Slides: Buried and Raised With Christ

Buried and Raised With Christ
Colossians 2:11-14

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, 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. 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, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

Buried and Raised with Christ

1. Achieves spiritual circumcision, making the law of circumcision a thing of the past.
2. Happens in baptismal union with Christ, by faith in God’s power to bring life from the dead.
3. Necessary because of deadness in sin.
4. Made possible by forgiveness through nailing law-based obligation to the cross.

Circumcision in Scripture

Circumcision in the Old Testament
• picture foreshadowing blood and pain as punishment for sin
• sign of faith and belonging to God’s people
• mark of commitment to keeping God’s law
• symbol of stripping away sin within

Circumcision in the New Testament
• fulfilled in Christ’s blood and pain
• replaced by painless, bloodless baptism
• mark of trusting law, not grace in Christ
• symbol of obsession with externals

Christ plus circumcision?

But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” … But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses.” (Acts 15:1,5)

Paul insisted that baptized believers in Christ already had all the circumcision they needed.

Tied to law, cut off from Christ!

If you got circumcised because you thought faith in Jesus wasn’t enough for salvation, you would lose Christ and salvation.

I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. (Galatians 5:2-4)

Demanding the shadow, denying the substance

Circumcision was given to Old Testament people as a sign, a foreshadowing of something that had not yet come. After the reality came, those who kept demanding the old sign were denying the reality that the sign had been pointing to.

“These [OT rituals and festivals] are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.” (Colossians 2:17)  

In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands

Surgery on your heart by God’s Spirit.

For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God. (Romans 2:28-29)

Putting off the body of the flesh

Getting rid of ingrained sin, advantages, and connections; getting Christ instead.

Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh— though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. (Philippians 3:2-7)

by the circumcision of Christ

Jesus really accomplishes what OT circumcision was only a sign of:

1. Pain and blood to satisfy God’s law

2. Changing hearts, not just foreskins.

Buried and Raised with Christ

1. Achieves spiritual circumcision, making the law of circumcision a thing of the past.
2. Happens in baptismal union with Christ, by faith in God’s power to bring life from the dead.
3. Necessary because of deadness in sin.
4. Made possible by forgiveness through nailing law-based obligation to the cross.

Union with 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.

In him... with him... with him... together with him

Legal union: Jesus represents us. He is our legal head. He acts on our behalf. What he does is counted by God as ours.

Living union: Jesus lives in us and we in him through a living connection. He is our living head, and we are his body. His actions affect and direct our experience. His death, resurrection, and reign flow into our lives.

Spiritual baptism

He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior (Titus 3:4-6)

Baptism… now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 3:21)

Baptized into Christ Jesus

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. (Romans 6:3-4)

Baptism into Christ is “the work of the Spirit which unites us to Christ, signified and sealed but not necessarily conveyed by water baptism.” (R. C. Lucas)

Baptism is identifying with Christ in His death and resurrection.

We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin… So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 6:6,11)

Do you identify with Christ, united to His  death and resurrection, or do you still identify with the body of sin/flesh?

Baptism and faith

… through faith in the powerful working of God who raised him from the dead.

In Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ … (Galatians 3:26-27,29)

And many of the Corinthians hearing Paul believed and were baptized. (Acts 18:8)

Believing and baptism go together!

raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.

Every conversion is a resurrection from the dead, a participation in Jesus’ resurrection. To make a dead spirit alive, God must unleash the same power he used to raise Jesus from the dead. When you put your faith in Christ, you are alive with the power that performed history’s greatest miracle. In fact, your conversion is a similar miracle.

Who should be baptized?

• New, better covenant has new, better sign: no more pain or blood; no longer limited to males; no longer limited to Jews.

• Those who think only professing believers should be baptized say, Would the new, better covenant sign be a matter of physical descent and family ties? Surely not! It must be totally based on spiritual rebirth and personal faith.

• Those who think babies of believers should be baptized say, Would the new, better covenant sign exclude babies who would have received the sign under the older covenant? Surely not!

Circumcising converts and babies

• Abraham came to faith as an adult. His adult circumcision was “a seal of the righteousness he had by faith” (Rom 4:11), “a sign of the covenant” between God and him (Gen 17:11).

• Abraham’s baby son Isaac and baby boys in future generations were to be circumcised at eight days, marking them as part of God’s covenant people of faith. (Genesis 17:12)

• Any foreigner who joined the covenant community was to be circumcised, along with all males in his household (Exodus 12:48)

Circumcision and baptism

• Circumcision pictured "the putting off of the body of the flesh" (Col 2:11); so does baptism.

• Circumcision was the sign of becoming part of God's covenant community; so is baptism.

• Circumcision called for a heart in tune with God (Deut 10:16; 30:6); so does baptism.

• Circumcision was for believers and their children; so is baptism.

• Circumcision as an outer sign called for inner faith; so does baptism.

Buried and Raised with Christ

• Achieves spiritual circumcision, making the law of circumcision a thing of the past.
• Happens in baptismal union with Christ, by faith in God’s power to bring life from the dead.
• Necessary because of deadness in sin.
• Made possible by forgiveness through nailing law-based obligation to the cross.

dead in your trespasses and uncircumcision of your flesh

People without Christ are not all equally decayed, but they are all equally dead.

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked… Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— 12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. (Ephesians 2:1-2,11-12)

Uncircumcised in heart

Trouble for uncircumcised Gentiles:  Thus says the Lord God: No foreigner, uncircumcised in heart and flesh, of all the foreigners who are among the people of Israel, shall enter my sanctuary. (Ezekiel 44:9)

Trouble for outwardly circumcised Jews: You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. (Acts 7:51)

God made [you] alive together with Christ

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:4-6)

The dead hear and live!

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. (John 5:24-25)

Buried and Raised with Christ

• Achieves spiritual circumcision, making the law of circumcision a thing of the past.
• Happens in baptismal union with Christ, by faith in God’s power to bring life from the dead.
• Necessary because of deadness in sin.
• Made possible by forgiveness through nailing law-based obligation to the cross.

having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.

God's law itself is good, but the legal indictment against us became something for the accusing spirits to hold over our heads.

This he set aside [took away], nailing it to the cross.

“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29)

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. (1 Peter 2:24)

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree” (Gal 3:13).

The Gospel in a nutshell

• God’s holy law condemns my crimes; His justice requires painful punishment in hell.

• Without Jesus I am spiritually and eternally dead. I cannot make myself alive or right with God.

• God the Father put my sins on the Son, the God-man. He punished Jesus on the cross and removed the law’s charges against me.

• God raised Jesus and gave me life in Him.

• Trusting Jesus and baptized into Christ, my sinful self is buried, and I am alive forever!