ve accrued, the guilt you carry, that was cancelled. It was done away with. It is done. THe bill has been cancelled. God won’t let you earn it, he won’t let you demand it, God has paid your debt. HOw did he do this?

this he set aside, nailing it to the cross - he “set aside, nailing it to the cross.” Now I don’t love this translation because the Greek is much more evocative. It means to “pick ssomething up from the midst.” So God has taken up from our midst our pain, our shame, and our sin. And he has nailed it to the cross. He has put on, or “imputed” our sins to Christ, and he has put on, or “imputed” Christ’s righteousness to us. When Christ on the corss siad, “it is finished,” all of our sin, all of our guilt, all of our shame was laid on him, and he naield it to the cross, despising the shame. He has conquered, he has won, it is finished.

Triumph (15) - Now, vs. v15 is an incredibly evocative statement. This word “triumph” is the same word that describes Roman generals, after they had conquered a foreign land and enslaved its inhabitants, they would bring all the treasures of the land to Rome, and they would lead it on a processional through the Roman city in a massive parade. ANd Paul says, this is exactly what Christ has done to his enemies, he has triumphed, they have nothing else to stand up to us by. Just as God promised Satan in the garden, the seed of woman shall crush the head of the serpent, so on the cross, at hte point of death, God has brought life. In guilt, grace. In condemnation, justification. In defeat, triumph. It really is summarizing all that Paul has said thus far. What Christ gives us is far and away superior to everything that these empty and deceptive philosophies give us. And because you and I are united to him, we share in his vicotry.

Big Idea: In Christ, God gives us more of a triumph than the worldly philosophies ever will.

Application

Don’t buy into Marxism - So Christians, do not let yourself be taken captive by Marxist lies. Marxist lies tell you that you are oppressed and you should raise up against those who are your oppressors. It tells women they should be “liberated” and never submit to their husbands. It tells races they should fight with one another. It tells poor they should steal from teh rich. And in this, it breeds conflict. It is predicated on antagonism. Its sacrament is facebook rants. But worst of all, there is no real way for forgiveness. Christians, feminism makes for terrible marriages. Because your husband will inevitably mess up that’s just what we do, and all that feminism trains you to do is take that as an opportunity to put your husband down. Feminism never trains wives to forgive. And you really cannot have a marriage without forgiveness.

It does not give the resources that you need as to forgive. It does not give you the resources you need to confess. Christian, your primary identity is not someone who is oppressed. You are baptized, you are raised with Christ, you are forgiven. You are marked with the sign of the covenant and sealed for the day of redemption. You are given life in the midst of death. Your sins are nailed to the cross. Christian, marxism, in any of its many many faces-feminism, socialism, race-critical theory-is a lie and it will never give you what it promises because it gives you an inferior identity. Women, you are God’s daughters. Men, you are God’s sons. Act like it. Live like it. You have been given an identity in Christ, a baptism into the Spirit, forgiveness from teh Father.

DOn’t buy into traditionalist utopianism - But Christians, neither should you buy into traditionalist utopianism. Going back to the 50’s, or the 60’s, or the 70’s, will not make things better. Those times have a dark underbelly. You don’t remember the lows, you only remember the highs. Don’t listen to people who tell you they can bring it back. They can’t. What’s past is past. But the worst thing about it is, it tells you that who you are is a decayed relic from the past. But that’s not true. You have a resurrection body coming. Your primary identity is not who you used to be. It’s who you are going to be. If all you think of is who you were ten, twenty, thirty, forty years ago. If all you think of is what was present at some golden age in America, then you will be depressed and frustrated and everything will be wrong. You won’t have any hope. But Christian, you have a hope, in fact, you have the hope of glory, Christ in you. Who cares that this world often seems to be burning down around us, it is just the birth pangs of eternity. Christ triumphed over the rules and authorities, and that includes the past.

Conclusion: Christian, who you are in Christ, one who is filled up, one who is baptized, one who is raised with Christ, one who is forgiven, there is no other coherent ideology which can give you anything better. Nor should it.

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