In this sermon, Pastor Joe Babij examines Colossians 2:11-13 and the three pictures of believers’ completeness of salvation in Christ so that believers need no addition or substitute.
1. We are in union with Christ in his death (v. 11)
2. We are in union with Christ in his burial (v. 12a)
3. We are in union with Christ in his resurrection (v. 12b-13)
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Summary
We are reminded that complete salvation in Christ requires nothing to be added and nothing can be taken away. Through Colossians 2, we see that all world religions offer a works-based path to God, but biblical Christianity stands alone in offering salvation by grace — not because of what we have done, but in spite of it. We are called to understand that God performs a spiritual surgery on the heart, uniting believers with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection.
Key Lessons:
- Every man-made religion relies on works, but biblical Christianity teaches salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone — we get to heaven not because of what we have done, but in spite of it.
- Spiritual circumcision of the heart is not a ritual but a divine operation — God himself cuts away the old sinful nature and gives believers a new heart with a genuine desire to love, serve, and follow Christ.
- Union with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection is the foundation of complete salvation — believers are buried with Christ to the old self and raised to walk in newness of life.
- The evidence of true salvation is transformation: a new affection for God, sensitivity to sin, desire for the Word, and an unwillingness to return to former patterns of sin.
Application: We are called to examine our hearts honestly — not measuring salvation by religious activity or mere profession, but by whether God has done a genuine work of transformation. If that desire for Christ is present and growing, we are to walk in confidence of our complete salvation and say no to sin by the power God has already placed within us.
Discussion Questions:
- In what ways might religious activity or good works subtly become a source of confidence before God rather than faith in Christ alone?
- What does it look like practically to ‘consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus’ in your daily life?
- How has God’s spiritual surgery on your heart changed your desires, and where do you still sense the ongoing struggle with the old nature?
Scripture Focus: Colossians 2:11-15 is the central passage, teaching that believers are spiritually circumcised, buried, and raised with Christ. Romans 4 confirms Abraham was justified by faith before circumcision. Deuteronomy 10 and 30 show that heart circumcision is God’s work, not man’s. Philippians 3 illustrates that all religious credentials are worthless apart from Christ.
Outline
- Introduction
- Works-Based Religion vs. Grace
- Complete Salvation in Christ
- The First Picture: Union with Christ in His Death
- Circumcision of the Heart in the Old Testament
- The Gentile Question and Spiritual Circumcision
- God’s Surgical Work on the Heart
- Paul’s Religious Credentials Are Worthless
- Dead to Sin, Alive to God
- The Second Picture: Union with Christ in His Burial
- The Third Picture: Union with Christ in His Resurrection
- The Marks of True Salvation
- Complete Salvation: Nothing to Add
Introduction
Let’s take our Bibles this morning and turn to Colossians 2.
As you’re turning there, let’s bow together in prayer. Thank you, Lord, for showing us that you’re a holy God, and you say in the word of God that you want us to be a holy people. Lord, the word of God enables us and works on us so we can be a holy people.
I just pray, Lord, that the desire in our heart would be that we want to be holy, and as we do, Lord, I pray that we would receive the engrafted word that has been given to us. May it be welded upon our heart and mind so it would be exactly what we do every day.
And in doing that, Lord, we would learn how to please you in all things. So Lord, teach us this morning about your complete salvation, and I pray this in Christ’s name, amen.
Works-Based Religion vs. Grace
I’ve been saying that all modern religious counterparts contrasted with true biblical Christianity are hollow and they’re deceptive, yet they appeal to many kinds of people. But when religions are examined more closely, the common result of an investigation will be they hold a very low view of Christ.
Any deluded promotion of a person of Christ that demeans him means that man has made it into some works-based religious system. Now, if you say you are a good and moral and religious person and God should accept me based on what I can offer him by way of good works, well, be aware of this: the gospel of God’s grace has always denounced reliance upon works.
If you’re trying to justify yourself by good works, you are walking straight into condemnation. Every religion invented by men, according to D. James Kennedy, followed a set of rules, and if you do it well enough, then you may be accepted into Nirvana or Paradise or heaven or wherever it is you’re trying to go.
Don’t do this, don’t do that, you will perhaps earn your way to heaven. If you notice, though, in Colossians 2, he is writing this section of scripture so we do not go there.
If you notice in verse 16, he says, “Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day. These things are a mere shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.”
And then notice down in verse 20, “If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as do not handle, do not taste, do not touch, which all refer to things destined to perish with their use, in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men?”
In other words, these false teachers were imposing upon the people a works-based system: do these things and you will be all right. All religions of the world are the same, and yes, they are the same. No matter what form they take, it is always what a person can do to earn their salvation. That’s the religion of works.
But biblical Christianity is not the same as others. No, it stands in a category all by itself. Christianity teaches the very opposite of all other religions. It is a message of grace, and grace is a wonderful thing.
There is nothing like it in the world. There is nothing like it in the universe. Every other religion teaches that we will get to heaven because of what we have done. Christianity, on the contrary, teaches that we will get to heaven in spite of what we have done.
“Every other religion teaches we get to heaven because of what we have done. Christianity teaches we get to heaven in spite of what we have done.”
We hear all the time in the media that human beings deserve everything, every good thing. But what we really deserve is just condemnation, the just condemnation of God, because we’re all guilty of sin in the presence of a holy God.
The amazing thing is what Christ offers us is not what we deserve, but the very opposite of what we deserve. He offers us free, sovereign, unconditional grace, the free gift of eternal life, paid for by his own son, paid for at an infinite cost, to all those who will simply turn from their sin and trust in Christ as their Lord and Savior.
Complete Salvation in Christ
It is a very strange thing indeed that God would do it that way, but I’m sure glad he did it that way. Complete salvation: nothing needs to be added to it, nothing can be taken away from it.
Once a Christian understands the wealth and the riches that they have in Jesus Christ, they will be stubbornly unwilling to exchange Christ for any other thing, any other would-be man-made substitute religious system. There’s nothing anyone else can do for a man than Christ has already done.
“He offers us free, sovereign, unconditional grace — the free gift of eternal life, paid for at an infinite cost.”
Anyone who truly comes to faith in Christ is made complete in Christ. The phrase that we have seen already in scripture, “in him,” is significant, not only because it expresses Christ’s supremacy, but it also teaches us about our complete salvation.
In him, in our Lord, all things were created. In our Lord, in him all things hold together. In our Lord, in him all divine fullness dwells, all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form in Christ.
The phrase “in him” also points to our union with Christ. Because of who Jesus Christ is and what he has done on behalf of his children, we benefit greatly in him. The Bible says we have been made complete in Colossians 2:10.
In him we were circumcised (Colossians 2:11). You were buried and raised with him (verse 12). You were made alive together with him (verse 13). And in verse 15 of chapter 2, all demonic powers have been defeated in him.
Therefore, no one, once you are a believer, has any claim or authority over you. Every Christian is filled full. God sees the believer only in Christ and never outside of him.
We are seen as being in union with Christ, and in Christ, Christians find their spiritual needs fully met. These passages this morning really capture the picture for us of complete salvation, amen.
“Every Christian is filled full. God sees the believer only in Christ and never outside of him.”
The First Picture: Union with Christ in His Death
And what is the first picture that is given to us, that it really has to be explained this morning? In Colossians 2:11, notice what it says: “In him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ.” That’s the first one.
In other words, the first picture is that we are in union with Christ in his death. Circumcision, giving some background, was a sign given to Abraham and to his descendants. When God called Abraham and promised to make him a great nation, he gave him a sign to separate his descendants from all the other heathen people of the world.
This sign was a physical operation of circumcision, administered to every male child eight days after birth, as an institution or as an initiation ceremony, showing that they belong to the chosen race of Israel. It had nothing to do with spiritual salvation, for all the Jews certainly were not godly persons.
Just think for a moment. Ask yourself: when did Abraham receive the sign of circumcision? Was it before Abraham was saved by faith, or was it after? Was it in circumcision, or was it while he was in uncircumcision?
Now we have to go to the Bible to answer, and I’d like you to take your Bibles quickly and turn to Romans 4, because the Bible actually answers that question, and it becomes an important question for us as believers.
It says in Romans 4, notice in verse 9: “Is this blessing then on the circumcised, or on the uncircumcised also? For we say faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness.” That’s a salvation verse.
Verse 10: “How then was it credited?” In other words, when did Abraham actually become a believer? And then notice the next verse, number 10: “While he was circumcised or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised.”
Verse 11: “And he 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, or put on the account of them who actually believe later on, like us.”
Abraham actually believed by faith in God’s plan of salvation before he was given the sign of circumcision. Now, why is that important?
Romans 4:11: “He received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while uncircumcised.”
Circumcision of the Heart in the Old Testament
It is important because there is another circumcision more important than the physical sign of circumcision. It is referring to something that was always held in high regard in the Old Testament. What do I mean by that? I mean the circumcision of the heart—a spiritual circumcision that takes place in the heart.
Now, we’re going to use our Bibles this morning. I want you to look at Deuteronomy. There are two passages of scripture there that talk about this in the spiritual realm of things.
It says in Deuteronomy 10:12: “Now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways and love him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.”
Verse 13: “And to keep the Lord’s commandments and his statutes which I am commanding you today for your good. Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the highest heavens, the earth and all that is in it.”
Verse 15: “Yet on your fathers did the Lord set his affection to love them, and he chose their descendants after them, even you, before all peoples, as it is this day.”
And then in verse 16: “So circumcise your heart and stiffen your neck no longer.” But the question is, can a person who has a stiff neck—and that means to be disobedient to the Lord—actually circumcise their heart?
The answer to that question is no. But I want you to look at Deuteronomy 30:6, because it kind of answers that people couldn’t do it themselves.
Deuteronomy 30:6 says this: “Moreover, the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants.” And what will he circumcise their heart to do? “To love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.” That’s what he will do, and that’s something you cannot do on your own.
Deuteronomy 30:6: “The Lord your God will circumcise your heart… to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.”
See, the problem with the people back then, as well as people ever since and today, is that we have a bad, sinful, rebellious heart that produces evil in our thoughts, in our words, and in our deeds. So we cannot have this kind of heart.
Even Jeremiah says to the people, “Circumcise yourself to the Lord and remove the foreskin of your heart, men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, or else my wrath will go forth like fire and burn with none to quench it, because of the evil of your deeds.”
The Gentile Question and Spiritual Circumcision
See, that’s our problem. The problem we have is that we have an evil heart, we have an uncircumcised heart, same thing. So even though Christians have not been given the sign of circumcision, many of the Christian Jews, if you’re reading through the book of Acts, you’ll find still thought that Gentile converts had to become Jews if they were to be counted as Christians.
This is what it says in some of the passages in Acts 15:1: “Some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brethren, unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” So they were again putting the emphasis on the physical sign of circumcision.
And then in verse 5 of that same chapter, it says, “But some of the sect of the Pharisees who had believed stood up, saying, it is necessary to circumcise them and to direct them to observe the law of Moses.”
And then it goes on to say Paul and Peter were discussing these things. Peter specifically, and he says, wait a minute, the Gentiles heard the gospel and they believed, and God, who knows their heart, testified to them, giving them the Holy Spirit just like he gave us, and he made no distinction between us and them.
And then he says this: “Cleansing their heart by faith.” Now, what is that? That is spiritual heart circumcision. That’s what the Lord did.
And what happens? This is what he concluded: “Therefore, in my judgment,” Peter says, “do not trouble those who are turning to God from the Gentiles, but write to them and say, listen, just do these things: abstain from being contaminated by idols, abstain from fornication, abstain from what is strangled and from blood.”
That’s it. You’re free to do anything else you need to do, because now you have been made complete in Christ. And it’s not about the physical part of it, it is about the spiritual circumcision of the heart.
“Cleansing their heart by faith — that is spiritual heart circumcision. You are made complete in Christ.”
God’s Surgical Work on the Heart
We come back to Colossians, and here in Colossians, the rite of circumcision is used as an illustration of a spiritual truth. Notice how this contrasts with the physical operation which was given to Abraham and performed with human hands, preceded by “hands,” one “made without hands,” where it says this in our passage.
Now, to be clear, our passage has nothing to do with physical circumcision but spiritual circumcision. Circumcision does not mean having a certain operation carried out on a man’s flesh, but having a change affected in one’s life. Something has changed.
Circumcision is a picture of God’s spiritual surgery.
Now, look back at Colossians 2:11, and notice what it says again: “And in him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ.”
That means salvation is the operation of God upon the heart. The passive voice points to God as the active agent. That spiritual circumcision is a circumcision made without hands. It is accomplished by Christ’s physical death on the cross.
When Christ died on the cross, the cross became a scalpel to cut away the sinful old man. Notice in verse 11, it says “the removal of the body of the flesh.” This does not refer to the physical flesh but to the sinful nature.
By Christ’s death, by the circumcision of Christ—that is his death—Christ’s death completely strips away the old unregenerate life. That is, one who comes to faith in Christ, who believes in Christ, that work has been done on their heart by God himself.
A complete putting off of the fleshly nature, a crucifixion of the old Adamic nature, has been done by God upon our hearts. In other words, we have been given a new nature, a nature that actually can love God, serve God, desire to follow God.
“We have been given a new nature — a nature that actually can love God, serve God, desire to follow God.”
For instance, why does a dog do what he does? A dog behaves like a dog because he has a dog’s nature. Now, if someone could transplant into a dog the nature of a cat, well, then he would be radically changed, maybe greatly disappointed too in that change. For all you cat lovers, forgive me for that.
Why does the sinner behave like a sinner? Because he has the nature of Adam, the nature of a sinner, the sinful nature the Bible calls the flesh. Notice in our passage, it says there’s going to be a removal of that.
It says, “In the removal of the body of flesh by the circumcision of Christ.” That removal—actually the word means stripping off. It was used of people stripping off their clothes. Figuratively, it is also used of believers being set free from their sinful nature through union with Christ.
Believers are circumcised by Christ’s own circumcision, and that is his death. Christ’s circumcision involves the sacrifice of his whole body, with his complete sacrifice. What has been demanded in the Old Testament has now been accomplished in Christ and in Christ alone.
Remember, it has nothing to do with physical things. This heart circumcision is a reality, not a rite. It’s the removal of sin, not the removal of the flesh.
That means the operation of God is a transformation of the whole person. Why is that? Because God’s surgical scalpel has been applied to our heart. When that happens, when there’s the removal of this sin nature—in the sense that we are now obeying God and not obeying that—we still have that struggle, though, until we have complete salvation in the presence of God.
But I do want you to notice that it brings us into a new sphere. The operation of God is a transformation of the whole person. Because of God’s surgical work on the cross, believers become part of what Philippians said.
Philippians says it this way, in Philippians 3:3: “You can become part of the true circumcision.” What happens when somebody is truly saved? This is what it says in Philippians 3:3: “Those who worship in the spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.”
Philippians 3:3: “Those who worship in the spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.”
Paul’s Religious Credentials Are Worthless
Now, the false teachers here in Colossians still were putting confidence in the flesh, which I just read when I first started. But I do want you to notice something, and why don’t we just turn to Philippians and pick this up.
Because Paul, if anybody could have said, “Listen, I’m a believer, I’m right with God because I’m a child of Abraham,” it’s got to be Paul, right? Paul had everything going for him. If anybody could be saved, the Apostle Paul could have, and that’s what he says in Philippians 3:3 onwards.
In Philippians 3:1-3, it says, “Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things again is no trouble to me, and it is a safeguard for you. Beware of the dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of false circumcision, for we are the new circumcision, who worship in the spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.”
But notice in the next verse, in verse 4: “Although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more.” And what does he say?
Here’s his confidence: “Circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law, a Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness which is in the law, found blameless.”
Amen, you’re a believer. Well, what Paul didn’t have was a circumcised heart. He was still religious, and he was at the top of being religious. He had all the qualifications. Go to the head of the class, Paul, you got it all, you don’t need anything.
But then look what he says in verse 7: “But whatever things were gained to me, those things I count as loss for the sake of Christ.” What is it? It was just a bunch of dung. It had no salvific value at all.
I heard from this one person one day, and they said, “Well, I go to church every day. I mean, you walk to church, you go to church every day? I go to church every day and I light a candle and I do all these things.” And I said, “Wow, that’s devotion, that’s dedication.”
But the problem is the person who does that thinks that is going to please God and earn them salvation somehow. It will not. You can go to church 20 times a day, every day, for the rest of your life and not be saved.
See, that’s religion, and that’s what religion does. It keeps us away from the truth, away from the word of God, and that’s a damning thing. And that’s what Paul says: I was damned in my religiosity, in my confidence in the flesh, what I could do to earn God, what I could do to please God.
Dead to Sin, Alive to God
It’s only God who can cast away your evil nature. Only God can cut that out of your heart. That’s why we read this morning, when it is cut out of our heart, what are we to do?
Then it says, “Even so, consider yourself as dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” Think on that for a moment.
The content of Romans 6, which we read in our scripture reading this morning, has to do with the tyrannical reign of the principle of sin, not its symptom. In Romans 6:12 it says, “Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lust.”
How can we do that unless God works on our heart and gives us the desire and the authority and power to do that? See, self has to be crucified, and the only place self can be crucified is at Calvary’s cross.
So that it may be rendered powerless to enslave us again. We Christians should not have to serve sin anymore or to live under the tyranny of the indwelling principle of sin any longer.
“Self has to be crucified, and the only place self can be crucified is at Calvary’s cross.”
When we are in Christ, we can actually say no to sin and have the authority and the ability to put off sin, because God has given us that. I wish we would use it more.
And the reason for that is because we have been crucified with Christ on the cross. We have a complete salvation.
The Second Picture: Union with Christ in His Burial
A second thing in Colossians 2 is this: a second principle or picture of a complete salvation is found in verse 12, the first part of it. We are in union with Christ in his burial.
It says in verse 12, “Having been buried with him in baptism.” This does not refer to water baptism here. It is a picture of being buried together with someone, and that someone is Christ.
Baptism is a picture of the reality of death. We ordinarily bury the dead in order to be rid of them because of the decaying process. But it is different for the believer, because they are in union with Christ.
Spiritual baptism is not only through faith in Christ, but it is because we are in union with Christ. And you are not Christians unless you are connected or joined to Christ.
While you live in your trespasses and sins along with the rest of humanity, you are disconnected from Christ. But now we have a circumcised heart, a heart that has believed, a heart of faith. We are in union with Christ.
“You are not a Christian unless you are connected or joined to Christ.”
What Baptism Proclaims
And we think about baptism: it really carries the meaning of identification, the concept of being made one with Jesus. That baptism really symbolizes union with Christ in his death and his burial, also his resurrection.
When somebody gets baptized, even in water, what is the picture there? The picture is that the Christian is making a public announcement of a bona fide inward change that took place. It’s this symbolic proclamation of what happened to the person at salvation.
It’s the evidence of a circumcised heart that now wants to love and worship God and follow Jesus. That’s why somebody who just makes a profession of faith but has no interest in the word of God, has no interest in following Christ, they’re just adding Jesus on to the list of everything else they have to make, to hedge the bets and make it safe for them. “Oh yeah, I believed in Jesus, I believe in Jesus.” No, that’s not it.
Because somebody who truly believes in Jesus, God does a surgical work on your heart and gives you a desire to live for him and serve him. Without that desire, there is no salvation.
It’s like Jonathan Edwards, in his book “Religious Affections.” He writes this book because he’s saying, listen, the only proof that there is that anyone is saved is that they have an affection for God they’ve never had before, they couldn’t have before. They have a new one now.
Romans 6 is not specifically talking about water baptism again, but speaking of the spiritual symbolism behind the physical act of water baptism, and the identity that we have now in Christ.
In his death, believers are identified with Christ’s atonement for sin and placed in the atoning work. And in his burial, they are dying to self. They are making this proclamation that the new believer is freed up to live and to serve the Lord.
Everything is cut away from the person’s life, anything that could keep them from being God’s obedient child is removed. And the believer is now dead to Satan’s family and they’re now alive to God’s family. That’s what they are. They’re alive to God’s family.
“The believer is now dead to Satan’s family and alive to God’s family.”
Do you see yourself like that? Do you see yourself with that desire in your heart, that Christ is first beyond anything else, and that you actually order your life putting Christ first? Because if it’s not there, then there is no life, there’s no spiritual life, there is no spiritual operation on the heart that’s been done by God if that’s not there.
The Third Picture: Union with Christ in His Resurrection
This leads me to a third picture this morning. I want you to notice here that we are in union with Christ in his resurrection.
Notice again back in Colossians 2:12. It says in the middle of the passage, “In which you were also raised up with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.”
We were raised together with Christ. We died with Christ on the cross, our flesh was crucified there on the cross with Christ, we were buried with Christ, we were raised up to walk in newness of life because of Christ.
In other words, we were raised up together with someone else, and that someone else is Christ. This co-resurrection with Christ is in view as an accomplished fact.
Colossians 3:1 even says there that this fact looks finished and done. It says in verse 1, “Therefore, if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking those things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.” You have been raised up, you have been made alive.
Colossians 3:1: “If you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking those things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.”
Yet Romans 6:5 views it as a future event. It says there, “If we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection.”
Paul speaks of it in the present: I’m saved. But he also speaks of it in the future: I’m being saved, I will be saved. There will be a salvation accomplished.
In the present, it’s a real, actual salvation with the down payment of the Holy Spirit. In the future, what is it? It’s being raised. Yet the fullness of receiving our new bodies awaits the return of Christ.
The spiritual reality is that we are in union with Christ in his death, his burial, and now have life because of his resurrection.
Our Condition Without Christ
But then notice in verse 13, because it says here’s the spiritual reality we all had without Christ. Notice what it says: “When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh.” Spiritually dead to God, with no ability in the sinful nature.
That means we’re guilty in our individual acts of sin. That’s our transgressions, that’s another word for sins, sinfulness in a pre-conversion state. That’s the way God found us. That’s the way God found every single one of us.
When the gospel came, what were you doing? When the gospel came, what were you doing? Smoking some, duty dancing, fulfilling the lust of your flesh, doing what you wanted to do, and you were doing it all with no real thought of God.
You and I were guilty of that. We all had pre-conversion acts of sins. But it also says here that it’s not only your transgressions but the uncircumcision of your flesh, meaning that we were all alienated, outside of God’s covenant.
It was not the physical flesh that was the problem. The problem was our sin, which arose out of an old, unredeemed, uncircumcised nature.
How was the old man? You really don’t have to explain sin to people, they get it, because they know. However, whatever facade they give you, they know in their heart, they understand sin, they know what it is.
The man of flesh, or the person of flesh, is the unsaved self, the unregenerate self. This is the old, wretched, depraved, sinful self, and this is the capacity of all people who have to serve self, with no desire to serve and to please the true and living God.
Without God, without his Spirit, without his word in one’s life, one’s life is always driven by all kinds of sinful cravings and passions, leading to all kinds of self-centered and sinful pursuits that do not please God, even though a person may think they please God.
“Without God, without his Spirit, without his word, life is always driven by sinful cravings that do not please God.”
That’s how we all were without Christ. That may be you today. Maybe I pray it’s not you today, because if you’re in that condition today, you’re outside of Christ. You don’t have a heart to serve Christ, Christ is not first in your life, you don’t organize your schedule and your life and your week with God as part of that agenda.
Made Alive Together with Christ
But then notice in verse 13, here’s the spiritual transformation of those in union with Christ. In verse 13, it says, “He made you alive together with him, having forgiven all our transgressions.”
Believers were made alive. That’s the same thing it says in Ephesians: “Even when we were dead in our transgressions, he made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved.”
The very fact that you and I are believers at all is solely because of a demonstration of God’s might, of his power. Many things had to be overcome and conquered by the strength of God in order for you and me to become a believer.
Our flesh had to be overcome, the world system in our thinking had to be overcome, the power of Satan had to be overcome for you and I to be saved. How could you do that on your own? How could anybody do that on their own?
No religious system could do that. They cannot replace what God is the only one who could do.
Believers have power working in them. If it were not for the power of God working in believers, we would not have a desire to read the word of God, we would not have a desire to pray, we would not have the strength to put off sin and put on righteousness, we would not be strong in the Lord to battle against the ongoing struggle that we will have as a Christian.
As Philippians tells us, “For it is God who is at work in you to will and to work his good pleasure.” That’s what the Lord does once we are truly believers.
Philippians 2:13: “It is God who is at work in you to will and to work his good pleasure.”
When you come to Jesus Christ, there is a transformation that starts and continues to take place until the day we drop off these filthy coats of remaining humanness. Until that day, we need Christ.
The unsaved person has only one capacity. The unsaved person has only one course of action: to serve sin and self while leaving God out of his life. That’s all we had, nothing else.
You throw religion in there, it’s still self-serving, it’s still me trying to do something. That is what is so in the face of real biblical Christianity.
On the other hand, believers have an option. A believer may serve God as long as that believer is in the human body. But we will struggle with the flesh, we will struggle with the desires, the remaining desires that we had in our life.
But we will not want to leave God out, we will not want to go back to our former lusts and passions, we will not want to go back to the slavery we were once in, we will not want to go that way. That is what is so powerful about the gospel.
The Marks of True Salvation
I find it troubling when people will say, “Yeah, I’m born again,” but when you ask them what their life is like, where they go to church, what they’re studying in the Bible, what they’re praying about, they say, “Well, I think that’s a personal thing. I don’t really do that. I don’t really have a church. My church is my own private worship.”
That person just told you they’re not a believer, no matter how spiritual they think they are.
They’re not a believer because when I come to scripture, I cannot fit that person into the Bible. The only person I see in the Bible is somebody who has been made alive.
Some people grow faster and quicker than others. Some people take a lot longer time to understand things and learn things. But there is a change, there is transformation, there is a new heart, there is a desire for the word of God.
There is a worship that they now have in their heart for God. Their mind exalts God, their mind honors God, their mind bows before God, and they feel very offended when somebody takes God’s name in vain.
But unfortunately, I have met a lot of people who think that way and they think they’re Christians and they’re not. That’s self-deception, and that’s the power of a dead heart, who can deceive to the last minute.
“There is a change, there is transformation, there is a new heart, there is a desire for the word of God.”
Complete Salvation: Nothing to Add
What I’m talking about this morning is the work of God. The work of God, putting this all together, gives us a picture of what takes place when one is saved by the operation of God, when one is forgiven as the passage says, he’s made spiritually alive as the passage says, and then we are in union with Christ from that day forward.
We have complete salvation. Nothing needs to be added to it, nothing needs to be taken from it. It’s all given to us freely by God. That’s the marvelous message of the gospel of Christ.
Some people will say, “Pastor, that’s just too simple. Turn from your sin and believe in Jesus, that’s just too simple.” That’s another obstacle too, because people really do think, “I got to do this and I got to do this and I got to do that,” and they kind of soothe the guilt in their conscience as they do those things. They don’t realize, no, you need to just come in repentance and faith and believe in Jesus. That’s it.
Then you live your life for him. You don’t go back to the old way, you don’t go back to the way you used to live. It is all new, because God has rescued us. He has performed spiritual surgery on your heart, and he has put in your heart a desire to want to bring glory to God.
Though imperfectly, our desire to bring glory to God—is that not true? That is true, right? And that is something that is very encouraging to our hearts.
When it comes to being a believer, a believer is very sensitive to their sin, right? Nobody really has to come up to a believer who’s doing formative church discipline on themselves every time they hear the word of God.
What they’re doing is this: every time you hear the word of God, every time I read the word of God, it’s like the word of God makes me feel, “What, I need to confess that sin right now. I don’t want to have my sin be an obstacle to how God can use you.”
But do you struggle with those things? Are you tempted by things from the past? Does Satan in a very powerful way come and try to get you to go back to the old? Oh yes, he does, and he will, and he’ll not stop. As a matter of fact, the stronger you get, maybe the stronger his temptations will be.
But you have the victory. You can say no. I don’t have to say yes. And when you do that, you’re almost amazed by it. What, I’m not committing the sins I used to commit when I was unconverted? I don’t even desire to do it, I don’t even think about it anymore. How can that happen unless God makes us alive?
The false teachers right here in Colossians kept the ceremonial law going: to be saved and sanctified, you have to do something. Yet there are dead works. They have no salvific or eternal value. They’re just a pile of dung.
No rituals or rites of any church can help to save you or safeguard your salvation. God must do that. Just like Titus says, “He saved us not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to his mercy, by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Lord.” See, that’s salvation.
Titus 3:5: “He saved us not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to his mercy, by the washing of regeneration.”
I prayed this morning, if you don’t see yourself like that, you may need to talk to somebody about how to really be saved. If you do see that God has been working on your heart and that you have these desires and they’re growing, you’re growing in those desires, and the possibility of your salvation is probably pretty real.
We who are believers have a complete salvation, because we are in union with Christ in his death, in his resurrection, and his burial. This is again putting it right to the face of the false teachers, because he’s using himself in humanity as a man to say to them, this is how God saves, this is how one has complete salvation.
There is nothing that needs to be added to it. There’s nothing that you can do to make it better. It is complete, and that’s the encouraging thing for believers.
Let’s pray. Lord, again I thank you for the word of God. I pray, Lord, that this morning if there is one person that has not believed in you as Lord and Savior, I pray, Lord, today would be the day that they no longer put it off, no longer ignore it, and they would look at themselves realistically as to where they stand with you.
I pray, Lord, that they would come in repentance and faith and believe in you, and they will receive all the benefits that the word of God teaches us that are ours as believers.
But Lord, for those who are in Christ, Lord, please encourage them by the word of God to just strengthen their faith. When they are confronted with sin they know what to do, they can say no to sin, they can consider that in their mind that they’re dead to it, because you did the operation on our heart already.
You’ve given us a desire that we never had really before to serve you and love you with all our heart and mind, soul and strength. I pray, Lord, that you will make this church and this generation, you would raise up a strong breed of Christians for what’s coming next, to be able to stand against the onslaught of false teachers and false information and the manipulation of powers greater than us, at least, Lord, as human beings.
I pray, Lord, that we would be faithful to stand in this battle, and I pray this in Christ’s name, amen.
Amen. Okay, this morning we do have the Lord’s.