Colossians Part Six

By Johnny Angel

Colossians 2:[11] Also in Christ you had a different kind of circumcision, a circumcision not done by hands. It was through Christ's circumcision, that is, his death, that you were made free from the power of your sinful self. [12] When you were baptized, you were buried with Christ, and you were raised up with him through your faith in God's power that was shown when he raised Christ from the dead. [13] When you were spiritually dead because of your sins and because you were not free from the power of your sinful self, God made you alive with Christ, and he forgave all our sins. [14] He cancelled the debt, which listed all the rules we failed to follow. He took away that record with its rules and nailed it to the cross. [15] God stripped the spiritual rulers and powers of their authority. With the cross, he won the victory and showed the world that they were powerless (NCV).

Under the Old Testament law, Jewish males had to be circumcised. There were tons of other laws they had to obey. I don't totally understand why God required them to live by the law for so many years. I suspect it was to help them keep focused on God. Until Jesus came, the Jews were about the only people who could know God. A passage that I read this morning proves that the law was not necessarily what made God accept them. It is about a man named Abraham who God chose to be father of the Jews.

Romans 4:[1] So what can we say that Abraham, the father of our people, learned about faith? [2] If Abraham was made right by the things he did, he had a reason to brag. But this is not God's view, [3] because the Scripture says, "Abraham believed God, and God accepted Abraham's faith, and that faith made him right with God." [4] When people work, their pay is not given as a gift, but as something earned. [5] But people cannot do any work that will make them right with God. So they must trust in him, who makes even evil people right in his sight. Then God accepts their faith, and that makes them right with him. [6] David said the same thing. He said that people are truly blessed when God, without paying attention to good deeds, makes people right with himself. [7] "Happy are they whose sins are forgiven, whose wrongs are pardoned. [8] Happy is the person whom the Lord does not consider guilty." [9] Is this blessing only for those who are circumcised or also for those who are not circumcised? We have already said that God accepted Abraham's faith and that faith made him right with God. [10] So how did this happen? Did God accept Abraham before or after he was circumcised? It was before his circumcision. [11] Abraham was circumcised to show that he was right with God through faith before he was circumcised. So Abraham is the father of all those who believe but are not circumcised; he is the father of all believers who are accepted as being right with God. [12] And Abraham is also the father of those who have been circumcised and who live following the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised (NCV).

Nothing we do will earn us favor with God. We cannot earn our salvation. We cannot go through any ceremony that will make us saved. We must simply call out to Jesus, "Save me!" Jesus wants our simple faith that He is God's Son, that He died for our sins on the cross, that He rose three days later and is now back in Heaven with God the Father praying for us, preparing a place for us, and waiting to come back to take us home!

One of the devotions that I've posted before is called "The Room." In this story, you walk in a room with records of every single bad thing you've ever done. You try to rip them up and destroy them but you can't. Jesus appears crying for your sin and your pain. He hugs you. Then he takes every single record and signs His name to it erasing your past. That is how salvation works.

But I want you to notice something else about being accepted by God. Abraham walked and talked all the time with God. God was his best friend. Once you have been accepted by God through Christ, you should want to talk to Him. Let Him be your best friend. Talk to Him naturally. If you're mad, tell Him. He knows your heart anyway. If you're happy, tell Him. You can try to run from God like a lot of people have, but He's still there. There is no way of escaping Him. Be open with Him. He will show you great things that will make your life better.

All the rules are junk to God because of Christ. The religious leaders had started using the law to make life legalistic. They used the law for their own power and glory. Jesus took away that power when He died on the cross. Some people were trying to say that you still had to go by all those rules. But Paul writes here that that's not what it's about. Jesus came to bring salvation to all races, not just the Jews. All the Gentiles, or non-Jewish people, did not have to live by the law. The Jews were trying to keep living under the law and accept Christ for salvation. They were getting jealous because the Gentiles did not have to live under the law. People were spreading rumors that people who didn't live under the law were not saved. This passage makes it clear that God wants our hearts and lives. The only way be can be accepted by God is to have the faith like Abraham had. That is faith that God sent his only Son so that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life!