Colossians ~ Part 4

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 Yeshua Is All Sufficient

2 ⁹ For in Him, bodily, lives the fullness of all that God is. ¹⁰ And it is in union with Him that you have been made full—he is the head of every rule and authority.

For in him, in the Messiah Yeshua, bodily, in an actual human body and not merely in an imitation of one, as many pagan heretics taught. The “fullness of all that God is,” which is “in” the Messiah “bodily” (v. 9), will be in Believers as well because they are part of his Body (compare Yochanan 17; Ephesians 2:4–7, 19–22; 4:13–16).

In Sha’ul’s time, the three elements of a Gentile proselyte’s initiation into Judaism were getting himself circumcised (men),^[1] immersing himself in a mikveh (“ritual bath”) and offering a sacrifice at the Temple. (In today’s Orthodox Judaism, the last is moot because there is no Temple at which to sacrifice, but the other two remain as requirements for converts.) These three elements are set forth in the following five verses as having been affected by Gentiles who trust in Yeshua, even though they have not become Jews.

¹¹ Also, it was in union with Him that you were circumcised with a circumcision not done by human hands but accomplished by stripping away the old nature’s control over the body. In this circumcision done by the Messiah,

The reference to circumcision indicates the Jewish nature of this false philosophy. Circumcision was established and mandated by God for entrance into the covenant community of His people. But the circumcision of the Messiah was spiritual and associated with “circumcision of the heart” (Deuteronomy 10:16; 30:6; Jeremiah 4:4; Ezekiel 44:7; Romans 2:29).

¹² You were buried along with Him by being immersed (baptized) and in union with Him, you were also raised up along with Him by God’s faithfulness that worked when he raised Yeshua from the dead.

Baptism relates to Yeshua’s death and burial (Romans 6:3–8); it is not the Brit Hadashah equivalent of Torah circumcision. A Believer’s baptism symbolizes union with Yeshua in death and complete separation from the former way of life. Likewise, Believers are raised with Him through faith (1:23; Galatians 2:20) according to God’s power.

¹³ You were dead because of your sins, that is, because of your “foreskin,” your old nature. But God made you alive along with the Messiah by forgiving you all your sins.

Prior to their faith in Yeshua, the Colossians were spiritually dead in trespasses (cp. Ephesians 2:1–3) and cut off from God’s people because they were Gentiles (Ephesians 2:11–12). However, in Yeshua, God made them alive and forgave all their sins (Ephesians 2:4–8).

¹⁴ He wiped away the bill of charges against us. Because of the regulations, it stood as a testimony against us; but He removed it by nailing it to the execution-stake.

When a criminal was executed on a stake, it was customary to nail a list of his crimes on the stake; an example is the sign placed above Yeshua’s head (Yochanan 19:19–22). Some interpreters take this verse to mean that God removed not the charges against sinners but the Torah itself. I certainly don’t agree with them!

¹⁵ Stripping the rulers and authorities of their power, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by means of the stake.

The phrase made a public spectacle relates to God humiliating these spiritual rulers in public. The word triumphing evokes the imagery of a triumphal procession where a victorious general would lead a parade to display the booty and prisoners of war from his conquest.

Carnality and Spirituality ~ Part 1

Yeshua Should Be the Focus

¹⁶ So don’t let anyone pass judgment on you in connection with eating and drinking, or in regard to a Jewish festival or Rosh-Hodesh or Shabbat.

Don’t let anyone pass judgment on you in connection with optional matters. Gentile Believers are free to observe or not to observe rules about dining and Jewish holidays, as is clear from Romans 14:1 and 1 Corinthians 8. Eating and drinking, not “food and drink.” A Jewish festival. The major annual festivals are Rosh-HaShanah, Yom-Kippur, Sukkot, Chanukkah, Purim, Pesach, and Shavu’ot. 

¹⁷ These are a shadow of things that are coming, but the body is of the Messiah.

These are a shadow of things that are coming, meaning the good things that will happen when Yeshua returns.

¹⁸ Don’t let anyone deny you the prize by insisting that you engage in self-mortification or angel worship. Such people are always going on about some vision they have had, and they vainly puff themselves up by their worldly outlook. ¹⁹ They fail to hold to the Head, from whom the whole Body, receiving supply and being held together by its joints and ligaments, grows as God makes it grow. ^[2]

The worship of angels may be understood as worship improperly rendered to angels or as worship of God performed by angels.

In our next post, we examine Sha’ul’s Letters to the Saints, continuing in Colossians.

^[1] When I was leading our Messianic Kehilah, I used to have lunch with our local Rabbi. I asked him if a gentile proselyte who wanted to convert to Judaism was already circumcised, as is now the custom in our country; the Rabbi responded that he would still have to draw blood.

^[2] Colossians 2:9–19.