PT-2 "Complete Salvation" (Col. 2:11-12)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/17/2017 11:40 PM

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  PT-2 “Complete Salvation”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Colossians 2:11-12

            Message of the verses:  “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; 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.”

            We know that God gave the covenant of circumcision to Abraham and after that covenant was given Abraham circumcised all who were in his family including Ishmael, but Isaac was not born yet.  However before Abraham received this covenant we read in Genesis 15:6 “Then he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.”  Paul writes in Romans 4:11 the following “and he[Abraham] received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while uncircumcised, so that he might be the father of all who believe without being circumcised, that righteousness might be credited to them.”  So to be clear Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness in Gen. 15:6, and then afterwards God gave him the covenant of circumcision. 

            Steven tells the Sanhedrin “men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart” in Acts 7:51 emphasizing that circumcising the heart is what is necessary, and not a body part.  Paul writes in Romans 2:29 “He is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart.”  Now just think about this truth for a moment.  We are saved through what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross, and we cannot do anything to add to what He did in order to save us.  Both circumcision, and as we will look at later, is an outward sign of what happened to us on the inside: it is a heart issue.

            Now when it comes to NT believers we can see that we are taught that we have been circumcised “with a circumcision made without hands.”  MacArthur adds, “The object of the circumcision of Christ is ‘the removal of the body of the flesh.’  The ‘body of flesh’ refers to the sinful, fallen human nature totally dominating believers before salvation.  Christians have been cleansed of that sinful dominance and been given a new nature created in righteousness, having been ‘circumcised with a circumcision made without hands,’ that is, not physical but spiritual.  At salvation, ‘our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin’ (Rom. 6:6).  As a result, ‘if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come’ (2 Cor. 5:17).  Nowhere is it expressed any better than in the words of Paul when he wrote, ‘We are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh’ (Phil. 3:3).  Believers have been freed from sin’s dominance and judgment, though not yet from its presence.”

            We will close with a quote from the Apostle Paul in Romans 7:15-23 which tells us why Christians still sin if their sinful self has died.

“15 For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. 16 But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. 17 So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. 19 For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. 20 But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. 21 I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. 22 For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, 23 but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members.”

3/18/2017 12:02 AM