REGENERATION & THE CROSS

COLOSSIANS 2:13-15

OCTOBER 3, 1999

It is amazing how many attempts are made to add to the work of Christ. Christians are led to believe that something more is needed in their spiritual lives other than Christ. So they engage in all sorts of legalistic rituals to add to what Christ has done. Others are told they need to be delivered from curses upon their ancestors before they can have liberty in their Christian lives. They live in fear that a great-grandfather's sin is tormenting them in the present. Some carry the weight of past sin upon their shoulders, thinking that they must atone for their sin by acts of generosity or service.

This was the atmosphere being bred by the antagonists of Colossae. They intimidated the young believers into thinking that secret mysteries must be understood or mystical experiences must be had in order to make progress in the spiritual life.

In all of this, Paul would say, "No! Look to Christ. Find him to be more than sufficient for every need." The message rings clearly through our text: the believer is complete in Christ. How is this evidenced in the words of our text?

I. By seeing our spiritual condition apart from Christ

The moment we begin to look to ourselves as being the end-all for life and spiritual progress, we will find ourselves heading for the ash heap. The message of Scripture trumpets loudly that the Lord alone is sufficient; that we are to rest in him with all things, and that he alone is to be the focus of our affections.

Do we doubt this in the least? Then let us consider our spiritual condition apart from Christ and his saving work. The thrust of the Apostle's message is that when we realize the hopelessness of our lives as sinners apart from God's intervention, then we will rest securely in the sufficiency of Jesus Christ.

1. No animation toward God

The first thing Paul tells us about every person apart from Christ is that all are spiritually dead. "When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him." Deadness, in this case, does not refer to having no life or breath physically. Instead, it means that there is no inward life animating toward God. There is nothing in us that burns with joyous passion for the living God. There is no inward delight at the sound of his Word declared in our hearing. There is no ambition to live as a pleasure to him. Rather, our alienation from God turns us to living more and more unto ourselves. Our aim is to please anyone other than the living God. Our passion is for this world and all its attractions. Our ears are deaf to the life-giving message of God's Word. We are satisfied to live in opposition to God. The only thing that seems to dissuade us from living in total spiritual anarchy is the normal accountability we have in human relationships. We refrain from levels of sinfulness, not because we are uninterested in it, but because we want to please other people or conform to society.

Paul expressed this same reality to the Ephesians. "And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience" (Eph. 2:1-2). It was evidenced in the Jewish religious leaders who heard Christ teach, who saw his miracles, and who observed his holy life. They saw and heard, yet they did not truly see and hear, for they were dead spiritually. They could watch Jesus heal a paralyzed man or heal a withered hand, right before their own eyes, then turn around and try to find a way to kill Christ! How do you explain their insensitivity, their stupor unless you acknowledge that they were inwardly dead?

What a grave danger facing sinners: dead to the things of God, dead to the gospel invitation, dead to their need for Christ, dead to their destiny with judgment. Dead men cannot give themselves life. To do so would contradict what deadness implies. The biblical text intends to leave us with the understanding that a sinner cannot do anything to give himself life, nor does he even desire to do so.

2. Deliberate law-breakers

The sphere of deadness Paul describes is "dead in your transgressions." It is a spiritual deadness, caused by transgressions and characterized by transgressions. The term refers to the inclination of the sinner to break the law of God. "Transgressions" are not accidental sins. The word points to the intentional steps of a sinner to cross the boundary of God's law into the realm of lawbreaking. The mindset to deliberately violate what God has drawn a boundary around is the mind of a transgressor.

The nature of transgression is that it can be understood only in light of God's law (Rom. 4:15). The word means that you step across the barrier God has established against those things that displease him and that are contrary to his character. We have this in the Law, that set of divine regulations and demands that are incumbent upon all men to obey. But to disobey the law means that you are a transgressor, and as such, you will receive the judgment of God against transgressors.

In Psalm 37:38, David declares, "But transgressors will be altogether destroyed; the posterity of the wicked will be cut off." Breaking the law of God puts a person into a collision course with the wrath of God. When Jeremiah delivered the word of the Lord to Judah as it faced imminent destruction, the Lord explained why. "Why do you contend with Me? You have all transgressed against Me," declares the Lord" (Jer. 2:29).

Spiritual deadness is manifest by transgressing God's law. One of the chief characteristics of a Christian is that he desires to obey the law of God that before he only wanted to transgress. In describing the new covenant believer, the writer of Hebrews testifies, "For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and I will write them on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be My people" (Heb. 8:10).

3. Disposition against God

At the root of spiritual deadness is a disposition against God. It is described by the phrase, "dead in ...the uncircumcision of your flesh." We saw in our last study that Paul uses this phrase to refer to the unregenerate, the individual whose heart has never been changed by the Lord. Just as a Jew considered Gentiles to be unclean due to their lack of circumcision, even so our text expresses the reality that the whole disposition of a person is unclean and anti-God apart from divine work in the heart.

John Murray calls this "the totality of pollution." He writes, "Man is totally corrupt; sin has taken possession of his whole being. The inmost springs of desire, disposition and motive are corrupted or depraved: the source of intellectual, emotional and volitional activity is enmity against God. Man is under the dominion of sin" [Collected Writings of John Murray, vol. 2, 168]. The whole of man's being is polluted by sin. This is why regeneration is so necessary. For the pollution has affected man's thinking, speech, affections, and emotions. The poison of depravity lurks at every corner of one's being. It is not that man is as polluted or sinful as he can be; but the reality is that every part of his being has been affected by a disposition that is anti-God.

During the early part of this century, classical liberalism espoused the idea that if a man could just be in a better environment or if he could just be better educated, then the whole personality could be changed. He would no longer be anti-God; he would be morally upright and inclined toward spirituality. This experiment has only proven the foolishness of classical liberalism! Man has not improved with all of the social engineering produced. He only gets worse. And why? Because sinfulness toward God marks his whole disposition, unless he is inwardly changed, he will persist in his sin.

It is just such spiritual condition that reminds all of us that apart from the mercy and grace of God, yes, even the active intervention of God, we are hopelessly destined for divine judgment.

II. By seeing the God-centeredness in salvation

The subject of these three verses is God himself. He is the one who makes sinners alive, who forgives transgressions, who cancels out the indebtedness of lawbreakers, and who defeated the powers of hell through Christ. Paul intends us to see this so that we will not go running to every passing fancy that comes our way as an addition to Christ or as a substitute for him. Dead sinners cannot bring themselves to life. A stream polluted at its source, cannot clean up itself. Those enslaved to sin cannot liberate themselves.

Have you come to this reality? There are many, even some in our evangelical churches that believe that they still have a spark of life in themselves that only needs to be nurtured by a good church life. So they labor hard, participate in all that goes on in church, thinking that this spark of life will blossom into true spirituality acceptable before God. But Paul intends us to come to grips with the desperate condition of any person apart from Christ. Unless God intervenes on our behalf, we will not turn to Christ, we will not be forgiven, and we will not live in spiritual freedom.

1. God's act of regeneration

The Bible uses a number of terms to describe what Paul explains by writing, "He made you alive together with Him." There is the term "born again" or "born from above" used by Jesus to explain to Nicodemus that all of his religious labors could never put him into God's kingdom (John 3:3-8, gennao). Peter uses a compound form of this same verb, speaking of believers as having been "born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God" (I Pet. 1:23, anagennao). James uses a term meaning, "to bring forth or bear young," which points to sonship: "In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures" (Jas. 1:18, apekuesen). Paul speaks of believers being new creations or being the workmanship of God (II Cor. 5:17; Eph. 2:10, ktisis, ktizo). The word in our text (sunezoopoisen, to make alive together with) is used only here and in Ephesians 2:5, a parallel passage which describes man's spiritual deadness and the quickening, enlivening power of God bringing him to life [cf. James P. Boyce, Abstract of Systematic Theology, 374].

All of these terms fall under the category of the divine work of regeneration. The word itself implies 'to make alive again'. It is God himself going to work upon our spiritually dead condition. If we are as dead as the Bible testifies of us and we are as polluted with sin at the root of our lives as we have seen, then nothing short of a new creation can bring us into a right relationship with God. We have no disposition to follow after the Lord. Improvement of our environment does not change our inward disposition. God alone can do something about the blackness of our hearts.

So with the mighty power of him who raised Jesus from the dead, "He made you alive together with Him." In the secret place of the heart, God applies resurrection life to us, bringing our dead minds to life, animating our thoughts toward God, and inclining our whole disposition toward God. This precedes even our repentance and faith, for we have no will to repent and believe unless something changes inwardly in our disposition toward God. Here Paul reminds the Colossians that they did not effect change in their own hearts. It was God who took the initiative to bring them to life. So why would they want to run to lesser things for more spirituality? John Murray's explanation of regeneration may prove helpful.

There is a change that God effects in man, radical and reconstructive in its nature, called new birth, new creation, regeneration, renewal-a change that cannot be accounted for by anything that is in lower terms than the interposition of the almighty power of God. No combination, permutation or accumulation of earth-born forces can explain it or effect it. In the words of Stephen Charnock, 'It is not an excitation or awakening of some gracious principle which lay hid before in nature under the oppressions of ill habits, as corn lay hid under the chaff but was corn still; not a beating up something that lay skulking in nature, not an awakening as of a man from sleep; but a resurrection as of a man from death; a new creation, as of a man from nothing. It is not a stirring up old principles and new kindling of them' [p. 171].

Why do we need to be regenerated? Why not just leave us alone and let us come to Christ on our own? The truth is that with our disposition turned away from God, though we have the capacity to repent of sin and believe the gospel, we will not. Though a lion has the capacity to eat a piece of meat you are holding in your hand, I dare say that none of us would venture to take a chance by extending our hand to the lion. The reason we would not is due to the nature of the lion. His natural disposition would be to take not only the meat but also your hand! He is capable of doing otherwise, but a change would have to occur in his disposition before that happens.

Without violating the will of man, God sovereignly and effectually changes a man's disposition so that he willingly and gladly turns to God in repentance and trusts in Christ for his righteousness. Would a man object to this? If God does not give him a new heart to repent and believe, then he will not do so. It is only by such gracious intervention of God that conversion takes place. Charles Wesley captured this in "And Can It Be?"

Long my imprisoned spirit lay

Fast bound in sin and nature's night;

Thine eye diffused a quick'ning ray,

I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;

My chains fell off, my heart was free;

I rose, went forth and followed Thee.

2. God's act of forgiveness

Any discussion of salvation inevitably rolls around to forgiveness of sins. "Who can forgive sins but God alone?" a group of blinded religious leaders asked. They were correct; only God alone can forgive sins. For those who are "dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh," forgiveness of sins ranks at the top. Here Paul glories in the grace of God as the one who acts to forgive us our sins: "he made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions." All of our rebellion of stepping over the boundary of God's law, through Christ is forgiven.

The word "forgiven" is not the typical word we see for forgiveness. Rather it means "to forgive out of grace" (charisamenos). This was no accidental use of a word. Paul is reminding us that we do not find release from the burden of sin through psychological manipulation nor through an emotional catharsis. It comes only through God's action, God's prerogative to forgive.

But even God himself does not forgive without sin being appropriately dealt with. His righteous nature demands that the lawbreaker face the justice due transgressors. God cannot simply forgive without the justice due the transgressor being satisfied. We see this foreshadowed in the Old Testament sacrifices. As the Israelites labored under the guilt of their sin, the high priest would enter the holy of holies with a basin of the blood of the sacrifice, offering it upon the mercy seat to satisfy God's righteous justice toward forgiving the sinful people. Without the shedding of blood there was no forgiveness of sin granted. Sinners were judged in their substitute-the sacrifice. As the sacrifice bore the guilt of their sin, God granted forgiveness.

Look to the cross of Jesus Christ to see where the source of forgiveness rests. For it is in the satisfaction Jesus made at the cross, bearing our sin as a Substitute, that God righteously forgives us of our sins.

3. God's act of canceling condemnation

Paul explains this in more detail in the next verse: "having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross." The reference to "the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us," refers to the condemnation of the law upon transgressors. The imagery used comes from the ancient world of finances. When someone entered into indebtedness, he would write out the terms of the loan in his own handwriting. It stood testimony to the reality that he was bound and obligated to pay in full what he had borrowed. Paul thinks of the Law of Moses as the "decrees against us." It is that law which holds us accountable before God, which exposes the wretchedness of our hearts as transgressors. It stands in an adversarial role to the sinner, so that the law is "hostile to us." It condemns us as transgressors, deserving divine judgment.

But the good news is that through Christ, God has canceled out this certificate of debt! And how has he done it? "And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross." The charges against a criminal being crucified were typically nailed above his head on the cross. We see this done in mockery concerning our Lord. The imagery is clear: at the cross, all the charges by which we justly deserve the severest condemnation by God have been settled. Christ paid it all! The debt is cleared forever, so that "there is therefore now, no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8:1).

Have we come across anything that suggests that the sinner works hard on moral improvement, then God forgives him and releases him from his debt? No, the only thing we have seen is the God-centeredness of salvation. It is all of grace, none of our own doing.

III. By seeing Christ-crucified

So how do we know that we are complete in Christ; that we need not add anything else to supplement what he has accomplished? Paul's thought is that we look to Christ crucified.

1. Condemnation removed at the cross

Guilt can eat away at the mental and emotional state of our lives until we are thoroughly miserable. It affects the way we look at life, the way we treat our relationships with others, and the way we view the ministry of the church. We find no joy in worship when guilt plagues us. We run in our minds from the preaching of the Word, choosing the mollifying influence of entertainment or the escapism of felt-need teaching. We may even busy ourselves in all sorts of Christian oriented activities to keep from being still long enough to be reminded of our sin.

It was probably this sort of thing that was happening in Colossae due to the false teaching of the their antagonists. With the paganism of their backgrounds, they felt guilt heaped in large measure upon them for their past sins. How would they deal with it? Look to the crucified Lord Jesus Christ.

It was God through Christ who "canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross." The phrase, "having taken it out of the way," is the same used by John the Baptist when he pointed his disciples to Jesus Christ, "Behold, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world" John 1:29). It literally means that he has taken it out of his sight, so that it is remembered no more. The work of the cross was not intended to simply inspire sacrificial actions on our part. It was an actual work dealing with actual sin for actual sinners. It satisfied God's demands in his law. When the debt has been satisfied, there is no cause to pay for it again.

The "certificate of debt" of that first century person was written in his own handwriting. But when the debt was paid, a chi or what we would call an "x" was drawn through the certificate to show that the debt was paid. From a legal standpoint, nothing more was required of that person regarding the debt once it was paid. And from a legal standpoint in the spiritual realm, as Jesus Christ has paid the debt of our sins, nothing more is required to satisfy this debt. God does not come calling, asking for more payment on our indebtedness as lawbreakers. Jesus Christ satisfied the laws demands. "It is finished!" takes on new meaning when we consider that there is no reason to live in condemnation from the guilt of past sins. Christ has paid the debt. Look to Christ crucified for you. Rest in the abundant sufficiency of what he accomplished at the cross.

2. Triumph displayed at the cross

One of the problems at Colossae that we have already seen was an unhealthy emphasis on angels and demons. These people were superstitious, so they played right into the hands of their antagonists who hounded them about demons. They have their kindred spirits in our day among those who insist on finding demons in a person's life or in their past or in their family heritage. Are we to spend our time investigating whether or not we have a demon or whether our grandparents delved into the occult so that we must be released from bondage they encumbered? Are we to engage in prayers and ceremonies and formulas for deliverance? Paul satisfies this in the triumphant statement of verse 15. "When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him."

Paul says to take a look at Jesus Christ crucified. For at the cross we see the defeat of every spiritual foe opposing us or clinging to us or influencing us or condemning us. They are all not only defeated, but also publicly exposed as defeated.

The imagery points to those occasions when a Roman general returned to the city alive with praise for his conquering an enemy. Plutarch describes one such celebration that lasted three days, with the vanquished army's weapons being paraded in shiny wagons and the defeated soldiers, stripped of their weapons, being humbled in the streets. The defeated king no longer wore his robes of royalty, but they had been stripped from him, so that he was publicly humiliated as one who was defeated and without power. Then followed the conquering general, dressed in his regal robes, carrying the laurel branch of peace in his hand, greeting the cheers and hymns of praise offered by the Roman citizens.

It is just such a picture we find at the cross. For our conquering King, Jesus Christ, defeated all the host of darkness at the cross. He "disarmed" them or stripped them of their power to harm the believer. "He made a public display of them," showing that the work of the cross was altogether sufficient; that those who are in Christ are no longer under the condemnation of the devil. The word itself was also used of publicly humiliating a woman taken in adultery. The cross made a spectacle of the devil and his minions! As the ancient Romans sang hymns of praise to their conquering general, we offer hymns of praise to our great Conqueror. Every time we gather as the people of the cross, we ought to see it as a time to celebrate the conquering work our Lord accomplished on our behalf. We must never cease to give praise to him for his eternal victory. For through Jesus Christ, bearing all the condemnation we deserve, at the cross he "triumphed over them."

Conclusion

So what is a Christian to do in light of this text? He is to think upon the great sufficiency of Jesus Christ. He is to consider that apart from God's intervention he was hopeless to improve his spiritual condition. He is to glory in the God-centeredness of salvation. And he is to live daily in light of the glorious triumph of Jesus Christ at the cross. His passion and affections are to be centered on Christ.

What about the unbelieving? Face the reality of your spiritual condition before God. Look to Christ, trusting in his God-satisfying death to deliver you from your sin.

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