How the Cross and Resurrection changed Everything — Col 2:8-19

• Union with Christ in both his death and resurrection is the single most important truth in the whole of Christianity.
• If you truly understand what it means for you, and live out of this new reality, then it will affect you profoundly.

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• Background:

• Very important point—it was not eating this fruit that was the problem in itself,
  • it was a symbol of stepping out of dependence, which broke the flow of order, love, harmony & power

1. Solution: The New Creation

• God offers to freely give us this new life.
  • Just as we entered this world by being born,
    • we enter the new reality with a new kind of “birth”.
• Jesus called this new creation the “Kingdom of God”. He explained this to a man who came to him:

• Jesus taught that when this world comes to an end,
  • those who are part of his new creation will receive new bodies,
  • like the new butterfly emerging from the old cocoon.
  • Sickness, suffering and death will be gone forever.

2. How it works: Union with Christ Col 2:8–19

• Read the passage:

Colossians 2:8–19

• Key: united with Jesus the head in death & resurrection / tradition of men

8. Beware lest anyone carry you off as spoil
       through philosophy and empty deceit,
       according to the tradition of men,
       according to the elementary principles of the world,
       and not according to Christ.
9. For in him dwells all the fullness of Deity in bodily form;
10. and you have been made full in him,
        who is the head of all rule and authority.

15. Having stripped rulers and authorities,
    he made a public display of them, triumphing over them in it.
16. Therefore let no one judge you in food or in drink,
        or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths,
17. which are a shadow of things to come, but the reality [body] is of Christ.
18. Let no one disqualify you [from the prize],
        insisting on [false] humility and worship of angels,
        taking his stand on [visions] he has seen,
        puffed up without reason by his fleshly mind,
19. and not holding fast to the head,
        from whom all the body, nourished and knit together through the joints and ligaments,
        grows with a growth that is from God.
     
20. If you died together with Christ
        from elementary principles of the world,
    why, as if living in the world,
        do you submit to regulations, ²¹”handle not, taste not, touch not,”
22.     (which all concern things destined to perish with use)
        according to the commandments and teachings of men?
23. These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom
        in self-imposed religion, [false] humility, and severity to the body,
        but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.

Detailed Explanation of the verses

• death pictured as circumcision
  • Even in the Old Testament, circumcision was a picture of a new beginning
  • It was done on the “8th day”, the first day of a new week
    • picturing the start of a new creation
  • Israel were told that their hearts were to be circumcised
    • they were told this mean to have a new and living heart
• bury—raised
  • death—life
  • “Together with him” Paul has actually coined new words here
• when someone was crucified, they would nail a list of their crimes to the cross
  • Our crimes were nailed to Jesus’s cross
  • Not transferred to him, as a separate entity
    • but he put his arms around us and said “let’s do this together” and then he did it all
• The core message of the gospel is union with Christ
  • Not a cold, legal transaction with scales,
  • but union with a living person
• This is the same as being “born again” (=born from above)
  • The life of God is now in you
  • You are literally his child, born from him (although not a God)
• Implications of being united with Jesus
  1. Our destinies are inseparably connected
     • Story of the sinking supertanker and the helicopter
       • Let’s illustrate this with two people
     • we are totally secure
  2. We actually have died
     • and we have been raised something else

3. What this means for us

Look at verses 8–10

• things they have to do, rituals, ceremonies, particularly from the Old Testament
  • many of these things were not wrong in and of themselves, they just belonged to a previous life
• Look at Paul’s answer: it sounds like he is almost saying we are divine
  • He is not, of course, but we are a new kind of being
  • filled with the fullness of Christ, who is fully divine

Quick Look at verses 15–19

• When someone dies, all their legal obligations are wiped clean, all their convictions etc.
  • Lawsuit against a criminal is instantly dropped if he or she dies

• Jesus died by crucifixion—the most painful way to die known to the Romans.
  • Yet the physical pain was nothing compared to what he suffering in his spirit.
• When Jesus died, he took on the guilt of a humanity in rebellion.
  • He paid the price, and brought peace with God.
  • It was what was needed for our forgiveness. That is how much Jesus loved us!

• How much he loves us to do this for us!

(unknown author 2024-08-27)