Captivated, Not Captured – Colossians 2:8–15 (Sept. 27, 2026)

This fall, we are making our way through this fantastic letter that Paul wrote to the church in Colossi.

We're really starting to get to the heart of the letter now.

Chapter 2.

Uh so if you would open up your Bibles to chapter 2, verses 8 through 15.

That's what we're gonna look at together this morning.

If you don't have a Bible with you, uh no worries.

There should be one under a chair around you.

Feel free to grab that, use that, take it home with you if you need a Bible.

You can also open up your bulletin, passages in there as well.

There's even some pages to take notes with or on if that would be helpful.

This morning we're gonna look at what it means to be captivated and not captured.

But before we do, I wonder if you've ever had this experience.

Maybe you've gone to a pretty significant event, and midway through the event you've run over to the concession stand and you found the concession stand just packed.

There's like six lines, they're awful.

You start to do that thing in your head where you start to like discern and judge, like, well, there's some big families in that line that look kind of slow, they don't really know what they want, and that register's pretty like that it's struggling.

Like, I don't think that line's gonna move very much.

And then finally you like choose your line.

And you get in that line and you're waiting.

Maybe it's moving a little bit, and then it just stops.

And then you're starting to like look at some other lines, and you're like, man, that line over there is starting to move.

Like it's it's really going.

Maybe I should quickly switch out of that and move to that other line.

So you do, you go two lines over and you get in that line and you're moving a little bit, and then if you're me, always, inevitably, it just stalls.

Like they run out of cups or like cash or whatever.

I don't know what they use it, uh, these sort of concession stands anymore.

But somehow a shift change happens.

And then you look at that original line, and it's just cooking.

Like it's just like you're like, man, if I was in that line, like I'd be getting ready to order right now.

Like I might have my food right now.

It's really easy to second guess ourselves.

In fact, we live in a world, I would argue, of second guessing.

We second guess our meals, think, oh man, I should have gotten that appetizer.

You know, we second guess our dress, oh, I should have worn those shoes.

We second guess life decisions.

Why didn't I choose that major?

Why did I go to that college?

I should have applied for that job.

We second guess almost every public figure imaginable.

Man, that coach last night, he should have called time out in the fourth quarter.

Like, what was he doing?

That politician, that guy on city council, why are they voting in another development?

We don't need any more developments.

Or that musician, that second album, what were they thinking?

Like that first album was great.

What happened?

We second guess everything.

I wonder if you ever second guess Christ.

And I don't mean him personally, though.

I think we do that.

Christ, where were you?

What are you doing?

What's going on?

How why are you not with me in this?

We we second guess Christ.

But I mean a little bit more broader.

I wonder if you ever think about whether trusting Christ was the right decision.

Maybe you don't want to admit that, but I wonder if sometimes you even think about what life would be like if Jesus were not Lord.

Maybe you think, would that be an easier life?

Would that be a more comfortable life?

Would that be maybe even a better life, a more free life?

I wonder if you have thoughts like that every once in a while.

Or maybe not so blatant.

Maybe you're not in danger of second guessing Christ or Christianity altogether.

You just sometimes second guess whether Christ is enough.

I find this in my own heart sometime.

Maybe you can imagine a situation like this.

You're at a party with some friends, or maybe some uh, you know, folks from college or high school, and they've got this big, beautiful house.

It's in an incredible neighborhood.

They've got every single amenity that you can imagine.

The conversations are all about promotions at work and this, these sort of achievements that they've had, and investment strategies, and their kids are excelling in these expensive music lessons or in this travel sports program, or you just have all of these different things that are happening, and you begin to have this feeling in your soul.

Sort of this nagging little doubt.

Do I need more stuff?

Like, is life actually in that?

Do I need to be a little bit more impressive?

Do I need to achieve a little bit more?

Are we sort of behind?

Are we failing?

And that sort of voice in your head and heart gets louder and louder, and you start to think, is Jesus really enough?

Friends, I think sometimes, and let me say this, none of those things are wrong or bad.

You could be a Christian and be successful and have a nice home and have kids that are achieving things and all that sort of thing.

But here's the problem is when our eyes begin to wander from Christ.

When our vision of the good life or our vision of what life ought to be, maybe it has Christ in it, but he's kind of on the periphery.

That the things of this world, the desires of this world, the thinking of this world begins to take center stage.

See, I think in some ways, probably every single one of us in here, at times, begins to second guess a little bit whether Christ really is enough.

See, that's what Paul is writing about this morning, in one sense.

Here's our main idea.

It's this don't be captured by empty philosophies, be captivated by the fullness of Christ.

See, Paul is writing to a people who know those sorts of feelings.

There are people around them that are claiming to have had these great experiences.

They're having these prestigious sort of positions in society.

They're building a life.

This looks great.

And the Colossians are wondering: do I need that?

And maybe do I need something more than Christ?

And Paul says, don't be captured by empty philosophies, be captivated by the fullness of Christ.

Let's look at the passage.

Here's how he says it, verses 8 through 15 of chapter 2.

He says, Be careful that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit based on human tradition, based on the elements of the world, rather than Christ.

For the entire fullness of God's nature dwells bodily in Christ, and you have been filled by him, who is the head over every ruler and authority.

You were also circumcised in him, with a circumcision not done with hands, but by putting off the body of flesh in the circumcision of Christ, when you were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through the faith, through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.

And when you were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive with him and forgave us all our trespasses.

He erased the certificate of debt with its obligations that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it away by nailing it to the cross.

He disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly.

Church, we're gonna look at two points, though.

I will admit the second point has a few subpoints.

The first point is don't be captured by empty philosophies.

Don't be captured by empty philosophies.

See, as we get to the heart of chapter two, Paul gives us three warnings.

And we're gonna look at the first warning this morning, and then the next two warnings next Sunday.

Now, this first warning is a strong one.

The be careful of verse eight, that might be a little bit more dire than might first appear.

That word, that's this idea of be careful, it means watch out or beware.

You might think every once in a while we come up to some homes or places where you'd see this sign that says beware of dog.

And sometimes that is like this little teeny dog, and we it's kind of funny.

But every once in a while, if you go onto that property, like you need to have your eyes open.

Like there's a real dog out there, and you need to be watching out.

That's kind of the idea of watching out.

Eyes open, looking around, watching out, except for the danger is far worse.

Look at what he says.

Be careful or watch out that no one takes you captive.

Think about that word captive.

A captive is a prisoner of sorts.

To be a captive, in one sense, is to be captured.

I don't know if you grew up playing the game, capture the flag.

Maybe some of you still play it, uh, students, kids in here.

But think about this idea: someone capturing the flag, taking the flag, and then taking it back with them.

You you get it and then you take it away with the opposition.

That's the picture that Paul gives.

Now, think about this just on its own merit, right here.

If you read this warning, be careful that no one takes you captive.

I think our first instinct is like, wait a second.

Is that like a possibility?

Like, are there like people that are trying to capture us out there?

And here's what Paul is gonna say.

Maybe surprising to some of us.

Yes.

Friends, this is a really needed reminder for us.

See, how is easy is it for us to just live our lives as if everything is just neutral?

So easy to just live our lives, to think of Satan and his forces, to think of real deep darkness and evil maybe is elsewhere.

The stuff of myth but not reality.

The stuff of uh places that are far from us, but not in suburban America, the stuff of entertainment, maybe on the silver screen, but not in our actual lives.

But here's what Paul is warning us in a sense.

I wonder if you could think about it this way.

Imagine that you were at war and you saw somebody just sort of whistling and walking over enemy lines into enemy territory.

Like you watched them do that, and they looked like they were just taking their dog on a stroll through the neighborhood.

And you'd be like, what are you doing?

Do you not know the danger?

Well, church, how many of us live that way?

Just completely ignorant and negligent of the dangers that surround us.

That's why Paul warns us, watch out that no one takes you captive.

But you know what?

There's a second reason he warns us not only because we are unaware of the hazards that are afoot, but also because the means of capture are maybe a little bit unexpected.

They're maybe not the most evident.

You might think of the movie Willy Wonka and his little chocolate factory.

Seems like a paradise, especially if you're a kid, like the best paradise.

And yet some of the things that look the most delightful, the most amazing, actually pose the most risk and the most danger.

See, what Paul is warning us is against a danger that we often don't see.

Look at verse 8 in full.

Be careful that no one takes you captive.

How?

Through philosophy and empty deceit.

Now, we need to understand what Paul means here because I think there could be some confusion.

You should not think that your freshman philosophy professor was necessarily evil or that like all philosophy is bad.

He's actually doing a pretty famous or a pretty well-known rhetorical strategy here where you would use two words to explain one idea.

So you could really read this as empty, deceitful philosophy.

Watch out that no one takes you captive through empty, deceitful philosophies.

Now, that word philosophy for Paul is much broader than we use it.

Like when you hear the word philosophy, maybe you think of stoicism or existentialism or some sort of very specific thing.

But Paul is speaking about all religions, any type of worldview, any type of system of thoughts.

In some sense, he is thinking about a larger picture of thinking in general.

And Paul is calling us to watch out for empty, deceptive thinking.

Well, friends, I think such thinking is all around us.

And if we want to be able to tell what is that thinking even a little bit better, Paul gives us some descriptors.

He actually gives us three.

Look at verse 8 again.

First, it is based on human tradition.

It is thinking that comes from human wisdom, not God's wisdom.

Second, it is based on the elements of this world.

Now that might be the most difficult phrase in Colossians, and that's why I'm gonna let David talk about it in two weeks, and we're just gonna kind of move past it because this is mainly just an introduction.

He can handle this in a little bit more detail, but let's just say for right now, suffice to say, this is worldly pagan wisdom.

And then lastly, and I think most importantly, Paul tells us that it is not based on Christ.

Now, let me tell you what is hard and helpful here because Paul does, and this is what we'll look at a little bit in the weeks to come, Paul does have a very specific false teaching in mind.

There is a false teaching at the church in Colossai that's plaguing the church, and he's writing to counteract it.

The problem is that we don't have very many details as to exactly what that uh false teaching was.

But you know what?

I think that's actually helpful for us.

Because this warning is just as powerful.

Think about what he says.

He warns us against being taken by any, being taken captive by any thinking or wisdom that is worldly, of human origin, and not of Christ.

Friends, that enables us to apply this in a lot of different ways.

And I think there is a lot of application here.

See, here's the question I think we need to ask ourselves.

What human or worldly thinking captures your mind and heart and draws you away from Christ?

What sort of thinking and wisdom captures your mind and heart and draws you away from Christ?

Could be materialism.

Your heart ever drawn to stuff more than Jesus?

Do you ever self-medicate by shopping?

Do you ever think that if you were to get this thing, however big or small, that that would fill your heart, that that would make you happy or fulfilled?

What about maybe careerism?

Does your job define you?

Are you willing to sacrifice everything on the altar of advancement?

Is it that your career actually shapes your life in Christ?

Or is it that your life in Christ actually shapes your work and career?

Or what about leisure, comfort, or pleasure?

How many decisions do you make every day based on your own personal uh what's easiest and most comfortable to you?

How much of your life is spent in consuming things and being entertained by things?

Or you might even think about individualism.

Do you think about your life as your life?

That actually life is all about you, what you can get out of it.

Have you been captured by such thinking?

Or maybe captured feels too strong.

Are you flirting with such thinking?

Is it tempting to you?

Well, look at how Paul describes these philosophies of the world.

He describes them as empty and deceitful.

That word empty means hollow.

You you follow them and you find out there's nothing there.

That there's nothing to them.

Or they're deluding.

That's what that word deceitful means.

They're delusions.

And what Paul is saying is that if you base your life on possessions, if you base your life on the pride of achievement or the path of ease, or if you make yourself the prince of your life and world, then ultimately you'll find yourself captured.

You'll find yourself in a prison.

Remember our main idea?

Don't be captured by empty philosophies.

Rather, be captivated by the fullness of Christ.

And that's what I want to spend most of our time looking at this morning.

Be captivated by Christ.

Because here we come to the very crux of the passage.

Look at the first word of verse 9.

That little teeny word, for.

That's a super significant word.

Don't be uh captured, uh made captive by these empty philosophies.

For.

That reason, that little word means for this reason.

Here's why.

Here's the cause behind Paul's warning.

Because Paul doesn't warn us only because of the danger that might come our way.

No, he warns us even more so because of what we might miss out on.

Church, I think this is so fantastic.

Our God does not motivate first and foremost by punishment, but by promise.

He doesn't want us to be captured by these empty and deceitful philosophies, sure.

But even more so, he wants us to be captivated by Christ.

Now, look at why this warning of verse 8, look at verse 9.

He gives it to us.

For why?

Why the warning?

For the entire fullness of God's nature dwells bodily in Christ.

Now, at first glance, maybe you're a little bit confused.

Maybe you think, well, that's a little underwhelming.

Paul's like, here's this warning, don't be captured.

And then insert random fact about Jesus.

Like, hey, just in case you're wondering, the fullness of God dwells bodily in Christ.

And you're like, wait a second, what's what is that?

Well, Paul's actually doing something brilliant.

Because he's just setting up a really powerful argument.

What was true about that human, deceptive, worldly philosophy?

It was empty.

But what is true about Christ?

Paul says, the entire fullness of God's nature dwells bodily in him.

This is one of those statements that should absolutely blow your mind.

It's the part of theology and scripture and the redemptive history that my mind and heart still can't grasp.

Think about this.

The fullness of God dwelled, dwells bodily in Christ.

The fullness of the eternal, all-powerful, all-knowing, ever-present, immortal, invisible, all-wise, all-loving, infinite God.

The fullness of God who is the creator and sustainer of everything and everyone.

The fullness of God's nature, all that God is, all of that dwells bodily in Christ.

Here's why C.S.

Lewis called the incarnation the grand miracle.

The miracle of all miracles.

That God, the Son, truly God, became a human being, truly human, and walked among us.

All that God is, Paul is saying.

Jesus is.

Because he is God.

Now think about what Paul's doing.

Compared to the empty philosophies, Paul is saying, here's the one who is full.

And you know what?

That's not even Paul's crescendo.

Certainly is in one sense.

But now he's going to take this truth and he's going to apply it to our lives.

And he's going to show us three reasons why we should absolutely be wholly, completely captivated by Christ.

And that's what we're going to look at.

First, we should be captivated by Christ because we are full in Christ.

Look at verse 10.

Says all the fullness of God dwells bodily in him, and you have been filled by Him.

The fullness of God dwells in Christ, and he fills us.

Look at what Paul is saying.

Empty things don't fill.

Only full things fill.

And God, Jesus, is full.

See, Paul is saying these other philosophies, they might promise the world, but they're empty.

And in fact, they'll only leave you empty.

Isn't that so often the case?

But Christ, Paul says, He's full, and he will fill you.

See, I think what was happening in Colossae, it seems like, is that there were these false teachers who were actually offering, claiming to have greater experiences of God.

That you could have more spiritual fulfillment.

And they were saying so on things that were beyond Christ, past Christ, aside from Christ.

But here's Paul's arguments.

Here's Paul's argument.

There is nothing beyond Christ.

Because the fullness of God dwells in Christ.

Here's how one theologian says it.

I think it's so helpful.

He says, All that we can know or experience of God is therefore found in our relationship with Christ.

Don't sleep on that statement.

All, all that we can know or experience of God, where is it found?

It's found in our relationship with Christ.

See, Paul is claiming the sufficiency of Christ.

He is all that we need.

And he is also claiming the exclusivity of Christ.

He's the only one that we need.

See, here's the point for us.

You want to know God?

You want to experience communion and fellowship with God.

Well, it's not in Eastern meditation.

It's not in Hinduism or Buddhism.

It's not in Islam.

It's not in the teachings of Muhammad.

It's not in the revelation of Joseph Smith.

It's not in crystals.

It's not in the stars.

It's not in any sort of pagan practice that might be rising up in our day.

You don't find the fullness of experiencing God in creation or in music, in concert, or in sports.

As good as those things might be, you will not find the fullness of God there.

The fullness of God isn't found in money or sex or fame or success.

It is found only in Christ.

And church, Paul's saying, we have been filled by Him.

That same Christ has filled us.

Now, what does that mean?

What does it mean to be filled by Christ?

There's a lot.

So much that we could talk about.

Let me walk us down just a few avenues briefly.

Look at verse 13 in our own passage.

Paul gives us a hint.

He made you alive with him.

Christ made you alive with him.

In Christ you have the fullness of life.

Here's what Jesus says in John 17, verse 3.

John 17:3

He says, This is eternal life.

What is real, eternal, true life?

We think about it, it's just life that goes on and on and on.

What does Jesus say?

That they may know you, the only true God, and the one you have sent, Jesus Christ.

Here's life.

It's knowing God.

And how is it we know God?

In Christ.

Real life is in Christ.

Christian, you have the fullness of life in Christ.

But there's more than that.

Because remember what Paul wrote just prior to this, Colossians 2, verse 3.

Colossians 2:3

He said, In Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

All wisdom, all knowledge is in Christ.

And he has filled you.

Which means there's a sense in which we have all wisdom and knowledge.

Now let me be really, really clear.

It doesn't mean that you're perfect in knowledge.

Doesn't mean that you're perfectly wise.

None of us are.

What it means is that all the wisdom and knowledge that we need to faithfully and fruitfully live before God, we have in Christ.

We don't lack anything that we need in Christ.

Think about it, Christian.

You have Christ's work.

We're gonna look at that in a moment.

You have Christ's word.

You have Christ's spirit who teaches you, guides you, comforts you, who helps you.

But this is what Paul, or one other thing, maybe lastly, of what this fullness means.

In Ephesians 3, verse 19, Paul uses this exact same language.

Ephesians 3:19

He says, so that you may be filled with the fullness of God.

Well, Paul, what does it mean to be filled with the fullness of God?

Look at it.

That you may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God's love, and to know Christ's love that surpasses knowledge, so that if you comprehend that, if you know that, you may be filled with the fullness of God.

See how wondrous a truth this is?

We in Christ are filled with the fullness of God's love.

See, church, I wonder if maybe here's why we're not captivated by Christ.

Because we haven't comprehended his love for us.

In fact, we so often doubt it.

My guess is you're here right here this morning, and there are ways in which you've put limits on God's love.

You think you can outsin his love, or you think you can override his love, crash the system of his love, or you think in some ways you can empty him of love.

Well, he has loved me too much.

There's no love left for me.

But here's what Paul says that in Christ we are filled with the fullness of God's love that knows no height or depth, width, or length.

Paul says, you, Christian, actually can't escape God's love.

That's how great it is.

Christian, right now, do you know how much God loves you?

I I mean that.

I mean, there is, I would argue, few things in this life as a Christian that you need to know more fully than how deeply God loves you.

Are you every day comprehending more and more of his wondrous love for you in Christ?

See, church, why would we ever seek life, wisdom, and love elsewhere?

We have it in full in Christ.

That's the first reason why we ought to be captivated by Christ.

Secondly, because we are forgiven in Christ.

We're gonna skip the circumcision part, but just for a moment.

Look at verses 13 and 14.

Here's what it says And when you were dead in trespasses and in the circumcision of your flesh, he made you alive with him and forgave us all our trespasses.

He erased the certificate of debt with its obligations that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it away by nailing it to the cross.

Friends, the Bible does not mince words about how dangerous and devious sin is, or how dire our plight in sin is.

Paul says that we were dead because of our sin.

And when we hear that word, we think immediately physical death.

But here's the problem: Paul does not say we will die.

He says we were dead.

He's speaking to people who are living, and he's saying, you used to be dead.

Well, how can that be true, Paul?

Because for Paul in scripture, to live in sin is death.

To live in sin is death.

It's kind of a type of zombie life.

You are living, walking, but you are living in death.

You're living under judgment, under condemnation.

You might think of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.

And you might think early on in the book, when Marley, his deceased partner, comes and visits him.

It's probably the scariest scene in the book, maybe except for the end.

And in there, Marley, when he visits him, he is shackled, weighted down, chains everywhere, he's bandaged, he's moaning.

And the point is, Scrooge, that will be you if you don't watch out.

But I think there's actually a deeper point there.

I think the point may be, Scrooge, that's already you.

Think about Scrooge's life in a Christmas carol.

He's bitter, lives in darkness, isolated, angry.

He actually walks around moaning, bah, humbug.

That's a type of grunt or moaning.

He lives in this miserable death.

Because sin is a living death.

But Paul actually says more.

It's not just a living death, it's also an insurmountable debt.

See, now I think this is an idea that we understand well, this idea of debt.

Many of us know what it's like to be in some financial debt.

And what Paul is doing is he's actually uh speaking about this debt.

He look at verse 14, he talks about a certificate of debt.

Some commentators, and I think they're right, you might imagine like an IOU.

What is a certificate of debt?

It's like we wrote an IOU.

God, I owe you signed humanity.

And what is it that we wrote to God and said, we owe?

Well, we owe you our complete allegiance and obedience.

Why?

Because you are our God.

You are the creator, we are your creatures.

We were created by you and for you.

And so Paul says, that I owe you, that allegiance and obedience that was demanded of all humanity, it actually stands against you.

And its obligations stand against you.

What are those obligations?

You might think of the law of God or the Ten Commandments.

They stand against you.

And you are in debt.

Now, Jesus described in a parable just how significant this debt of sin is.

And he described it by telling a story of a man who was in debt 10,000 talents.

Now, that might seem like nothing to us because we don't know what a talent is, but a talent was uh 20 years wages for a normal worker.

So for this servant to pay that debt, he would have had to work 200,000 years.

What's Jesus' point?

That is an insurmountable, unpayable debt.

That's the debt of sin.

Now, friends, I think we actually know the weight of this debt.

Even if you're not a Christian or not sure about Christianity, I think you know the weight of this debt.

I think we are all weighed down by sin, even if we might not call it sin.

Because there's always, isn't there, this little undercurrent running through us of guilt and shame.

And no matter what you can do, what you try to do, you can't put that off.

I think that's why we try so hard to prove ourselves.

Not only to others, but even to ourselves.

We don't even live up to our own standards.

We are guilty and shameful even to our own selves.

I think that's why it's we we work so hard to put up this image of ourselves.

And we try so hard to make people believe that this image is actually us, even though we know that it's not really us.

We would be terrified for someone to know the real us.

We want this image up here.

Why?

Because we know the weight of sin, we know the reality of sin.

And you know what?

There are so many worldly philosophies that promise to deal with sin and guilt.

And they all do the same things.

First, they ignore it, they just act like it's not there.

No, sin is something you just put on yourself.

It's human construction, it's religion.

Or they hide the sin.

Or they try to minimize the sin.

And yet the problem is if you go down any of those avenues, what you're gonna find is that the sin is still there.

The problem's still there.

The ugliness in your heart is still there.

But here's what Paul says: look at verse 14.

He, Christ, erased the certificate of debt.

He didn't ignore it, he didn't minimize it, he paid it in full.

He wiped the books clean.

There is no more debt for those who are in Christ.

Paul says, Romans 8:1, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Romans 8:1

See, God the Son actually erased our debt.

How?

Look at what he says.

He's just taken it away by nailing it to the cross.

God the Son became a man.

The creator entered into his creation.

Why?

To save us from our sin.

To do what we could never do for ourselves, to pay the debt of our sin with his very life.

An infinite death or an infinite debt needed an infinite savior.

And Christ is the only one who is the one who can pay our infinite debt.

This is why Peter says that he himself bore our sins in his body.

He took on our sin and his consequences.

And you know why?

It's so that we can sing this.

Church, this song ought to make us rejoice.

My sin.

Oh, the bliss, the wonder of this glorious thought that my sin, not in part, but the whole, all of it, is nailed to the cross.

And I bear it no more.

That weight of sin, that weight of failure, that shame, that guilt, I bear that no more.

Because it has all been nailed to the cross.

Praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord.

Oh my soul.

That's why we can sing, it is well.

No matter what our circumstances may be, because our sin, not in part, but the whole, has been nailed to the cross.

See, church, perhaps here's why we aren't captivated by Christ.

Because we're still trying to bear what he has already born.

We actually don't understand.

We haven't comprehended the reality of this grace in Christ.

The world wants to camouflage our sin.

Christ came and conquered it.

Third reason why we ought to be captivated by Christ.

Because we have freedom in Christ.

See, here's what I think we often forget.

Maybe that last little point, you're like, I get it, I know it.

I hope you still are in awe of it.

But you think I know that I have been forgiven in Christ.

But you know what else the Bible tells you?

That you are being freed from the power of sin.

Not only that your sin has been forgiven, but that you are being freed from its power.

Church, in Christ, we no longer have to walk in sin.

We can walk in freedom.

Now, in order to understand this, we've got to dig in to what Paul is talking about here with circumcision.

It might be the most difficult part.

As you read through this passage this week, you're like, that's a lot of mentions of circumcisions.

He begins in verse 11.

Look at it.

You were also circumcised in him, in Christ, with a circumcision not done with hands.

What is that circumcision?

By putting off the body of flesh in the circumcision of Christ.

Now, in order to understand what Paul is talking about here, we need to actually understand the nature of circumcision, which admittedly makes us a little uncomfortable.

But we're gonna dig in.

Here's what circumcision is: circumcision is the cutting off of something.

And that's really important.

It is the cutting off of the foreskin of the male sexual organ.

And the reason that it was done is so that it would mark someone.

In the Old Testament, it was a way of marking the people of God, the people of Israel.

If you were circumcised, you were a part of this people.

But you know what?

Even in the Old Testament, circumcision was being used sometimes metaphorically.

This is so important that circumcision, physical circumcision, actually pointed to our need of a far greater circumcision.

Look at Deuteronomy chapter 10, verse 16.

Deuteronomy 10:16

Here's what he says.

Therefore, circumcise your hearts and don't be stiff-necked any longer.

Or Jeremiah 4, 4, circumcise yourselves to the Lord.

Remove the foreskin of your hearts, men of Judah and residents of Jerusalem.

Do you see that circumcision was this pointer that something more significant needed to be put off or cut away?

We needed a circumcision of our hearts.

And here's what Paul is saying.

That has actually happened.

And Paul says it wasn't done by man with human hands.

That's this point.

But it was done by Christ.

That's the circumcision of Christ.

And what happened in this circumcision?

It was the putting off of the body of flesh, our body of flesh.

Now, when Paul uses the word flesh, most often he is talking about our sin nature or our old man, this person in sin, our sinfulness.

And Paul is saying that by Christ, our sin nature, this old man, has been cut off.

Has been put off.

That's spiritual circumcision.

That's why verse 13, look at verse 13.

What is another way that we could talk about being dead in trespasses, dead in sin?

Well, it's to talk about the uncircumcision of the flesh.

The sinful nature hasn't been cut off.

But now, Paul says it has.

When, Christian, look at verse 13.

When you were buried with him in baptism in which you were also raised with him.

Why all of a sudden does Paul bring up baptism?

Because baptism is very similar to circumcision.

Circumcision marked the people of God as the people of God.

Baptism is a sign, it's a symbol that we are the people of God.

And in fact, it is a way in which we enter into the community of God.

And so here's what Paul is saying that actually it shows us baptism is a picture of spiritual circumcision.

What happens in baptism?

I say this often.

We have usually a horse trough when we do it, so it looks even more real to us.

Like you go under the water and you're like, I don't know if they're coming up.

Like it looks a little bit like death.

That's the point.

In baptism, we die with Christ and then we're raised out of the water, almost like we are resurrected with Christ.

That's the picture.

So what's the point?

What is spiritual circumcision?

It is to die with Christ, a death to sin.

When Christ died to our sin, when he took our sin in him and he died, that was our sin, dying, our sinful self, dying with Christ.

And then when he raised to new life, we raised with him in new life.

How is that possible?

How is it that we can be united to Christ in that way?

Look at verse 12.

Right in the middle.

Through faith in the working of God.

How are we united to Christ?

By faith.

And what is the working of God?

It is the fact that Christ has taken our sin and nailed it to the cross.

The working of God is the gospel.

We are united to Christ by faith in the good news of Jesus.

Let me give you the whole picture because there's a lot.

Here's what happened: Christ lived, died, and raised for us and for our salvation.

We are united to Christ by faith in him and his work on our half.

And that means in Christ, he has circumcised us, he has cut off our sinful nature, put off our old man.

We have died to sin in Christ and raised to new life in him.

And then just to give us a little cherry on top, in Christ's life, death, resurrection, and especially his ascension, he did something else.

Look at verse 15.

He disarmed the rulers and authority.

Who are the rulers and the authority?

Evil powers, demons, Satan.

Worldly powers.

He disarmed the rulers in authority and disgraced them publicly.

He triumphed over them in him.

Every single person that read this letter of its first hearers would have known exactly what Paul was saying.

They would have had a picture of their mind in their mind come to them that would be this commander returning from this victorious battle, and all of his enemies and prisoners in chains behind them, being publicly disgraced because they have been defeated.

Friends, I think it's worth noting that the philosophies of this world will leave you in chains.

And Christ actually leaves your enemies, sin, Satan, and death in chains.

That's who Christ is.

Now that's a whole lot of theology.

That's a lot there, but don't miss the point.

We are free in Christ.

Christian, let me be as clear as I possibly can be.

You are no longer under sin.

Your sin does not rule you.

You don't have to sin.

Christ is greater than your sin.

He has defeated your sin.

And now you can actually, truly, genuinely walk in holiness, not perfectly.

We will still sin in this life until we see him.

We will still battle.

But we battle a war that has already been won.

And the dominion of sin has already been destroyed.

See, worldly philosophies, they might change your actions, they might help out some of your circumstances, but only Christ can circumcise your heart.

Only He can rip out that ugly cancer of sin that ravages your soul.

And so here's the question, Christian.

Are you walking in the freedom that's yours in Christ?

Do you look at Satan, sin, and this world as enemies, yes, but enemies with an expiration date?

I wonder if sometimes we walk in defeat as Christians.

We actually walk living as if sin is our king and not Jesus.

Christian, are you living in light of the victory of Christ?

Now think about this whole argument, church.

To walk in Christ is to walk in his fullness, fullness of life, fullness of wisdom, fullness of love.

To walk in Christ is to walk in his forgiveness, debt fully paid, no condemnation, fully wiped clean your sins.

And it is to walk in his freedom, your old sinful nature cut off.

You have died with Christ and risen with Christ.

Do you see Paul's argument then?

If all this is ours in Christ, why would we ever look elsewhere?

What more could we want than what we already have in Christ?

How dim, how dull, honestly, how dumb are all of these empty philosophies that actually offer us nothing compared to Christ.

Friends, don't be captured by empty philosophies.

Be captivated by the fullness of Christ.

Here's a question I want us to think about.

Are we captivated by Christ?

Let's pray that we would be.