Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. I'd like to welcome you to our
program today. I'm glad you could join us. And if you'd like to
follow in your Bibles along with the message today, I'm going
to be preaching from the book of Colossians, chapter two. Colossians in the New Testament,
chapter two, beginning around verse 11 for the text. And the title of the message
is The Operation of God. The Operation of God. And of course, what we're gonna
be talking about is salvation itself, which is the work of
God for and upon his people and in his people, which he accomplishes
and has accomplished by his grace through the Lord Jesus Christ.
So if you would just turn to Colossians chapter two, I'm gonna
read, I'm gonna start reading back up in verse nine. I dealt
with these verses last time concerning the subject of complete in Christ. That a believer, a true believer,
a child of God is complete in Christ. And just read verses
nine and 10, then we'll get right to the text. It says, for in
him, in Christ, dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily
in the person of Jesus Christ, who is God and man in one person. He's the Word made flesh. He's
Emmanuel, God with us. In his person, who is both God
and man, dwells the whole fullness of the Godhead. And the Godhead
is the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God now
in three persons. And that's certainly a concept
that we can't wrap our minds around, that we can't totally
explain. I know people try to use different
illustrations, but they don't work. One God, we don't believe
in three gods. We're not polytheistic, as some
accuse us, but it's one God in three persons, Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit. But now, if you wanna see the
the fullness of the glory of every attribute of the nature
of the Godhead. The only way you're going to
see it is in Jesus Christ, for in Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, every attribute of God. And I often
say to people how that is summarized in a phrase that you find back
in the book of Isaiah chapter 45, where it says, a just God
and a savior. And that is sort of a summation,
a summary phrase of how God can be just and justify the ungodly. And of course, that's through
by his grace, through the righteousness, the merits of the obedience unto
death of the Lord Jesus Christ. as the surety and substitute
of his people. And therefore, verse 10, it says
in Colossians 2, and you are complete in him. The completeness
of salvation, forgiveness, justification, righteousness, eternal life is
found in Christ. It's not found in us. And that's
important. Because, you know, a lot of people
today, they think, well, Christ is only sort of like a jumpstart
to salvation. As if He made it possible, if
you will complete it. And you complete it by different
ways, depending upon what denomination you're in. You complete it by
just believing. Some say you complete it by believing
and repenting. Some say you complete it by believing,
repenting, and persevering. But that's not so. Now God's
people will believe. God's people will repent. God's
people will persevere. But that's not what completes
salvation. Christ completed salvation, and
as a result, or as the fruit of His completeness and our completeness
in Him, we'll believe, we'll repent, we'll persevere. So understand
that. We're complete in Him. We're
completely saved in Him, by Him, through His work, through His
righteousness imputed. If we're saved, we're completely
forgiven in Him. We're completely justified by
His righteousness imputed. We're completely sanctified.
We're completely preserved. And we will be, we're completely
assured of salvation. And it says in verse 10, Christ
which or who is the head of all principality and power. He's
the King of Kings, Lord of Lords. There's no one above Him. He
has the preeminence as the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Now, look
at verse 11. Here's where we get into our
text today. Christ in whom also you are circumcised
with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body
of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ." Now,
and then verse 12 says, "...buried with Him in baptism, wherein
also you are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of
God, who hath raised Him from the dead." Now, these are some
difficult verses. And even gospel commentators
will differ somewhat, even though, I've always told you that whenever
you come to a difficult passage of scripture, there are rules
of interpretation. And I'm not gonna go over all
the rules, I wrote a book on that, about rightly dividing
the word, and you can order that free of charge. and it talks
about the rules of responsible biblical interpretation. There
are rules. But whenever you come to a difficult
passage of scripture, let me just say this. First of all,
however you interpret that scripture, you can be sure that if it contradicts
other scriptures, or denies the truth of the gospel of how God
saves sinners, your interpretation is wrong. Now mark that down. There's no verse in the Bible
that contradicts other verses or that denies the gospel of
God's grace. God saves sinners by grace. through the Lord Jesus Christ,
based on his righteousness alone. Back during the beginnings of
the Reformation, there were some men who came out of the heretical
teachings of the Catholic Church, because they realized that they
were in a system of salvation by works, and it denied Christ,
it denied the Bible. And they understood that salvation
was by grace, but when they come to the book of James, They didn't
understand. I mean, James talks about faith
and works, faith evidenced by works, and they wanted to throw
the book of James out because they saw it as a contradiction.
Well, what James says when he talks about that Abraham was
justified by works and not faith. He's not denying the gospel or
contradicting what Paul wrote in Romans. He's talking about
another subject in another realm. What James was talking about
was not justification before God, but the vindication of our
claim of faith before men. What evidence is that I really
believe what I believe? But that's a whole nother subject
now. But the thing about it is what I'm telling you is when
you come to a difficult verse, understand that however you interpret
it, if you wanna be right or even close to right, it cannot
contradict other passages and it certainly cannot deny the
gospel. Another thing that you need to
keep in mind with these difficult verses is this. Always interpret
the obscure, or that which is difficult, with that which is
simple and clear. Always do it, not the other way
around. And then another thing is context, context, context. And I'll show you what I believe
on this verse because of the context. Now first of all, he
says, look at verse 11, in whom also you are circumcised with
the circumcision made without hands. Now you know what circumcision
is. That was the command that God gave to Abraham. to circumcise
in the flesh, cutting off the foreskin of the flesh, in the
Old Testament, Abraham, all the males of his household, and that
would be a sign of their connection, their fleshly, physical connection
with Abraham. Now, physical circumcision did
not translate down into what we call spiritual circumcision
or salvation. In other words, a person could
be circumcised physically. A Jew, for example, they became
known as the circumcised, the circumcision. They called the
Gentiles the uncircumcision. Well, many of the unbelieving
Jews in the New Testament thought that their circumcision also
meant salvation. And that's why Paul wrote in
Galatians 6.14, for example, he said, God forbid that I should
glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the
world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. For in Christ
Jesus, neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision,
but a new creature, a new creation. And what Paul was saying is there
is the only thing that really avails anything for me in salvation
is the cross. What Christ accomplished in his
obedience unto death to satisfy the justice of God in my place
as my surety and my substitute and bring forth righteousness
whereby God could justify me, declare me not guilty, declare
me righteous in his sight. It's Christ's righteousness imputed.
Now, whether I'm a Jew or a Gentile, whether I'm circumcised or uncircumcised
physically means nothing. But God gave that sign to Abraham
back in the Old Testament just as a physical sign to distinguish
his people from the world. Now that was given for a period
of time until the Messiah come. What distinguishes God's people
from the world today? The gospel. God forbid that I
should glory save in the cross. Our faith in Christ. Now, but
here it's obvious that Paul is not talking about physical circumcision. Look at it again. Colossians
2 and verse 11. In whom, in Christ, in whom also
you are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands. In other words, it's not physical. And you have to note, too, that
in the church at Colossae, there were both Jews and Gentiles,
circumcised Jews and uncircumcised Gentiles. But he's talking about
here believers. He's talking about the children
of God who have undergone a circumcision made without hands. Look at verse
11 again. In putting off the body of the
sins of the flesh, how? Now, here's your key. How did
we put off the body of the sins of the flesh? And he says, by
the circumcision of Christ. And then he tells us, buried
with him in baptism, Christ died, okay? That means he was cut off,
cut off from the land of the living, cut off from fellowship
with the Father. Remember he cried, my God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me? So, and he was buried and we
were buried with him in baptism. Now there's another word that
context has to provide the meaning. And I'll come back to that. When
also you are risen with him, when he arose again, he's risen
through the faith of the operation of God who hath raised him from
the dead. Now this circumcision made without
hands and all of that. Sometimes when the Bible, he's
talking about a spiritual circumcision. Physical circumcision was the
cutting off of the filth of the flesh. Spiritual circumcision
is spiritually cutting off the filth of the flesh. And I'll
explain that in just a moment. But in some context, you know
what that's referring to? It's referring to the new birth.
the new birth, being born again by the Spirit. When a sinner
comes to faith in Christ, when a sinner, a lost sinner, is brought
by God, the Holy Spirit, to be born again, he imparts spiritual
life, gives us a new heart, new life, new mind, new eyes to see,
ears to hear, and under the preaching of the gospel, he brings his
people to faith in Christ, and repentance of dead works, where
he rejects those filthy dead works, even his best efforts,
because he knows he's a sinner who cannot save himself. He's
a sinner who does not have anything to recommend him unto God. All
of his righteousnesses are as filthy rags. He has nothing to
plead before God. except one thing and that's Christ
and His righteousness imputed. And what I've just described
to you is a spiritual putting off of the filth of the flesh,
putting off the body of sins of the flesh. That's spiritual
circumcision. Circumcision of the heart, it's
called over in the book of Romans chapter two, Paul describes it. Look at verse 28, Romans two
and verse 28. He says, for he is not a Jew
which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is
outward in the flesh. Verse 29, but he is a Jew which
is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the
spirit, and not in the latter, not according to the law, whose
praise is not of men, but of God. Now that's talking about
the new birth. But there is another circumcision
that he's talking about. Go back to Colossians 2, verses
11 and 12. Obviously, he's talking about
a spiritual circumcision here. It's one made without hands.
In putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, how? By the circumcision of Christ.
Now, what is the circumcision of Christ? Well, we know that
when he was born after the eighth day, his parents took him to
the temple to be circumcised as according to the law. But
that's not when the body of the sins of the flesh were put off
in his circumcision. What's he talking about? He's
talking about the death of Christ here on the cross, when he literally,
was cut off, as I said before, because of the sins of his people
imputed to him, charged to him. He was cut off, separated, alienated
from life, the land of the living. He died. And when he died, he
took the sins of his people and satisfied God's justice to pay
for that debt. putting off the body of the sins
of the flesh. In other words, all the sins
of His people were accounted, charged, reckoned, imputed to
Him. Now, He didn't become a sinner. He was not contaminated with
sin. He was not corrupted with sin in Himself. All that He went
through on the cross, He remained the perfect, sinless God-man
in Himself. But legally, judicially, forensically,
God saw him. God the Father looked upon the
son, guilty, truly, really, legally guilty because of the debt of
the sins of his people charged to him. That's what it means when it
says Christ is our surety. He became responsible for my
death. It was put on his account. He
didn't run up the debt, I did. I fell in Adam. I was born dead
in sins. I have sinned, all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. But the whole debt of my
sins was put upon Christ. The whole body of the sins of
the flesh, all of the sins of all of his people, were laid
to His charge. The Bible says in Isaiah 53,
the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. That's not
all without exception now. That's all of God's people, all
of His sheep. The Good Shepherd gives His life
for the sheep. And His sheep hear His voice.
So He says this is a circumcision. This was the cutting off, the
putting off of the filth of the flesh, legally, judicially, in
the person and work of Christ, because it says, in verse 11,
by the circumcision of Christ. And how does it define his circumcision? Look at verse 12 now. Buried
with him in baptism. Now, the word baptism is a word,
when you come to it in the scripture, you have to look at the context. First of all, what does the word
baptism mean? A lot of people say, well, it
means immersion, and it does, but the literal translation of
it is placed into. When a believer, for example,
the ordinance of believer's baptism is an ordinance of confession,
where a believer is confessing that he's been placed into Christ. He's in union with Christ. That's what this baptism means.
Paul is not talking about the ordinance of Christian baptism
here, water baptism. The ordinance of Christian baptism
is commanded by Christ for his disciples, and it's dealt with
in other portions of scripture. It is in the Bible, and it is
by immersion. That's what died with Him, buried
with Him, raised again. The death, burial, and resurrection
of Christ. It doesn't save us. The water of baptism does not
save us. The water of baptism does not
wash away our sins. Only the blood of Christ does.
But we're commanded to be baptized as a public confession. that
Christ is our Savior, that we're saved by God's grace. But here
what he's talking about is every believer's union with Christ
in his death, his burial, and his resurrection, buried with
him in baptism. Now we confess that in believer's
baptism, but when Christ died, all of his people, through the
representative work of Christ as our surety and substitute,
we died with him. Not personally now, I wasn't
there, I wasn't born yet. But he died for me, in my place,
as my surety, as my substitute. I'm one with him in the eyes
of God's law and justice. And when he died, I died. And
when he was buried, I was buried. Buried with him in baptism, wherein
also you are, verse 12, wherein also you are risen with him,
When he arose again, I arose again. And that's the circumcision
that he's talking about. When Christ himself was cut off
and all the sins that were imputed to him were all removed because
the debt was paid, justice was satisfied, righteousness was
established, and all of this is through the faith of the operation
of God who hath raised him from the dead. This is the work of
God. Now the point is this, we didn't
have anything to do with that personally as far as our works
or even our cooperation. Do you understand that? People
say, well, salvation is a gift. but you must receive the gift.
Okay, here's the problem the Bible teaches. First of all,
it teaches that salvation is a gift that none of us want.
We want salvation, but we don't want it God's way. Because God's
way leaves us no room to glory or boast. God's way will not
allow me to say I made the difference. You see, this salvation, God's
way is the operation of God. The faith of the operation of
God is the promise of God's work. And it's Christ's faithfulness.
Now he brings his people to believe in him, but even that's the work
of God, for by grace are you saved, through faith, and that
not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. And this is the work of God.
Ephesians 2.10 says, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ
Jesus unto good works, not because of good works, but unto good
works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk
in. And here, this proves it. Look at verse 13. And you being
dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened
together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses. The forgiveness
of sins. It didn't come by our cooperation
with God, it came by the operation of God. It's His work alone.
It's not God doing His thing and then me doing my thing. That
makes this thing complete. It's not cooperation. It's the
operation of God. Now, God does bring his people
to cooperate. How does he do that? By the work
of the Spirit in the new birth. He makes us willing in the day
of his power to believe and receive him. But notice this, he says,
and you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your
flesh, that's us by nature. Well, he quickened us together
with him. When? When Christ arose from
the dead. When he died, I died. When he
was buried, I was buried. When he arose again, I rose again.
He was my representative. He is my surety. He is my substitute. He is my redeemer. He is my intercessor,
mediator. He's my king. And he represents,
stands as surety and substituted himself for all his people. And
that's where the forgiveness of my sins come from. I'll never
forget one time I was listening to a preacher on TV and he was
talking about forgiveness. The title of his message was
The Cost of Forgiveness. And so his answer to that was
this. What is the cost of forgiveness? His answer was this. The cost
of forgiveness is your repentance and your tears. And I said, no,
no, no, no, no. The cost of the forgiveness of
our sins is the blood of Jesus Christ. There is a difference.
My tears, should I repent? Yes, sir. Will I repent? If I'm
a child of God, I will repent. But my repentance and my tears
of repentance will not pay for the forgiveness of my sins. It
took something much better, something much more powerful to do that,
took the blood of Jesus Christ. And that's the operation of God,
salvations of the Lord. Back over in the book of Ephesians,
in chapter two, he speaks of how we were dead in trespasses
and sins, and walked according to the course of this world,
children of wrath even as others. And in verse four of Ephesians
two, he says, but God who is rich in mercy for his great love
wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins have quickened
us together. That's the operation of almighty
God in Christ. Hope you'll join us next week
for another message from God's word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
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today and may the Lord be with you.