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Guest (Male): This is Connect with Skip Heitzig. Thanks for joining us today. Here at Connect with Skip, we're passionate about helping you understand God's word and apply it to your everyday life through clear, practical Bible teaching.

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Skip Heitzig: Paul says, "If you're in Christ, then you're circumcised." The cutting away has been done, and it's been done inwardly, which was, by the way, always the meaning of circumcision. You see, Jewish people were getting circumcised, but there came a time where they saw it as a badge of honor. "I've gone through the ritual of circumcision, so I'm good. I'm saved. I'm right with God because I've been circumcised."

It's just like a person says, "I'm good. I'm right with God because I've been baptized." But the physical sign should point to an inward reality. So in Deuteronomy chapter 10, even Moses said to the children of Israel, "Circumcise therefore your hearts, and be stiff-necked no longer." It's not about outward ritual; it's about inward reality.

So in Christ, the reality is you were circumcised. He doesn't say, "I think you should get circumcised." He said you already were. You were circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by the putting off of the body of sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead.

Baptism is also an outward sign of an inward change. Baptism is a representation of death and burial, and then resurrection. So we take the person, we put them under the water, full immersion. That's the New Testament form of baptism. We don't sprinkle them. We don't get a hose and spray them, though it would be quicker and easier.

But we take the person and put them all the way under the water because it's a symbol of death, burial. And then after a minute or two—after a second—we bring them right back up. You died, you were buried, you were raised. That's the symbolism of baptism.

So you've been circumcised, buried with him in baptism, outward sign of an inward change, raised through faith in the working of God who raised Jesus from the dead. Verse 13: "And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he has made alive together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses."

This is very similar to Ephesians chapter 2: "And you has he made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world." You were dead; now you're alive. He quickened, he made you alive.

This is an important designation. The unbeliever isn't just spiritually sick; the unbeliever is spiritually dead. And why is that an important designation? Because if he's just sick, then maybe he can do something to get himself better. Maybe some self-help formula, some therapy will help.

But if he's dead, well, he can't improve his condition. The only thing that can cure a dead person is a resurrection. If you went into a funeral home, how odd would it be to try to carry on a conversation with a corpse? There'd be no response. The corpse is insensate, unable to sense anything. Can't hear, can't speak, can't feel, and cannot improve his or her condition. You don't get less dead or more dead or mostly dead. You're dead. You were dead.

But you being dead, he has made alive together with him, the one who rose from the dead, having forgiven you all your trespasses. This is why, before you were saved, you would look at this book and you'd go, "I don't get it. I read this book and it's weird. I don't understand it." You're right. You don't understand it. It's spiritually discerned, Paul said to the Corinthians. The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit because they are spiritually discerned.

So you were dead; now you're alive. He rose; you rose. He circumcised you, you were buried with him in baptism, and just as Jesus rose from the dead, Paul is saying emblematically and in reality, you have a brand new life. New relationship with him, new status.

He describes it further in verse 14: "Having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross."

This handwriting that he is speaking about was a word that described a certificate of debt. If you owed somebody something, there was a certificate that you owed somebody something. It's like an IOU. It's been wiped away, wiped out. It says, "having wiped it out," literally wiped off.

In fact, this is one of the texts of scripture where the King James is a better translation than the New King James, or even the New American Standard, or the NIV, or the NLT. The old King James says "blotted out." Now let me describe what that means.

In the old days, in New Testament days, they didn't write on paper. They wrote on parchment. They wrote on vellum. Papyrus reeds grown by the side of a river. But sometimes vellum, which was animal hide. And the ancient inks did not have acid in them. So when you would write on the surface, you had to let it dry and settle in.

Modern inks would just permeate because there's an acid in the ink. The ancient inks didn't have acid, so if you wrote something down, you could wipe it away. So there was a certificate of debt that you could never pay before God. Before the ink dried, it was wiped off, blotted out.

Wouldn't that be awesome today if you got a traffic ticket and you could just wipe it away? Well, you had a big traffic ticket and he wiped out, or wiped off, or blotted out the handwriting of requirements, the certificate of debt that was against us, which was contrary to us. It condemned us. And he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

"Having disarmed principalities and powers"—six times the New Testament uses that to speak of fallen angels and in their rankings—"having disarmed principalities and powers, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it."

Paul is using a familiar word picture of a Roman general returning from warfare in a *triumphus*. A *triumphus* was a parade, a procession, a triumphant procession where he would go through the streets of Rome and people would hail him and throw flowers at him and gifts at him, and he has come back triumphant.

So at the cross, Jesus disarmed all of the officers in the satanic army, if you will, principalities and powers, made a public spectacle of them. In those Roman victory parades, the generals of the other side were captured and paraded by the victorious general through the streets. Like, look, these are the guys we beat.

Triumphing over them in it. "Therefore let no one judge you in food or drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ."

Okay, he mentioned a couple of different rituals: circumcision and baptism. But there were two more things people got hung up on in this group infiltrating the church. One was diet and the second, days. Days of worship. Diet and days.

So therefore, because Christ took the certificate of debt that was against you and you are complete in him, therefore let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.

Some people get hung up on what day you should worship: Saturday or Sunday. Or, well, if you're really spiritual, you won't eat this or drink that. Paul says it's not the substance, it's just the shadow. A shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.

Now, here's the problem with legalism. And some people I know are very legalistic in their relationship, pretty much in every aspect, but especially in their Christian walk. A legalistic person believes, "If I do this or that, or keep myself from doing this or that, I'm better than everybody else. I'm spiritual." So it becomes righteousness by a checklist. I've done this, check. I've done that, check. I haven't done that, check.

So you have set a standard whereby you consider yourself righteous by the performance that you have kept. That's where it's deceiving, because Paul said, "not by works of righteousness which we have done, but by his mercy he has saved us."

Guest (Female): You’re listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Every day, friends like you help connect people around the world to the life-changing truth of God's word through clear, verse-by-verse Bible teaching.

Our world constantly tells us we need something more, but the book of Colossians reminds us that everything we truly need is found in Jesus Christ. That's the heart of Pastor Skip's resource, Expound Colossians. As he walks verse by verse through this powerful New Testament book, you'll discover why Christ is supreme over all things, how to recognize truth in a world full of competing voices, and what it means to live each day firmly rooted in him.

We'll send Expound Colossians as our thanks when you give $50 or more to support Connect with Skip Heitzig. Call 800-922-1888 or visit connectwithskip.com/offer. Now, let's return to today's teaching from Pastor Skip Heitzig.

Skip Heitzig: Remember the rich young ruler who came to Jesus and asked that question, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus rattled off some of the commandments. Then the guy said, "All these I have kept from my youth." Check, check, check, check, check.

And so Jesus, knowing all things—in him are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge—said to him, "There's one thing you lack, rich young ruler. Sell what you have, give it to the poor, come and follow me, and you'll have treasure in heaven." At that, the young man went away sorrowful because that system, that standard of righteousness, he realized he hadn't kept.

There was something he lacked. And Jesus wasn't saying, "If you just do this, then you'll be saved." He knew that was the one area that the young man was deficient in because he was living under that illusion.

Paul says they are a shadow of things to come; the substance is of Christ. "Let no one defraud you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind."

I mentioned this Colossian heresy had mysticism. Not just legalism, not just asceticism—that is denying yourself certain things—but mysticism. And a person who has a mystical relationship to God, it's all inward. It's all about one's sensation, what you feel, rather than God's revelation, what he said. So it's not like, "This is what the Bible says, I'm going to live by that," but "This is how I feel about this."

It's all righteousness and relationship with God based upon a sensation. It's looking for truth internally rather than externally, based upon feeling rather than what the Bible says.

Now these Gnostics, this little group of heretics, these pre-Gnostics to be more accurate, believed that all of these different emanations that led up to God—remember I said there was one God, God was perfect, he made all these other spirit beings, these emanations—all of these spiritual emanations formed a bridge by which you would get to know the one true God. And so they would say, "We're going to take you along the pathway to understand who and what these emanations can do for you, and we'll take you along and over the bridge that leads to God."

Now what was the thinking behind doing this? Listen carefully, see if any of you can relate to this. They believed that God is so perfect, so holy, that you as a human being have no right to go directly to him. You have to go through other emanations lesser than him, who can then help you approach him.

Now, I don't know if that sounds familiar to you, but it sounds very familiar to me. I grew up in a system where I was told you have no right to approach Jesus directly. He's perfect, you're not. But every son listens to his mother. And if you approach his mother and beseech and pray to his mother, who will then in turn get you in touch with Jesus, who will get you in touch with the Father—now you're onto something. Or better yet, if you pray to this saint, and that saint, and Mary, who will then talk to God, man, you got a whole bunch of lawyers in your side.

The problem with that is Jesus said when you pray, pray directly to the Father in Jesus' name. He bridged the gap. You are complete in him. So let no one defraud you of your reward, taking delight in false humility, worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind.

In other words, they're making this stuff up. They're not getting this from the Old Testament; they're not getting this from anywhere in the Bible. They're making it up. It's vainly puffed up by their fleshly mind and not holding fast to the head, that's Jesus, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase which is from God.

"Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations: 'Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,' which all concern things which perish with the using, according to the commandments and the doctrines of men?"

It's amazing it started way back then, but throughout church history, actually even up to the present, there were periods of church history where the prevailing thought was this: if you're going to follow Jesus successfully, authentically, it's got to hurt. You got to feel some pain. And we're not talking about the persecution of the world. The more you allow yourself to suffer, the better off you'll be. Serving God is awesome, but it's got to hurt you.

So the desert fathers believed: live out in the desert in isolation from everybody. And then in the Middle Ages, the medieval period, they wore uncomfortable clothing, hair shirts, and they would flog themselves, beat themselves.

When they were tempted, some of the monks who were living in monasteries, to fight the lustful temptations they were thinking about in their minds, they would throw themselves into thorn bushes. And then the thorns that would dig into their flesh and cause them to bleed would distract their minds from thinking about bad things, naughty things.

Of course, I don't know if that was a really great idea for a number of reasons, one of which: when you go to dinner that night in the monastery and they see you all bloodied up, they know what you've been thinking. I guess that's accountability, but not the right kind.

One of the early church fathers by the name of Origen had himself castrated because of the words of Jesus who said some have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of God's sake. So this thinking that pervaded the church and is still around is that if you're going to serve God, got to make sure it's going to hurt. That's that asceticism. Self-denial. Sanctify the soul by disciplining the body.

Paul says it's not going to work. God never gave any commandment for that to happen. You made it up. It's vainly puffed up by your fleshly mind. Therefore, you died with the basic principles of the world. Why are you living as though you subject yourselves to regulations like "do not touch, do not taste, do not handle," all which concern things which perish with using according to the commandments and doctrines of men?

Last verse of chapter 2: "These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh."

Going through all of these rituals, going through all of this self-denial to make yourself have a reputation of being so spiritual. So when people see—remember what Jesus said? "When you fast, don't, you know, wipe your face and look good. Don't appear to men to be fasting. They've already received their reward."

Doing these things would give you a reputation that you are spiritual when in fact you are not spiritual. People just think you are. Paul is saying they think you are, you have a reputation that you are, but you're not, because these things are self-imposed religion, false humility, neglect of the body, but they are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.

Asceticism, self-denial, feeds your pride. Think about it. Feeds your pride. I'm spiritual because I didn't do that. I didn't have that cigarette. That's good. I'm recommending you don't have that cigarette. But it doesn't necessarily make you more spiritual because you don't do certain gray-area items.

Here's a better plan. You come to Christ, you're complete in him. Circumcision, baptism, resurrection, done deal. And then he gives you new desires. He works from the inside out, not the outside in. That's what all this stuff is about: outside in, self-imposed religion, work my way to heaven. But they're of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.

Peter said when you come to Christ, you are—listen to this—partakers of the divine nature. Partakers of the divine nature. He gives you new desires. He changes you from the inside out. He gives you new appetites.

So that's the gospel. Religion is different from the gospel. Religion is man-made; the gospel is God-given. It's a free gift. A free gift. But any gift must be received. As you have received Christ, so walk in him. Salvation is a free gift. Christ says, "I'll dwell in you. I'll live in you. I'll walk with you. I'll help you." But you have to receive the gift. He'll wipe away the ordinances; you have to let him wipe it out, blot it out, remove it. It's a free gift, but you've got to receive it.

Guest (Female): Thanks for joining us today on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Now, here's how to pre-order an exciting resource from Pastor Skip that's coming next month.

What if you could understand the big picture of the Bible in just a few minutes each day? Well, this brand new book from Pastor Skip is just what you need. In Soaring Above It All, Pastor Skip Heitzig shares a one-year devotional journey through Scripture that's clear, practical, and spiritually encouraging. Pre-order your copy today wherever you buy books.

Before we go, remember: your generosity helps share God's word with people around the world through clear, verse-by-verse Bible teaching. And this month, when you give $50 or more, we'll send you Expound Colossians as our thanks. In this five-message study, Pastor Skip explores one of the Bible's clearest pictures of the supremacy of Jesus Christ and shows how being rooted in him changes the way you live every day. Give today at connectwithskip.com/offer or call 800-922-1888. See you next time on Connect with Skip Heitzig.

Guest (Male): Making a connection at the foot of the cross, cast your burdens on his word, make a connection. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.