Colossians 2:8-15 → Made Alive Together With Christ
- Steve Schott
- Jan 16
- 7 min read
Theme
► The main theme of Colossians, in my opinion, is the deity of Jesus Christ - His fullness as God, and His complete sufficiency as having done all that is necessary to save us from our sins.
► Colossians 2:9-10a → "9 For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, 10 and in Him you have been made complete,..."
→ Who Jesus is, is complete - the supremacy of the Person of Jesus
→ What Jesus has done, is complete - the sufficiency of the work of Jesus
• There is nothing that we can add to this to effect, improve, or add value to, our salvation.
► Paul will spend the rest of this letter, both carefully elaborating on the divine character of Jesus, and also being very specific about the completeness of what Jesus did on the cross to obtain our salvation.
► Attacks, if you will, from outside the church (and perhaps some from inside the church), that suggest that more is needed, specifically within the framework of our human efforts, to fully obtain salvation, will be shot down like enemy missiles, the intent of which is to destroy our faith.
Outline
► An outline of the Book of Colossians
→ (This is the outline used by the group of teachers I participate with at our church. All of my blog postings for Colossians are following this outline)
Theological
• Pretty much everything in this section (chapters 1 and 2), including Paul’s greeting, is dialoguing about the truth of Jesus, and how it has impacted our lives, and will continue to do so in the future.
• Even when Paul is dealing with the false teaching, he’s dealing with the false teaching in light of the truth about Jesus he’s already dealt with up to that point.
1 → Introduction to the Book of Colossians
2 → 1:1-12 Greeting and Prayer for the Colossians
3 → 1:13-18 The Preeminence of Christ
4 → 1:19-23 Reconciliation Through Christ
5 → 1:24-29 Paul's Ministry to the Church
6 → 2:1-7 Reaching the Riches of Full Assurance
7 → 2:8-15 Made Alive Together With Christ
8 → 2:16-23 Let No One Disqualify You
Practical
• Once we get into chapter 3, and through chapter 4, Paul’s approach will be much more centered on how to live out this true gospel in our everyday lives, in the community of the body of Christ.
9 → 3:1-8 Seek the Heavenly, Put to Death the Earthly
10 → 3:9-17 Put on the New Self
11 → 3:18-4:1 Rules for Christian Households
12 → 4:2-6 Steadfast Praying, Wise Walking, Gracious Speaking
13 → 4:7-18 Final Greetings
Intro to today's passage
► In today's passage, while it is still dealing with the basic truths of, 1st - Jesus' supremacy, i.e., that He is God incarnate, and 2nd - Jesus' sufficiency, meaning that we can add nothing to what Jesus has already done to gain our salvation, we will see Paul begin to deal with false teaching, in the form of outsiders trying to manipulate the Colossians into believing that something "extra" is needed for salvation.
► We saw it subtly dealt with in the previous passage, and will see it again in this one, culminating with a detailed exposé in the last passage we will cover in chapter 2.
Passage
8 See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.
→ Paul starts this section off with a brief warning about being taken "captive" by either "philosophy", or "empty deception", or "according to the tradition of men", or the "elementary principles of the world".
→ He's basically saying that you should avoid basing your theology on anything other than "Christ".
• It's not "Christ +".
• It's not "Christ except".
• It's just "Christ".
• Nothing added to the truth of the gospel and nothing taken away from it.
→ Jesus is Supreme! He is fully God AND fully man. If you've seen Jesus, you've seen God in the flesh. There is nothing that can be added to Jesus to make Him more complete.
→ And in like fashion, if you are "in Him", meaning if you are born again, if your are saved by the blood of Jesus, then you also are "complete".
→ There is nothing you can add to the work of Christ to get you into heaven. You are already there!! You've got the tickets. Your seats are already reserved.
→ The work of Jesus is Sufficient!
→ Paul goes on to say that not only is Jesus fully God, but He's also the boss. He's at the top of the chain of command. He's the spiritual Commander in Chief.
11 and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ;
→ While in the Old Testament circumcision was considered a sign of entrance into the nation of Israel, and maybe more importantly an indication of being Abraham's children, Paul equates our salvation to having our old flesh cut away spiritually, our sin removed from our body, so that we are now identified with Christ.
12 having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.
→ Baptism is an action that we can take that symbolizes the work of Christ on our behalf. When we are lowered into the water, it's representative of Jesus dying for us. When we rise out of the water, it represents Jesus being raised from the dead.
→ In like fashion, when we are saved, it's dying to our old self, and being raised to a new life as a child of God.
→ In 1 Peter 3:21 it says → "21 Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you—not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience—through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,..."
• We need to be careful with this passage because at first glance, it can appear that Peter is saying that baptism is necessary for salvation. But that is not true. What Peter is saying here is that baptism is the logical response to, is an outward demonstration of, what has already occurred internally, the "appeal to God for a good conscience", i.e., a prayer of faith in the work of Jesus on the cross.
• That's what repentance is - the changing of your mind or thinking, that leads to, or is evidenced by, a changing of our outward actions.
13 When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions,
→ Our "transgressions" and the "uncircumcision" of our hearts leave us in a state of death. Dead, or incapable of responding, to God. And doomed to eternal destruction in the future.
→ But through the work of Jesus, when we trust in Him, we are made "alive" and are "forgiven".
→ When Jesus paid the penalty for our sins while on the cross, He did so for ALL of our sins.
14 having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
→ When Paul talks about the "certificate of debt" and the act of being "nailed... to the cross", what he is referring to is the process that Roman crucifixion included of attaching a list of the person's crimes on the cross, so everyone could see why the person was being executed.
→ In the gospel of John, in 19:19, Pilate lists Jesus' crime as being "the King of the Jews."
→ In a spiritual sense, all of our sins - those of the entire world - were nailed on that cross.
15 When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.
→ Whatever stranglehold Satan thought he had over the earth was eliminated when Jesus rose from the dead.
→ Not that he ever actually had ANY say.
→ But now it's officially recognized that Jesus is King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.
So What?
► Don’t be taken captive by philosophy or empty deception.
→ Don't mess with people's opinions or concepts.
► Don’t pay attention of men’s traditions.
→ Just because they've been doing it for a long time doesn't mean it's right.
► Don’t be distracted by worldly principles.
→ World centered "wisdom" is not going to cut it.
► Focus solely on Jesus Christ.
→ There is nothing that we need to guide our lives other than Jesus Himself.
→ He is all we need to be saved - Jesus is Supreme.
→ He is all we need to live the Christian life - what Jesus has done is Sufficient.
Photo • 02/16/2025 - The Sierra Nevada, as viewed from the back of Dehy Park, Independence, CA
“Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995
by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org”
All linked verses are from the YouVersion at www.Bible.com
Comments