Colossians 2:6-15 Victory is ours by the Cross

A victory is cause for celebration. That would be true of any victory – big or small. But a great and significant victory calls for a big celebration. One way of celebration is a triumphant parade. In ancient times, a victorious king and his army would parade through the streets of the city – perhaps riding in his chariot while the conquered king would follow behind in chains and disgrace. The people would cheer them on – that victory was also their victory and benefited them. In our society today, our sports champions will often hold a victory parade when a championship is won. Fans cheer on their sports heroes and consider the team’s victory their own. 

That is very much the picture that the apostle Paul paints in our text this morning. Jesus the victorious king leading sin, death and the devil in chains - conquered and defeated. What a triumphant procession. Triumph, victory for us. Jesus’ victory is our victory. It is our triumph because it means that we have eternal life. This victory was accomplished - not by some great army, not by some great show of might - but by the cross. Victory is ours by the cross. God has made you alive with Christ. Continue to live in Christ.

 To human eyes, the cross would seem like anything but victory. To look at Jesus, bloody and beaten, hanging on the cross, suffering and dying; deserted by friends and family, mocked by those who passed – it would seem complete defeat. What triumph, what glory could a person possibly find in such a cruel death? But the fact is that by the cross, Jesus won the victory for us over sin, and death, and hell – because this was God’s plan for our salvation already in eternity.

 Our sin had to be dealt with. Our condition as Paul tells us is that we were dead in sins. Not just a little flawed. Our sinful condition wasn’t something that if we tried hard enough we could overcome. We didn’t need some self help book to improve ourselves. We needed a complete change. We needed a miracle. We needed God, who alone can give life – whether it be physical or spiritual or eternal life – to change our situation and give us life. For our situation to change the law had to be dealt with. The law stands opposed to us. Not because of anything wrong with the law, but because of the problem with us. The problem is that we are not able to keep the law. The law crushes us. It points out our sin. It is a burden that we can’t carry no matter how good we are, no matter how hard we try. Just think of all the things that the law requires of us - not only that we keep our lives and actions pure, but even our thoughts. Not just that we don’t do what is evil, but it requires that we do what is good and right. It demands that God be number one in everything we do. It condemns our selfish attitudes. Who of us can possible hope to keep the law? Since we can’t keep the law perfectly as God demands, the law stands there condemning us. It says - they are guilty; they deserve to be punished; they deserve death because God says, “The soul who sins is the one who will die.”

But Paul tells us that God “canceled the written code.” How could that be? Since God is a God of perfect justice, he couldn’t just overlook our sins. He couldn’t just toss the law aside. “He took it away, nailing it to the cross.” Jesus came to keep the law, to fulfill it in our place. Jesus tells us, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” Jesus did what we could not. Never once did he do anything against God’s law. Never once did he fail to do the good that the law requires. Never once did he even have a sinful thought. So Jesus - because he was perfect - didn’t deserve to be punished. He didn’t deserve to die. But he did. He went to the cross - perfectly innocent - and suffered and died. There on the cross, the punishment demanded by the law has been satisfied. The debt of guilt and sin that we owed has been canceled by Jesus’ suffering and death. It is gone. Completely. Obliterated. 

 Once sin and guilt have been removed, the evil powers of this world have nothing left to use against us. The devil loves to accuse us, to make us feel guilty for the sins we have committed. But there is nothing left for him to accuse us of. Those sins have been removed. The devil is disarmed. He and his army are disgraced. They have lost.

 But for Jesus’ suffering and death to accomplish all this, he had to be more than just a man. That he was.  He is also true God. In fact, Paul tells us that “In Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives.” The God who fills heaven and earth is there in the person of Jesus. The almighty, all-knowing God who created heaven and earth - who is eternal; without beginning or end; is there in the person of Jesus. Jesus is God - completely, totally. 

 When Jesus was conceived in the womb of Mary, God himself took on human flesh and blood. When Jesus died on the cross, God died. The body and blood that canceled our sin and guilt and made us alive did that because all the divine fullness dwelt in the human nature of Christ. A perfect man would only have been able to save himself. It took the blood of God’s own Son to be a sufficient sacrifice to pay for our sins and the sins of the world.

 This truth is a divine mystery that our human, sin limited minds cannot even begin to comprehend. It is something like saying that all the water in the ocean is contained in a pitcher held in someone’s hand. It doesn’t seem reasonable. But God clearly reveals this truth about Jesus deity to us in the Bible. Jesus is very God and as such is the Savior that we need - an all-sufficient Savior. We can find all that we need for our spiritual fullness and salvation in him.

 All these blessing which Jesus won for us come to us through baptism. In baptism, God comes to us and makes his covenant with us. He works faith and makes us his own. In that Old Testament, when God made his covenant with Abraham, he commanded circumcision as a sign of that covenant. Through circumcision - through the removing of a piece of flesh, that infant Jewish boy was brought into God’s kingdom. 

 Baptism too, Paul tells us, involves a removing of flesh. Not physical but spiritual. The sinful flesh is drowned in baptism and a new Christian self is created. There in baptism, when we were brought to faith - we were united with Jesus. His death and resurrection became our own. The apostle Paul tells us in his letter to the Romans, “don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”  

 Baptism is a great and wonderful power through which the Holy Spirit works saving faith and unites us with Christ. In Baptism we were intimately joined to Christ and became partners in the events of his life. Note, this union between Christ and the believer is so close that not only does Paul say that Christ died for us, or in place of us, but also that we died with Christ. In Baptism a complete identity between Christ and us has been formed - our sins became his and his righteousness now belongs to us. Sin and death no longer have any claim over us. Jesus was perfect - we are perfect. The law no longer has any claim to make against us.

 Since we have been united like that to Jesus, it will show itself in the lives that we live. We will continue to live in Christ and to grow in that faith - to strengthen that union with our Savior. Just as we have been united with Christ in his death, we have also been raised to live a new life to God. Through baptism we have entered real life - life filled to the brim with God’s love, forgiveness, power and guidance. It is a life totally different from our old way of life, which was doomed by sin. All that is left is for us to live in thankful service to the Lord, to praise and thank him for all that he has done for us.

 The new self wants to obey the law and to please God. It is impossible for the new self to desire a life of sin. “No one who is born of God will continue to sin,” the apostle John writes. God works through the power of the gospel in the lives of believers to gain glory for himself. The entire purpose of baptism is to glorify God and to do away with sin and sinning.

 But we need to struggle everyday in living that new life. We need to struggle as we try to faithfully serve our Savior. We still have a sinful flesh which will not and cannot be reformed. We will not be free from sin until we reach heaven. Everyday we will need to daily drown the old self. As Martin Luther wrote in his explanation on baptism; baptism means “that our Old Adam with his evil deeds and desires should be drowned by daily contrition and repentance, and die, and that day by day a new man should arise, as from the dead, to live in the presence of God in righteousness and purity now and forever.”

 In order for that to happen we must continue to grow in our faith. We want to sink our roots deep into Jesus and into his Word. We won’t be content with just a basic knowledge of the gospel. We will want to learn more and more, to be closer and closer to our Savior. Think of the difference in the root system of a mighty oak tree as opposed to a stalk of grain, or some delicate flower. It takes a lot to uproot an oak tree. The winds might blow; it might suffer through periods of drought, but because of its deep roots it will survive. But that small plant with shallow roots can very easily be pulled up. We want to sink our roots deep into Jesus by continuing to study and hear his word regularly. 

 But we also want to be certain that we remain in the pure truth of the gospel and are not led astray by false teachings. Again if we picture those roots - a pine tree growing on the side of a mountain, on rock with little soil will not have a deep root system and can much more easily be toppled than a similar tree growing on good soil.

 Paul warns us here against the dangers of false teaching - how good it looks sometimes, but how empty and hollow it ultimately is. False doctrine appeals to our sinful flesh which is opposed to God. The world and those false teachers will often portray it as something good. Many times false teaching appeals to our human logic. All these things may make it look good. After all, those false teachers don’t come telling us that they are going to tell us a lie, but they may be very sincere and appear wonderful. But ultimately all false doctrine, whatever it is, no matter how big or how seemingly small leads away from God. It can damage our faith and if left unchecked ultimately destroy that faith. So again, we need to study God’s word so that we will not be led astray, but grow in faith. The victory is ours, may we never lose the benefits of Jesus’ victory on our behalf.

 Jesus was victorious over sin, death and the devil. He showed that victory with his resurrection, and also with his descent into hell. With his descent into hell, Jesus paraded his victory before the devil and his companions on his home turf we might say. Jesus victory is our victory as well. We have been made alive and have eternal life in heaven. “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.”