June 6 - Colossians 2:11-12
“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.”
I’m not sure, actually, which ends up being more painful – the cutting of a physical circumcision – or the cutting away of sin that Christ has done for us. But, Paul reminds his readers that they are not required to go through actual circumcision to be part of the body of Christ. Jesus did all of that on the cross … he set aside the body – the flesh to bring us all into the New Covenant with God.
Today we aren’t as concerned with the legalism that the Judaizers were trying to force on the early Christians, but the idea is still the same. We still try to force ourselves and anyone that will listen to us to follow a given set of rules to be called a Christian. Everyone has them. Some people make judgments based on Sunday worship attendance. It’s not as bad as it used to be, but I remember days when shorts and jeans were sneered at in the sanctuary. There are denominations that refuse to believe members of other denominations are Christians … they have their own set of rules for what kind of church a ‘real’ Christian should attend. We make judgments based on the type of people others spend time with. We have created our own personal Law that decides for us who is a Christian and who isn’t.
There are sins that are acceptable and others that aren’t – whether or not they are ever mentioned in Scripture. Cultural traditions decide what is right and wrong and these quickly translate into a legal set of rules by which a Christian should be perceived.
This is what Paul is speaking of when he talks about circumcision. This is the work that Christ did on the cross. When we are baptized – whether or not it is by a water baptism (dunked, sprinkled, adult or infant) – we enter the point of baptism as a burial – our sins are buried the moment we accept Jesus as our Savior. He did the work for us and then we come through that into the resurrection that He offers through faith, a gift from God.
Jesus Christ died to offer us freedom. Let us not live to bind ourselves and remove the freedom that comes from living in Him.
“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.”
I’m not sure, actually, which ends up being more painful – the cutting of a physical circumcision – or the cutting away of sin that Christ has done for us. But, Paul reminds his readers that they are not required to go through actual circumcision to be part of the body of Christ. Jesus did all of that on the cross … he set aside the body – the flesh to bring us all into the New Covenant with God.
Today we aren’t as concerned with the legalism that the Judaizers were trying to force on the early Christians, but the idea is still the same. We still try to force ourselves and anyone that will listen to us to follow a given set of rules to be called a Christian. Everyone has them. Some people make judgments based on Sunday worship attendance. It’s not as bad as it used to be, but I remember days when shorts and jeans were sneered at in the sanctuary. There are denominations that refuse to believe members of other denominations are Christians … they have their own set of rules for what kind of church a ‘real’ Christian should attend. We make judgments based on the type of people others spend time with. We have created our own personal Law that decides for us who is a Christian and who isn’t.
There are sins that are acceptable and others that aren’t – whether or not they are ever mentioned in Scripture. Cultural traditions decide what is right and wrong and these quickly translate into a legal set of rules by which a Christian should be perceived.
This is what Paul is speaking of when he talks about circumcision. This is the work that Christ did on the cross. When we are baptized – whether or not it is by a water baptism (dunked, sprinkled, adult or infant) – we enter the point of baptism as a burial – our sins are buried the moment we accept Jesus as our Savior. He did the work for us and then we come through that into the resurrection that He offers through faith, a gift from God.
Jesus Christ died to offer us freedom. Let us not live to bind ourselves and remove the freedom that comes from living in Him.
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