CANCELLATION OF RECORD OF DEBT BY GOD (COL 2: 11-15)

CANCELLATION OF RECORD OF DEBT BY GOD (COL 2: 11-15):

Paul continues to write to Colossians that in union with Christ, they were also circumcised with a circumcision performed without human hands by stripping off the corrupt nature by the circumcision performed by the Messiah. Here Paul doesn't mean the bodily circumcision but the circumcision of heart and mind which is ultimately the attitude of a believer. When a person accepts Christ and becomes bound with Him, they are separated through the circumcision that could not be done by any man but only by God who alone knows the mind and the heart. God alone helps a person to get rid of the evilness in the heart and mind, when a person wishes to do, depends on God, and put in the effort. A person who genuinely follows Christ grows in the likeliness of Christ, and allows Christ to work in their life.

The author further writes that when they were buried with the Messiah in baptism, they were also raised with Him through faith in the power of God, who raised Him from the dead. A person who had committed his life to Christ will bury all his selfish interests and also bury the things that gratify the self but hurt others, as they are dead to the selfishness and sins that were committed. Because they were cleansed in the heart and mind at the moment when they accepted Christ with a wholesome heart as Christ was died and buried for the sins of all mankind and their past with guilt and shame is buried. God who had made the Christ to be resurrected, also renewed the people who had put their trust in Christ. The person who accepts and follows Christ will be useful to the self and others by trusting God and gaining the strength of God. They were continuously renewed by the Word of God.

The author continues to write that even when they were dead because of their offenses and the uncircumcision of the flesh, God made them alive with Him when He forgave them all of their offenses, having erased the charges that were brought against them along with the obligations that were hostile to them. He took those charges away when He nailed them to the cross. And when he had disarmed the rulers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in the cross. A person is unproductive like a dead man and without relief from sins, they are worthless. God gave life to the believers that are worthy by taking off all the offenses, forgiving their sins, and wiping off the punishments for it, along with fulfilling their genuine desires for the common good. Christ suffered for the sins of the people at the cross and he became a good example for all, making the rulers and authorities to be shameful for their evil actions by His humbleness and subjection for a greater purpose.

Stimulations for Self-Reflection:

1.      What kind of circumcision the believers had gone through? 

2.      What does the author mean by circumcision? 

3.      How we are buried and raised with Messiah?

4.      How we are buried with Messiah in baptism? 

5.      How we are raised with Messiah through Faith? 

6.      What the believers were before?  Why

7.      How God made the believers alive? 

8.      How Christ took the charges away by nailing on the cross? 

9.      How Christ disarmed the rulers and authorities? 

10.  How our corrupt nature could be cut? 

How we can be away from Guilt?