Evening Sermon

April 13, 2008

Finally, an Explanation

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The Lord taught me many things during my third year of college that would completely transform my whole life, for it was during that year that I gained an understanding and appreciation of the whole system of doctrine we call the reformed faith. Simply put, I came to understand the Bible that year. Not simply the knowledge and experience of my own salvation, for that had come several years before, but an understanding of what the Bible taught. And an understanding that the Lord would soon call me to teach others as a minister of the gospel.

I had a pastor who made himself available a couple days a week to talk to college students who were attending his church, and every few weeks or so I would sign up because something I heard in a sermon or read in the Bible just didn't seem to make sense. One of those meetings was about the subject of baptism.

I was raised in the Episcopal church, a church in which I was baptized as an infant. It was a church that presumed that all the children of the church were Christians because they were, after all, children of the church. And so, with that presumption, at the prescribed age of 12, we all went together through a series of confirmation classes and then the Bishop of the diocese showed up on an assigned day and we all confirmed. We weren't asked any questions. We weren't called upon to profess our faith in any credible or personal manner. We were simply confirmed by a bishop who had absolutely no idea who we were or what we believed. We were simply 12 year olds whose parents were members of the church.

With that confirmation, we were then invited to take our first communion and were actually allowed to stay in the entire worship service of the church, something many of friends no doubt thought to be rather boring.

Something happened to me a year or to after that. The Lord saved me. The Lord regenerated me, transforming my heart and renewing my mind. A couple years after that I transferred my own membership to a church where the Bible was believed and proclaimed faithfully from the pulpit. That church, however, practiced what is typically called "believers' baptism." In other words, you profess your own faith first, and only then are you a candidate to receive the sacrament of baptism. I was willing to submit to that, since this church believed the Bible to be true and sought to live in faithful obedience to God's word and commandments. But logistically, it just never happened. I just couldn't get it scheduled. And they didn't establish the requirement that I be baptized before they received my membership. So I joined without being re-baptized.

Then I went away to college and began a long search for a church home. I ended up attending several difference churches, and in my second year finally found a church I wanted to join. It was a baptist church, and their requirement was believers' baptism, by immersion. I was more or less in agreement with that whole position and very willing to submit to that requirement, but a nagging thought persisted within my mind. I had been a Christian for 6 years by that point, and my conversion had been sudden and identifiable. For six years I had been actively involved as a professed Christian in the church of Jesus Christ. For six years I had enjoyed the fellowship of God's people around the Lord's table in communion. For six years I had studying God's word and sought to teach it to others, both Christians and non-Christians. And the question I had was simple, "Why at that point did I have to be baptized in order to join that particular local church?" Because of a scheduling conflict on his part, a meeting with my pastor never happened, and that nagging question remained unanswered. I didn't have an answer. But I also didn't understand how my baptism as an infant could possibly have any meaning or significance either.

Finally, an answer. Finally, a man opened the Bible and explained it to me, the whole subject of baptism. It was that faithful pastor who had that sign-up sheet for students. I went to him and asked him. He immediately opened up his Bible to the text that we are studying tonight. And in a simple 20 minute conversation, he was used by God to enable me to grasp the meaning and significance of what we would typically identify as covenantal baptism.

I didn't need to be baptized again to join his church, for I had already been baptized. And his explanation centered upon the connection of baptism as the sign of God's covenant with his people in the new covenant with circumcision as the sign of God's covenant with his people in the old covenant. The point was that whatever baptism represented, whatever it was in relation to God's people, it took the place of circumcision while maintaining the spiritual significance of circumcision. Literally, what Paul says here in Colossians 2:11-12 is that "in Christ you were circumcised...by being baptized."

And so to understand baptism, you need to begin with circumcision. Specifically, to use Paul's words, we have to see the connection between,

I. CIRCUMCISION AND OUR UNION WITH CHRIST. Obviously, Paul's choice of words is not mere coincidence. He chooses to identify our union with Christ with this rite of circumcision. And let's tie all of this together, for remember last week that great and glorious declaration of,

v.9 "For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; 10 and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power."

Let me change the word order of that sentence for emphasis, reflecting the emphasis in the Greek. "In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and in him you are complete." Did you catch the emphasis of the words, "In him." "In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and in him you are complete." In Christ. That's our identity and the fullness of our lives, even our humanity. In him. In Jesus.

Now go to verse 11. "In him you were circumcised." Wow. Whatever the meaning of circumcision, whatever it was that God intended circumcision to symbolize and represent, whatever spiritual reality is attached to that old testament regulation, it has happened to Christians by virtue of their vital, spiritual union with Christ. As a Christian, when you became a Christian, when by faith you were joined to Christ, you were circumcised.

So the question immediately becomes, what is the meaning of circumcision? And the simplest and most clear answer to that question is, I believe, that circumcision is,

A. The identification of God's people. It was the name tag, the address label. It was the mark, and in the old testament, that mark was necessarily outward. And in the old testament, that mark was also bloody. Painful. But it was the way in which God labeled those who were his people. To be an Israelite was to be circumcised. To be circumcised was to be an Israelite. There were no exceptions, no inconsistencies. The sign of the covenant is expressed with such significance as actually representing the covenant in itself. Circumcision actually became synonymous with the covenant itself.

Gen. 17:10 "This is My covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: Every male child among you shall be circumcised; 11 "and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you. 12 "He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised, every male child in your generations, he who is born in your house or bought with money from any foreigner who is not your descendant. 13 "He who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money must be circumcised, and My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. 14 "And the uncircumcised male child, who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant."

In Acts 7, Stephen uses this same language, speaking of Abraham.

Acts 7:8 "Then He gave him the covenant of circumcision; and so Abraham begot Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day; and Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot the twelve patriarchs."

So it was that circumcision was the identification of God's people. Circumcision was the outward sign which marked God's people, marking them as separate and distinct from the world. That was their holiness, to be separated by this distinctive mark. Every male who laid claim to being among the people of God was a male who was circumcised, and every female who had such a claim would be identified by the circumcision of either her father or husband. That was who the people of God were in the Old Testament, the circumcised.

Now, that outward distinction is removed. Gal. 3:28 "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise."

And, Col. 3:11 "...where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all."

Likewise, Rom. 2:28 "For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; 29 but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God."

So that external form is gone, but not the reality. The outward ritual is gone, but not the spiritual reality. And what is that spiritual reality of circumcision? I believe it is the removal of sin.

B. The spiritual reality of the removal of sin. Or, as I just read, circumcision of the heart.

Now, how do we make that connection? Just think a little about the rite of circumcision. It is a cutting away. A cutting away of the foreskin, a symbolic cutting off of the sinfulness of the human heart. That's why even in the Old Testament that connection is made.

Deut. 10:16 "Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff-necked no longer."

Deut. 30:6 "And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live."

Jer. 4:3 "For thus says the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem: "Break up your fallow ground, And do not sow among thorns. 4 Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, And take away the foreskins of your hearts, You men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, Lest My fury come forth like fire, And burn so that no one can quench it, Because of the evil of your doings."

And, Jer. 9:25 "Behold, the days are coming," says the LORD, "that I will punish all who are circumcised with the uncircumcised-- 26 "Egypt, Judah, Edom, the people of Ammon, Moab, and all who are in the farthest corners, who dwell in the wilderness. For all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart."

What does all that mean? That circumcision represents the cutting away of the heart, specifically the cutting away of the sinfulness of the heart. Circumcision therefore represents cleansing from sin, and in the old covenant that was represented most appropriately with an outward act of literally cutting away a portion of the human flesh, what Paul calls in our text,

C. The circumcision of Christ. v.11 "In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ."

So this cutting is now accomplished not by what a human priest can do with a knife in his hand, but what the Holy Spirit can do by means of our faith in Jesus Christ. The circumcision of Christ, which is how we are to be circumcised now, is something that Christ himself does in us and for us. Putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, cutting away the impurity of our sins, is accomplished by Christ. He did it. His work of redemption is what cuts away our sin from us. And our flesh, that is our old man, is dead.

So we read, Gal. 5:24 "And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires."

The idea is that we are dead. We have died, with Christ and in Christ. The old man is crucified. That is the idea of,

Rom. 6:5 "For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7 For he who has died has been freed from sin."

That's our union with Christ. We died with him. We have been circumcised in him. The old man of sin has been cut away in him. And now comes the connection between,

II. CIRCUMCISION AND BAPTISM. v.12 "...buried with Him in baptism."

Now connect verse 11 with this first phrase of verse 12. "In Him you were also circumcised...[by being] buried with Him in baptism." You were circumcised in Christ by being identified with him in baptism. You were circumcised by being united to Christ in his death, and that union with Christ is no longer represented by that outward, bloody ritual, but by the symbol of water. The cleansing of water. The water of baptism.

So it is that now baptism is,

A. The identification of God's people in the New Covenant. It is how Christians are identified. So it is that the work of church as Jesus defined it in the great commission is,

Mat. 28:19 "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 "teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen."

Baptizing, not circumcising. Baptizing, the sign of the new covenant. It is the outward sign of our entrance into the body of Christ on earth, the church.

1 Cor. 12:13 "For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body--whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free--and have all been made to drink into one Spirit."

The body there is the church, the visible church, since the whole context of that chapter is the exercise of spiritual gifts within the body. We are baptized into the body, baptized into the church. We are identified as Christians by our baptism.

In the same way that circumcision came to represent the people of God in the Old Covenant, so now with baptism. For example,

Gal. 3:27 "For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ."

Likewise, baptism is used of the outward expression of a believing response to the gospel.

Acts 2:38 Then Peter said to them, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."

Acts 22:16 "And now why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord."

And so we come again to our text tonight, "In Him you were also circumcised...[by being] buried with Him in baptism."

So baptism, the sign of the new covenant, replaces the sign of circumcision while retaining its meaning and significance. Baptism now represents those whom God has set apart as his people, those whom he therefore declares to be holy. And that representation of "holy" includes our children. Remember Paul's words about a believer's responsibility to remain in a marriage with an unbeliever.

1 Cor. 7:14 "For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband; otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy."

They are holy, set apart to God, just as the children of the covenant were set apart by God in the Old Covenant. Children are set apart as holy to God because the promise of God in the covenant is consistently extended to them. For Abraham, it was in this form,

Gen. 17:7 "And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you."

You and your descendants. That is the object of God's covenant mercy, the recipients of his covenant promise. You and your children, and your children's children, to the thousandth generation.

And the promise is no different in the New Covenant. I read,

Acts 2:38 "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. [Then comes...] 39 For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call."

The promise is for you and for your children. And for generations far off. That's what the promise of the covenant means. That's what the sign of the covenant means, the promise that we claim in having our children baptized.

For the children of those who are already counted among God's people, circumcision meant they, too, were identified among the holy nation of God. They were Israelites. Even before they understood or believed. For circumcision, it was specified to take place at the age of eight days old. Because of the covenant promise. And now baptism replaces that sign, the sign of God's promise for and your children.

So those who are baptized are those who are "buried with Christ." Joined to Christ as those who have died. Died to sin, and therefore living as those who are holy, those who belong to God. And baptism represent that symbolic death.

Rom. 6:3 "Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?"

We are, therefore, new creatures. That's the symbolism of baptism. In Christ, united to Christ, by faith, we are actually raised from the dead. So go back to our text,

v.11 "In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead."

Remember my emphasis on that repeated phrase, "In him..." Well, here our English is more confusing, I believe, that the Greek, because the phrase beginning in verse 11 with "in him" ends with the words, "buried with him in baptism." Then we come to a new phrase, with that "in him" repeated. I don't believe it should be "in which you also were raised," referring to baptism, but "in him you were also raised," referring to Jesus Christ. So we have verse 9, "in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." Then verse 10, "In him you are complete." Then verse 11, "In Him you were also circumcised." And then verse 12, "In him you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead."

So it is that being identified as a Christian is not merely a matter of dying to what is past, but also being made alive again! So we read in,

Rom. 6:4 "Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin."

This is the same thing, I believe, as what we read about in,

Rev. 20:4 "And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. 5 But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. 6 Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years."

B. The first resurrection. Those who have been raised with Christ from the dead. So we read in,

Eph. 2:1 "And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, 2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, 3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. 4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus."

So we have been raised, in Christ. We are seated with Christ in the heavenly places. And we shall reign with him throughout this whole age, until the thousand years are finished. I believe that refers to the whole entirety of this present age.

And, beloved, you who belong to Christ and are identified by baptism as being in Christ, this is our great promise. By faith, by faith in the working of God who raised Jesus from the dead, you, too, are already alive.

So it is not baptism that saves you, Jesus does. Baptism is not the instrument by which you are saved, faith is. But baptism is the sign of that salvation, the sign of that work of God by which you are saved by grace through faith in Christ. And what a marvelous sign it is, a sign of your cleansing and washing away of sin.

No longer is a physical, bloody cutting away of the flesh necessary, but now that Jesus has shed his own blood, the sign is just of water.

Titus 3:4 "But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, 5 not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life."

The best description of this cleansing work of salvation is probably to be found in the Old Testament prophecy of,

Ezek. 36:25 "Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. 26 "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 "I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. 28 "Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your God."

Such is the covenant promise of the great God whom we worship this evening.

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