Colossians 2:11-23: Christ’s Sufficiency

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, having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.

When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions. He has lost connection with the Head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.

Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: "Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!"? These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.

Introduction: Boundary Markers
John Ortberg, in his article, “The Danger of Pseudo-Transformation vs. Authentic Christian Spirituality” says:

For example, imagine that you were driving through the Haight Asbury district of San Francisco in the nineteen sixties. If you came to a stoplight and a Volkswagen van pulled up next to you, plastered with peace signs and "Make Love Not War" bumper stickers and driven by a long haired, tie dyed, granny glasses wearer, you would have known you were driving next to a hippie. If it were the nineteen eighties and you were to see a BMW with a driver wearing Gucci shoes, a Rolex watch, and moussed hair so and nibbling on brie, you would know you were driving next to a yuppie. Bikers, too, are recognizable by their preference in fashion color (black), fabric (leather), skin ornamentation (tattoo), and beverage of choice ("great taste, less filling"). Farmers, doctors, politicians, and rock stars all have their own ways of distinguishing who is in their fraternity or sorority.

With this in mind, the importance of circumcision, dietary laws, and Sabbath keeping in the first century becomes clear. These were the boundary markers; the highly visible, relatively superficial practices that allowed people to distinguish who was inside and who was outside the family of God.[1]

Can you think of some examples of boundary markers that we use to distinguish? Helen used to tell the story when she came to Women’s Bible Study here for the first time and the appraising look one woman gave her, trying to decide whether Helen would fit in.

Like the 1st century believers, we have our set of “outward” indicators. In fact, sometimes it can be harder for us to accept believers with these markers than it is to accept pagans, because “they ought to know better.” The Apostle’s Creed or Baptist Faith and Message don’t come close to addressing these issues, but we can make them into issues that we break fellowship.

In the latter part of chapter 2, Paul turns his attention to the practical implications of the gospel: who is in and who is out? And who gets to set the rules?

You Are Free! God Has Chosen You (vs 11-15)
God does! It is God’s opinion that counts. In the first century, scholars have noted that three of the hot topics were: Sabbath keeping, dietary laws and…circumcision. Since the earliest parts of Genesis, we see that this was a sign of the descendants of Abraham:

You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. – Genesis 17:11

Just before Isaac was born, God reaffirmed his promise to Abraham and gave him circumcision as a reminder of that promise. In the Old Testament, you didn’t call someone a barbarian, you called them uncircumcised (often tied to the word “dog” or “Philistine”). And God took it seriously. When Moses was about to go to Egypt as God’s agent, there is a strange story in 3 verses:

At a lodging place on the way, the LORD met Moses and was about to kill him. But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son's foreskin and touched Moses' feet with it. "Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me," she said. So the LORD let him alone. – Exodus 4:24-26a

Moses was about to call the people of Israel back to their God. What was the sign of the Israel? Circumcision! But his own son had not been circumcised! Can’t imagine what her son was thinking though, when Mom came at him with flint knife and told him to drop his robe.

When a Gentile became a follower of Yahweh, the usual procedure was a ritual bath and circumcision, making them, in a sense, a 2nd class Jew. They still couldn’t come into the inner courtyard of the temple. This was similar to the procedure used for foreigners who came into the household of a Jew.

In the early days of the church, almost of the believers were Jews, even if they were living somewhere else. But then, something strange happened:

The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. – Acts 10:45

God was saving the Gentiles. Then there was the big question: what to do with them?

Some men came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the brothers: "Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved." – Acts 15;1

Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, "The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to obey the law of Moses." – Acts 15:5

With this influx of Gentile believers, the issue of circumcision, specifically, was a hot topic. Apostles clashed over this issue (Galatians 2). God had to throw in a couple of heavenly visions (Acts 11). And what about half-Jews (Acts 16:3)? Both sides of this argument went back to Abraham:

Abram believed Yahweh, and he credited it to him as righteousness. – Genesis 15:6

Abraham was saved, prior to the introduction of the law, by faith. And what Paul, the good student of the Bible noticed, was that this was at least twenty-three years (Genesis 16:3, Genesis 17:25) before God talked to Abraham about circumcision. Here is what Paul concluded:

We have been saying that Abraham's faith was credited to him as righteousness. Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? It was not after, but before! - Romans 4:9b-10

This meant that Abraham had been, essentially, a “Gentile” and saved.

So then, he is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised…And he is also the father of the circumcised – Romans 4:11b, 12a

So, what was the role of circumcision?

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, having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. – Colossians 2:11-12

Paul says circumcision was the sign of God’s covenant to create a new nation, and baptism is the sign of God’s covenant to create the church. But more importantly, it is God who decides who is saved, not us. The act of circumcision did not bring people into the kingdom and the lack of it did not keep them out.
We are not the people of God because of what we do, but because of what God does.

You Are Free! Don’t Enslave Yourself To Non-Essentials (vs. 16-17, 20)
When you live in the Philippines, you find that there are hundreds of sayings pamahiin which govern daily behavior. While Americans tend to couch our folk wisdom in pragmatism, in the Philippines, they talk about it in turns of fortune or luck. We say don’t do X or it will hurt, they say don’t do X because it is bad luck. Never have a maid prettier than your wife. Pregnant women shouldn’t look at anything ugly. You shouldn’t see the bride on the day of the wedding. Look out for number 1, because no one else is.

But in many cases, these sayings run counter to the gospel and the victory we have in Christ. And when I confronted believers about some of these, they would say, “Well, it doesn’t hurt!” But it does hurt, because you are voluntarily enslaving yourself to something else besides Christ.

Paul found that, in addition to circumcision, people were consciously adding rules and regulations to their lives, either from their Jewish background or from the mini-religions. It was like saying to the IRS, sure, could you please find a few more tax regulations for me to obey; can you devise more and stricter traffic laws for me to pass on to my children?

Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. – Colossians 2:16-17

Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules? - Colossians 2:20

There are times when we are called upon us not to exercise our Christian freedom, when it distracts others from following God. There are times we restrain the exercises of our Christian freedom because it actually ends up harming us. But these are a restraint of compassion and progress. But these restrictions-these boundary markers-are governed by fear: “do not let anyone judge you” (fear of other people) “as though you still belonged to it” (fear of rules) oh…oh…oh…gotcha!

The core of the Law was this: Love God, love people. You don’t start your spiritual walk by the little, unimportant things: you start your spiritual walk always at the center. Love God, love people. Why? Because the gospel’s great promise is that we are transformed; that we are new creates; that we are being remade in the image of God. We aren’t defined by the boundary markers! We are defined by our common faith.
But when authentic transformation stalls, sometimes we settle for pseudo-transformation. We know we are supposed to be different from the world. We are called saints—people who have been set aside or called out of the world, holy in our calling. But, as John Ortberg notes:

“But if we are not marked by greater and greater amounts of love and joy, we will inevitably look for substitute ways of distinguishing ourselves from those who are not Christians. This deep pattern is almost inescapable for religious people: If we do not become changed from the inside out…we will be tempted to find external methods to satisfy our need to feel that we're different from those outside the faith”[2]

The things which Jesus said should distinguish us from the world are: unity, love for each other and fruitfulness. We are free! Don’t load up on extra guilt! We are so used to feeling guilty that if we don’t feel guilty, we start looking around for something. And there are people who are willing to supply it to you.

You Are Free! Listen To The Right Voices (vs. 18-19, 21, 23)
Did you ever wonder how the so-called experts on TV are chosen? My brother works as a professor of political science, specializing in presidential politics, so these past several weeks have been interesting as media outlets call him up looking for his scholarly opinion on current events. We like to have experts. We like to have people who specialize in a certain area of knowledge. We can’t all be experts in everything, so it helps to be able to consult—if we trust the expert.

Now that is the real trick: who to trust. Even with the best credentials, my brother could be a complete nut-case. How do you know? Obviously, Paul could probably give you a read on whether someone was a good spiritual advisor, but, as he has already pointed out, he isn’t present. So he leaves the believers in Colossae (and us) a series of hints about how to detect a phony or a well-intentioned nincompoop. I call this the quack doctor list:

1. They Promote Themselves Privately, While Pretending To Want No Praise

Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions. – Colossians 2:18

These are people who pretend to deflect praise, but manipulate the spotlight so it always returns to them.

2. Fondness For The New And Disdain For The Old

Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. – Colossians 1:18

3. They Divide The World Into The Informed And The Uninformed

Therefore do not let anyone judge you… - Colossians 2:16

Judging is the act of separating.

4. God Spoke To Them, But Nobody Else
There is a pattern in the Bible of confirmation of visions: repetition, circumstances and 3rd party revelation. We saw that with Paul when he had his vision at the time of his salvation and again in 2 Corinthians 12, where he saw things he was not permitted to tell and given a thorn in the flesh to prevent conceit. Paul said these people have:

He has lost connection with the Head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow. – Colossians 2:19

5. They Are Fond Of Knowing Who Is In And Who Is Out.
They are followers of the outside-in model of spiritual transformation. If you can just change what your diet, you will be a new person. If you just have the willpower, you can live your dreams. Paul said:

Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence. – Colossians 1:23

Conclusion
Some people play Monopoly. We used to play our sister Jennifer. Once of the most famous “rules” we would try is to give her all of the money and we would get all of the property. She could never figure out why we always won. And she never traded well, long been the victim of the “If you give me a bite of your hamburger, I’ll take some of your French Fries.”
Ever heard of these Monopoly rules:

1. All fines go to the middle and any player who lands on Free Parking gets the accumulated amount.
2. Double-money if you land on Go instead of just passing it.
3. No Income If You Are In Jail
4. No Property May Be Purchased Before All Players Have Gone Around Once

But none of these rules are in the official rules of Monopoly. My brother David and I loved Monopoly. I competed at Monopoly a few times. We read the Monopoly book, studied the rates of return on each property, knew the most commonly landed on properties, could tell instantly which space you had landed on as soon as you’d roll the dice. There is a big difference between tournament play and play at home.
But it was always interesting to find someone who insisted that one of the “house rules” was a real rule. Patiently we would pull out the real rules and ask them to find it. Some of them were interesting, most were generally harmless, but they were not the rules of the game.

[1] The Danger of Pseudo-Transformation vs. Authentic Christian Spirituality, John Ortberg, http://www.walk-this-way.com/ (viewed in November 2008).
[2]Ibid