Title: HE HAS - - -

Text: Colossians 2:12-15

Introduction

There are four things shown in these verses: He Has - - -

1. Buried with Him

2. Forgiven us

3. Blotted out the bond

4. Spoiled the principalities and the powers

HE RAISED US THROUGH THE WORKING OF GOD (V. 12).

1. “Having been buried with Him in baptism….”

   1. If you never study the grammar of the NT, never expect to come to the knowledge of the truth on many passages.

   2. This shows point action with an on going effect. We have this in vv.13, 14, 15.

   3. Vine notes, “Used in the metaphorical sense only, of the believer’s identification with Christ in His burial, as set forth in baptism, Romans 6:4; Colossians 2:12.”

   4. Wuest, “Risen with Him does not refer to our future physical resurrection, but to that spiritual resurrection from a sinful state into divine life.”

   5. Baptism in the NT is always used in the passive voice.

2. “Ye were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him form the dead.”

   1. Just as the Father raised up Jesus from the dead, so we too, were raised up to walk in the newness of God (Rom.6:4-5).

   2. Faith is the instrumental cause of that which baptism sets forth, and has for its object the working of God.

   3. Just as circumcision placed the man in the kingdom of Israel, so baptism places one in the kingdom.

HE FORGAVE US ALL YOUR TRESPASSES (V. 13).

1. We were dead through trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh.

   1. Ephesians 2:1-3; 1 Corinthians 15:55-57.

   2. Trespasses are particular acts of sin (Ephesians 1:7; 2:1, 5).

2. WE were made alive together with Him.

   1. The writer changes from the first person singular to the second person plural.

   2. When God quickened He forgave. It was sometime in the past. “I once was lost, now I’m found. Was blind, now I see; was dead, now alive. Hallelujah.”

HE WIPED OUT THE OLD LAW, NAILED IT TO THE CROSS (V. 14).

1. He blotted out the bond.

   1. “Having blotted out” is a first aorist act. Part., meaning to rub out, wipe off, erase. It appears only in Acts 3:19 and Rev.3:5.

   2. The law was done away in Christ (Rom.7:4; Eph.2:15; Heb.9:15-17).

2. It was contrary to us.

   1. The law was never intended to save (Gal.3:19).

   2. It pointed out sin (Rom.7:11ff.).

   3. It could not take away sin (Heb.10:1-4).

   4. The law did what God intended it to do (Gal.3:24-25).

3. Jesus nailed the law to the cross.

   1. Barnes suggests this this is an allusion here to the ancient method by which a bond or obligation was canceled, by driving a nail through it, and affixing it to a post. The expression here shows that the obligation of Jewish institutions ceased in the manner in which a bond was canceled.

HE DISARMED PRINCIPALITIES AND POWERS (V. 15).

1. What are the principalities and powers?

   1. They are evil angels, demons; Satan himself. Wuest says, “These are the captives taken by our Lord in His ascension as He left the tomb (Eph.4:8).”

   2. The word that means “To strip off, to put off as one puts off a garment.”

2. He made a show of them openly.

   1. In the desert (Matthew 4:11).

   2. The strong man (Matthew 12:29).

   3. Did He not see Satan as fallen from heaven (Luke 10:18).

   4. Hendriksen says, “Is it not true, then, that by these great redemptive acts God publicly exposed these evil powers to disgrace, leading them captive in triumph, chained, as it were, to his triumphal chariot?” He then mentions Ephesians 4:8 and 2 Corinthians 2:14.

   5. Genesis 3:15 is now fulfilled once and for all.

Conclusion:

1. Hebrews 2:14-15.

2. We were saved at baptism, released from the Old Law by the death of Christ, and Satan and his angels led captive at the resurrection.