Please turn in your Bibles this morning to the letter of Paul to the Colossians, where we will take up our reading at the beginning of chapter 2. Colossians chapter 2, in the Pew Bible, depending on the binding that you find, you'll find it on either page 876, 876, or page 1143. Or you can follow the acronym that I learned from Pastor Kamiga, the GE Power Company, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Colossians chapter 2. That's stuck with me since 1997. I still remember that. You guys all learned that as kids probably. I learned that as an adult. I thought it was amazing. Once you find that, I would have you also on the bulletin insert, the outline that I've given you there. I want to make one change. One change. Point number two should read differently. I'll just get you to take care of that now so it's easier to follow when we get there. Change that to applied to the heart. Applied to the heart. Well, it's been a long four months since we've considered this letter together. It's been a long time since we've turned here to consider this encouraging and relevant letter to us who, like the Colossians, are citizens of the kingdom of God, living and making our way in this fallen world. And in this letter, Paul writes to saints who are being tempted by false teachers, those who are zealous for religion, those who are seemingly spiritual, Those who are directing them to pursue something more or something else other than Christ alone to secure their salvation or to persevere in a godly life. And to their poison, Paul provided an antidote. He introduced it in chapter 2, verse 8 with a warning. He said there, Be on guard against hollow and deceptive philosophy that diminishes, distorts, or denies the gospel of Christ. And that warning is as relevant today as it was 2,000 years ago. Be on guard against those messages that come to you in so many more ways than the Colossians could ever have imagined. From your phone, to your TV, to your newspaper, to your radio, to the internet, messages are coming at you all the time. Be on guard against those hollow and deceptive philosophies that will diminish, distort, or deny the gospel of Christ. And then he continued in verses 9 and 10 with two brief but very weighty declarations, the first of which is something that all men need to know. Everyone here needs to know this. If you are a believer or an unbeliever, you need to know this, that in Christ, all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form. The man that history knows as Jesus of Nazareth is God in the flesh. And that's what makes him alone qualified to be the Christ, to be the Messiah, to be the Savior of sinners like you and me. And the second declaration is something that all believers need to remember. If you know Christ as Savior, you need to remember this. You have been given fullness in Christ. Paul is laboring to press that upon you. You have been given fullness in Christ. And in verses 11 through 15, Paul reinforces those declarations in a variety of ways that prompt us to remember what Christ alone has accomplished and what Christ alone can apply and does apply to his people. Impressing upon us that Christ is all. That he's done it all. That he is all we need to be right with God and to pursue a life that's pleasing to him. That's Paul's burden. That you would know that. That you would believe that. And that you would live in that confidence. So this morning we're going to read Colossians chapter 2 beginning in verse 1 just to get us in the flow again through verse 15. Hear now the word of God. I want you to know how much I'm struggling for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not met me personally. My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments. For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit and delight to see how orderly you are and how firm your faith in Christ is. So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in Him, rooted and build up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophies, which depends on human tradition and on the basic principles of this world, rather than on Christ. For in Christ, all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form. And you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority. In him you were also circumcised in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with the 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 his 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. Here ends the reading of God's word. We trust Him by His Spirit to apply it to us this day. Well, this morning we want to focus on verses 11 and 12. 11 and 12, where Paul reminds us of our circumcision and our baptism. Of our burial and resurrection. And these in relationship to the circumcision, burial, and resurrection of Christ. Paul has interwoven these themes like threads in a tapestry. It's very tightly knit together. It portrays a greater reality than any particular thread will teach us in itself. But taken together, it portrays how it is that the saints have been given fullness in Christ. How it is you have fullness in Christ. And what he's teaching us here is that Christ's fullness is ours because we have become participants. in the circumcision of Christ. And the key to teasing out these themes to drawing apart these threads is found in the rather ambiguous phrase the circumcision of Christ. You find that at the end of verse 11. It doesn't look that way in the NIV so if you're confused I'll tell you why. The circumcision of Christ is the final clause in verse 11. It's ambiguous in that it can be sensibly translated in three ways. Three ways can make sense here. And translators have to pick one. Or they leave it ambiguous. The NIV picked one. Most English translations leave it ambiguous. The circumcision of Christ. And we're going to look at this through its ambiguity this morning to look in these three different directions. To consider this as a piece of art, as it will, that Paul puts before us to evoke in us things that we have already learned, that we've already seen and heard. This is not a strict teaching in the sense of an outline ABC. Paul is presenting to us images that are to evoke in us memories and responses that encourage us with what Christ has done and what he's doing in us. So as we do, we'll see that we have become participants in the circumcision of Christ accomplished on the cross because it has been applied to the hearts of God's people. And finally, we'll consider that both Christ's accomplishment on the cross and its application in our hearts has been announced in sacrament. Now I'm going to reread our text this morning and I'm going to do so by reading verse 11 from the English Standard Version. And the only reason I do this is that you get this ambiguity that comes through here because it more strictly preserves the word order and the relative ambiguity of the language. The NIV makes a particular choice, which is a good choice, and we're going to discuss it at length in point two, but I don't believe it's the only point we can draw from this text. So returning to our text now, in its context, beginning at verse nine, Again, I'm substituting the English Standard Version of verse 11 here, so you NIV followers understand that's what I'm doing. For in Christ all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority. In him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of 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. And so we begin this morning by understanding this phrase, the circumcision of God, to mean the circumcision undergone, I'm sorry, the circumcision of Christ as that circumcision undergone by Christ, the circumcision that Christ experienced. So verse 9 would read, In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands by the putting off of the flesh by the circumcision undergone by Christ. And when we look at this thread, this theme draws us outside of ourselves and it takes our attention to Christ. And what he experienced in his flesh, it takes us to the circumcision of Christ accomplished on the cross. Now, boys and girls, you know that when Jesus was a little boy, when he was eight days old, he was taken to the temple and he was circumcised. In obedience to the law of Moses, he received the sign of the covenant that was given to Abraham in Genesis chapter 17 that was to be applied to God's people and their children forever. And in obedience to that law, Christ took that circumcision to himself. And that circumcision, done by the hands of men, pointed to another circumcision that would be made without hands, that would be performed by God himself. And that circumcision was partial. But it anticipated a Savior who would come and undergo a full circumcision. At that circumcision, the God-man, Jesus, was given his name, Jesus, because he would save his people from their sins. That's what was foretold of him to Mary and Joseph. He would save his people from their sins. And we know the rest of the story that it would be by going to the cross where he would be forsaken by God the Father and there it is where he would go under a full circumcision, a full cutting off. According to our text, the circumcision involved the putting off, The stripping off of the entirety of the body of flesh. Not just a piece. Now when we hear that we have to wonder what is the suggestion about what happened on the cross. Was Jesus' human nature somehow torn from his divine nature? Some have followed that error but know that is an error. All the witness to his bodily resurrection and his bodily ascension and the promise of his bodily return speak against a separation of his human nature from his divine nature. Well, was there any guilt or corruption in him that needed to be stripped away? Absolutely not. I could take you several places, but I'll just repeat one verse from 1 Peter 2, verse 23, where Peter testifies he committed no sin. There was nothing in Him that needed to be stripped away. So what then was this body of flesh that was stripped off in the circumcision of Christ on the cross? Peter helps us further in the same chapter, the next verse, he says, He Himself, that's Christ Himself, bore our sins in His body on the tree. It's to this point in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 that Paul writes, God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us. The body of flesh that was stripped off in the circumcision of Christ on the cross is the sin of others. Not only the original guilt and the corruption that is there in Adam, but also the sum and substance of every actual sin. That's what was stripped off in the circumcision of Christ. And Isaiah 53 prophesied this in great detail, most pointedly in verse 7 where we read, He was cut off. He was circumcised, literally. He was cut off from the land of the living for the transgressions of my people he was stricken. By the circumcision of Christ accomplished on the cross God the Father cut off His Son from the land of the living and it was in His death that Christ carried with Him the body of flesh that belongs to His people and there it was put off and He was buried and on the third day as Paul reminds us in verse 12 God raised him from the dead but he did not raise that body of flesh that body of flesh with Christ carried to the grave for his people remains in the grave this is why Paul says in Romans chapter 4 verse 25 he was delivered over to death for our sins and He was raised to life for our justification. The great work of Christ on the cross is depicted in the circumcision of His youth, the circumcision of every Jewish boy. This raises the question, how is it that the others, how is it that we obtain this benefit that Christ has obtained on the cross. It takes place entirely outside of us, apart from us, not only in time but in space. How is it that we get the benefit of that stripping off of flesh? We're led to that answer when we consider the circumcision of Christ to mean the circumcision performed by Christ. And this is the interpretation that the NIV follows. The NIV makes it very clear. We'll just read that again. This is speaking from the perspective that Christ has done something to us that constitutes the circumcision of Christ. Verse 11. 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 a circumcision done by Christ. In him, you were circumcised. That sounds odd to us Christians today, doesn't it? In him, you were circumcised. But that's what Paul is telling us. But what is Paul referring? Well, he's clearly not referring to the circumcision made with hands that every Jewish boy received. He was writing to a congregation that was mostly Gentile. There were very few, if any, Jews there, and they had never been circumcised. What he is referring to is to another circumcision made without hands. Another circumcision wrought by the hand of God, this one inward and invisible and spiritual. This circumcision is not restricted to Jews by birth. It's the work of God in everyone He has chosen to give new birth by the power of His Spirit. This is why in Romans chapter 2, verses 28 and 29, Paul says that a man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly, and circumcision is circumcision of the heart. by the Spirit. It's the Holy Spirit of God working through the Word of God that alone is able to create this work in you. He alone can accomplish it. We're not able in ourselves. We're not even willing in ourselves. By nature, we have hard hearts, hearts of stone that hate God and hate our neighbor. There is no mending them. On our own. But for the sake of Christ, who underwent the ultimate circumcision on the cross, God the Holy Spirit circumcises the hearts of His people and gives us a gift. He gives us faith. Faith by which we look outside of ourselves and our troubled and tormented hearts to the crucified Savior. Who bore our flesh on the tree. You see, it's faith alone that joins us to Christ and to his circumcision on the cross. It's faith alone. Now, children, from the youngest grades, we have you work to memorize Heidelberg Catechism, question and answer 21. And this is why. You need to understand what faith is and what it does. Where it comes from, how it works. Because apart from faith, the work of Christ on the cross is of no benefit to you. It must be given to you by the power of the Holy Spirit through the gospel so that faith is made in you to grasp hold, to lay hold of what Christ has done for you because it's in him that the guilty and corrupt nature with which you were born our body of flesh is stripped off in Romans chapter 6 Paul assures us that our old self was crucified with Christ so that the body of sin our body of flesh our sinful nature as Paul refers to it here in the next few verses might be done away with that we should no longer be slaves to sin. That's what Christ has accomplished for his people. And that accomplishment is applied to us through faith, which is the work of the Holy Spirit through the Word, through the circumcision of Christ, applied to our hearts. The circumcision of Christ accomplished on the cross is applied to our hearts of each and every child of God at the time appointed and in the place determined by His good pleasure. We don't know when He'll do this in our lives. For some, we don't remember when. For others, we remember exactly when this circumcision was wrought. It makes no difference because the way it was wrought is the same. And we believe and confess this way, this how in Belgian Confession, Article 22, where we read, the Holy Spirit kindles in our hearts an upright faith. He starts it. He ignites it. Which embraces Christ. Which reaches out to Christ. Which takes hold of Christ. Which draws Christ close. And all his merits, all that he's accomplished, that's all embraced by faith. And it's appropriated. It's brought close. It's made our own. It is who we are through faith. And it seeks nothing more beside Him. That's Paul's point. That's what Paul wants you to hear. That's what God wants you to know. By calling to mind what Christ has accomplished on the cross and what He has applied to your hearts through faith, He fortifies the truth. he reinforces the truth that we have already been given fullness in Christ. There is no need to seek after something more, no need to seek after something else for salvation, for godly living. Christ is all, and he's all we need. Try telling that to the Christian bookstore that has shelves and shelves and shelves and shelves of things that don't lead you to Christ. and the internet and the TV and the magazines. Christ is what you need. He's who you need. He's all you need. And because the circumcision of Christ that was accomplished on the cross is applied to the hearts of every saint, every saint can say with Paul, I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live. But Christ lives in me. Now we approach our third and our final point by considering the circumcision of Christ as meaning the circumcision belonging to Christ. Which can be translated as Christ's circumcision, as the circumcision which Christ gave, as Christian circumcision, in contrast to Jewish circumcision, which is an indirect way to speak of our baptism. So if we read verse 11 again with that in mind, in him you were also circumcised in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with the circumcision done by the hands of men, but with the circumcision belonging to 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 we understand this phrase as the circumcision belonging to Christ, we see how it leads us right into baptism and the line gets really blurry. And I think this is intentional for Paul. I think he's wanting us to see not only the discontinuity between circumcision and baptism, but the continuity between circumcision and baptism. Because this theme leads us to see that the circumcision of Christ on the cross and the circumcision of Christ applied to our hearts are both in view in the circumcision of Christ announced in sacrament. This is a unique way that Paul speaks of circumcision and baptism here in a way that's actually complementary. He sets them in parallel, these two sacraments of inclusion from the Old Covenant and the New Covenant, these sacraments that mark the entrance of people into the covenant community of God. Jewish circumcision, Christian baptism. And he makes it clear that each has relation to Christ. And he alludes to both sacraments as a source of encouragement to Christians. A source of encouragement with regard to the fullness that we have in Christ. In him, he says, you were circumcised. And with him, in baptism, you were buried and you were raised. Both are covenant sacraments. The old and the new, given by God to his people and to their children to nourish and strengthen faith. Both sacraments announce the circumcision of Christ. Both sacraments serve as signs. As sacraments do, they point us to something greater than themselves. And they both point us to the same place, the circumcision of Christ on the cross. And they both serve as seals. They both serve to guarantee, to certify, to promise to us the application of his work to the hearts of his people through faith. Sacraments are signs and seals. They point us somewhere and they tell us something. Circumcision and baptism both point us to Christ. Both tell us that His work is for us through faith in Him. Circumcision was instituted by God. It was given to His people who were looking forward to a yet-to-be-revealed Messiah. Who would accomplish a yet-to-be-determined redemption. now as they look forward the details were vague we have lots of prophecies that gave us images and glimpses but the image was vague but the anticipation was bloody it was filled with sacrifice it was filled with the shedding of blood not only with the blood of bulls and goats that was shed for the atonement of sin but the shedding of the blood of Jewish boys to depict this greater circumcision that was yet to come. Christian baptism was instituted by God in the flesh. Instituted by Jesus Christ for his people who would look back on his coming and look back on the redemption already accomplished. And through his apostles we not only have the details, we have the meaning. We've been told what to think of these things. We've been told how to understand these things. And one of the most important details, according to Hebrews chapter 10, is that when Christ had offered for all time one sacrifice for sin, he sat down. His work was finished. No more sacrifice is needed. Nothing more can be done. And this is why we believe and confess in Belgic Confession Article 34, or 24. That Jesus Christ made an end by the shedding of his blood to all other sheddings of blood which men could or would make as propitiation or satisfaction for sin. And we go on to say including baptism. Let's shrink that up for you. Jesus Christ has made an end by the shedding of his blood. He's made an end of all other sheddings of blood including circumcision. So when Jesus instituted the new covenant sacrament of baptism, He did it with water. His blood has been shed once for all and its power to wash away sin is signified to us, it's shown to us, it's pictured for us in the washing away of dirt by water. There is no more shedding of blood in the economy of Christ and His church. And Paul's movement here in verses 11-12 from circumcision to baptism is a gentle suggestion of what he makes very clear in other places. He doesn't make a big point of it here because I don't believe there was a big problem with this in Colossae. So he uses this in a different way. But we need to know that circumcision was incomplete. It provided a clearer picture of judgment and death. It provided a clear picture of what the Messiah must undergo but it offered no glimpse of the burial and the resurrection that would follow. Christ has fulfilled everything that circumcision anticipated and more. And he has instituted a new sacrament in the New Covenant in his blood, baptism, that not only speaks to what he's accomplished on the cross but also to his work for us in the grave and beyond in redemption. Baptism is a sign of our having been buried with Him as well as our being raised with Him as Paul shows in verse 12. That's something circumcision does not show. And circumcision has become obsolete. As we said in Belgic 24, it put an end. Christ's circumcision on the cross, His bloodletting put an end to that. To return to it would be to deny the fullness of Christ and the fullness that we enjoy in Christ. circumcision was incomplete circumcision was obsolete but we must never conclude that it was an empty sign that it was without value that it has no instruction for us it was not an empty sign as we have seen and Paul was pleased to use it for the church along with the sign of baptism to remind us of what Christ has accomplished and what he is giving us through that accomplishment. So therefore, this morning, I want to leave you with this charge from Martin Luther. Remember your baptism and be thankful. When you struggle with doubts and lack of assurance with the uncertainty that the work of Christ is for you and when you struggle with sin that seems to hang on and your progress in holiness seems so slow or maybe even backwards and you are tempted to despair. When you are in those states and you start to be open to the idea that maybe there is something more maybe there is something other I need to do or pursue that I can get right with God and I can get my life together. Remember your baptism. And every time you see one up here, remember your baptism. Not because of what it does in and of itself. It's water on a baby. It's water on an adult. But because of what it does, it points to something. It points to the circumcision of Christ on the cross. And it promises something. It promises the circumcision of Christ in your heart as you look to Him in faith. It helps you to remember that in Christ all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form. And that in the circumcision of Christ You have been given fullness in Christ. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we are awed by the tapestry here that Paul has presented to us. That evokes in us reflections on the work of Christ for us on the cross, in us by His Holy Spirit and to us in the institution of the sacraments, in particular the sacraments of inclusion, circumcision in the old and baptism in the new. Lord, we're awed. And we pray that by Your Spirit this day we would be renewed in our encouragement. That we would have a better grasp of that which is ours in Christ, that which He has accomplished for us, that which is the basis for our living in this world as we wait for the final consummation and His return. Thank you, Father, that there is no need to look for others. There is no need to look for more. Christ is all, and He is our all in all. And Lord, we pray that more and more we would find ourselves drawn to and upheld by and strengthened by this reality. And that our lives would reflect it as we hold to it more and more and are convinced by it deeper and deeper. We ask these things in Christ's name. Amen.