+I. We are made complete in Christ by inspirations.+
+II. We have ideas and ideals in Christ.+
+III. We are set in a various scheme of relations that we may have a
training in virtues equally various and be perfected in them
and by means of them.+--_Bushnell._
_The Believer Complete in Christ._
+I. Complete in Him with respect to the work which He hath already
performed.+--1. _His obedience and atonement were precisely what God
Himself had prescribed._ 2. _That He obeyed and atoned, we have the
perfect evidence of observation and testimony._ He Himself declared,
"I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do." "It is
finished." To this the Father and the Spirit have expressly borne
testimony: by signs and wonders; His resurrection; His ascension; the
descent of the Spirit; conversions; the glorification of His people.
3. _Into His righteousness thus perfect the believer is admitted._
+II. Complete in Him with respect to the work which He is now
performing.+--1. _Interceding in heaven._ 2. _Ruling on earth,_ and
thus giving grace and affording protection.
+III. Complete in Him with respect to the work which He is hereafter
to perform.+--1. _As the Resurrection._ 2. _As the Judge._ 3. _As the
Glorifier._ 4. _As the Consummation and Communicator of eternal
blessedness.--Stewart._
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 11, 12.
_Christian Circumcision._
There were two principal errors lying at the root of the heresy that
was doing so much damage at Colossæ. One was the theological error of
substituting inferior and created angelic mediators for the Divine
Head Himself. The other was a practical error, in insisting upon
ritual and ascetic observances as the foundation of moral teaching.
Thus, their theological speculations and ethical code alike were at
fault. Both errors flowed from a common source--the false conception
that evil resides in matter, a fruitful source of many fatal
heresies. Some contended the Colossians could not be complete in
Christ without submitting to the Jewish rite of circumcision; but the
apostle showed that they were the subjects of a superior circumcision.
+I. Christian circumcision is inward and spiritual.+--"Ye are
circumcised with the circumcision made without hands" (ver. 11). The
hand-wrought circumcision of the Jews was simply an outward and
visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace. This is abundantly
clear in the language of the Old Testament: "No stranger
uncircumcised in heart, nor uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter into
My sanctuary." "The Lord Thy God will circumcise thine heart, to love
the Lord thy God with all thine heart and all thy soul" (Ezek.
xliv. 9; Deut. xxx. 6). The argument of the apostle is that the
Colossians had secured all the spiritual results aimed at in the
ancient rite, and that by a better circumcision, even that made
without hands, by the spiritual and almighty power of Christ, so that
it was unnecessary for them or any other Gentiles to submit to the
abrogated Hebraic ordinance. The true circumcision is that of the
heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter (Rom. ii. 28, 29).
+II. Christian circumcision is complete.+--"In putting off the body
of the sins of the flesh" (ver. 11); or, as Bengel translates,
_putting off the body of the sins_--that is to say, _the flesh._
Manual circumcision, according to the law of Moses, was the cutting
away of only a small part of the flesh. But the true spiritual
circumcision consists in putting off, renouncing, and casting away
with disgust the _whole body_ of our corrupt nature--the entire
fleshly principle. The whole bulk of sin is fitly compared to a
_body,_ because of the weight of guilt there is in it (Rom. vii. 24),
and the soul is completely compassed by it, as it is with our natural
body (Gen. vi. 5). When the heart is circumcised, the total mass of
sin is put off, as the porter puts off his burden, the beggar his
rages, the master his false servant, and the serpent its skin. Old
things pass away; all things become new.
+III. Christian circumcision is Divine.+--"By the circumcision of
Christ" (ver. 11). It is wrought, without hands, by the inward,
invisible power of the Divine Spirit of Christ. It supersedes the
external form of the circumcision of the law and fulfils all its
spiritual designs in a far more perfect manner than even the
spiritually-minded Jew could adequately conceive. What can never be
effected by the moral law, by external, ascetic ceremonies, or by
philosophic speculations, is accomplished by the circumcision of
Christ. The whole body of sin is mortified, the soul is quickened and
renewed, and brought into the possession of the highest moral
perfection.
+IV. Christian circumcision is realised by the thorough
identification of the believer with Christ in His death and
resurrection.+--"Buried with Him, wherein also ye are risen with Him"
(ver. 12). Burial implies previous death; and to secure the true
circumcision we must be spiritually identified with Christ in His
death, burial, and resurrection. It is the familiar teaching of the
New Testament that he who believes in Christ is said to die with Him,
to be buried with Him, and to rise with Him (ver. 13; Rom. vi. 11;
Eph. ii. 5). A circumcised heart, a new nature, cannot be obtained by
mere human effort, by stern resolutions, painful processes of
self-mortification, or by the most advanced and rigorous mental
culture. It is secured only by a complete, vital union and
incorporation with Christ, and a sympathetic participation with Him
in all He has done and suffered. With Christ the believer enters the
grave where the vast body of sin dies and is buried; and with Christ
he emerges into a new and heavenlier life that transforms the soul
into a Diviner beauty, and fills it with unutterable rapture and
melodious praise.
+V. Christian circumcision is wrought in the soul by a spiritual
baptism.+--"Buried with Him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen
with Him" (ver. 12). Baptism by water, like legal circumcision, is an
outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace. But it
does not appear that there is any allusion here to the ordinance of
baptism. The leading ideas and figures used in these two verses refer
to spiritual realities: the death, burial, and resurrection, the
circumcision without hands, and the putting off of the body of the
flesh, are all spiritual; and the baptism is evidently of the same
character. It is by the baptism of the Spirit--the quickening and
renewing power of the Holy Ghost--that the soul is so united to and
identified with Christ that the believer may be said to be buried and
to rise with Him. It is possible to die with Christ and to rise with
Him without being baptised with water; but it is impossible to do
either without the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Spiritual baptism is
the grave of the old man and the birth of the new. As he sinks
beneath the baptismal waters, the believer buries there all his
corrupt affections and past sins; ans he emerges thence, he rises
regenerate, quickened to new hopes and a new life.
+VI. Christian circumcision is received by faith.+--"Through the
faith of the operation of God, who hath raised Him from the dead"
(ver. 12). Faith is not a natural production of the human heart. It
is a Divine gift and is bestowed on man by a Divine operation. Man
_can_ believe because God has given him the power to believe. No
unbeliever can receive the baptism that effects the spiritual
resurrection. The faith specially referred to is to be fixed on the
power of God as exerted and displayed in the resurrection of Christ
from the tomb. The same power is employed in that mysterious
baptismal process by which the soul throws off its mass of moral
vileness and rises into newness of life. Faith opens every gateway of
the soul, so that it gratefully welcomes and exults in the
transforming operations of the Divine energy.
+Lessons.+--1. _All external ordinances are powerless to change the
heart._ 2. _The true circumcision is accomplished by the baptism of
the Holy Ghost._ 3. _To realise the renewing power of God faith is
indispensable._
_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._