Victory in Christ, not Ceremonies

And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. (Colossians 2:13-15)

Paul is showing how a proper understanding of the person and atonement of Jesus Christ must cause believers to accept the complete sufficiency of His salvation. To add to Christ’s work is to detract from its efficiency. The issue here was circumcision, in and of itself a godly sign of the covenant. But man’s sin has a way of taking that which is good and using it for evil. Symbols and signs were and are only valid If they point to the truth and the glory of God. If they become twisted by unbelief, traditions, or misuse, they cease to teach the truth of God and can even mislead. This is what had happened to the rite of circumcision. It represented more tradition than teaching, more racial pride than covenantalism, and more work than devotion. This false view of circumcision was itself evil, but when it was added to the work of Jesus Christ it represented a perversion of true salvation by Christ’s atonement and hence a hindrance to the truth. Paul therefore sets the record straight that such ceremonies cannot be added as a requirement of salvation.

The Colossian believers were dead in their sins and uncircumcision before they were forgiven. Sins are outward evidence of the corruption of nature that results in death. Their uncircumcised state was evidence of their estrangement from God’s covenanted promises. They were, as Paul told the Ephesians, “... alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the promises” (Eph. 2:11).

In this state of inward and outward alienation, God “quickened” (regenerated) and forgave them all their sins. Their uncircumcised state did not prevent their justification or regeneration. This was to remind them that they were not to view circumcision as conferring anything which they had been freely given. Circumcision pointed men to the covenant promise of salvation. That salvation was by the atonement of Jesus Christ. This salvation was conferred by grace through faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ. To the extent that a part of that faith was placed in circumcision, or anything else, it would be a false faith and a false view of salvation. Free reconciliation by Christ’s atonement is at odds with being bound to any rite.

The ceremonies were like a handwriting of obligation or a contract for debt. The obligation remains as long as the document remains. in more modern terms, the signs of the old covenant were like a mortgage. The mortgage contract remains in the hands of the lender as long as the debt exists. When paid, the mortgage document is then handed over to the former debtor, representing his freedom from further obligation. The custom of “burning the mortgage” was the borrower’s celebration of his new freedom from obligation.

Paul says Jesus Christ has blotted out the handwriting of obligation. Christ has, in effect, burned our mortgage. More precisely, Christ has paid our debt with his blood and destroyed it forever as an indictment against us. Those who claim any-thing else is necessary to salvation deny the efficacy of Christ’s work. If Jesus Christ has freed us from bondage to sin, and He regenerated and justified the Colossians without circumcision, then neither that requirement nor any other can be made a necessary prerequisite to the accomplished redemption.

Ceremonies taught truths and offered means of obeying the Savior God’s command. But the truths could and did become lost on faithless people as obedience became tradition which became a work. new signs of the covenant were instituted which more specifically pointed to the work of Jesus Christ. Circumcision was a sign of God’s covenant promises, but baptism included a representative washing and illustrated the centrality of Christ’s atonement to our understanding of God’s covenant promises. The Passover taught of God’s gracious salvation, but the Lord’s Supper emphasized that it was Christ’s sacrificed body and shed blood that saves. There was nothing wrong with Circumcision or the Passover, just as there was nothing wrong with the seventh-day Sabbath. Baptism and the Lord’s Supper point more directly to Christ, as does gathering on the first day of the week. All of these can and have been misused. The most grievous misuse is adding them to the gospel of salvation. Christ fastened all our debts to the cross. No obligation can be added to the gospel of salvation.

Christ not only accomplished our redemption on the cross; He openly makes a show, of His triumph (v. 15). To add human requirements to the free gospel of salvation is to say Christ’s victory was incomplete and His show of triumph false.

Circumcision and the Passover pointed in shrouded images to salvation in Jesus Christ. Baptism and the Lord’s Supper do so more clearly. The promise is not better than its fulfillment, and anticipation is not to be preferred to reality. It is superstitious to cling to old rites when Christ gives us new, more meaningful ones. It is, however, blasphemous to claim as false teachers had, that the old rites are necessary to salvation. No one, no “principality” or “power” can take the complete victory of Jesus Christ away by adding requirements to faith. For the church to allow such to be taught was a terrible thing.

Covenant theology provides a healthy perspective on this issue. If Scripture is seen as a whole, it can be appreciated as all pointing to Jesus Christ. One can see the beauty and holiness in ceremonies properly regarded but not be superstitiously attached to them beyond their appointed time and usefulness. Judaism became a prisoner to a false view of the old, while dispensationalists are prisoners to a perverse contempt for the old. The old rites, remember, were not the problem in Colosse. The problem was the heresy which tried to add them as a requirement to the free gospel of salvation—misused as such they were a perversion of the gospel.