Sermon Tone Analysis

Have you ever heard of something that seemed too good to be true?

Have you ever had someone make a promise that sounded like a good idea, but in reality you knew it probably wasn’t actually going to work out?

We’ve all heard the age-old saying, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”

Or another old quip, “the proof is in the pudding.”

Or how about, “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

There is a reason behind this, of course, especially for us stubborn Vermonters.

We tend to range from realist to pessimist.

We are typically slaves to pragmatism.

Results speak, and consistency is key.

This is not a particular slam against any one of us, if it were I would be slamming myself, too!

It is, however, an observation that plays into the “too good to be true” mentality.

The contrast that this really comes down to is the contrast between the abstract and the concrete.

Now, you may have to dig way back into your language arts compartment to give that some thought.

Something abstract is something that exists, but not in any particular time or space.

Typically it refers to an idea, a concept, a possibility, but not an actualization of those things.

Concrete, on the other hand, refers to tangible, actualized, something that has existence in time and/or space.

Its the idea that has been played out, created, brought to fruition.

Typically, we function in a comfort zone of working off the concrete.

Its when we get into the abstract that we get a little uncomfortable.

We are less likely to invest our time and resources into something that is still in research and development, as opposed to something that is on the ground.

This is our practicality playing out.

Ok, you may be asking, then what does any of this have to do with ?

I’m glad you asked.

Last week we spent some time looking at the fact that we are complete in Christ!

We have no need for philosophies of religion or empty deceit, we have the ultimate spiritual completion apart from works that we do, additions to the gospel, or spiritual experiences.

Here is where this whole discussion of abstract and concrete comes into play.

You see, even to say that phrase, “I am complete in Christ”, how is that tangible?

How is that actual?

Doesn’t that seem, kind of, abstract?

I will be the first to admit that there are many theological concepts and spiritual truths that seem so ethereal, so “out there,” so abstract.

And although we may believe them, they still seem to us many times as concepts, and not realities.

It is when we find ourselves viewing our spiritual reality in through the lens of the abstract and the conceptual that we find ourselves falling into a state of mental separation from the fulness of joy that is ours when we realize that we are, indeed, complete in Christ.

Being complete, or made full, spiritually, in and of itself is an abstract existence.

It is a concept, an idea, a thought.

The bridge from abstract to concrete comes, however, in the prepositional phrase in verse 10, “hen auto.”

“In Him.”

“In Him” is one of Paul’s bedrock concepts in the book of Colossians.

“In Him”, that is “In Christ” is a grounding rod that the Apostle uses over and over again to bridge the gap between spiritually abstract concepts, to concrete realities that are true of God’s Children.

“by him” his that same preposition, “hen”, literally “in Him all things were created.”

even creation itself is an abstract principle without being actualized by the creator.

Colossians 1:

I know, that was a lot rather quickly, and if you are one who likes to take meticulous notes, just summarize by saying “Paul uses the phrase ‘In Him’ alot in and 2.” You can get find all the references later.

Why did we take the time to look at all those in the introduction?

Because It is critical that we see the flow of Paul’s argument as he teaches on the Spiritual realities, the indicatives of our lives.

We are going to look at some wonderful spiritual truths in the body of the message, things like forgiveness, redemption, justification, salvation, spiritual victory.

All things that, if we are not careful, can become abstract, ethereal, mystical concepts that provide us with cannon fodder for the mind, but little comfort in the dark night of the soul.

Dear ones, I want us to see ever so clearly that all these seemingly abstract principles become concrete, rock solid, actualized realities, and they become so in and because of the person of Christ.

Christ is the rock on which the realities of our spiritual life are founded.

So today, I want us to see this.

Our Completion in Christ is not simply an idea, but a reality.

And in order to do this, we will look at three main headings.

Real Salvation

Real Forgiveness

Real Victory

1. Real Salvation - Vv. 11-12

“Christ’s Redemptive Action.”

Now, if we are not careful, we get bogged down when we jump into verse 11, because Paul begins speaking metaphorically.

I want you to notice how he begins the metaphor, though, its with our key phrase, in him, “hen auto.”

He then jumps into a metaphor which speaks of our spiritual circumcision in Christ, putting off the body of the flesh.

What is Paul referring to?

Well, of course, we know circumcision was the rite, the sign and seal of the Old Covenant.

Every Jewish boy was circumcised on the eighth day.

It was the sign that he belonged to the covenant nation of Israel.

Circumcision was never intended to be the enough to save someone, although some were teaching, even in Colossae, that circumcision was necessary for salvation.

Rather, circumcision was the outward demonstration that man was born sinful and needed cleansing.

It was a graphic way to show that mankind was corrupted to the deepest part of him, and needed cleansing in every way.

It was not just a physical sign, it was a sign that pointed to the spiritual cleansing that was necessary.

Circumcision in a physical sense was a picture of the circumcision that was needed by all, male and female, and that was circumcision of the heart.

Deuteronomy

God was always concerned with the heart of man, not the physical rite that outwardly showed their separation unto Him.

If we need any proof that circumcision never was salvific, we need look no further than Abraham.

Abraham, the father of the nation, the father of Faith, was said to have “believed God, and it was counted unto Him as righteousness.”

This took place years before God instituted the sign of circumcision.

To that point, Paul writes in ,

Abraham is the example of faith to both the Jew and the Gentile.

The Circumcised and the uncircumcised.

So Paul, here in Colossians, is speaking to the fuller meaning of Circumcision.

The fact that we are Circumcised in Christ, whether Jew or Gentile, by faith in Him, shows the reality of our spiritual cleansing.

The putting off of the body of flesh.

The “Circumcision of Christ” as Paul states it, is salvation from sin by Christ’s Redemptive Action.

Fittingly, as Paul just spoke metaphorically of the sign of the Old Covenant, he then moves to speak metaphorically of the greater meaning of the sign of the New Covenant, Baptism.

It is important to see that these inferences, both to circumcision and to baptism, are metaphorical.

If we miss that, then we make Paul out to be simply replacing one religious act, which he argues against in many other places as having salvific effects, with another religious act.

In that regard, some groups have misinterpreted this verse to mean literally that water baptism is physical act that God uses to save an individual.

Baptismal regeneration, as it is known, is a dangerous false teaching that leads many astray and gives them false hope of their conversion based on a physical activity and not on the person of Christ.

Rather, what Paul has in view here is the reality that water baptism symbolizes.

Just as physical circumcision pictured cleansing and purifying by the removal of flesh, so water baptism pictures our death to sin and resurrection to new life in Christ, as Paul says here.

In Christ, believers have shared in His death, fully and completely.

But it does not stop there.

To be joined with Christ in his death cannot stop with the burial.

He was raised from the tomb!

The one who raised him from the dead is the one who has also raised you to new life.

You have this new life in your union with him whom God has raised.

John Peter Lange says this:

We live Christ’s life, with and through Him, symbolically, ethically, spiritually, but actually and really.

And this all takes place, as Paul says, by “The powerful working of God.”

The “powerful working” here is the word “energeia.”

Sound familiar? of course, that is where we get our word “energy.”

This is further proof that paul is metaphorically speaking of spiritual reality.

Circumcision and baptism are both physical signs performed by man, but spiritual cleansing, death to sin, and resurrection to new life in Christ are spiritual realities worked by the power of God alone!