Complete in Christ

Colossians 2:10-15

INTRODUCTION

Colossians 2:10-15 says, "And ye are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power; in whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; buried with Him in baptism, in which also ye are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised Him from the dead. And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross; and, having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it." That passage is loaded with theology and doctrine, and we will endeavor to carefully overview all that is there.

In our study of Colossians, we have been made aware that the Apostle Paul is making a tremendous statement regarding the person of Jesus Christ and His ability to save. That is no less true in this section. Although it is a rebuttal against the false philosophy and heresies that were right at the doorstep of the church in Colosse, it is a positive rebuttal. Paul's approach against false systems was always the positive approach. You don't need to argue against the falsity of a system if you just present the truth of Jesus Christ, and that's precisely what Paul did in his argument against human philosophy.

In our last lesson we looked at verses 8-10. Paul said, "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit..." (v. 8a). Paul's argument is against the four facets of the false heresy that was attacking the Colossians. The first facet is human philosophy. In the midst of that discussion, he delves into the concept of who Christ is and what He can do. And the idea Paul wants to get across is that you don't need any human philosophy or wisdom; you are complete in Him. That's the great truth he is communicating in verse 10.

A. The Physical Healing of the Lord

Now, in order to introduce our thoughts, I want to draw your attention to the healings of our Lord, because I think they illustrate a great principle relative to salvation. Let's look first at those...

1. Performed by the Lord

a. Matthew 9:22 -- "But Jesus turned about, and when He saw her, He said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour."

b. Matthew 12:13 -- "Then saith He to the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it forth; and it was restored whole like the other."

c. Matthew 15:28, 31 -- "Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith; be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour....insomuch that the multitude wondered, when they saw the dumb to speak, the maimed to be whole, the lame to walk, and the blind to see; and they glorified the God of Israel."

d. Mark 3:5 -- "And when He had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, He saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it out; and his hand was restored as whole as the other."

e. Mark 5:28, 34 -- "For she said, If I may touch but His clothes, I shall be whole....And He said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole. Go in peace, and be whole of thy plague."

f. Luke 6:10 -- "And, looking round about upon them all, He said unto the man, Stretch forth thy hand. And he did so; and his hand was restored whole like the other."

g. Luke 7:10 -- "And they that were sent, returning to the house, found the servant whole that had been sick."

h. Luke 8:48 -- "And He said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. Go in peace."

i. Luke 17:19 -- "And He said unto him, Arise, go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole."

j. John 5:6b, 14b, 15b -- "...He said unto him, Wilt thou be made whole?...Behold, thou art made whole....Jesus who had made him whole."

k. John 7:23 -- "If a man on the sabbath day receive circumcision, that the law of Moses should not be broken, are ye angry with Me, because I have made a man entirely well on the sabbath day?"

Now, the same thing was...

2. Performed by the Apostles

a. Acts 4:9-10 -- "If we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man, by what means he is made whole; be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by Him doth this man stand here before you whole."

b. Acts 9:34 -- And Peter said unto him, Aeneas, Jesus Christ maketh thee whole; arise, and make thy bed. And he arose immediately.

Now, in all of those passages there is a consistency in the style of healing that Jesus performed. When Jesus healed somebody, He made them whole--entirely well, with no missing parts. There are several synonyms used in those various passages, but the dominant Greek word is hugies from which we get the medical word "hygiene." It means "healthy." Jesus made them well, healthy, and sound; but the best translation is "entirely well"--the absence of any infirmity. All the healing miracles of Jesus made people completely healthy. There was no progression involved.

B. The Spiritual Healing of the Lord

You say, "What does that have to do with Colossians 2?" It serves as a beautiful picture of the way Jesus heals spiritually. If Jesus heals physical illness and makes people entirely whole, then the same concept can be applied to what the Apostle Paul means when he says, "And ye are complete in Him..." (Col. 2:10a). You could substitute the word whole for "complete". Just as Jesus Christ performed miracles of healing that made people entirely well, so it is when Jesus touches a life spiritually and gives salvation, He gives entire salvation. That person becomes entirely spiritually well. Another Pauline phrase describes the same thing: "Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation..." (2 Cor. 5:17a). That is brand-new wholeness.

1. The Old Testament

Now that is nothing new. God has always done it. For example:

a. Psalm 51:10 -- When David cried out in the midst of his sin he knew what God would do. He said, "Create in me a clean heart, O God...." There was no spot, no blemish. When God acts against sin in His saving grace, there is wholeness.

b. Ezekiel 11:19 -- "And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh" (cf. Ezk. 36:26).

God says, "I will give you a new heart"--a new soul, a new clean inside, so that the spiritual healing in salvation is as whole as the physical healing as performed by the Lord.

2. The New Testament

a. John 1:16 -- John the Baptist is talking about Christ, and he says, "And of His fullness have all we received...." When you were saved, you received Christ's fullness. The wholeness of Christ became your wholeness. When someone becomes a Christian, he is spiritually whole. That is Paul's point: "When you received Christ, you were made whole. A healthy man doesn't need any more medicine. You don't need human philosophy. You don't need Jewish legalism. You don't need strange pagan mysticism. You don't need abstaining asceticism. You don't need anything when you receive Christ and His salvation. You are made whole." That is why John the Baptist says, "And of His fullness have all we received, and grace for grace."

b. Galatians 6:15 -- "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature" (cf. 2 Cor. 5:17)

c. 2 Peter 1:3 -- "According as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness..." You say, "But when do you get that?" The verse continues, "...through the knowledge of Him...." When do you come to know Christ? At salvation. When do you get all the things pertaining to life and godliness? The moment you believe in Christ.

If we can say that the miracles of Jesus made people whole, we can also say that the spiritual transformation at salvation makes them just as whole spiritually. When you become a Christian, you have a clean heart, a new heart, a new spirit, a soundness, a wholeness-- you become spiritually well. You don't need to add anything to that--not legalism, asceticism, mysticism, or human philosophy.

REVIEW

I. PHILOSOPHY (vv. 8-15)

A. Captured By Philosophy (v. 8)

B. Complete In Christ (vv. 9-15)

1. The Basis of Completeness (vv. 9-10)

Colossians 2:10 says, "And ye are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power." You have been made full in Him. There's nothing missing. Christ fills you up. There aren't any other things to add to that. You have been made full with "the fullness of Him that filleth all in all" (Eph. 1:23b). Human philosophy based on the traditions of men and the elementary marks of infantile human religion has nothing to add to what is already complete (Col. 2:8). When Jesus died on the cross, the last thing He said was, "...It is finished..." (Jn. 19:30). When He said it, He meant it, not only in terms of His own deed, but in terms of securing the fullness of salvation by that deed. He rules "all principality and power" (i.e., all other beings--created authorities, created rulers, particularly the angelic ones). He rules them all. They have nothing to add to His work. The people who were influencing the Colossians were wrong. You don't need to get to God through a series of intermediary aeons or angels. Good angels can't help make you complete, and bad angels can't harm you once you are complete.

So, Paul deals a blow to the heresy of human philosophy and religion which tries to deny that Christ has the power to give complete salvation. That was the basic heresy that the Colossians were facing. The Colossians, who had in Jesus Christ the fountain that never fails, would have been fools to listen to those false teachers who would have them hew out broken cisterns that hold no water (Jer. 2:13). You don't need philosophy or angelic intermediaries. Christ is the completer. He makes anything He touches whole. All of His healing miracles, whether physical or spiritual, are instantaneous and complete.

The two facts of Christ's physical healing and spiritual salvation are brought together beautifully in the statement of 3 John 2. John is writing to his beloved Gaius whom he loved in the truth. He says, "Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth [is healthy]." John is saying, "Gaius, if your physical body could be as healthy as your soul, you would be in terrific shape!" What's the implication? The implication is that because he is a believer, his soul prospers and his soul is healthy. Now sin plays a part in the practical aspect of that, but positionally the soul is healthy. John is saying, "If your body could only know the health that your soul knows."

Now let's look at...

2. The Benefits of Completeness (vv. 11-15)

You are complete in Him. You have been made complete. You say, "Well, what do you mean when you say `complete'?" In the following verses Paul will show you the three ways in which you are complete. There are three aspects to our completeness: one, Complete Salvation (vv. 11-12); two, Complete Forgiveness (vv. 13-14); and three, Complete Victory (v. 15). Let's look first of all at the...

a. Complete Salvation (vv. 11-12)

"In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; buried with Him in baptism, in which also ye are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised Him from the dead."

Paul says, "Look! Your salvation is absolutely complete. There is no need for you to be circumcised, you've been baptized." Now remember, the heresy that the Apostle is combating is a baffling mixture of the pagan beliefs of various intermediaries and Jewish beliefs of legalism. Along with that, they were trying to propagate the idea that you had to be circumcised. That isn't anything new. The Judaizers propagated it in Galatia. They said, "That's fine that you believe. That's wonderful that you believe. But you have to be circumcised. You need a surgical salvation."

1) Spiritual Circumcision (v. 11)

"In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ"

Paul is talking about a spiritual operation, not a physical one.

The Two Views of Circumcision

Now, throughout the history of Israel there were two views of circumcision. Every little Hebrew boy was circumcised on the eighth day after his birth. That was the sign of his identification with the nation of Israel. It became controversial, and there were two schools of thought on it.

1. Circumcision Was Enough to Save

This was the surgical salvation view. If you were circumcised, you were in the covenant. The physical act was all that was required. That had been picked up during the history of the church. That's where infant baptism came from. The Israelite who believed that would argue that it didn't matter whether an Israelite was good or bad, just that he was circumcised. That was the typical view of the Jews in Jesus' day.

That was also the typical view of the Jewish leaders in Paul's day as well. That's why Romans 2:25 says, "For circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law...." In other words, it's fine if you keep the law, but if you break the law circumcision is just like uncircumcision. My dad told a story about the fighter that crossed himself before every fight. One guy said, "Does it help?" Another guy said, "It does if he can punch. If he can't, it won't do him any good at all." That's the same as circumcision. If you keep the law you're fine; if you don't, it doesn't help. Verse 26 says, "Therefore, if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law [people who haven't had the operation and obey the law], shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision?" They will move into the covenant blessing. Verse 28 says, "For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart..." (vv. 28-29a). That was the typical Jewish view; if you had the external operation you were in good shape. But there was another view.

2. Circumcision Was Only an Outward Sign

There were some true spiritual Jews--some remnants throughout Israel's history. They believed that circumcision was only an outward mark of a man who was inwardly committed to God. They believed correctly. What really mattered was the heart. That had always been what God told them, clear back in Exodus when God was first laying down the rules. Exodus 6:12 says, "And Moses spoke before the LORD, saying, Behold, the children of Israel have not hearkened unto me; how then shall Pharaoh hear me, who am of uncircumcised lips?" Moses, at the very beginning, was using the concept of uncircumcision in a metaphorical sense. God really wants someone who has a circumcised heart (a heart dedicated to God) and circumcised lips (lips dedicated to God). It was not simply the act of surgery on a child; the real issue was the heart.

a) The Process of Surgical Removal

Colossians 2:11 says, "...ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands [a special circumcision], in putting off [cutting away], the body of the sins of the flesh...." When you became a Christian, Christ cut away everything that was sinful in your life.

Romans 4:11 says, "And he [Abraham] received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised...." People say, "Well, Abraham was circumcised." Yes, fourteen years after he believed God and was saved. Circumcision didn't save him; he was circumcised as a sign of a righteous heart.

What is true circumcision? It is cutting away everything from the life but the will of God. Paul's message in Colossians 2:11 is this: "True circumcision is the spiritual surgery, the cutting away of self and sin, and only Christ can do that." I love the New International Version translation of Verse 11: "In Him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ." When you became a Christian, your old nature was taken away, and you became a new creature with a new nature.

Anyone can circumcise a man's foreskin, but only Christ can circumcise a man's heart and cut away the old sin nature. Paul says, "If you're a Christian, you don't need any rite of circumcision. You have received from Christ a spiritual surgery of which the old rite was only a picture and a symbol.

b) The Problem of Sinful Regeneration

That symbol in the Old Testament pictured the removal of sin. And by its association with the organ of generation, it stressed the sin inherent in our fallen nature as the offspring of Adam. But even the Old Testament constantly emphasizes that an inward change is the real issue (Jer. 4:4; 9:25). The insistence is that the heart be circumcised. The fact that the organ that produces life must be circumcised pictured the influence of the old sin nature on the next generation. So the actual form of the rite emphasized that it was human nature that needed to be dealt with. That which was passed on from father to son had to be dealt with.

You say, "Are you trying to tell me that when you become a Christian, God takes away the old nature?" Yes, I believe He gives you a new nature. That's what Paul is talking about in verse 11: "...made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh...."

c) The Presence of Separate Rulers

You say, "But if we have had our fallen nature put away, if we have put off the body of the sins of the flesh (human nature in its fallen condition), and if we have a new nature, then how come we still sin?" Fair question. The answer is: You not only have a new nature, but you have an old body. You have a new inside and an old outside.

In Romans 7:15 Paul says, "For that which I do I understand not; for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. If, then, I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now, then, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me" (vv. 15-17). Paul says, "It is not my new nature doing this, it is the old flesh that is in me. Verse 18 continues, "For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing....Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man" (vv. 18a, 20-22). He says, "My new nature loves God, My new nature wants to do good things. My new nature wants to obey God. My new nature wants to respond to God." Verse 23 continues, "But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members." The new nature that is in me has been purified, but the body that it lives in is a mess. When I go to heaven I don't get a new inside, I get a new outside. If I could just remove my good inside from this bad outside, I could really live. So in verse 24 Paul says, "Oh, wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So, then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh, the law of sin" (vv. 24-25). So Paul says, "In my new creation life the new nature is there, but surrounding it is the flesh."

I believe we receive a new nature. I don't believe that when you become a Christian you get whitewashed, I believe you get brand-new on the inside from the very moment you believe. Sin is still there because of the flesh and the body, but the internal nature and the new heart is there, too. God promised, "I'll give them a new heart." That's the covenant promise--the new covenant. So when you received Christ, that was the end of the old nature positionally, but sin is still hanging around.

d) The Promise of Spiritual Redirection