Chapter 2:6-15
A1 Scripture
B1 Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been rooted and built up in Him and being established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. See that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and in Him you have been made complete, who is the head of all principality and power. In whom you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by the putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried together with Him in baptism, in which also you were raised together through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, having blotted out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and He has taken it out of the midst, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed principalities and powers, He mocked them in public, triumphing over them in it. (Colossians 2:6-15, EMTV)
B2 Since you have accepted Christ Jesus as Lord, live in union with him. Keep your roots deep in him, build your lives on him, and become stronger in your faith, as you were taught. And be filled with thanksgiving. See to it, then, that no one enslaves you by means of the worthless deceit of human wisdom, which comes from the teachings handed down by human beings and from the ruling spirits of the universe, and not from Christ. For the full content of divine nature lives in Christ, in his humanity, and you have been given full life in union with him. He is supreme over every spiritual ruler and authority. In union with Christ you were circumcised, not with the circumcision that is made by human beings, but with the circumcision made by Christ, which consists of being freed from the power of this sinful self. For when you were baptized, you were buried with Christ, and in baptism you were also raised with Christ through your faith in the active power of God, who raised him from death. You were at one time spiritually dead because of your sins and because you were Gentiles without the Law. But God has now brought you to life with Christ. God forgave us all our sins; he canceled the unfavorable record of our debts with its binding rules and did away with it completely by nailing it to the cross. And on that cross Christ freed himself from the power of the spiritual rulers and authorities; he made a public spectacle of them by leading them as captives in his victory procession. (Colossians 2:6-15, GNB92)
A2 Outline
B1 Received Christ
C1 Already
D1 Rooted
D2 Built up
D3 Established
D4 Abounding in it
D5 Thankful
C2 Now--walk
B2 Continue in Christ
C1 Don't be deceived by
D1 Philosophy
D2 Empty deception
D3 The traditions of men
D4 The basic principles of the world
C2 Be in Christ who
D1 Has all fullness of the Godhead bodily
D2 Makes us complete
D3 Head of
E1 All Principality
E2 All Power
D4 The circumciser of the heart
D5 His baptism
E1 We were buried with Him
E2 We were resurrected with Him
D6 He is the life giver
E1 We were dead
F1 Because of sins
F2 Because we were Gentiles without the Law
E2 We are now alive
F1 God forgave sins
F2 God canceled our record of sins
F3 God nailed it all to the Cross
D7 Christ defeated
E1 Spiritual rulers
E2 Spiritual authorities
E3 Christ mocked them
E4 Christ won the battle over them
A3 Notes
B1 A summary of the passage would be becoming a true, Bible believing Christian is only the start of the Christian walk. Now there are many things as doctrine and rules for a Christian life,
B2 Colossians 2:6
C1 Received Christ
D1 Believed God that they were NOT good and lawbreakers
D2 Believed God that they would be punished with hell forever
D3 Believed God that they could not do anything to receive forgiveness for these trespasses
D4 Believed God that Jesus is the only Savior
D5 Believed God that asking for and fully believing in the Lord Jesus would receive forgiveness
C2 The Lord
D1 Jesus is not just Messiah
D2 Jesus is not just a religious leader
D3 Jesus is not just a good, easy going friend
D4 Jesus is Messiah, Head of the Church, and King of our lives
D5 Jesus is the one to whom we submit to His rules
C3 Walk is living the daily Christian life
B3 Colossians 2:7
C1 Rooted
D1 Grounded in Messiah
D2 Secure in Messiah
D3 Nourished by Messiah
C2 Built up is the growth of the Christian. We do not grow ourselves but are feed by the Scriptures, blessed by prayer, encouraged and lead by the Holy Spirit.
C3 Established is settled and unmovable in faith and doctrine--both written and living.
C4 Faith is the Christian faith of doctrine and lifestyle
C5 Paul and the others taught the people these things. So it should be so today.
C6 Abounding is a growth spurt.
C7 Thanksgiving is recognizing the source of blessing and help even in difficult time.
B4 Colossians 2:8
C1 Captive is a loss of freedom. It is being enslaved by something. God gives up libertarian freedom, not exhaustive determinism. The idea also carries the idea of stealing something from a person.
C2 Philosophy
D1 The word is has the idea of using man's ideas through using science, logic and rhetoric.
D2 It is totalitarian science.
D3 It is the idea that science as all the answers.
D4 Using persuasive speech, false promises, lies in the name of science to control all people.
D5 It is science as being the highest knowledge.
D6 Thus the philosophers would be these wise priests of science who alone can enable a successful life.
D7 See this link. See this review.
C3 Empty deception is the lies and pervasive speech to convince people they are wrong and the so called philosophers are right.
D1 It is to lead the Christian astray. It is to lead us away from the libertarian freedom of the truth taught by Jesus Christ.
D2 The divide is clear. One will either follow the philosophy/science authority or the authority of God.
C4 The tradition of men. The idea of this type of philosophy and deception have been practiced for millennia.
C5 Basic principles of the world. The exact opposite of the basic principles of God.
B5 Colossians 2:9
C1 Godhead
D1 Godhood
D2 Everything that is God, is Jesus also with the idea of Jesus having a physical body.
D3 Jesus is fully God.
C2 Bodily
D1 Jesus is 100% man and 100% God.
D2 When someone saw Jesus, they saw God.
B5 Colossians 2:10
C1 We have been made complete
D1 Jesus is everything we need.
D2 "...but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." (1 Corinthians 1:24, EMTV)
D3 Sin fractures us, separates us, affects us in many bad ways. Jesus heals all our spiritual illnesses.
D4 The Jews and Gentiles are no longer separate. They are now Christians--just one group. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's descendants, and heirs according to the promise. (Galatians 3:26-29, EMTV)
C2 Head--the highest authority
C3 Principality and power
D1 Ranks of angelic beings.
D2 Ranks of human rules.
D3 Jesus is Lords of lords.
B6 Colossians 2:11
C1 Circumcision made without hands.
D1 The circumcision done by God on the evil, unregenerated heart.
D2 "...but he is a Jew that is one inwardly; and circumcision is of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not from men but from God." (Romans 2:29, EMTV)
D3 For we are the true circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and put no confidence in the flesh, (Philippians 3:3, EMTV)
C2 Christ performed this circumcision, not a human, Jewish priest or physician.
C3 Sin and its effects are now cut off and throw away.
D1 "...that you put off, concerning your former way of life, the old man which is being corrupted according to deceitful lusts." (Ephesians 4:22, EMTV)
D2 "...knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, so that the body of sin may be done away with, that we should no longer serve sin." (Romans 6:6, EMTV)
C4 "...in the circumcision of Christ." This refers to the fact that Jesus kept the Law perfectly.
B7 Colossians 2:12
C1 Baptism is an image, illustration, of burial and resurrection. Jesus did this literally; we do this to illustrate what He has done for us.
C2 All this is through faith. Faith is believing God. What God says is true and if we agree with Him, especially when we are wrong, it is faith. For what does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness." (Romans 4:3, EMTV)
B8 Colossians 2:13
C1 Dead in trespasses.
D1 Really dead. Because of sin we do not seek God. There is nothing in us that is good. We cannot seek God.
D2 Trespasses are breaking God's law.
C2 Uncircumcision of flesh
D1 There is nothing good in us or about us.
D2 We need someone to remove this load of sins.
C3 Alive together
D1 The same process.
D2 The rebirth.
D3 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the authority to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name; (John 1:12, EMTV)
C4 Having forgiven us all trespasses
D1 Our sins are forgiven.
D2 We are justified.
D3 We are pardoned.
D4 The penalty was paid by Christ. The conditions and plan were from God. The opening of our heart and mind was of God. We only did not resist when God gave the command to repent.
D5 The atonement by Jesus shows that God's Law was righteous (Jesus did die). It also shows God's love for humans in that there is the provision for sin if the sinner meets the conditions.
D6 We are not sinless but forgiven. The penalty of God's law, hell, is now removed.
D7 No one deserves forgiveness. It is not a right. It is a free gift. It cost Jesus everything however.
D8 Faith, as God defines it, is the condition to be met.
B9 Colossians 2:14
C1 Blotted out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us
D1 Blotted out means that it was overwritten. The original cannot be seen any more.
D2 The handwriting of ordinances was the miles long list of our sins.
D3 God did this out of love. Jesus choose to be the Passover Lamb for us.
C2 Nailed it
D1 When Jesus died, He paid the full penalty and punishment for sin.
D2 He did not go to hell and suffer there for our sins (some heretics teach this).
D3 This long list had written on it, in a sense, "Paid in full."
B10 Colossians 2:15
C1 Disarmed
D1 He freed Himself from the demonic and human authorities.
D2 He was a victor over these evil ones.
D3 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, (Hebrews 2:14, ESV2011)
C2 Mocked them
D1 They thought they had killed God, made Him a loser (He did not accomplish what He set out to do), and make Him look like a weak fool.
D2 He rose from the dead in triumph. He is victor over death or sin's penalty. He accomplished all that God wanted.
D3 This is the open shame. The smile of triumph and victory from the evil beings was turned upside down.
C3 Triumphing
D1 God never loses. Even when it seems like it, He turns it all around and is the Victor.
D2 He let them do it. They thought they did it. God used them and their openly evil actions, so show the complete loss of evil's war.
D3 Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, And He shall divide the spoil with the strong, Because He poured out His soul unto death, And He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin of many, And made intercession for the transgressors. (Isaiah 53:12, NKJV)
Welcome, Thou Victor in the strife,
Welcome from out the grave;
Today we triumph in Thy life
Around Thy empty grave;
Today we triumph in Thy life
Around Thy empty grave.
Our enemy is put to shame,
His short lived triumph o'er;
Our God is with us, we exclaim,
We fear our foe no more;
Our God is with us, we exclaim,
We fear our foe no more.
--Benjamin Schmolck
