Colossians 2:12

Colossians chapter 2, verses 8 through 12, will be focusing our attention on verse 12 this morning. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. and ye are complete in Him, which is the head of all principality and power, in whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. May God bless to us His sacred and holy word this morning. There are innumerable creeping things in our oceans. Crabs make a habit of confiscating the seashells of large sea snails, and bearing them about. as their own. They live in them. The crab lives in the shell while it suits him, and then he discards it when it is no longer convenient. The shell is not part of the crab. He simply uses it as he sees fit. Now, friends, you ought to avoid a religion that allows you to do the same thing. Beware of putting on a religious shell on something. Sundays, but living the rest of the week without it. Any religion that you can discard in your daily life is not going to do you any good. The true faith becomes part of you. It affects your heart, and it’s not just external. Now, Paul has been relating the sufficiency of Christ, and how you are complete in Him, as verse 10 indicates to us. He has emphasized the fact that you are circumcised by Christ as a believer. Verse 11. We said that Christ’s inward circumcision, that of the heart, is far superior to that of cutting off the foreskin of the flesh. We talked about last week that you have a superior administrator, God versus man, a superior manner. It’s spiritual rather than physical and a superior effect. It’s the whole body of sin that is cut off versus just the foreskin. Now Paul proceeds to speak of the New Testament ordinance here of baptism and what it pictures about your relationship with Christ. Your Baptist, you’re Demands a change of life in correspondence to the circumcision Christ has given you. Let me begin by talking about the significance of your baptism. You’ll notice it speaks of your union with Christ. Twice he says here with him. We’re buried in baptism with him Buried with him in baptism. You’re risen with him also. Paul said you’re complete in Christ, and now he proceeds to explain this in our text. The gospel, you recall, that Paul preaches, is that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. That is the message of the gospel that Paul preaches. The benefits of Christ’s death, burial and resurrection are granted to you because you are united to Christ. You are with Him. Baptism is an outward expression then of this particular truth. Christ is the head and Savior of his people so that you are buried with him and you are risen with him. The 1689 Confession of Faith, the Baptist Confessions, says this. Baptism is an ordinance of the New Testament, ordained by Jesus Christ, to be under the party baptized, a sign of his fellowship with him in his death and resurrection of his being engrafted into him. The Westminster Confession of Faith has something fairly similar to that statement. Now, you know what a graft is because of trees and you take a limb from one tree and you cut another tree in such a way as to make a notch in it so that you can put that particular branch in to the slot and attach them together. They’re united together. In the book of Hebrews chapter 11, we read about the olive tree and the Gentiles being grafted in the olive tree of Israel, where the true Israel of God. So they’re they’re taken as a wild olive tree and they’re grafted into the olive tree of Israel. And so we have that kind of idea. We’re grafted into Christ. In the spiritual realm, you were united to Christ and we’ve mentioned this before in two ways. One, by your divine election because you were chosen in him before the foundation of the world. And two, by faith, you were in Christ. in time. Now this mystical union is portrayed in Scripture as a very close, intimate fellowship. In fact, it is classified as a marriage. The marriage union. Where Christ is the husband and we as the people of God are his wife. We’re said to be married to him, betrothed to him. And that forever, as the scripture indicates. The marriage union is. described like this, for we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. We’re united to Christ. You’ll recall that in chapter 1, in verse 18 of Colossians. And he is the head of the body, the church. The same idea here. Whatever happens to Christ happens to you because you are united to Christ. In this mystical sense. In this way, you can be said to be dead, buried, and resurrected with Christ. Let me come back to the idea of this union with Christ being a marriage bond. We could say that baptism is sort of like a wedding ring in that is a symbol of the marriage. It outwardly declares that you are united in marriage to someone. Wearing a wedding ring implies you’re married. Now there are times where people are deceived because someone wears a ring just to deceive them and make it look like they’re married when they’re not. That can happen. Baptism implies your union with Christ. Now it’s possible to be deceptive even in this case. Simon the sorcerer in Acts 8 was baptized but we find later in the chapter he reveals that he did not really know the Lord, even though he professed to know the Lord. But the opposite is also true. If you don’t wear a wedding ring, people are going to assume you’re not married. If you’re not baptized, then people will assume well, then you don’t belong to Christ. So it speaks about your union with Christ, and we can see the connection here. We’re with him. Now, you should desire to be baptized because of what it does portray. If this is what it portrays, a person should desire to be baptized. Because it speaks of my union with Christ. What does it say to the two and about the party baptized? Why, you’re united to Christ and therefore you have died and been buried and resurrected in him. That he did that for you. So baptism is a mark of distinction between you and the world in a way. You are set apart for Christ. You belong to Christ. You’re off limits for everybody else. You’re married, in a sense, to Christ in that way. It’s like Caesar, when he crossed over the Rubicon River, it was an irrevocable act. Once he went across that river with his army intact from Gaul or France, it was going to be war where the Roman Senate. That was the way it was. It was irrevocable. And so the sword was drawn in battle. was engaged. Such as the act of baptism, for you as a disciple of Christ, you are saying that you belong to Christ. You are in his army. You’re in his kingdom. Charles Haddon’s Spurgeon, the famous Baptist minister once said he met a man that was a believer for 40 years, but he had never been baptized. And the man believed it was his due to be baptized, but when Spurgeon spoke to him about it, he said, quoting Isaiah 28, 16, he that believeeth shall not make haste. After a 40-year delay, I think that was pretty inexcusable, to which Spurgeon replied, I made haste and delayed not to keep thy commandments, Psalm 1, 1960. The man certainly was misapplying scripture and avoiding an important duty. Given the significance of baptism here, this union with Christ, our marriage to him, our connection with his death, bare, barren, resurrection on our behalf, we ought to want to be baptized. And so we see the significance here of baptism. Now the qualifications for you to be baptized. Now, you’ll notice that this passage of scripture flows from verse 11. And so we see here, the first thing we would say is you should be circumcised by Christ. Now, Pito Baptist argue that baptism has taken the place of circumcision and often appeal to our text here, verses 11 and 12, for proof. Thus, just as Abraham’s children were circumcised in the Old Testament, believers’ children should be baptized in the New Testament. So, this appears to be, at first glance, certainly an effective argumentation. However, there’s no place in the New Testament that says that circumcision has replaced baptism. This is not the argument of John the Baptist. This is not the argument of Christ. This is not the argument of Paul. This is not the argument of the Church Council in Acts 15 when they were addressing whether the Gentiles needed to be circumcised in order to be saved. If there was there a time when someone could have said, well, they don’t need to be circumcised because they’ve already been baptized and it’s the same thing. But we never hear that argument. Look at our present text in light of Paul’s response to the Judaizers who demanded that the Gentile converts must be circumcised. Why doesn’t Paul refute the Judaizers by saying, well, you don’t need to be circumcised because you’ve been baptized? The fact that circumcision, the circumcised members of the old covenant community needed to be baptized to join the new covenant community further emphasizes my point. Why did Christ’s disciples need to be baptized if it’s the same as circumcision? If you have one, why do you need the other? And notice that women were not circumcised in the Old Testament, but they certainly are required to be baptized in the new. But when we look at the circumcision of Christ here, you’ll notice, and this is our argument, we’re not talking about physical circumcision here. We’re talking about spiritual circumcision, aren’t we? The circumcision of Christ is that of the heart. It’s not made with hands. So we’re not talking about physical circumcision. The connection here between this circumcision and baptism is between spiritual circumcision and baptism. And this is the argument that we as the Baptist will make. Surely then, this circumcision is what is compared to baptism. And so we would say one should be regenerated or have a new heart to be baptized. Baptism is a symbol then of one’s regeneration. One should not be regenerated in order to be baptized, but be baptized after regeneration. Just as we say, you know, the children of Abraham are those who have faith in Christ. They’re not all his offspring, but those who have faith, according to Galatians chapter 3. So Baptists believe that the New Testament anti-type, if you would, of Old Testament circumcision is heart circumcision and not baptism directly. So we say, wait a minute, you’ve missed a step. You’ve gone from circumcision to baptism. We’re saying circumcision points to the need for heart circumcision, which points forward then to the issue of baptism. We can go to that what direction. Now in the Old Testament, circumcision was prospective. It looked to the need for regeneration. where baptism in the New Testament looks backwards. It’s retrospective. You’ve already been regenerated. Therefore, to be baptized, one should first experience a new birth. So the circumcision of Christ is one thing that we would say. The second thing is faith. It speaks here about the faith of the operation of God, doesn’t it? It’s by faith that you as a believer, see yourself. buried and risen with Christ. Dying with Christ, buried and risen with Christ. The ordinance of baptism greatly assist you in this when faith is present. Without faith, how are we benefited by the ordinance? Notice it’s not any faith that will do. Certainly, the temporary faith of Simon Magus in the book of Acts 8 was not a genuine faith. But you need a faith which is. is, he says, of God’s operation. I take that to me. It’s a divinely given faith. It is something God has worked in us by his spirit, producing this faith in us. Faith is not natural in people. Scriptures is all men have not faith. So where did they get it? It’s the operation of God who grants us faith. Those who have faith, God is supernaturally. Ephesians 289, it is the gift God. God. God’s power alone can grant you faith. And notice it’s close association with regeneration. We’re regenerated, and then faith is produced within us. Belief in Christ, particularly in his death, his burial, and his resurrection, should then, we say, proceed the baptism. And thus, we would say, read the book of Acts again. And we see this repeatedly stated. Listen to Phillips’ answer. If I can give you one. example to the Ethiopian eunuch. See, here is water. What doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, if thou believest with all thine thine heart, thou mayest. Acts chapter 8, verses 36 and 37. This was after Philip had preached unto Him Christ from Isaiah 53, remember. Now, the Pito Baptist theologian William Cunningham admits that what I am saying here is true. Let me give you a quotation. I quote, it is impossible to deny that the general description, which the shorter catechism gives of a sacrament teaches by plain implication that the sacraments are intended only for believers, while no Protestant, except some of the Lutherans, have ever held that babies are capable of faith. Its general import as implying a virtual restriction of these ordinances to believers is, too clear to be misunderstood or to admit of being explained away, unquote. That’s from the reformers and the theology of the Reformation. Having seen the problem that we would raise, what the the theologian William Cunningham does is say, well, it’s different. There’s a different baptism for children as there is for adults. It means two different things with regard to those things. Friends, this is something we. we would deny as Baptist. We see that many good things get spoiled when we reverse the order of things. We talk about putting the cart before the horse. Well, the great mischief, I think, can come if we depart from God’s method in spiritual things. When Scripture tells you to believe and be baptized, I think that’s what we should do. And we have the order that God’s God’s. God has prescribed. They that gladly received the word were baptized. Acts 241. So these are the qualifications I would suggest the text indicates to us. One is regeneration. Being circumcised by Christ. Two is faith. Third, the mode of your baptism. We see here, he says, you’re buried with him in baptism. Now, if you simply read this text, you, you’re buried. You could see how someone would come up with the idea of you ought to be immersed from this text of scripture. It is a representation, is it not, baptism of the burial and resurrection of Christ? And are we not buried with him in baptism when we’re baptized? If it is a representation of our burial with him, then shouldn’t we see that portrayed in the symbol of baptism? In other words, this shows that baptism was performed by dipping or covering the whole body in water. That sprinkling or pouring water on a person doesn’t necessarily involve a burial. We wouldn’t count that as a burial. But coming up out of the water, after immersion, in it, fittingly, portrays the resurrection of Christ from that state of burial and our resurrection with Christ out of that state of burial. And so we see here your union with Christ in his resurrection and the duty to walk in newness of life. Now it’s interesting that if you talk to or read some of the older reformers or the Puritans or even some of the Scottish Presbyterians on the mode of baptism, you will find this interesting thing. A lot of them would admit that the early church baptized by immersion. Theodore Beezer said this. Christ commanded us to be baptized by which word it is certain immersion is signified. John Calvin. The word baptized signifies to immerse and it is clear that the right of immersion was observed by the ancient church. Martin Luther. The term baptism is Greek. In Latin it may be translated Immersio, since we immerse anything into water that the whole may be covered with water. And although that custom be quite abolished among the generality, for neither do they entirely dip children, but only sprinkle them with a little water. Nevertheless, they ought to be wholly immersed and immediately to be drawn out again. For the etymology of the etymology of the The word seems to require it. Philip Melankham, when we are immersed in water, this signifies that the old Adam and sin in us are dead. When we are drawn out of the water, this means that we are now washed. Richard Baxter is commonly confessed by us to the Anabaptist that in Apostles’ times the baptized were dipped overhead in water, and that this signified their purpose. profession both of believing the burial and resurrection of Christ and of their own present renouncing of the world and flesh of dying to sin and living to Christ as the apostle expoundeth in the four-sighted text of Colossians 2 and Romans 6. Thomas Boston. The unlawfulness of dipping is not to be pretended, since it is not improbable that it was used by John the Baptist, Matthew 3, 6, and Philip. Acts 838, but seems to have been used in the ancient church. Thomas Goodwin. The eminent thing signified and represented in baptism is not simply the blood of Christ as it is washed as it washed us from our sins, but there is a further representation therein of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection, in the baptized being first buried under the water and then rising out of it. Therefore, it is said we are buried with Him in baptism, wherein you are risen with him. Upon the party himself who is baptized, is personally, particularly, apparently, reenacted the same part again in his baptism. Thomas Manton, we are buried with him in baptism. The like expression you have, Colossians 212, buried with him in baptism. The putting the baptized person into the water denoted and proclaimeth the burial of Christ, and we, by submitting to it, are baptized. And so when we baptized, we do so by immersion. I’m reminded of a one time Pastor Gordon Ketty, a Presbyterian friend that I had. He once related to me, he said, you know, there was a Presbyterian that talked with the Baptist, and he asked the Baptist, are you baptized if the water just covers your knees? And the Baptist said, no. He said, well, are you baptized if it comes up to the waist? He said, no. he said, is it baptized if it comes up to your neck? No. He says, okay, then we agree it’s the top of the head that counts. And so he told me that. But we would say there’s more to it than that. The Westminster Confession, interestingly enough, says, dipping the person into the water is not necessary. But baptism is rightly performed by pouring or sprinkling water upon the person in Chapter 28, paragraph 3. They realized that baptism is by Dippy. You can be classified as being baptized if you are dipped, but they don’t think it is necessary to do that. The reason why we insist upon baptism is because we would say, well, we want to portray the death, the burial, and resurrection, and our union with him in that, and that’s why we believe that it’s necessary. Thus you see why we would say to our Presbyterian friends, the way this matter carefully, shouldn’t we portray what is actually being taught in scripture about the baptism? And so I think the symbolism of baptism implies some type of mode that we should use. Well, here is the mode of baptism that we have before us. So crabs only use seashells when it suits them and they’re discarded. it when it is inconvenient. People often do that when it comes to religion. It’s all external for many people, and they’re not really, it’s not really part of them. There’s no personal connection to the ordinances. But there ought to be a personal connection to the ordinance. It speaks about baptism, union with Christ and his death, burial, and resurrection, and walking in a newness of life, as Romans 6 indicates. All that flows out of our baptism. So we see the, significance here of your baptism. We see the qualifications for your baptism, regeneration of faith, and the mode of your baptism, which I suggest to you that immersion is the best mode to show us what is being portrayed. Well, let us close with a word of prayer.