The Problem is Sin
Colossians 2:10-15
Message #6
Our study of Colossians is all about the supremacy of Jesus Christ over all other spiritual ideas and philosophies. In 61 AD – just like today – people were bringing ideas and philosophies into the Church that were minimizing Jesus Christ and maximizing their own approach to spirituality. And Colossians has been refuting those man-made ideas and showing how Jesus is far above any spiritual or religious philosophy man can come up with.
And today, we get to the show stopper. Today we get to the mic drop moment. These verses address the problem that only Jesus can sufficiently address, and that is the problem of sin. There is no religion, no philosophies, no ideology that can sufficiently handle the problem of sin.
The problem is sin.
Sin is the problem. And there is no empty philosophy or high-sounding nonsense (as C28 calls them) that can sufficiently address the problem of sin because God is first and foremost holy, and just, and righteous, and there can be no sin in the presence of God. And so, no matter how philosophical or high-sounding some other spiritual approach is, if it doesn’t address sin in a way that satisfies a perfectly holy God, then it cannot get you into God’s presence. Only God himself can address the sin problem. And since there is no “Man’s way” that can satisfy God’s requirement for dealing with sin, God had to make a way to deal with our sin himself. And our text today makes God’s way super clear.
Let’s back up one verse to verse 10 (our final verse last message).
Colossians 2:10 (NLT)
10 So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.
You are complete (in God’s eyes)
Through your “union” with Jesus Christ
Through your “becoming one” with Jesus
Through you being “identified” with Jesus
And verse 11 begins to explain how you are made complete in Christ.
Colossians 2:11 (NLT)
11 When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature.
Physical circumcision was a huge deal in the Old Testament (and still in the New Testament). It was the sign of your covenant to follow God’s law. But even Moses said (Deuteronomy 10:16) spiritual circumcision was the circumcision of the heart. Circumcision was a sign of the cutting away your sin nature.
Before you received Jesus Christ as your Savior and became identified with him as your Lord, you were living completely IN your sin nature, and that sin nature was ultimately leading you to eternal separation from God.
So, your sin nature had to be cut away
It had to be stripped away
It had to be “overcome”
And when you received Jesus as your Savior and Lord (or when you do receive Jesus as your Savior and Lord), he performs a spiritual surgery to overcome your sin nature. Unfortunately, that does not mean you’ll never battle your sin nature again. But it does mean your sin nature has been positionally conquered by the victory of Jesus Christ over sin – on your behalf. The Bible is clear, when you put your faith in Jesus, when you trust in him completely for your salvation, his victory over sin becomes your victory over sin by you putting your faith in him. Positionally, Jesus Christ has conquered sin in your place and on your behalf, and his victory over sin becomes your victory over sin by you being identified with Jesus – through faith.
That means God sees you in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. It means that the consequence of your sin (which is separation from God) has been overcome by Jesus on your behalf (and in your place), which is God himself making a way – the only way – for you to live for eternity with him in Heaven.
And how does the victory of Jesus over sin become our victory over sin? The answer is by us becoming “fully identified” with Jesus, and the word most often used in the Bible for our “identification with Christ” is the word baptism.
But there are two words used in the Bible for baptism. One word (BAPTO) means to be immersed in water. And another word (BAPTIZO) means to be fully identified with Jesus Christ. This word actually means to be so immersed into Jesus that a permanent change takes place in you. It means you take on the properties of what you are immersed into.
So, think about that level of “identification” as we real Colossians 2, verse 12.
Colossians 2:12 (NLT)
12 For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. (You were so identified with Jesus – that when he was buried – YOU were buried “with him”) And with him you were raised to new life (when he was raised to new life, you were raised to new life with him) because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead.
“For you were buried with Christ . . .”
“And you were raised to new life with Christ…”
By the miracle of identification with Jesus Christ through faith, you are permanently changed so that his death to sin becomes your death to sin. When he was buried, your sin nature was buried with him. When he rose to new resurrection life, you rose to new resurrection life – with him. THAT is the miracle of you putting your faith in Jesus Christ.
And as believers, we are commanded to be baptized (immersed under water) as a sign, a picture, of what the word baptized really means. But please notice very carefully that you are not identified with Jesus Christ because you were immersed under water. Look carefully, again, at the middle of verse 12.
12 you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead.
There is only one way to be raised to new life IN Christ. That is through trusting the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead. It is your faith alone that identifies you completely with the victory of Christ over sin, and it is your faith that makes you complete in him.
And when did Jesus do this for you? He did it when you were still dead in your sin!!!
Colossians 2:13 (NLT)
13 You were dead (meaning spiritually dead) because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins.
Because of our sin and because of our sin nature, we were already spiritually dead, meaning separated from God. We didn’t earn the right to be made alive with Christ. We didn’t reach some level where God said, “Okay, now they’re worthy of the life of Jesus.” No – Jesus did it. Jesus paid it all when we were dead in our sins. It was at that point, when we were separated from God by our sin, that Jesus Christ took our sin upon himself and paid the full penalty for our sin – in our place – on the Cross.
Jesus Christ became identified with our sin. Jesus became our sin in order to pay the full penalty for our sin in our place. And when we receive, by faith, the price Jesus Christ paid in our place on the Cross, the end of verse 13 says, God made us alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. This is referring to eternal life with Christ as opposed to eternal separation from God.
And when verse 13 says God forgave all our sins when we were identified with Christ through our faith in him.
It doesn’t mean an ARBITRARY forgiveness
It doesn’t mean we EARNED any forgiveness
It doesn’t mean we DESERVE any forgiveness
It means that because of our identification with Christ and because of the price he paid on the Cross in our place, the full penalty for our sins is fully paid.
Our sin is paid for by Christ, by the Son of God. Past, present, and future. And Paul says, “What should we say then (in Romans 6)? Should we sin more that grace may abound? Of course not. Don’t be ridiculous.” If you take advantage of that, you may wish to question your relationship with the Lord. We live for Christ because of what he has done for us. And it starts with this awe. “Lord, my sin. Every one? You took on, you became my sin, and you paid the full price.”
2 Corinthians 5:21 (NKJV)
21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Jesus Christ became our sin to pay the full penalty on our behalf so that we could become the righteousness of God – in him. For all of eternity, we will be awestruck by that truth.
And then Paul deals with the legal side of God himself, taking away our sin and giving us the righteousness of Christ.
Colossians 2:14 (NLT)
14 He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.
The record of our sins stood in judgment against us.
The record of our sins proved we deserved God’s full judgment.
And that record was completely obliterated!!
It was nailed to the Cross, and it was covered with the blood of the Son of God. Not only did the nails hold Jesus to the Cross, but they also held the list of our sins – pinned between his bleeding hand and that rugged Cross.
When (by faith) you become identified with Jesus Christ, his blood on the Cross wipes out your sin, and his victory gives you new (and eternal) life in him! And that is true, complete, eternal victory!
Hell thought it had you when you were dead in your sins. But then, at the Cross, Jesus Christ disarmed the principalities and power that are at work in this world, and he made a public spectacle of them. He triumphed over them once and for all on behalf of all those who put their faith in him for salvation.
In Colossians 2, verse 15, we have the “final victory” of Jesus Christ (on your behalf) over the principalities and powers of this world.
Colossians 2:15 (NLT)
15 In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.
In this way? Jesus disarmed and shamed the spiritual rulers and authorities.
The words “In this way” are the most important words for you because it refers to the previous verse. The previous verse is the WHERE and WHEN of Jesus Christ triumphing over your spiritual enemy.
Again,
Colossians 2:14 (NLT)
14 He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.
The moment you put your full faith in Jesus Christ, through your identification with him, Jesus Christ cancels the record of sin against you, and he takes it away by nailing it to his own Cross. And in that action, he triumphs over your spiritual enemy – on your behalf.
There is no other spiritual idea, philosophy, or religion that can do that or has done that.
The problem is sin because sin cannot be in the presence of a perfectly holy God. And there is no man-made way to fix your sin problem. And so, God himself made a way for your sin to be completely paid for and for you to be able to stand in his presence in the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
And that only way comes by Jesus Christ paying the full penalty for your sin in your place. And then, you being fully identified with Jesus by putting your full faith in him alone for him to pay the full penalty for your sin and give you his righteousness – allowing you to live forever in the presence of a perfectly holy God.
And today, we get to the show stopper. Today we get to the mic drop moment. These verses address the problem that only Jesus can sufficiently address, and that is the problem of sin. There is no religion, no philosophies, no ideology that can sufficiently handle the problem of sin.
The problem is sin.
Sin is the problem. And there is no empty philosophy or high-sounding nonsense (as C28 calls them) that can sufficiently address the problem of sin because God is first and foremost holy, and just, and righteous, and there can be no sin in the presence of God. And so, no matter how philosophical or high-sounding some other spiritual approach is, if it doesn’t address sin in a way that satisfies a perfectly holy God, then it cannot get you into God’s presence. Only God himself can address the sin problem. And since there is no “Man’s way” that can satisfy God’s requirement for dealing with sin, God had to make a way to deal with our sin himself. And our text today makes God’s way super clear.
Let’s back up one verse to verse 10 (our final verse last message).
Colossians 2:10 (NLT)
10 So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.
You are complete (in God’s eyes)
Through your “union” with Jesus Christ
Through your “becoming one” with Jesus
Through you being “identified” with Jesus
And verse 11 begins to explain how you are made complete in Christ.
Colossians 2:11 (NLT)
11 When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature.
Physical circumcision was a huge deal in the Old Testament (and still in the New Testament). It was the sign of your covenant to follow God’s law. But even Moses said (Deuteronomy 10:16) spiritual circumcision was the circumcision of the heart. Circumcision was a sign of the cutting away your sin nature.
Before you received Jesus Christ as your Savior and became identified with him as your Lord, you were living completely IN your sin nature, and that sin nature was ultimately leading you to eternal separation from God.
So, your sin nature had to be cut away
It had to be stripped away
It had to be “overcome”
And when you received Jesus as your Savior and Lord (or when you do receive Jesus as your Savior and Lord), he performs a spiritual surgery to overcome your sin nature. Unfortunately, that does not mean you’ll never battle your sin nature again. But it does mean your sin nature has been positionally conquered by the victory of Jesus Christ over sin – on your behalf. The Bible is clear, when you put your faith in Jesus, when you trust in him completely for your salvation, his victory over sin becomes your victory over sin by you putting your faith in him. Positionally, Jesus Christ has conquered sin in your place and on your behalf, and his victory over sin becomes your victory over sin by you being identified with Jesus – through faith.
That means God sees you in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. It means that the consequence of your sin (which is separation from God) has been overcome by Jesus on your behalf (and in your place), which is God himself making a way – the only way – for you to live for eternity with him in Heaven.
And how does the victory of Jesus over sin become our victory over sin? The answer is by us becoming “fully identified” with Jesus, and the word most often used in the Bible for our “identification with Christ” is the word baptism.
But there are two words used in the Bible for baptism. One word (BAPTO) means to be immersed in water. And another word (BAPTIZO) means to be fully identified with Jesus Christ. This word actually means to be so immersed into Jesus that a permanent change takes place in you. It means you take on the properties of what you are immersed into.
So, think about that level of “identification” as we real Colossians 2, verse 12.
Colossians 2:12 (NLT)
12 For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. (You were so identified with Jesus – that when he was buried – YOU were buried “with him”) And with him you were raised to new life (when he was raised to new life, you were raised to new life with him) because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead.
“For you were buried with Christ . . .”
“And you were raised to new life with Christ…”
By the miracle of identification with Jesus Christ through faith, you are permanently changed so that his death to sin becomes your death to sin. When he was buried, your sin nature was buried with him. When he rose to new resurrection life, you rose to new resurrection life – with him. THAT is the miracle of you putting your faith in Jesus Christ.
And as believers, we are commanded to be baptized (immersed under water) as a sign, a picture, of what the word baptized really means. But please notice very carefully that you are not identified with Jesus Christ because you were immersed under water. Look carefully, again, at the middle of verse 12.
12 you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead.
There is only one way to be raised to new life IN Christ. That is through trusting the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead. It is your faith alone that identifies you completely with the victory of Christ over sin, and it is your faith that makes you complete in him.
And when did Jesus do this for you? He did it when you were still dead in your sin!!!
Colossians 2:13 (NLT)
13 You were dead (meaning spiritually dead) because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins.
Because of our sin and because of our sin nature, we were already spiritually dead, meaning separated from God. We didn’t earn the right to be made alive with Christ. We didn’t reach some level where God said, “Okay, now they’re worthy of the life of Jesus.” No – Jesus did it. Jesus paid it all when we were dead in our sins. It was at that point, when we were separated from God by our sin, that Jesus Christ took our sin upon himself and paid the full penalty for our sin – in our place – on the Cross.
Jesus Christ became identified with our sin. Jesus became our sin in order to pay the full penalty for our sin in our place. And when we receive, by faith, the price Jesus Christ paid in our place on the Cross, the end of verse 13 says, God made us alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. This is referring to eternal life with Christ as opposed to eternal separation from God.
And when verse 13 says God forgave all our sins when we were identified with Christ through our faith in him.
It doesn’t mean an ARBITRARY forgiveness
It doesn’t mean we EARNED any forgiveness
It doesn’t mean we DESERVE any forgiveness
It means that because of our identification with Christ and because of the price he paid on the Cross in our place, the full penalty for our sins is fully paid.
Our sin is paid for by Christ, by the Son of God. Past, present, and future. And Paul says, “What should we say then (in Romans 6)? Should we sin more that grace may abound? Of course not. Don’t be ridiculous.” If you take advantage of that, you may wish to question your relationship with the Lord. We live for Christ because of what he has done for us. And it starts with this awe. “Lord, my sin. Every one? You took on, you became my sin, and you paid the full price.”
2 Corinthians 5:21 (NKJV)
21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Jesus Christ became our sin to pay the full penalty on our behalf so that we could become the righteousness of God – in him. For all of eternity, we will be awestruck by that truth.
And then Paul deals with the legal side of God himself, taking away our sin and giving us the righteousness of Christ.
Colossians 2:14 (NLT)
14 He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.
The record of our sins stood in judgment against us.
The record of our sins proved we deserved God’s full judgment.
And that record was completely obliterated!!
It was nailed to the Cross, and it was covered with the blood of the Son of God. Not only did the nails hold Jesus to the Cross, but they also held the list of our sins – pinned between his bleeding hand and that rugged Cross.
When (by faith) you become identified with Jesus Christ, his blood on the Cross wipes out your sin, and his victory gives you new (and eternal) life in him! And that is true, complete, eternal victory!
Hell thought it had you when you were dead in your sins. But then, at the Cross, Jesus Christ disarmed the principalities and power that are at work in this world, and he made a public spectacle of them. He triumphed over them once and for all on behalf of all those who put their faith in him for salvation.
In Colossians 2, verse 15, we have the “final victory” of Jesus Christ (on your behalf) over the principalities and powers of this world.
Colossians 2:15 (NLT)
15 In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.
In this way? Jesus disarmed and shamed the spiritual rulers and authorities.
The words “In this way” are the most important words for you because it refers to the previous verse. The previous verse is the WHERE and WHEN of Jesus Christ triumphing over your spiritual enemy.
Again,
Colossians 2:14 (NLT)
14 He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.
The moment you put your full faith in Jesus Christ, through your identification with him, Jesus Christ cancels the record of sin against you, and he takes it away by nailing it to his own Cross. And in that action, he triumphs over your spiritual enemy – on your behalf.
There is no other spiritual idea, philosophy, or religion that can do that or has done that.
The problem is sin because sin cannot be in the presence of a perfectly holy God. And there is no man-made way to fix your sin problem. And so, God himself made a way for your sin to be completely paid for and for you to be able to stand in his presence in the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
And that only way comes by Jesus Christ paying the full penalty for your sin in your place. And then, you being fully identified with Jesus by putting your full faith in him alone for him to pay the full penalty for your sin and give you his righteousness – allowing you to live forever in the presence of a perfectly holy God.