Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents

2:9 in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily. Christ is the visible expression of God. In his incarnation and now in his glorification, Jesus is God in the flesh (cf. 1:15-20).

2:10 you have been filled in him. In this remarkable statement, Paul affirms that believers share in Christ's power and authority over every rule and authority by virtue of their union with him. Here is the main theme of Colossians. The divine "fullness" is in Christ (v. 9), and believers are "filled in him." Hence, they have everything they need in Christ. They do not need any other teaching to become like God. The term head is clearly used here with the sense of "authority over" (see note on 1 Cor. 11:3). This would have been an encouraging and helpful teaching for the Colossians, who clearly continued to live in fear of the demonic realm.

2:11 In him also you were circumcised. Paul here uses circumcision metaphorically for a spiritual (made without hands) action, which he describes as putting off the body of the flesh. Believers no longer live in the sphere of the flesh and its influence (Gal. 5:24) but have been transferred to the kingdom of Christ and live through and in him, under his lordship (Col. 1:13). In this "circumcision" performed by Christ, Christians have been removed from their solidarity with Adam and his sin (see Rom. 6:6) and are now in solidarity with Christ and his righteousness and can live for him, as they before could not.

2:12-13 buried with him in baptism . . . also raised with him . . . made alive together with him. In a second metaphor drawn from Christ's work on the cross, Paul says that the Christian rite of baptism represents an identification with Christ in his death (cf. Rom. 6:4-6) along with an identification with Christ in his resurrection (cf. Eph. 2:6). Dying and rising with Christ signifies death to the power of sin and Satan plus empowerment to live the new life that Jesus calls believers to live in imitation of him (see Rom. 6:3-11).

2:14 the record of debt that stood against us. In the Greco-Roman world, the "record of debt" (Gk. cheirographon) was a written note of indebtedness. Paul uses this as a word picture to characterize each person's indebtedness to God because of sin. God himself has mercifully resolved this problem for all who put their faith in Jesus by taking this note and nailing it to the cross, where Jesus paid the debt. The image comes from the notice fastened to a cross by the Roman authorities, declaring the crime for which the criminal was being executed (see John 19:19-22).

2:15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities. The cross of Christ marks the decisive defeat of the demonic powers. On the cross, they were stripped of their power to accuse Christians before God. (Gk. diabolos, "devil," means "accuser, slanderer.") Nevertheless, these demons continue to exist and to exercise power to incite evil, so Christians must continue to struggle with them (see Eph. 6:12, 16). put them to open shame. This is the same term (Gk. deigmatizō) used in Matt. 1:19 to refer to Joseph's unwillingness to expose Mary's pregnancy and bring public shame on her. The cross publicly reveals the failure of the demonic powers to thwart God's plan of salvation through Christ (see 1 Cor. 2:6-8). triumphing over them. The image is of a triumphal Roman military procession. The defeated king with all of his surviving warriors and the spoils of war were paraded through the streets of Rome, as a public spectacle for all to see.