Colleen and Nikki discuss the first part of chapter two of Colossians. Adventism teaches that the Ten Commandments were not nailed to the cross. Are they right? Transcription by Gwen Billington.
Colleen: Welcome to Former Adventist podcast. I’m Colleen Tinker.
Nikki: And I’m Nikki Stevenson.
Colleen: Thank you for joining us as we continue our walk through the Book of Colossians. We’re looking today at the first 15 verses of chapter 2. It’s turned out to be an incredibly rich passage. We’re just praying that the Lord will help us talk through it because this has dug deeply underneath the surface of so much of our Adventist worldview. It’s been almost shocking to see what the Scripture actually says about Jesus and about us.
Nikki: Um-hmm.
Colleen: But before we get into that, I just want to remind you that if you have questions or comments, you can write to us at formeradventist@gmail.com. Also, you can visit us at proclamationmagazine.com and find our online magazine and articles. You can also sign up for our weekly emails, and you may also donate to Life Assurance Ministries at that site. There are buttons there for donating online, and you can help the podcast, and you can help the outreach of the magazine and the articles and all of the things that we do at Life Assurance Ministries. And finally, we ask that you follow us on Facebook and Instagram, and write a review for the podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. Those reviews help us expand our reach. So, Nikki, as we turn our attention to the second chapter of Colossians, I have a question for you. How did you understand it, in verses 13 and 14, where it says, “Jesus made you alive with Him, having forgiven all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us”? How did you did understand that as an Adventist? What was it talking about? What did Jesus do?
Nikki: Well, I’ll tell you the way it was explained to me, because it was a verse that gave me pause. I wanted to understand it. It seemed like it was saying something really great. And when I asked about it, I was told that these legal demands that were nailed to the cross were the commands in the Mosaic covenant that no longer applied to us, because remember, Adventism divides them. So the Ten Commandments are the moral commandments, and those were not nailed to the cross, but all the other commandments, all the other ordinances in the Old Covenant, were nailed to the cross, and that was how it was explained to me, and I just assumed they knew better than I did, and that was what I believed. Honestly, the “being made alive,” I don’t have any memory of what I ever thought about that kind of thing. I know I thought that Scripture had a lot of beautiful poetic language, and I probably just assumed that’s what I was reading there.
Colleen: Yes. I think I ascribed a lot of this language to just metaphor or poetic sounds. I didn’t understand it any differently than you did as an Adventist. I didn’t believe that the Ten Commandments could be part of anything nailed to the cross. In fact, I scoffed when I heard that Christians would say that Jesus nailed the Ten Commandments to the cross, and I thought, “Oh, no. I know better.” [Laughter.]
Nikki: Um-hmm.
Colleen: And now, I am so embarrassed that I was so glib in just believing that the Ten Commandments couldn’t be part of the Mosaic Law that were nailed to the cross, but we’ll get there. Meanwhile, why don’t we start with the first part of this passage, and Nikki, would you read the first five verses of Colossians 2, please? And we just ask all of you to get your Bibles and follow along because this passage is amazing.
Nikki: “For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ.”
Colleen: Well, this first opening section of Colossians 2 is Paul talking to the Colossians and to the Laodiceans, interestingly, as we find out in verse 1, to whom the letter was also intended to be read, about the truth of what it means to be in Christ, and he develops that whole idea throughout this chapter. That’s a concept that I didn’t understand at all as an Adventist, being in Christ. As you look at verse 1, what do you see in that verse that you particularly want to notice?
Nikki: I feel like verse 1 really does connect with verse 29 from the last chapter. He says that he toils, struggling with all his energy that He powerfully works within me, for I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you, and the word “struggle” there is the same word used in Hebrews chapter 12 when the writer of Hebrews talks about us running a race. The word is “agona,” and here we see Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, doing the work that was created in Christ for him to walk in, and this is his struggle, and it made me think about how intense that must be to have had the knowledge that Paul had, given to him by revelation, of the mystery of Christ, and it was his to impart to the church and to the other apostles, and he had to communicate this incredibly deep and profound information to people. It must have weighed heavy on his heart to be sure that he communicated it well and to everybody, and he’s having to do that now with people he’s never seen.
Colleen: It makes me think of Ephesians 3:9, where he says that this grace was given to him to explain the administration of this mystery to everyone. God had given Paul the unique job of explaining how the New Covenant works, both to Jews, believing Jews, and to Gentiles who were believing. It was a huge job that the Lord gave him, and I’m sure that he had huge blessings as a result of it, but I understand to a very small degree the agony he felt in his heart for these people whom he loved, even though he’d never seen them, wanting them to become rooted in Christ after having not known Christ. The Gentiles to whom he had been sent had come out of paganism and didn’t know the true Jesus, and that was his whole driving goal was that they would know Jesus in the deepest possible way. When you look at verse 2, Nikki, what about verse 2 stands out to you? It’s kind of a complex sentence. Paul is really saying some profound things to this group of believers, whom he has never met, about their relationships with each other and with the Lord. What strikes you about verse 2?
Nikki: When I was looking at this, I really liked the picture of them being knit together in love, and I wanted to look further into that, and I saw that the word for love there is “agape,” and I looked into agape, and that is a verb, it’s an acted-out kind of love. It’s a love that people can see and that’s most manifested in Christ’s work on the cross. It’s the same love that Jesus warns will grow cold in people in the last days, and it’s the same love that Jesus admonishes the church of Ephesus in Revelation for having lost. They had lost their agape love. It was interesting to me to see Paul praying that they would be knit together in that love. It is such an important part of the Body of Christ. It was convicting to me, and it was interesting to see what a profound role that is in growing and reaching the full assurance and understanding of the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ. It seems to have a role in spiritual maturity.
Colleen: It was interesting to me too to sort of take apart what he says in this verse and just see kind of a sequence. I’m just going to read the verse from the NASB, “that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ Himself.” And it struck me that those who know Jesus and trust Him, when they’re born again they are bound by the Holy Spirit to other believers. They’re united supernaturally by God’s own Spirit to one another. And along with this comes the assurance, the complete assurance, of understanding that from accepting the gospel we have eternal life and the eternal wealth of God’s provision. And part of God’s provision for us is that we are bound to brothers and sisters whom we’ve met in the Lord, and some of them, you know, like Paul here talking to the Colossians, he hadn’t even met, and yet he was bound to them by the Spirit, and we’re bound to one another. We don’t meet most of the people who hear this podcast, and yet when we get emails from a few of them, we instantly are bonded because we know we know the same Jesus, and we have the same issues and the same things that we’re learning. God has bound us together with a love for one another that’s based on Him. And the wealth that is ours, in this bonding together in the love of God and in the Spirit of God, is the true knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ. It’s just so amazing to me that that is what God does for us. As we submit to Him, as we know Him, as we accept the bonds of love and Spirit that bind us to one another, we start to learn the mystery of Christ, submitting ourselves to His word as we go.
Nikki: Verse like these really drive home the fact that we can’t just leave Adventism and then have our own little personal relationship with Jesus. Part of understanding Jesus, part of understanding the mystery and the gospel is being knit into the Body of Christ. That love there, it has a responsibility. It has an obligation to one another, and the Lord has blessed and gifted and equipped various people for various roles in the Body of Christ. We have teachers, we have people who admonish, we have people who comfort, and it’s in that system that God has created, that He has asked us to be a part of, that we grow in our knowledge and love for Him.
Colleen: After more than 20 years in a Christian church after Adventism, I have encountered brothers and sisters that I know are in the Lord with whom I’ve had disagreements. In fact, not everybody who comes to faith in Christ instantly has all their wounds healed.
Nikki: Right.
Colleen: They have issues of their own which hurt other people, even as Christians. I mean, I think even of the sharp disagreement between Paul and Barnabas over John Mark, so much so that they split and went different way, but that with God’s provision for the gospel going to different places. So I just want to say, if you find yourself after Adventism in a Christian church and you find that you have disagreements or hard things between you and other parts of the Body of Christ, just know that this love which binds us together is bigger than our personal wounds and personal differences.
Nikki: Um-hmm.
Colleen: And we can practice this agape love to one another without submitting ourselves to being manipulated or abused, but still loving one another and allowing the Lord to be glorified in our relationships with one another. That is not possible when we’re not born again, but when we’re born again, it is possible, and the Lord lets us know that these are our brothers and sisters. Our love is part of what He uses in their lives, and their love is part of what He uses in our lives, to bring growth and healing.
Nikki: Exactly. That is forbearance. That is iron sharpening iron. That’s growing.
Colleen: Well, then in verse 3, we have a remarkable phrase, another part of one of Paul’s longer sentences, but, Nikki, what do you think when you hear Paul writing about Jesus these words, “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”
Nikki: I see His sufficiency, and I think of the fact that Paul is writing to a church full of people who claim to have special knowledge and special information that they need, and he’s telling them, “You are in Christ, who has all knowledge and all wisdom.” There is nothing more that they need, there is no more information beyond what Christ has given them through His own teachings and through the teachings of the apostles.
Colleen: You know, I remember years ago, when we were having Bible studies with our neighbors, before we had left Adventism, and I remember our neighbor, Mel, who really is a godly man, and we thank God for him and his wife because of the role they played in helping us understand the gospel, but I remember one day he picked up his Bible and said, “Everything I need to know is right here in these pages. If it isn’t in here, I don’t even need to ask the questions.” And I remember thinking, “Well, I don’t know about that. I think it’s fair to ask what the surface of Mars looks like, and I don’t think I’ll find that in the Bible. Um, how do you deal with that?” And I realize now that all the truth that does exist in human reality, whether it’s science, whether it’s philosophy or psychology, there’s human wisdom that does reflect elements of truth, but all truth that we have is ultimately from God, and we have to know that it’s not the human wisdom that is the truth we seek that gives us the answers. It’s when we know Christ that human wisdom begins to make sense. We can only understand what is actually real and actually true when we submit ourselves to the word and know Jesus. So in Him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden. He knows all there is to know about Mars, and He put it there and put it in a discoverable universe, and it’s not wrong to ask the questions. But I just want to say, from my perspective now, I see that it doesn’t always make sense to try to analyze ultimate truth from what we can discover on our own. We have to know Jesus and submit what we discover to His word. That’s where we find reality. And then in verse 4, Nikki, Paul says to them, “I say this so that no one will delude you with persuasive argument, for even though,” verse 5, “I am absent in body, nevertheless I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good discipline and the stability of your faith in Christ.” What do you understand Him to be saying to the Colossians here?
Nikki: Well, it sounds like he’s saying that you may encounter arguments that sound good. It makes me think of something Pastor Gary Inrig said during one of his Word Search classes, where he was walking through this letter to the Colossians, and he said, “There’s a difference between good, sound arguments and arguments that sound good.” There are arguments that sound good. This is why I believe Christians are being persuaded to come into Adventism. They can lay out a case that sounds good. They use human logic. Paul is saying everything you need to know is in Christ, and I’m telling you this so that nobody comes along with a new, plausible argument and takes you away and deludes you.
Colleen: And sometimes people will even use the Scripture to give you those plausible but deluding arguments. Think about the things Adventists say to other Christians, like, “The Bible says the seventh day is the Sabbath, and God says ‘remember,’ so you really have no excuse.” Or, “The health message makes us healthier. When we’re healthy, we can better perceive the Holy Spirit and respond to Him.” Or there’s the classic, “Come to us. We can tell you how the end times will be.” And they use Bible texts to try to prove their points. And yet, using Bible proof texts is not proof that those arguments are sound.
Nikki: Can I just say that I have been more willing to understand the word of God and to hear the Holy Spirit teaching me in my times of sickness and suffering than I have in my times of health. Just by the way.
Colleen: Yeah, that’s a really good point. That’s true for me. I think it’s probably true for a lot of us. When we’re at our wit’s end, that’s where we are sort of forced to realize that we cannot with our own brains solve our problems, even with good arguments. So then in verse 5, Paul is saying, I’m absent in body, but I’m with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good discipline and the stability of your faith in Christ. How was he able to say this to the Colossians? What did you understand that to mean as an Adventist, Nikki? How could Paul say to these people he’s never met, “I’m with you in spirit, and I can see your faithfulness?”
Nikki: You know, I think I probably just understood that to mean, “I’m thinking of you.”
Colleen: [Laughter.]
Nikki: “I’m thinking of you, and I’m with you and I support you.” I would not have thought to look beyond that, but that word “spirit” there is pneuma, and that’s connected to his human spirit, which is bound to them, knit together with them in Christ.
Colleen: That is the interesting and central point, I think, of this whole section of Colossians. He is really making a case that when we know Christ, we are knit, joined, together with Christ and to one another in Christ. This is not just a metaphor. This is real. And even though we’re stuck in mortal bodies where we can’t see beyond time, we are there with Christ in heavenly places because He says it’s true. Don’t you have that experience, Nikki, of knowing that you’re born again and things make sense that didn’t make sense? You know God is real. You know He is with you. You know you wouldn’t be able to withstand the things that just drag you down if it weren’t for His Spirit holding you up. It’s real.
Nikki: Knowing the truth about all of that and knowing that when we die we don’t really die, we just go home, it’s changed the way I’ve thought about those I know who are in Christ who have gone home. I can think of them as still living, and in fact, it’s interesting, it’s something obviously that’s been new since I’ve been a believer, but there have been Sunday mornings when we’re worshiping – one of my favorite songs is Behold Our God, and I can’t help but think about the saints I know who are literally beholding God in that very moment, worshipping Him at the same time we are, and I just have never felt more connected to them, knowing that.
Colleen: You know, Jesus told the Pharisees that He was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He said, “God is not the God of the dead but the living.”
Nikki: Um-hmm.
Colleen: And I’ve thought of that sometimes. I’ve thought, my father and my mother both trusted Jesus, and they’re with the Lord. And I’ve thought sometimes that my mother, who died in October of 2018, died just over a year before this whole COVID lockdown happened, and I have thanked God many times that she died before this happened. It would have been very hard to explain to her, in her fragile and somewhat demented state, what was going on and why we couldn’t visit her. God spared her, and I think she now knows what’s true. She now knows that she’s completely safe, completely loved, not isolated, and she’s there with my father, however that looks, but united in Christ, and I’m united to them by His Spirit, even though I can’t communicate with them. But I know that they’re there. And that’s one of the beautiful things that’s so different from Adventism now. When we’re in Christ, we’re in Christ eternally, and all those who’ve gone before are united with us in Christ eternally. It’s such a wonderful thing. I don’t know how to explain it. [Laughter.]
Nikki: [Laughter.]
Colleen: But it’s what the Bible says.
Nikki: It helps us understand why Paul can say, “I’m with you in spirit rejoicing.”
Colleen: And that’s not a metaphor. He really is.
Nikki: Um-hmm.
Colleen: And he knows they’re true believers and he feels united with them. In verse 6 we start another little section. Nikki, would you read verses 6 and 7, please?
Nikki: “Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.”
Colleen: Verse 6 is interesting. “As you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, so walk in Him.” What is that saying? How do you do that? “As you have received Christ, so walk in Him.” How do you understand that, Nikki?
Nikki: This verse is a high call, but also a really big relief after Adventism. We receive Christ one way in Adventism. Let’s use air quotes on that.
Colleen: Uh-huh. [Laughter.]
Nikki: And then we are to walk a different way. We “accept Him into our heart,” is a lot of the language I heard as an Adventist.
Colleen: Yes.
Nikki: And then, now our job is to vindicate God’s character by proving that His law is fair and can be kept and be a last-day people with a last-day message, bringing other Christians back into the fold and into Sabbath-keeping. This is saying “as you received Christ.” We receive Christ by receiving the truth of who He is and what He’s done. It’s through repentance and trusting Him and putting our faith in the gospel truth. And then we walk in obedience to Him, just like we walked in obedience by repenting and trusting Him. And it’s interesting here, it says, “As you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.” The Lord is an important thing. It’s not just a pretty, flowery name to tack onto Jesus. As we saw already in this letter, He is preeminent, He is the firstborn. He is Lord of all. All things were created for Him and through Him. So in the same way that we have received the truth about Him and have entrusted our lives to Him, we now walk in that. And I love how Pastor Gary has talked about the Christian walk. He says that it’s one step in front of the other in the direction of obedience.
Colleen: I love that too. It’s inside out, as you said, Nikki, from the way we learned as Adventists. As Adventists, we had to keep ourselves saved by living right, by keeping the law, by showing that the law is fair and good and that the Sabbath is eternal and casting our loyalty to that day. But this passage is saying we don’t walk to achieve knowing Him; we walk because we know Him. As you have received Him, so walk in Him. We receive Him by believing. We walk the same way, by believing. And this is not just about, “Oh, I have faith,” whatever that means, “so I’ll walk by faith.” This means trusting Jesus, trusting His gospel, trusting His finished atonement. We receive Him and are born again by trusting and believing, and we walk in the same way, trusting His promises, knowing He is sovereign, knowing He has us, knowing He will direct our paths, as it said in the Psalms. And it’s also interesting – I just have to mention this again – that in verse 6 we again have that interesting idea that what is true has to precede the command to obey, the indicatives and the imperatives that we talked about a couple weeks ago. Now, I’ll try to explain that one more time. I had a phone call from a wonderful person who just wanted a little more clarity on those words. And I understand that, because they’re kind of technical grammar words, but let me just say again, an indicative has as the root the word “indicate.” Now, if I am to indicate something to you, Nikki, what am I doing? If I say, “Oh, let me indicate where you’re going to sleep tonight,” what would I be doing?
Nikki: You’d be telling me a fact.
Colleen: Exactly! I’d be saying, “Here is the room that is yours.” That’s a fact. It’s nothing you have to do, it’s something that’s already true. Here is a room where you will sleep. That’s an indicative, and I’m indicating something that is already true. So the indicative in verse 6 is what is already true: You have received Christ Jesus as Lord. And like you said, Nikki, that Lord is an important part of this. He is not saying, “You’ve received Christ Jesus as your example,” or “Christ Jesus as a model of God’s goodness and longsuffering.” This is receiving Jesus as He is, even if we don’t fully know the depth of who He is, but we receive Him with all of His attributes, all of His depth, all of His goodness, all of His deity: Christ Jesus as Lord. That’s the indicative. When we are born again, we have received all of Jesus. Then the imperative is the command. So if I say to you – back to the indicative of the room to sleep, if I say to you, Nikki, this is the room where you will stay, I am indicating a fact. Then if I say, go bring your bags and set them down here, what am I telling you to do?
Nikki: To bring my bags into the room. That’s the imperative.
Colleen: It’s what follows the fact. The fact is, this is your room. The command is, bring your stuff and make yourself at home. The indicative precedes the command. The indicative here is, you have received the fullness of Christ Jesus. The command is, walk in the same way you received Him, trusting Him, believing Him, submitting to Him and knowing that the fullness of Christ is what will carry you through the rest of your life. You don’t have to become right with God or keep yourself right with God by doing good things. Your obedience flows out of the fact that you are already His.
Nikki: This is reminiscent of chapter 1, verse 23, where he says, “If indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard.” This is maintaining and staying put.
Colleen: Yes. I like that, “staying put.” That’s what we do. We have to walk, but we walk only in the ways He shows us, step by step. He doesn’t show us ten steps down the road; He shows us the next step, and we’re to keep our hearts peacefully trusting Him because He keeps His promises, and He won’t let us go.
Nikki: And in the context of his letter to the Colossians, they are being lured away and pulled in a different direction. They’re being told, you have Him but you need more. And he’s saying, “As you have Him, so walk in Him.” There’s nothing beyond this.
Colleen: That’s so true. And then in verse 7, he explains a little more about what “having received Him as Christ Jesus the Lord” means. What has that fact meant for the Colossians, Nikki, according to verse 7?
Nikki: That they’re rooted and that they’re to be built up in Him and established in the faith that they were taught by the apostles through the pages of Scripture and that they are to abound in thanksgiving.
Colleen: Isn’t that interesting? And here we come again to that ubiquitous command of Paul to give thanks. He’s reminding them – and it’s interesting, I know our Pastor Gary, when he taught through this passage of Colossians, pointed out that there were several metaphors here. He first says an agricultural metaphor, “You have been firmly rooted.” Then he uses an architectural one, “You have been built up in Him.” And then a legal metaphor, “Established in your faith.” Paul has made very certain, using very clear figures of speech, to explain to the Colossians that they don’t have to worry, the Lord has them. They have believed Him, and the Lord has rooted them. They didn’t root themselves, but they have been rooted, and now they are being built up and established. It is God who does this for those who trust Him. But then he ends all of this by reminding them that they have to overflow with gratitude. I am absolutely convinced that there is more to this business of thanking God than most of us think that there could possibly be. And again I’m reminded of Romans 1, where Paul says that those who refuse to acknowledge God as God and refuse to give thanks are the ones who have futile minds and depraved hearts. This giving thanks is a way we submit to Him, even when we can’t see all the things going on around us. But we have to thank Him for who He is, even when things look threatening and uncertain. And that’s a core piece of being rooted in Him. We know He’s faithful, even when we can’t see how we will emerge from the mess we might be in.
Nikki: And I think too that being thankful breeds contentment, and then you’re not out looking for more. You’re able to thank Him for what He’s done and to spend time in that and not searching for a new experience or more extra-biblical information or the next prophet or whatever.
Colleen: That’s a great point, and it fits right in with the context of this chapter. These Colossians were being lured away by special knowledge and extra things they could do to enhance their spirituality. No, all they needed to do was to remember that they’re rooted in Christ, being built up, and to thank God: the contentment.
Nikki: And it’s interesting, the word there used for “taught” is didasko. In the New Testament it nearly always refers to teaching the Scriptures. So these are things they were taught by the apostles from the Scriptures, and he’s saying to be thankful for this and to be established in this, just as you were taught from the Scriptures.
Colleen: It’s simplifying, it’s hard because it means giving up our natural tendency to try to control and manipulate our lives, but when we belong to the Lord our eternal future is secure, and we can trust Him with it today, even when things seem uncertain. It’s the teaching of Scripture, and it protects us from falsehood. Now, we come to verses 8 through 15. This is an amazing passage, rich in details that just uproots my Adventist worldview. Nikki, would you mind reading those verse, please.
Nikki: “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. For in Him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in Him, who is the head of all rule and authority. In Him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised with Him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This He set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in Him.”
Colleen: Well, let’s look at verse 8 and walk through this passage. It’s one of Paul’s more complex passages, and as we dug through it, Nikki, when we were talking about it before we recorded, it was a little overwhelming and awe-inspiring to realize what Jesus has actually done and what our position is in Him. It continues to amaze me. It’s deeper, richer, and more profound than I ever realized. So in verse 8, Paul is overtly warning these Colossians about what?
Nikki: He’s warning them against being taken captive by philosophy and empty deceit.
Colleen: And according to the traditions of men. And you know, when I think about this, I think about – well, I think about a lot of things, actually, but I think about Adventism and the way Adventism pursues Christians and tries to lure them in with philosophy and teachings and principles of the world, but it doesn’t sound like principles of the world because they use the Bible to try to prove their point. What other kinds of philosophy and empty deception can put people in danger, even believers?
Nikki: Inside the church we often think about false religion and how that can lure people away, and that is certainly what the Colossians were dealing with. Even in our normal day-to-day living, we’re just given, especially during an election year, just piles and piles of philosophy and human tradition and human ideas that people will often try to merge with their faith, and it creates something other than what we’re called to in Scripture. And I think that even these commands here for the Colossians are very clear and we can look at these objectively and think, yeah, don’t buy into the false religion, but I think we have to pray that the Lord will protect us from being sucked into different ideas, even in our own culture, which is harder to see sometimes. You can go to another country, and you can see where they’re erring and where they’re straying from Scripture, but when you’re in your own context, and especially now, we’re all inside of our own little echo chambers –
Colleen: [Laughter.]
Nikki: – it’s harder to see how that is pulling us, possibly, away from our center, which is Scripture and Christ.
Colleen: And Paul gives the antidote. He tells the reason why we have to be on guard against philosophy and empty deception in verse 9, “For in Him” – in Jesus – “all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form.” And then 10, “In Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority.” What does that tell you, Nikki?
Nikki: Well, here again, this is the sufficiency of Christ, the sufficiency of our position in Christ. We are secure. Nothing that we can tack on or add on to that is going to improve our situation. We have the fullness of God in us.
Colleen: That’s right, because He has indwelt us when we believe. It’s interesting that the Greeks believed and some of the pagan religions, the gnostic religions that were threatening the Colossians, believed in divine emanations from God, that God emanated out a divine being who emanated out a divine being. We talked about this a little bit last week. It appears that some of the false teaching that was threatening the Colossians was a teaching that Jesus was more like an emanation from God than God Himself. It’s actually pretty reminiscent of classic, original Adventism, who believed that Jesus had a beginning. Founding Adventists were Arian and antitrinitarian, but the Colossian heresy was putting Jesus in a category of an emanation, and it was diminishing Jesus. And Paul is saying, no, do not let anyone diminish Jesus for you. In Him all the fullness of deity dwells. You have trusted Him. You have believed and been born again. Do not let anybody draw you away from understanding that He is all God. He is almighty God, and He is enough. He is not diminished.
Nikki: I love what Pastor Gary said about this. He said they were trying to shrink Jesus. They were suggesting that He had divinity but He wasn’t deity, and he said, “When you shrink Jesus, you shrivel your faith.”
Colleen: That is so good. You shrink Jesus, you shrivel your faith. That is so good. It’s so true. In other words, he’s saying, in Jesus you have been made full and complete. Just like you were saying, Nikki, you’ve received this fullness of deity, who has saved you and made you alive and indwelt you with His Spirit. You don’t lack anything. You’ve been made complete in Him. He has indwelt you; you are hidden with Him in God. There is nothing more you need. You have all you need. You don’t only have all you need for yourself, you have Him who is the ruler over all power in the universe, demons and angels. He is in you, and His power is your inheritance.
Nikki: And again, in Him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. So no one else is going to come around and give you wisdom or knowledge, philosophy or tradition, that Christ doesn’t already offer you if it’s true.
Colleen: It’s so true. He’s all we need. And then we have, in verse 11 and 12, a passage that has just kind of rocked my world when I’ve stopped to think about what this is actually saying. “In Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.” Nikki, how do you understand that you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands?
Nikki: Well, I understand that to be the new birth, the circumcision of the heart.
Colleen: Before we’re born again, we’re dead in sin. We have hearts that are separated from the Lord Jesus. We have spirits that are dead in transgressions, as it says in Ephesians 2:1-3. But when we’re born again, we receive His resurrection life, and the dead, fleshly heart that is our natural state is taken away by the cutting away of the flesh without hands, meaning this is something God does, and it’s interesting because Paul uses the metaphor of circumcision to explain this, and it’s funny because circumcision was a real thing, but in the picture that the Bible paints for us, we see that the physical circumcision that was given to Abraham as a sign of God’s covenant with him and his offspring, that physical circumcision was like the physical metaphor of the reality which was coming with the new birth. The cutting away of the skin in physical circumcision foreshadowed the Lord Jesus cutting away our fleshly hearts so that our spirits would be made new and brought to life. And then it says – to make it even more deep and complicated, it says, “The removal of the body of our flesh by the circumcision of Christ.” Well, is that talking about His bodily circumcision or what? I was listening to a sermon by S. Lewis Johnson on this passage, and he said, “In the context of this passage, it’s clear that the circumcision of Christ referred to here is referring to the crucifixion, the tearing of Jesus’ flesh for the purpose of satisfying the demands for sin.” When we trust Jesus, the effects of the physical tearing of Jesus’ flesh in the act of His crucifixion, His death for sin, becomes the means of removing the heart of our flesh and giving us a living heart, a circumcised heart. We’re born again because Jesus paid the price through the circumcision of His body by His physical flesh being killed on that cross.
Nikki: Yeah. Well, this goes right along with our covenant study. We knew in the promised New Covenant that He was going to give us a new heart. He was going to replace our heart of stone with a heart of flesh. He was going to give us a new spirit. He was going to put His Spirit inside of us. We know in Ephesians 1:13 and 14, when we hear the word of truth, the gospel of our salvation, and believe, we’re sealed by the promised Holy Spirit, and we’re indwelt. This is the mystery that Paul is referring to. This is what he means when he talks about the mystery which is Christ in you the hope of glory. We were placed in Christ when we were born again, the circumcision of our heart. We were placed in Christ, and in that we were buried with Him and then raised with Him through faith in the powerful working of God.
Colleen: There’s nothing in verse 12 where it says, “Having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith,” there’s nothing here suggesting water. This isn’t a reference to water baptism per se, although our water baptism is an outward demonstration of this inward reality. This is a reference to our being baptized into Christ, baptized into His body, when we believe and receive the new birth, the circumcision of our hearts. What this means is that when we trust Jesus, we have been placed in Him as His children, as His true people. We are in Him participating in His death, burial, and resurrection. We know from other places, in Ephesians 1, in Romans 8, that God foreknows, predestines, chooses, calls His own, that He knows us from the foundation of the world. In a very real sense, just as Levi was in the loins of Abraham, as we learned in the Book of Hebrews, when Abraham paid tithe to Melchizedek, and because Levi had not yet been born but was Abraham’s descendent, Abraham’s tithe paying to Melchizedek was credited to Levi. Levi was paying tithe to Melchizedek in the loins of Abraham. In that same way, we were in Christ when He was crucified because we are His. He knew us before we were born. He knew us, He called us, and when we trust Him, we receive the benefits of His death, His burial, and His resurrection, and we have participated in Him in that, and we are baptized into that reality by the Holy Spirit, who brings us to life and unites us and joins us with God Himself for eternity. And I want to say, this is not the same thing as the way, perhaps, a Mormon would talk about becoming a god. We don’t become gods when we’re born again and joined to Christ. We become living humans who are made part of His body. We are always His creatures. He is always our Creator. We are never His equal. But He shares His identity with us, He shares His inheritance with us, and everything He accomplished for human sin and human salvation becomes ours through being joined to Him through the baptism of the Holy Spirit. So then we have these last three verses in the section that we’re looking at. Verse 13, Nikki, “When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions.” Just that verse alone, what do you realize when you read that?
Nikki: That makes me think of 1 Peter, 1 Peter 1:3, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” So God made us alive together with Him, through His resurrection, and He’s forgiven us all of our trespasses.
Colleen: That’s an interesting thing because “all of our trespasses” means past, present, and future.
Nikki: Um-hmm.
Colleen: If we were participating in His death, burial, and resurrection, when He died on the cross, we alive today had not yet been born, and yet His death forgave all of our sins, which were still in the future, in terms of time. When we are brought to life by Him, all of our transgressions, either the things that we were unconscious of or the things of which we were fully conscious, all of them, are forgiven. And that happened at the cross, and when we believe, what happened at the cross becomes our present reality for us. And then in verse 14 and 15 comes the part that is so amazing for us who have been Adventist. This is all accomplished this way. “Having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.” So in verse 14, Nikki, what did Jesus’ death accomplish?
Nikki: Well, there again, it’s the New Covenant. It was a New Covenant that was enacted upon His death. He canceled any claim that the Old Covenant had on us, and those who are His He takes into Himself, and we’re now under His covenant, where He is the head. We’ve been transferred out of the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of the beloved Son. He paid the debt.
Colleen: And this decree, the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, is the Mosaic Law. The Mosaic covenant was a system of commands and observances, of feasts and rituals, and it carried with it a death decree. Anybody who broke it was worthy of death. And when Jesus went to the cross, He took that law in His flesh and nailed it to the cross. In a remarkable article, which you can find if you go to proclamationmagazine.com, and you can search for “Unity of the Law,” it’s an article that we have posted there by a never-been-Adventist apologist named R.K. McGregor Wright, who explains how the law is a unity. There is no dividing of moral, ceremonial, and civil. It’s a unity. You can’t take the Ten Commandments out; it is part of the Mosaic Law. So when Jesus went to the cross, He is the living word, the living Torah, the living Logos, and in His flesh, this word of God to Israel was fulfilled in the flesh of Jesus, and He nailed it to the cross by fulfilling every one of its demands. He took it out of our way by becoming for us what it demanded happen to sinful humanity. He became the sacrifice; He became the one who died for the sins of humanity. And because He did that, it can no longer condemn us.
Nikki: This is justification. This is Him being just and the justifier. It is a legal action. You cannot undo legal demands unless you’re doing it legally.
Colleen: That’s true. Such a great point. And then, Nikki, in verse 15, what does it say was the effect on Satan and his minions when He did this?
Nikki: He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in Him. He exposed them.
Colleen: He did. You know, the only actual, tangible tool that Satan had to condemn humanity in the face of God was the law. He could say, “Oh, no, that person has sinned. That person has broken the law, and the law demands that they die. You have to take care of this sinful human.” But Jesus exposed Satan, and He disarmed him by removing the tool with which he could condemn mankind. He openly and publicly humiliated them. What’s interesting to me is that Paul is so clear that this was a public humiliation. In the spiritual realm, this is not a figure of speech, this is not a metaphor, this is not something that’s a foreshadowing. This happened, and in the spiritual realm, everyone knows that Jesus has fulfilled the law, has destroyed the claim of the law to kill humans because they have broken it, and He has disarmed Satan, taking away his weapon by which he would accuse us before Him. He has completely disarmed him. It dawned on me how inside out and backwards, once again, Adventism has been in its theology. Adventism asks its members to keep the law. Adventism keeps the law, which is the death sentence. It’s the condemnation of humanity, and it holds this condemnation over the heads of its members, saying, “You have to keep this perfectly in order to get saved. You have to keep this perfectly in order to be worthy. You have to keep the Sabbath in order to show you love God.” That’s not what this passage in Colossians is saying. Adventism says we have Jesus to help us access the law, and in keeping the law we come to know God. Colossians and the rest of the New Testament says, the law condemns us, Jesus has set us free from that condemnation, and we answer to Him now. Adventism has lied. Adventism has made our Savior the thing that condemns us and has made Jesus just a tool for trying to manage the law. Jesus has publically humiliated Satan and his minions, and He paid the full price for sin. He took away Satan’s only tool against us, the law that identified and increased sin in us, and then Jesus broke sin’s curse by rising from the dead. Satan can no longer claim that we must legally die. We now have access to life through Jesus, and Satan is powerless. Oh, he can still tempt us. He can still try to distract us and make us miserable and try to get us to follow false teachings, like he was trying to do with the Colossians, but he has no real power over those who have trusted Jesus. So if you haven’t trusted Jesus, we ask that you go back, read this section of Colossians, and see what it is that Jesus has done and who He is and place your trust in Him because in Him is life and security, and you can know now that you are eternally secure. If you have questions or comments, write to us at formeradventist@gmail.com. You can sign up for our weekly Proclamation! magazine by email at proclamationmagazine.com, and don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Instagram, and write a review for the podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. Thank you for being with us through yet another study of this small but powerful Book of Colossians. And Nikki, thank you for continuing to do this deep study with me, and the growth that we’re experiencing together is such a gift from God. Thank you.
Nikki: Thank you, and we’ll see you guys next week.
- Inspecting Adventism’s Beliefs—God the Holy Spirit | 114 - October 17, 2022
- Inspecting Adventism’s Beliefs—Unity in the Body of Christ | 113 - October 17, 2022
- Inspecting Adventism’s Beliefs—The Remnant and Its Mission | 112 - September 7, 2022