Scripture Reading: Col. 2:9-12, 18, 20-22; 1 Cor. 1:30; Eph. 3:8
After warning us to beware that no one carries us off as spoil through philosophy and empty deceit, Paul tells us that in Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily (2:9). Then in verse 10 he goes on to say, “And you in Him are made full, Who is the Head of all rule and authority.” In Christ we lack nothing, for in Him we have been perfected and completed. There is no reason for us to turn to anything other than Christ. As we shall see, in speaking these words Paul was dealing with the matter of angel worship.
Then in verse 11 Paul says that we were circumcised in Christ. To be made full in Him is positive, whereas to be circumcised is to deal with something negative, in particular, the flesh, the self, and the natural man. All these things have been removed by the circumcision which is in Christ. In this message we need to consider how in Christ, on the positive side, we have been made full and, on the negative side, we have been circumcised.
In 2:9 Paul says, “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” This means that Christ is the embodiment of the fullness of the Godhead, that the fullness of the Triune God dwells in Christ in a bodily form. The fact that the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Christ bodily means that it dwells in Him in a way that is both real and practical.
Because all the fullness of the Godhead is in Christ and because we have been placed in Him (1 Cor. 1:30), we have been made full in Him. The New Testament reveals clearly that all those who believe in Christ have been put into Christ. Therefore, we are identified with Him and one with Him. The result is that all He is and all He has belongs to us, and all that He has experienced is our history. We inherit all that Christ has experienced and passed through. Furthermore, because we are one with Him, we partake of all that He has accomplished, obtained, and attained.
Marriage is an illustration of this. Suppose a poor woman marries a very rich man. Because she is joined to her husband and identified with him, she partakes of all that he is and has. Likewise, we are members of the all-inclusive Christ. We have been put into Him, identified with Him, truly “married” to Him. Hence, we are one with Him. All that He has passed through is now our history, and all that He has obtained and attained is our inheritance. We are in such a Christ, and He is in us. We have been placed into Him, we are one with Him, and we receive all that He is and has.
Although some Christians have a doctrinal knowledge of this, a mere mental understanding of our union with Christ is not adequate. We need to exercise faith in order to partake of all that is ours in Christ. We should not consider ourselves poor, just as a poor woman who has married a rich man should no longer think of herself as poor. Even though she may feel poor, she must practice applying the fact that the riches of her husband belong to her. In like manner, because we are one with Christ, we should not regard ourselves as in poverty. To the contrary, we need to have a full realization of what we have in Christ.
In their prayers, some Christians like to declare how poor, pitiful, and low they are. This kind of prayer is without faith or assurance. We need to believe with full assurance that we are one with the rich, all-inclusive Christ, with the One who is the embodiment of all the fullness of the Triune God. If we realize this with full assurance, we shall never consider ourselves poor.
Do not believe your feelings about yourself, but look away to Christ. Exercise your faith to realize what He is, what He has passed through, what He has obtained and attained, and where He is today. Since He is in the third heaven and we are one with Him, we are in the third heaven also. In Christ we are not only millionaires — we are billionaires. We have been placed into the Christ who is unsearchably rich.
In this Christ we are made perfect, complete. In Him we do not lack anything. Do not talk about how much you lack. Because you are in Christ, you lack nothing. In Him is the fullness, the perfection, the completion. Actually, He Himself is the fullness, perfection, and completion. Because we are in Him, we are complete and perfect; we lack nothing. We are those who possess the riches of Christ.
In Ephesians 3:8 Paul speaks of the unsearchable riches of Christ. We are more than billionaires because the riches we have are greater than can be counted. We simply have no idea what vast riches we possess in Christ. Often we have prayed, “Lord, I am poor and pitiful.” But not many have prayed in this way: “Lord, I thank You that I am rich, complete, and full. Lord Jesus, because I am in You, I am richer than the wealthiest billionaire. I am short of nothing.” I hope that after reading this message, you will begin to pray in this way. Tell the Lord, the angels, and even the demons that you are richer than any earthly billionaire because you are in the Christ whose riches are unsearchable.
In 2:10 Paul says that Christ is the Head of all rule and authority. The rule and authority spoken of here are the angelic powers, in particular the fallen angels who still occupy positions of power. According to the full revelation of the Bible, after God created the universe, He placed it under the control of an archangel and other leading angels. When this archangel rebelled against God and became Satan, many of the leading angels who assisted him in ruling the universe became the evil rulers and authorities in the heavenlies. These are described in Ephesians 6:12 as the rulers, the authorities, the world-rulers of this darkness, the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenlies. These angelic powers rule over the nations. For this reason, in the book of Daniel there is mention both of the prince of Greece and of the prince of Persia. (A prince here denotes one of the angelic powers or rulers.) This means that all the nations on earth today are under the rule of authorities in the heavenlies; however, not all of these are evil. But Christ is the Head of all rule and authority.
Since Christ is our perfection and completion, we do not need other rules and authorities as objects of adoration, for He is the Head of all these. Remember that the Colossians had been led astray to the worship of angels. Therefore, Paul told them that since Christ is the Head of all the angels and since we are in Him, there is no need for us to worship angels.
The Colossians were worshipping angels because they fell under the influence of the heretical teaching that God is too exalted to be worshipped directly by lowly human beings. According to this false doctrine, we must humble ourselves and worship the angels as mediators between us and God. Those who worship angels in this way argue that they are still worshipping God, not idols. They claim simply to be worshipping God through the mediation of angels, who are superior to us. This heresy became prevailing in Asia Minor. Therefore, Paul was burdened to point out their error. How wrong the Colossians were in taking the angels as mediators! There is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus (1 Tim. 2:5). Since the Colossians were in the very One who is the Head of all angels and since they had been made full in Him, they were not short of anything. They had no need of angels to be mediators. Angels are to serve us and to protect us, but they are not mediators between us and God. All the saints have at least one angel, one angelic bodyguard, assigned to serve them and protect them. This is proved by the Lord’s word in Matthew 18:10 where He charges us not to despise “one of these little ones, for...their angels in the heavens always behold the face of My Father Who is in the heavens.” Furthermore, when Peter was released from prison and was knocking at the door of the gate, those inside the house told the young woman, who kept saying that Peter was knocking, “It is his angel” (Acts 12:15). Although the angels serve us and may protect us, we should not regard them as mediators. Because they are servants, we should not worship them. We are identified with the One who is the Head of all the angels, and in Him we have been made full. If we are clear about this, we shall never be deluded into worshipping angels. Rather, we shall have the proper knowledge that, in a very real sense, because we are one with the Head of the angels, we are higher than they are. Actually, we are partners of the Christ who is the Head over them, and in Him we are complete.
This fact of having been made full in Christ is versus the worship of angels. Because we are one with Christ, we should never worship angels.
In verse 11 Paul says, “In Whom also you were circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ.” Here Paul speaks of a circumcision not made with hands. This certainly is different from that practiced by the Jews, which was carried out with a knife. In addition to that physical circumcision, there is another kind of circumcision, the circumcision in Christ, which is not made with hands. This is spiritual circumcision and refers to the proper baptism, which puts off the body of the flesh by the effectual virtue of the death of Christ. As we shall see, this is versus asceticism.
The circumcision in Christ involves the death of Christ and the power of the Spirit. When Christ was crucified on the cross, His crucifixion was the genuine, practical, and universal circumcision. His crucifixion cut off all the negative things. These negative things include our flesh, our natural man, and the self. However, along with the death of Christ we need the Spirit as the power. If we have Christ’s crucifixion without the Spirit as the power, we shall have no means to apply Christ’s crucifixion to us and to execute its effect upon us. The crucifixion of Christ becomes practical and effective by means of the Spirit. By the Spirit as the power, Christ’s crucifixion is applied to us. Then under the power of the Spirit, we are circumcised in an actual and practical way. This is the circumcision in Christ, a circumcision not made with hands. It is a circumcision not made with hands because it was accomplished by the death of Christ, and it is applied, executed, and carried out by the powerful Spirit. This is the circumcision we have all received.
In Christ, on the one hand, we have been made full, and, on the other hand, we have been circumcised. Because we have been made full in Him, we are short of nothing. Because we have been circumcised in Him, all the negative things have been removed. Regarding the positive things, we are complete. Regarding the negative things, everything has been cleared up, and we have no problems. Therefore, regarding the positive things, we are not short of anything, and regarding the negative things, we are no longer troubled by anything.
However, we need to exercise faith and not look at ourselves. We must turn our eyes away from our feelings and from our apparent situation. According to our apparent situation, we are short of everything positive and are troubled by everything negative. But according to the facts, we are not in ourselves — we are in Christ. Because we are in Him, we have been made full positively, and we have been circumcised to clear away the negative things.
In verse 11 Paul speaks of “the putting off of the body of the flesh.” This means to strip off something, as to strip off clothing. The circumcision that took place by the death of Christ and is applied by the powerful Spirit accomplishes the putting off of the body of the flesh. Our body of flesh was crucified on the cross with Christ and has been put off. Regarding this, we must again exercise our faith and not consider our self and our apparent situation. Let us exercise faith and say, “Amen! The body of the flesh has been put off on the cross and by the powerful Spirit.”
This circumcision must be in the circumcision of Christ, not with a circumcision made with hands. The circumcision of Christ is by His crucifixion. Our flesh has been crossed out by His death on the cross.
Furthermore, the circumcision in Christ takes place through baptism. In verse 12 Paul says, “Buried together with Him in baptism, in Whom also you were raised together through the faith of the operation of God, Who raised Him from among the dead.” We have been buried together with Christ in baptism. To be buried in baptism is to put off the body of the flesh, to disrobe or strip it off. Moreover, in Christ we have been raised together through the faith of the operation of God. In baptism there is the burial aspect, which is the termination of our flesh, and the raising aspect, which is the germination of our spirit. In the raising aspect we are made alive in Christ with the divine life.
In this verse Paul points out that this is through the faith of the operation of God. Faith is not of ourselves; it is the gift of God (Eph. 2:8). The more we turn to God and contact Him, the more faith we have. The Lord is the Author and Perfecter of our faith (Heb. 12:2). The more we abide in Him, the more we are infused with Him as our faith. It is through this living faith in the operation of the living God that we experience the resurrection life, signified by the raising aspect of baptism. Many Christians today neglect the real operation of baptism. Instead, they pay attention to the kind of water used or to the method of placing people under the water. Genuine baptism involves an operation in which we are buried and terminated. This operation involves the exercise of faith. The One who carries out the operation is the Spirit. Whenever we baptize someone, there is the need for the exercise of faith to realize that an operation is taking place to terminate the old being of the one who is to be baptized. We must have faith in the operation of God, the Triune God, who raised Christ from among the dead.
Whenever we baptize a new believer, we must realize that this one is being placed into a divine operation that will terminate him and bury him. We must exercise faith in the operation of the Triune God. By faith we have the reality of the termination and burial of the old man, the self, the flesh, and the natural life. The operating Triune God will honor this faith by making these things real. This burial and termination of the old man through baptism is the real circumcision.
Since the Colossians had received such a circumcision, there was no need for them to practice asceticism. Being circumcised in the circumcision of Christ is versus asceticism (2:20-22). Those who have been buried and terminated and who are now resting in the tomb, have no need of asceticism. There is no reason for them to treat their bodies severely. This is against the spiritual principle. According to the spiritual principle, we have been terminated and have put off the body of the flesh, the very thing that asceticism attempts to deal with. Every form of asceticism attempts to deal with the lusts of the flesh. According to the teaching and practice of asceticism, treating the body severely eliminates lusts and restricts indulgence. This is the basic principle of asceticism. In India some practice asceticism by sitting on a bed of needles. Whenever they become conscious of fleshly lusts, they press against the needles, thinking that the pain they inflict on themselves will restrict their lusts. This same principle explains ascetic rules about eating delicious foods. According to asceticism, to enjoy food is to indulge the flesh. For this reason, ascetics are taught to choose food that is not palatable.
As we shall point out in a later message, this severe treatment of the body is “not of any value against the indulgence of the flesh” (2:23). The various practices of asceticism are not effective in restricting the indulgence of the flesh. Paul’s concept in Colossians 2 was that since the believers in Christ had been circumcised in the circumcision of Christ, which was accomplished by Christ’s death and is applied by the Spirit, and since this is the circumcision in which they have been buried and terminated, there is absolutely no need for the practice of asceticism. To mistreat the body in the attempt to restrict the indulgence of the flesh is foolish and of no avail. Truly the circumcision in Christ is versus asceticism.
In this message we have seen that, positively, we have been made full in Christ and that, negatively, we have been circumcised in Him. Therefore, there is no need for us to worship angels or to practice asceticism. Although these practices were prevailing among the Colossians, we should utterly cast them aside. We do not worship angels, and we do not practice asceticism. We are in Christ. In Him we have been made full and are short of nothing. In Him we have been circumcised from every negative thing. For this reason, we do not need asceticism to restrict the indulgence of the flesh. This was the concept of the Apostle Paul. I believe that his writing concerning this matter in Colossians 2 will be helpful to us today.
