Colossians 2:6-15--Alive in Christ

Alive in Christ​
6 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

8 See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. 9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. 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. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

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This again shouldn't sound new or surprising to us having read many of the other epistles from Paul to the churches that he helped plant and pastor, nor should it surprise us having read other epistles like I John and James, as well as having read the gospel of Matthew and having studied parts of the gospels of Mark, Luke and John as well--real faith results in a metamorphosis of sorts where everything about us seems to change, but it's even more than that.  Like the Valley of Dry Bones in Ezekiel the gospel actually takes that which was dead and makes it alive and all things have been made new in the image of Christ Himself so that when God the Father sees us, He sees His own Son living in and through us by the power of the Holy Spirit.  So then everything about us should be different as we put off our old sinful nature (the flesh) and are led by the Spirit.  We studied this both in Galatians and Ephesians and even talked about how we need to "suit up" in the armor of God daily for the spiritual warfare that we encounter.

Paul reminds them first that true faith also leads to true worship--that we will have an attitude of gratitude towards God and the things He has done.  This attitude and the things we know to be certain through God's Word should keep us from falling prey to the lies of the vain philosophies of this world that were espoused as the "wisdom of the world" that are nothing more than empty deceit.

Instead we should remember that Jesus is fully God (not just fully man) and all of God's attributes, including His omniscience, lives fully and completely in Jesus and in the Holy Spirit as well, and that as we let the Spirit of Christ (the Holy Spirit) live in and through us, we too have access to that knowledge and power and understanding as the Holy Spirit explains it to us--that is as much as we need to know at the time.  Therefore we should not be tricked into believing that there is some deep knowledge that is mysterious that some men have access to that God is hiding from us--these are the lies of the devil.  Go back to the Garden of Eden if you want to see the first time this line of attack was used on humans as Satan convinced Eve (and Adam who was with her) that God had hidden some good from them in hiding knowledge from them that would make them like gods themselves.  One of the temptations was that the fruit was desirable to make them gain wisdom.  We fight the same enemy who uses many of the same tricks today, just rewrapped in different packaging, but inside are the same old lies.  As Solomon says in Ecclesiastes, "There is nothing new under the sun" (he was speaking of philosophies and worldly wisdom when he said this). This is still true to today as people may take a little of this and a little of that and mix it together and rename and repackage it, or they may blatantly take something ancient and try to make it sound new, but there really is nothing new.  We've seen all the rebellion and false religion of this world system traces back to the book of Genesis and the rebellion that we saw in chapters 3-10.  Do not be tempted by any system of religion or philosophy that promises that you will be a god or like God or that you can build your own way to God.

The next section that speaks of circumcision not made by hands might have been a little tricky if we hadn't already talked about the book of Galatians, and there are a couple of other places we've looked at along the way so far that should help us understand that Paul is talking about us not receiving an outward sign of the covenant put something that happens to our hearts that is an inwards sign so that this is something that God alone does and it is done without human hands.  Once we are saved we become a new kind of tree that produces a new kind of fruit because we have a new kind of root.  This transformation is usually radical and visible to all around us.  Again, read I John, James, and I & II Peter if you have any question about real faith being faith that is lived out in action and that "by their works you will know them  (See Matthew 7:16).  Even though that's true we can't take apples and put them on a grape vine and make it an apple tree. the issue is the root, not the fruit, even though the fruit is the visible evidence that we see of what has happened at the root level.  But we can say that if we see bad fruit or no fruit, then there is an issue with the root.  Only a good root will produce good fruit.  We also know that the Father is the Vinedresser that takes every branch (person who says they are in Christ or a part of the "true Israel") that is dead or diseased and that bears no fruit or diseased fruit and cuts them off and throws them into the fire as well as pruning back the things in the lives of every true believer that are unnecessary and will make us more fruitful in the areas where we are meant to grow.

We (or flesh and its passions and desires) have been crucified with Christ and like Christ we have been raised to walk in newness of life, but we have not yet received our Resurrection bodies--we will receive those one day in what we call the Rapture.  Through this death and Resurrections Christ became sin for us and put it to death so that we might become the righteousness of Christ and be presented holy, blameless and without blemish to God the Father and will be the Bride of Christ adorned in garments white and clean as we are clothed in the righteousness of Christ alone.  No one who comes to God with garments polluted by the works of the flesh (comes in their old, sinful nature) will be able to enter into His presence.  They must discard that identity that they are clothed in that is filthy (Isaiah 64:6) to be dressed in the righteousness of Christ which are our wedding garments (Matthew 21-22)

Through these actions our debt has been cancelled as in the parable of the Unmerciful Servant (Matthew 18:21-35).  Not only that but our account has been filled up to overflowing with the good credit that comes from Christ's infinite righteousness that we did not deserve.  For this reason Christ used the accounting term to say "It is finished" meaning "The debt has been paid in full" when He died on the cross (John 19:30).  All this was done so that sin, and the flesh, and the devil and all of the forces of darkness would no longer have any power over us. 

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Romans 8:37-39
English Standard Version37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.