Gordon E. Johnson
Rio Grande Bible Institute
Paul has outlined for us the new point of departure for the Christian (Col. 2: 9-11). The true Christian life begins at the Cross, not with what we may have done or may do, but with what he did at the Cross, both for us and in us. In Col. 2: 11 we "were circumcised," a spiritual cutting off from the old life. Paul uses an allusion to the Old Testament rite that God gave to Abraham to seal his spiritual covenant with his chosen people (Gen.17:10-14; Rom. 2:28, 29). I repeat, the Jews misread its spiritual meaning, confusing it with the physical rite in which they boasted.
Paul will advance to a New Testament allusion: "Buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised in him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead" (Col. 2:12). Once again we must NOT do what the Jewish people did by making the physical the reality. The physical powers of water do not accomplish spiritual results. But the OT rite and the NT ordinance do profoundly speak of what God did at the Cross.
Paul has elsewhere given us an inspired commentary: "How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?" (Rom. 6:2, 3) The rhetorical question needs no answer. In the words of the French theologian, Lacordaire: "We were born crucified."
Baptism was for the early Christian a public statement to the whole world that as a believer in Christ he had turned his back on the old life and was viewing that old life as being buried and so to rise to newness of life (Rom 6:4). With his full consent it marked the end of the old and the new beginning. Paul asserts that from God's standpoint that is exactly what took place at the cross. This is the finished work of Christ, not just forgiveness but a separation from the power of the old life. The old carnal sinful life no longer is becoming to the believer.
But there is a vital truth in verse 12: "You were raised with him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead." Let us never lose sight of the fact that this is God's doing, not ours. The Christian life would be an utter impossibility, if it depended upon you and me. Our efforts are bound to fail. But the working of God, the dynamic of the Cross, must be grasped by faith, simple faith and acknowledged with gratitude. Only in this way can we experience the liberating power of the Holy Spirit who responds powerfully to God's great fact and our simple faith and gratitude.
I recall the statement of my mentor, Dr. F. J. Huegel: "Praise/Gratitude is faith in full bloom." Learn to give thanks for what God says and let feelings and experience follow as they may.
So real is this divine working in you that verse 13 assures us again of our total inability: "And you, being dead, in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made alive, together with him, having forgiven you all your trespasses." How dead can dead be? By heart, not head faith, we were introduced to the simplicity of our salvation. In the same way simple faith that grasps a full forgiveness of all our sins also introduces us into the union with him that is based on his working. For us it is faith in Christ. Again it is not the power of faith; it is rather the power of him in whom we believe, a risen Savior. May God grant us that grasp of truth which issues in the Holy Spirit's working.
Gordon E. Johnson
October 16, 2005
