For in him all the fullness of the Deity dwells bodily, and in him you are made full, who is the head of all principality and power. In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ,
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Colossians 2:9-11 sits inside this longer paragraph.
Be careful that you don’t let anyone rob you through his philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the elements of the world, and not after Christ. For in him all the fullness of the Deity dwells bodily, and in him you are made full, who is the head of all principality and power. In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. You were dead through your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh. He made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, wiping out the handwriting in ordinances which was against us. He has taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross. Having stripped the principalities and the powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.
Parallel Translations
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For in him all the fullness of the Deity dwells bodily,
and in him you are made full, who is the head of all principality and power.
In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ,
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For in him dwelleth all the fulnes of the godheed bodyly
and ye are complete in him which is the heed of all rule and power
in whom also ye are circucised with circumcision made mith out hondes by puttinge of the sinfull boddy of the flesshe thorow the circumcision that is in Christ
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For in him dwelleth all the fulnesse of the Godhead bodily.
And yee are complete in him, which is the head of all principalitie and power.
In whome also yee are circumcised with circumcision made without handes, by putting off the sinfull body of the flesh, through the circumcision of Christ,
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Contradictions (1)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (49)
- Colossians 1:19 (v9) For all the fullness was pleased to dwell in him,
- John 1:14 (v9) The Word became flesh, and lived among us. We saw his glory, such glory as of the one and only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.
- John 10:30 (v9) I and the Father are one.”
- Ephesians 3:19 (v10) and to know Christ’s love which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
- 1 Timothy 3:16 (v9) Without controversy, the mystery of godliness is great: God was revealed in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen by angels, preached…
Show all 49 cross-references
- John 14:9-10 (v9) Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you such a long time, and do you not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father. How do…
- John 10:38 (v9) But if I do them, though you don’t believe me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in the…
- 1 John 5:20 (v9) We know that the Son of God has come, and has given us an understanding, that we know him who is true, and we are in him who is true, in…
- John 14:20 (v9) In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.
- Romans 2:29 (v11) but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit not in the letter; whose praise is not from men,…
- Colossians 1:16-18 (v10) For by him all things were created in the heavens and on the earth, visible things and invisible things, whether thrones or dominions or…
- Titus 2:13 (v9) looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ,
- Isaiah 7:14 (v9) Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin will conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
- John 17:21 (v9) that they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that…
- 1 Corinthians 1:30-31 (v10) Because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who was made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption: that, as…
- Ephesians 1:20-23 (v10) which he worked in Christ, when he raised him from the dead and made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all…
- Philippians 3:3 (v11) For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh;
- Colossians 2:2-3 (v9) that their hearts may be comforted, they being knit together in love, and gaining all riches of the full assurance of understanding, that…
- 1 Peter 3:22 (v10) who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, angels and authorities and powers being made subject to him.
- Matthew 1:23 (v9) “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall give birth to a son. They shall call his name Immanuel;” which is, being interpreted,…
- Philippians 2:9-11 (v10) Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave to him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,…
- Luke 3:22 (v9) and the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily form like a dove on him; and a voice came out of the sky, saying “You are my beloved Son. In you…
- Hebrews 5:9 (v10) Having been made perfect, he became to all of those who obey him the author of eternal salvation,
- John 1:16 (v10) From his fullness we all received grace upon grace.
- Romans 6:6 (v11) knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in…
- 2 Corinthians 5:19 (v9) namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not reckoning to them their trespasses, and having committed to us the…
- Galatians 3:26-29 (v10) For you are all children of God, through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There…
- Deuteronomy 30:6 (v11) Yahweh your God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your offspring, to love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your…
- Ephesians 4:15-16 (v10) but speaking truth in love, we may grow up in all things into him who is the head, Christ, from whom all the body, being fitted and knit…
- Galatians 5:24 (v11) Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts.
- Ephesians 4:22 (v11) that you put away, as concerning your former way of life, the old man that grows corrupt after the lusts of deceit,
- 1 John 5:7 (v9) For there are three who testify:
- John 2:21 (v9) But he spoke of the temple of his body.
- Galatians 2:20 (v11) I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. That life which I now live in the flesh, I live…
- Colossians 3:8-9 (v11) but now you also put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and shameful speaking out of your mouth. Don’t lie to one another,…
- Colossians 3:11 (v10) where there can’t be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondservant, or free person; but Christ is all,…
- 2 Corinthians 5:17 (v11) Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.
- Revelation 5:9-13 (v10) They sang a new song, saying, “You are worthy to take the book and to open its seals: for you were killed, and bought us for God with your…
- Deuteronomy 10:16 (v11) Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked.
- Hebrews 9:24 (v11) For Christ hasn’t entered into holy places made with hands, which are representations of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in…
- Ephesians 2:10-18 (v11) For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before that we would walk in them. Therefore…
- Hebrews 9:11 (v11) But Christ having come as a high priest of the coming good things, through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands,…
- Jeremiah 4:4 (v11) Circumcise yourselves to Yahweh, and take away the foreskins of your heart, you men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my wrath go…
- Galatians 4:4-5 (v11) But when the fullness of the time came, God sent out his Son, born to a woman, born under the law, that he might redeem those who were…
- Acts 7:48 (v11) However, the Most High doesn’t dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says,
- Acts 17:24 (v11) The God who made the world and all things in it, he, being Lord of heaven and earth, doesn’t dwell in temples made with hands.
- 2 Corinthians 5:1 (v11) For we know that if the earthly house of our tent is dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal, in the…
- Mark 14:58 (v11) “We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and in three days I will build another made without hands.’ ”
- Luke 2:21 (v11) When eight days were fulfilled for the circumcision of the child, his name was called Jesus, which was given by the angel before he was…
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (25 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv9–11 9. For in him dwelleth. Here we have the…
9. For in him dwelleth. Here we have the reason why those elements of the world, which are taught by men, do not accord with Christ — because they are additions for supplying a deficiency, as they speak. Now in Christ there is a perfection, to which nothing can be added. Hence everything that mankind of themselves mix up, is at variance with Christ’s nature, because it charges him with imperfection. This argument of itself will suffice for setting aside all the contrivances of Papists. For to what purpose do they tend, but to perfect what was commenced by Christ? Now this outrage upon Christ is not by any means to be endured. They allege, it is true, that they add nothing to Christ, inasmuch as the things that they have appended to the gospel are, as it were, a part of Christianity, but they do not effect an escape by a cavil of this kind. For Paul does not speak of an imaginary Christ, but of a Christ preached, who has revealed himself by express doctrine.
Further, when he says that the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Christ, he means simply, that God is wholly found in him, so that he who is not contented with Christ alone, desires something better and more excellent than God. The sum is this, that God has manifested himself to us fully and perfectly in Christ.
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Interpreters explain in different ways the adverb bodily. For my part, I have no doubt that it is employed — not in a strict sense — as meaning substantially. For he places this manifestation of God, which we have in Christ, to all others that have ever been made. For God has often manifested himself to men, but it has been only in part. In Christ, on the other hand, he communicates himself to us wholly. He has also manifested himself to us otherwise, but it is in figures, or by power and grace. In Christ, on the other hand, he has appeared to us essentially. Thus the statement of John holds good:
He that hath the Son, hath the Father also. (1 John 2 23.)
For those who possess Christ have God truly present, and enjoy Him wholly.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv9, 11 By these words, is showed a distinction of the…
By these words, is showed a distinction of the natures.
The knitting together of God and man, is substantial and essential.
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These words set down most perfect Godhead to be in Christ.
A reason: Because only Christ God and man, is most perfect, and passeth far above all things, so that whosoever hath him, may require nothing more.
This word (Dwelleth) noteth out unto us the joining together of those natures, so that of God and Man, is one Christ.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv9–11 9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of…
9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
Ver. 9. All the fulness of the Godhead bodily] That is, essentially, not in clouds and ceremonies, as once between the cherubims, which the Jews called Shechinah; whereunto the apostle here alludeth.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv9–11 For; the causal particle induceth this as an argument…
For; the causal particle induceth this as an argument to enforce the caution immediately foregoing, against those who did seek to draw from Christ by philosophy, as well as urging the ceremonial law; else the apostle’s reasoning were not cogent unless against both.
In him; it is evident that the Lord Jesus Christ himself, whom he had described and but just now named, is the subject, the person of whom he speaks, and in whom is seated, and unto whom he attributes, what followeth, Col 1:19; Joh 1:4; 1Ti 4:16. He doth not say, in his doctrine, whatever Socinians cavil, as if they would render the apostle absurd, and not to agree with himself in what he asserts of Christ’s person before (as hath been showed) and after in the context. It is plain this relative him, respects not only Col 2:8, but Col 2:11, &c. in whom the believing Colossians are said to be complete as their Head, both in the former chapter, and soon after in this. Would it not be absurd to say, Christ’s doctrine is the head of angels? We are crucified in the doctrine of Christ? Buried and quickened together with his doctrine? The hand-writing of ordinances was nailed to the cross of doctrine? Is a doctrine the head of principalities and powers? Can a doctrine be buried in baptism? &c. To silence all the earth, that they should not restrain it to Christ’s doctrine only, what he asserts of his person, Paul, after Christ had been several years in heaven, put it in the present tense,
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dwelleth, not dwelt, {as 2Ti 1:5} in regard of the person eternally the same, Heb 13:8; for his argument had not been cogent, to contain Christians in the faith of Christ, and their duty to him, to have alleged, in the doctrine of Christ now in heaven hath dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily (could propriety of speech have allowed it); but from the other respect, because in their very flesh (the body of Christ, now an inhabitant of the heavens) the very Godhead, in the whole fulness thereof, personally, from the moment of his incarnation, doth yet dwell. What will not the faithful perform and work out with their utmost faith, that they may never suffer themselves to be rent from spiritual and mystical union with him, in whom they understand that even they themselves shall be also divinely filled, Col 2:10, i.e. in their measure be made partakers of the Divine nature, 2Pe 1:4.
Dwelleth imports more than a transient stay for a few minutes, or a little while, even abiding in him constantly and for ever, as dwelling most usually notes, 2Co 6:16. That which doth thus perpetually abide in his person, as denominated after the human nature, is all the fulness of the Godhead, viz. that rich and incomprehensible abundance of perfections, whereof the supreme and adorable nature is full; so that indeed there is not at all any perfection or excellency in the Divine nature but is found abiding in him. And after no common or ordinary way, but by a hypostatical or personal union of the Godhead with the manhood in Christ; which is not by way of mixture, confusion, conversion, or any other mutation; but
bodily, to exclude that inhabitation which is only by extrinsical denomination. It being an adverb, doth denote the manner as well as the subject; wherefore when he speaks of the temple of his body, Joh 2:21, that doth not fully reach the apostle’s meaning here: but it must be expounded personally, since in the Greek that which signifies with us a body, and so our English word body, is put for a person, Rom 12:1; 2Co 5:10; Rev 18:13; somebody or nobody, i.e. some person or no person. There is a presence of the Godhead general, by essence and power; particular, in the prophets and apostles working miracles: gracious, in all sanctified ones; glorious, in heaven, in light which no man can approach unto, 1Ti 6:16; relative, in the church visible and ordinances, typically under the law, and symbolically in the sacraments: but all these dwellings, or being present in the creature, fall short of that in the text, viz. bodily, connoting the personal habitation of the Deity in, and union of it with, the humanity of Christ, so close, and strait, and intimate, that the Godhead inhabiting and the manhood inhabited make but one and the same person, even as the reasonable soul and body in man make but one man. The way of the presence of the Deity with the humanity of Christ is above all those manners of the presence of God with angels and men. The Godhead dwells in him personally, in them in regard of assistance and energy: Godhead notes the truth of it; Christ was not only partaker of the Divine nature, 2Pe 1:4, but the very Godhead dwells in him: it is not only the Divinity (as the Socinians, following the Vulgar Latin in this, would have it) but the Deity, the very nature and essence of God. Now it is observable, though in God himself Divinity and Deity be indeed the same, Rom 1:20, and may differ only from the manner of our conception and contemplation; yet here, when the enemies to Christ’s Deity might by their cavilling make more use of the word Divinity, (as when the soul of man is said to be a divine thing), to insinuate as if it here noted only the Divine will exclusive to the other attributes, (which exclusion the term all doth significantly prevent), the apostle puts in Deity or Godhead. Then lest Christ might (as by the Arians) be deemed a secondary God, or (as some since) a made god, inferior to the Father, he saith the fulness of the Godhead, which speaks him perfect God, coequal with the Father: further, connoting a numerical sameness of essence between the Godhead of the Father and the Son, all the fulness of the Godhead dwelleth in him. There is not one fulness of the Father and another of the Son, but one and the same singular Godhead in both, Joh 10:30. The fulness of the manhood in Adam and Eve were not numerically the same, but the Godhead of the Father and the Son is: yet is not the manhood of Christ co-extended and commensurate with the Godhead (as some Lutherans conceit); but where the manhood is, or Christ as man is, or hath his existence, there the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily: so that this fulness is extended as the manhood only in which it is, and not as far as the Deity in which this derivative fulness is not as in its seat, though it be all originally from it, but inherently or subjectively in Christ.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv9, 11 Here St. Paul gives a reason of the foregoing…
Here St. Paul gives a reason of the foregoing caution against philosophy; for in him, that is, in Christ, dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily; As if he had said, "Let no man impose upon you by a lame and imperfect philosophy, there is no need of that, for now there is introduced an absolute and complete doctrine, namely, that of our Lord Jesus Christ, which has the fulness of all divine wisdom in it, and the fulness of the Godhead dwelling bodily in himself, that is personally and substantially."
Where note, That the apostle says not, that the Godhead is assistant to Christ, but, that it resideth or dwelleth in him; as the Deity dwelt in the the ark symbolically, so it dwelt in Christ bodily.
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Note farther, That Christ is not here said to be filled with the fulness of God, as the church is said to be, Eph 1:23 in regard of the gifts and graces which she had received from him; but the whole fulness of the Godhead is here said to reside in him, which can argue him to be no less than really and truly God, his complete essence dwelleth in him. Well might the apostle therefore add, Ye are complete in him Col 2:10, wanting no requisite to salvation; ye need not go to the philosophers for knowledge, for in Christ you have complete wisdom; he is above all Pagan philosophers and Jewish Rabbies; nay, he is the Head of all principalities and powers; that is, above the highest angel in heaven.
Here observe, That it was the opinion of the Paganish, as it is now of the Popish part of mankind, that Almighty God was too high to be immediately approached, and therefore they applied themselves to angels as mediators betwixt God and them; but the apostle acquaints them, that the angel-mediatorship is vain, since Christ is also their Head and Lord.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv9–11 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the…
For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. This is to be understood, not of the doctrine, or Gospel of Christ, as being a perfect revelation of the will of God; but of Christ, and particularly of his human nature, as consisting of a true body and a reasonable soul, in which the Godhead dwells in a most eminent manner: God indeed is everywhere by his powerful presence, was in the tabernacle and temple in a very singular manner, and dwells in the saints in a way of special grace; but resides in the human nature of Christ, in the highest and most exalted manner; that is to deity what the human body is to an human soul, it is the house in which it dwells: so Philo the Jew (t) calls the "Logos" the house of God, who is the soul of the universe; and elsewhere says (u), that God himself has filled the divine Logos wholly with incorporeal powers. The Godhead dwells in Christ as in a tabernacle, in allusion to the tabernacle of Moses, which looked mean without side, but glorious within; where God granted his presence, and accepted the sacrifices of his people; the human nature of Christ is the true antitypical tabernacle, which God pitched, and not man; and sometimes is called a temple, in allusion to Solomon's; and which is filled with the train of the divine perfections, signified by fulness here: for not the fulness of grace, or a communicative fulness, is here meant; nor the relative fulness, the church; but the fulness of the divine nature, of all the perfections of deity, such as eternity, immensity, omnipresence, omnipotence, omniscience, immutability, necessary and self existence, and every other; for if anyone perfection was wanting, the fulness, much less all the fulness of the Godhead, would not be in him. The act of inhabitation denotes the union of the two natures in Christ, and expresses the distinction of them; and is to be understood of the Godhead, as subsisting in the person of the Son of God, and not as subsisting in the person of the Father, or of the Spirit; and shows the permanency of this union, it is a perpetual abiding one; and this fulness is not dependent on the Father's pleasure; it is not said of this as of another fulness, Col 1:19; that it pleased the Father that it should dwell in him: the manner in which it dwells, is "bodily"; not by power, as in the universe; nor by grace, as in the saints; nor by any glorious emanations of it, as in heaven; nor by gifts, as in the prophets and eminent men of God; nor by signs symbols, and shadows, as in the tabernacle and temple; but essentially and personally, or by personal union of the divine nature, as subsisting in the Son of God to an human body, chosen and prepared for that purpose, together with a reasonable human soul; which is the great mystery of godliness, the glory of the Christian religion, and what qualified Christ for, and recommends him to us as a Saviour; and is a reason why, as these words are, that the Gospel should be abode by, continued in, and that with thankfulness: nor should any regard be had to vain and deceitful philosophy, to the traditions of men, or rudiments of the world: Christ only is to be looked to, attended, and followed, who has all fulness in him,
(t) De migr. Abraham, p. 389. (u) De Sommiis, p. 574.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv9–11 For in him dwelleth - Inhabiteth, continually abideth, all…
For in him dwelleth - Inhabiteth, continually abideth, all the fulness of the Godhead. Believers are "filled with all the fulness of God," Eph. iii, 19. But in Christ dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead; the most full Godhead; not only divine powers, but divine nature, Colossians i, 19. Bodily - Personally, really, substantially. The very substance of God, if one might so speak, dwells in Christ in the most full sense.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv9–11 Verse 9. For in him dwelleth all the fulness]…
Verse 9. For in him dwelleth all the fulness] This is opposed to the vain or empty doctrine of the Gentile and Jewish philosophers: there is a fulness in Christ suited to the empty, destitute state of the human soul, but in the philosophy of the Jews and Gentiles nothing like this was found; nor indeed in the more refined and correct philosophy of the present day. No substitute has ever been found for the grace of the Lord Jesus, and those who have sought for one have disquieted themselves in vain.
By the Godhead or Deity, Θεοτης, we are to understand the state or being of the Divine nature; and by the fulness of that Deity, the infinite attributes essential to such a nature.
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Bodily.] Συματικως signifies truly, really; in opposition to typically, figuratively. There was a symbol of the Divine presence in the Hebrew tabernacle, and in the Jewish temple; but in the body of CHRIST the Deity, with all its plenitude of attributes, dwelt really and substantially: for so the word σωματικως means; and so it was understood by the ancient Greek fathers, as is fully shown by SUICER, in his Thesaurus, under the word.
"The fulness of the Godhead dwelt in Christ 'bodily,' as opposed to the Jewish tabernacle, or temple; truly and really, in opposition to types and figures; not only effectively, as God dwells in good men, but substantially or personally, by the strictest union, as the soul dwells in the body; so that God and man are one Christ." See Parkhurst.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv9, 11 Col 2:9-10. For in him dwelleth — Inhabiteth, κατοικει,…
Col 2:9-10. For in him dwelleth — Inhabiteth, κατοικει, continually abideth; all the fulness of the Godhead — Believers may be filled with all the fulness of God, Eph 3:19; but in Christ dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead, the most full Godhead, Col 1:19; bodily — Really, substantially. The very substance of God, if one might so speak, dwells in Christ in the most full sense. “It is plain,” says Dr. Doddridge, “that the Godhead is an anglicism equivalent to Deity. Compare Act 17:29. And I cannot think that these wonderful words are intended merely to signify that God hath lodged in the hands of Christ a fulness of gifts, to be conferred upon men, as if the passage were merely parallel to Joh 1:16-17, as Mr. Pierce explains it; while Socinus sinks it yet lower, as if it only referred to his complete knowledge of the divine will. I assuredly believe, that as it contains an evident allusion to the Shechinah, in which God dwelt, so it ultimately refers to the adorable mystery of the union of the divine and human natures in the person of the glorious Emmanuel, which makes him such an object of our hope and confidence, as the most exalted creature, with the most glorious endowments, could never of himself be.” And ye are complete in him — You have in and from him every thing necessary to your salvation, all the wisdom and knowledge, the righteousness and strength, the holiness, support, and comfort that you stand in need of, to enable you to glorify God on earth, and to prepare you for being glorified with him in heaven. But the original expression, εν αυτω πεπληρωμενοι, is literally, ye are filled by him. See on Joh 1:16. Christ is filled with God, and ye are filled with, or by, Christ. The fulness of Christ overflows his church, Psa 133:3. He is originally full, but our fulness is derived from him. Who is the head of all principality and power — Of angels as well as men. Not from angels, therefore, but from their Head, are we to ask whatever we stand in need of. The supremacy of Christ over all created beings, is asserted in many other passages of Scripture. See the margin. A doctrine this which affords the greatest consolation to the people of God, as it assures them that nothing befalls them without his permission, and that all things shall work together for their good.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv9–11 For in him dwelleth - That is, this was…
For in him dwelleth - That is, this was the great and central doctrine that was to be maintained about Christ, that all the fulness of the Godhead dwelt in him. Every system which denied this was a denial of the doctrine which they had been taught; and against every thing that would go to undermine this; they were especially to be on their guard. Almost all heresy has been begun by some form of the denial of the great central truth of the incarnation of the Son of God.
All the fulness - Notes, Col 1:19.
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Of the Godhead - Of the Divinity, the divine nature - θεότης theotēs. The word is one that properly denotes the divine nature and perfections. Robinson, Lexicon. It occurs nowhere else in the New Testament.
Bodily - σωματικῶς sōmatikōs. This word also is found nowhere else in the New Testament, though the adjective bodily - σωματικὸς sōmatikos - occurs twice; Luk 3:22, “in a bodily shape;” and 1Ti 4:8, “for bodily exercise profiteth little.” The word means, “having a bodily appearance, instead of existing or appearing in a spiritual form;” and the fair sense of the phrase is, that the fullness of the divine nature became incarnate, and was indwelling in the body of the Redeemer. It does not meet the case to say, as Crellius does, that the “whole divine will was in him,” for the word θεότη theotē - “godhead” - does not mean the will of God; and it is as certainly true that the inspired prophets were under the control of the divine will, as that the Saviour was. Nor can it mean, as Socinus supposes, that the fulness of divine knowledge dwelt in him, for this is not the proper meaning of the word (θεότης theotēs) “godhead;” nor can it mean, for the same reason, that a fullness of divine gifts was intrusted to him. The language is such as would be obviously employed on the supposition that God became incarnate, and appeared in human form; and there is no other idea which it so naturally expresses, nor is there any other which it can be made to express without a forced construction. The meaning is, that it was not anyone attribute of the Deity that became incarnate in the Saviour; that he was not merely endowed with the knowledge, or the power, or the wisdom of God; but that the whole Deity thus became incarnate, and appeared in human form; compare Joh 14:9; Joh 1:18. No language could, therefore, more clearly demonstrate the divinity of Christ. Of what mere man - of what angel, could it be used?
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On v9 For in him (in Christ) dwelleth all the fulness…
For in him (in Christ) dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead (of the divinity) corporally.[3] That is, in the person of Christ, the Son of God, really and substantially united to our human nature. Not inhabiting, as in a temple as the Nestorian heretics pretended, nor as by his grace in men’s souls, but so as to be personally or hypostatically united to the soul and body of Christ. (Witham)
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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]
In ipso inhabitat omnis plenitudo divinitatis corporaliter, Greek: katoikei pan to pleroma tes theotetos somatikos. See St. John Chrysostom, Greek: log. st. p. 118.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv9–11 For--"Because." Their "philosophy" (Col 2:8) is not "after Christ,"…
For--"Because." Their "philosophy" (Col 2:8) is not "after Christ," as all true philosophy is, everything which comes not from, and tends not to, Him, being a delusion; "For in Him (alone) dwelleth" as in a temple, &c.
the fulness-- (Col 1:19; Joh 14:10).
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of the Godhead--The Greek (theotes) means the ESSENCE and NATURE of the Godhead, not merely the divine perfections and attributes of Divinity (Greek, "theiotes"). He, as man, was not merely God-like, but in the fullest sense, God.
bodily--not merely as before His incarnation, but now "bodily in Him" as the incarnate word (Joh 1:14, Joh 1:18). Believers, by union with Him, partake of His fulness of the divine nature (Joh 1:16; Pe2 1:4; see on Eph 3:19).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv9–11 2. Transcended by Christ, Col_2:9-10.
2. Transcended by Christ, Col_2:9-10.
9. In him—And in none else, now in heaven as well as when he was on earth, dwelleth really, permanently, and never henceforth to be separated from his humanity, the fulness of the Godhead, the totality of the attributes and perfections of the divine nature. The word translated Godhead means nothing less than the divine nature and essence. Bodily, not as a charism, as in Col_1:19, but corporeally, manifested in his glorious body. Angels have no such glory of person or authority as teachers. Nor was that indwelling Godhead reduced to the dimensions of a human soul, so as to be the human soul of Jesus. It was the fulness of the Godhead.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv9–11 9. For] He is about to shew that “Christ”…
9. For] He is about to shew that “Christ” is the antithesis of this false gospel in two respects; (a) His glorious Person is all in all as the substance of the true Gospel; (b) His code of resulting observance appears not in an ascetic rule but in a life of liberty and purity in union with the Risen Lord Himself.
in him dwelleth &c.] See above on Col_1:19.
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the Godhead] The Greek word (theotês) stands here alone in the N.T. It is as strong as possible; Deity, not only Divinity, which is a word much more elastic and inclusive.—The Latin Versions have divinitas here; and the word deitas was coined later, on purpose to express the true force of theotês. See Lightfoot, who quotes Trench’s Synonyms.
bodily] “ ‘Bodily-wise,’ ‘corporeally’; with a bodily manifestation” (Lightfoot).—From all eternity the Divine Plenitude had “dwelt” in the Son of the Father. But in the Incarnation of the Son this indwelling dwelling had been, “for us men and our salvation,” conditioned by the fact of the Lord’s true human Body. In that Body, and through it, was manifested His union with us, and was wrought out His work for us in life and death. From Him now exalted, not only as the Son but as the Son Incarnate, Slain, and Risen, radiates to all His members the Holy Ghost (Rev_5:6). So, for us, the Divine Plenitude dwells in Him “bodily-wise”; not circumscribed by His holy human Body, which “is in heaven and not here” (see the last Rubric of the Communion Office), but eternally conditioned, as to our fruition of It, by the fact of His Incarnation.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv9–11 (9) In him dwelleth all the fulness of the…
(9) In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.—Here almost every word is emphatic. First, “All the fulness of the Godhead”—not a mere emanation from the Supreme Being. Next, “dwells” and remains for ever—not descending on Him for a time and leaving Him again. Lastly, “bodily,” i.e., as incarnate in His humanity. The whole is an extension and enforcement of Col_1:19, “God was pleased that in Him all the fulness should dwell.” The horror of all that was material, as having in it the seed of evil, induced denial either of the reality of our Lord’s body, or of its inseparable connection with the Godhead in Him. Hence the emphasis here; as also we find (somewhat later) in St. John, “The Word was made flesh” (Joh_1:14); “The spirit which confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh . . . is the spirit of antichrist” (1Jn_4:3).
On the meaning of “fullness” (plerorna), see Col_1:10; Eph_1:3; Eph_3:19; Eph_4:13. Here it is only necessary to add, that, as in the later Gnosticism, so probably in its earlier forms, the word was used for the infinite nature of the Supreme Deity, out of which all the emanations (afterwards called Æons) received in various degrees of imperfection, according to their capacity. Probably for that reason St. Paul uses it so emphatically here. In the same spirit, St. John declares (Joh_1:16), “Out of His (Christ’s) fulness have all we received.” It is not finite, but infinitely perfect; hence we all can draw from it, yet leave it unimpaired.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv9–11 Because in him dwelleth all the fulness (or, completeness)…
Because in him dwelleth all the fulness (or, completeness) of the Godhead bodily (Col_1:19; Php_2:6-8; Rom_1:3, 4 9:5; Joh_1:1, Joh_1:14) In Col_1:18-20 we viewed a series of events; here we have an abiding fact. The whole plenitude of our Lord"s Divine-human person and powers, as the complete Christ, was definitively constituted when, in the exercise of his kingly prerogative, "he sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high." "From henceforth" that fulness evermore resides in him (comp. note,. (Col_1:19) The undivided pleroma ofthv (Col_1:19) now reveals its twofold nature: it is "the fulness of the Godhead," and yet "dwells corporeally in him." "Godhead" (qeo) is the abstract of "God" (qeov), not of the adjective "Divine" (qeiov: the Vulgate therefore, wrongly, divinitatis: comp. (Rom_1:20; Act_17:29 RAPC Wis 18:9) and denotes,"not Divine excellences, but the Divine nature" (Bengel); see Trench"s "Synonyms." Schenkel and others, guided by a conjecture of Theodoret, have found here the Church, supporting their view by a very doubtful interpretation of Eph_1:23. Still more groundless is the identification of this pleroma with the created world. The apostle unmistakably affirms that the Divine nature, in its entirety, belongs to the Church"s Christ. The literal sense of "bodily" (maintained by Meyer, Alford, Ellicott, Lightfoot, Hofmann, after Chrysostom and Athanasius) has been avoided by those who render it "wholly" (Jerome); "essentially, substantially" (Cyril, Theophylact, Calvin, Klopper), as opposed to "relatively" or "partially;" "truly" (Augustine, Erasmus, Bengel, Bleek), as opposed to "figuretively" (ver. 17). The adverb swmatikwv (always literal in classical usage, along with its adjective) occurs only here in the New Testament; the adjective "bodily" in 1Ti_4:8; Luk_3:22. "The body of his flesh" in Col_1:22 affords a truer parallel than the language of ver. 17, where swma, bears an exceptional sense (see note). Elsewhere St. Paul balances in similar fashion expressions relating to the twofold nature of Christ (see parallels). The assertion that "all the fulness of Deity" dwells in Christ negatives the Alexandrine "philosophy," with its cloud of mediating angel powers and spiritual emanations; the assertion that it dwells in him bodily equally condemns that contempt for the body and the material world which was the chief practical tenet of the same school. (comp. notes on Col_1:22 Col_2:23)
Vers. 9, 10.
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Christ the Fulness of the Godhead, and our relationship to him.
in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily; and in him ye are made full, who is the Head of all principality and power." The apostle is here condemning one of the false principles that underlay the teaching of the Gnostics the substitution of angelic mediators for Christ.
I CHRIST"S TRUE DEITY AND TRUE HUMANITY.
1. He is no mere emanation from the supreme God, but "all the fulness of the Godhead. All the infinite perfections of the essential being of God are in him. The Gnostics taught that the fulness of the Godhead was distributed among many spiritual agencies. The apostle teaches that it is in Christ as the eternal Word. "The Word was with God, and was God.
2. This fulness "dwells" in him now and forver. It is a blessedly abiding fact. It is a permanent indwelling.
3. It dwells "bodily; that is, with a bodily manifestation. The false teachers, imagining that matter was essentially evil, could not brook the thought of the Divine Redeemer linking himself forver with a human body, and they, after Docetic theory, either denied the reality of his body or its inseparable connection with him forver. But "the Word was made flesh", (Joh_1:14) and "The spirit which confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh,.., is the spirit of antichrist". (1Jn_4:3)
II OUR RELATIONSHIP TO THE FULNESS OF CHRIST. "And in him ye are made full, who is the Head of all principality and power.
1. Christian life is union with Christ.
(1) We can obtain nothing from Christ till we are in Christ. (1Jn_5:20) "In him we have life", (1Jn_5:11) as in him we are chosen. (Eph_1:4)
(2) We cannot, therefore, look for life from subordinate mediators.
2. Christian life is the enjoyment of his fulness.
(1) Therefore nothing is to be looked for from angelic mediators. "Out of his fulness have we all received, and grace for grace". (Joh_1:16) His fulness is not finite, hut infinite. There can never, therefore, be lack of supply.
(2) It ought to be our prayer to receive more largely of this fulness. The apostle prayed for the Ephesians that they might be "filled up to all the fulness of God," and "grow unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ". (Eph_3:19 Eph_4:13)
(3) To share in this fulness is no privilege of an esoteric few, but is that of all who are united to Christ by faith.
III THE EXPLANATION OF THIS RELATIONSHIP OF CHRIST"S FULNESS TO OUR FULNESS. "Who is the Head of all principality and power." He is more than Sovereign over the powers. He is the Source of their life and activity. This headship over angels is asserted elsewhere. (Heb_1:1-14) Angels are not, therefore, mediators for man, displacing "the one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus". (1Ti_2:5) They are but fellow servants under the same Head. (Rev_22:8, Rev_22:9) Therefore we do not seek our fulness in them, but in our Head. T.C.
The full divinity of Christ.
The Gnostic error which St. Paul seems to be opposing was twofold. It denied that all the fulness of the Godhead resided in Christ, teaching that, while the highest effluence of that fulness was in him, other effluences which completed it were distributed through the angels, in descending gradations of being. At the same time, in its abhorrence of matter, it refused to believe that so much divinity as it allowed to Christ could dwell in a human earthly body, and, accordingly, it favoured the absurd idea that what men saw of Christ was a phantom appearance, not a real man. In reply to this twofold error, St. Paul teaches that all the fulness of the Godhead is in Christ, and that this dwells in him bodily.
I CHRIST IS FULLY DIVINE. The fulness of the Godhead is in Christ. Wherein this fulness consists is an infinite mystery. We must be omniscient to measure and sound its contents. But we see glimpses of parts of it, rays of divinity breaking out here and there. And all that we see is in Christ. There is no known characteristic of divinity which is not ascribed to Christ in the New Testament, from creation (Col_1:16) to judgment (Act_10:42) and the final restitution of all things. (Eph_1:10)
1. In this fact is the essential difference between the divinity of Christ andGod"s dwelling in the temple of the heart of good men. In men he dwells partially. They can hold but a small part of God"s nature, and they do not give up the whole of their hearts for that. Christ is wholly filled with the whole of God.
2. This fact helps us to escape from the idea of two or three separate gods.It is the one infinite God who works in creation, and rules in heaven, and pleads with our spirits, and dwells fully in Christ. Christ is perfectly Divine, because the one God dwells perfectly in him. Thus when we worship God and Christ we are not worshipping two beings, but the one God in Christ. Therefore, also, all that we see and know of Christ is so much revelation of God. To be in sympathy with Christ is to be reconciled to God.
II GOD IS INCARNATE IN CHRIST. The fulness of the Godhead dwells in Christ in a bodily way. "The Word was made flesh." Some have thought to make this fact seem impossible by absurd representations, which go on the assumption that an infinite God cannot enter a finite being without ceasing to be infinite. How he can do so we cannot understand. This is not a subject that admits of being rationalized. But dogmatic objectors may be reminded that it is their teaching which sets a limit to the infinite by proclaiming its inability to enter fully a finite being. Does not the infinity of God involve, not the distribution of innumerable parts through all space, but presence of him wholly in every region of the universe? Why, then, cannot he manifest his presence in a peculiar way in one being? Moreover, if God, who is always infinite, can dwell in man at all, that fact is a mystery which seems to foreshadow the greater mystery of his full dwelling in Christ. The humanity of Christ is real and pure and perfect humanity, and God who dwells in him is still perfect God. This is very different from the metamorphosis of a God into a man that is described in heathen mythologies. It is to be practically learnt from this Christian mystery
(1) that God is now very near to us in a brother man;
(2) that we can be raised to God and become one with Christ and God through Christ"s oneness with us and God. W.F.A. (Joh_17:23)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv9–11 In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead…
Col_2:9
In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
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I. The house, or place of residence--in Him. In the man Christ Jesus, or in that human nature in which He carried on the business of our salvation; as despicable and abject as it was in the eyes of men, yet it was the temple and seat of the Godhead.
II. The inhabitant--the fulness of the Godhead; not a portion of God only, or His gifts and graces (as we are made partakers of the Divine nature, 1Pe_1:4.), but the whole Godhead.
III. The manner--bodily. The word may relate--
1. To the shadows and figures of the law, and so it signifieth essentially, substantially. God dwelt in the tabernacle, temple, or ark of the covenant, συμβολικῶϚ, because of the figures of His presence. In Christ, σωματικῶϚ, as His human nature was the true tabernacle or temple in which He resideth. Christ calls His human nature a temple (Joh_2:19), or else--
2. With respect to the intimacy and closeness of the union. So σωματικῶϚ, may be rendered personally; for body is often put for a person. The two natures were so united in Him, that He is one Christ. (T. Manton, D. D.)
The fulness of Christ
Ships have been wrecked by mistaking one light for another. Men in lifes voyage often make the same terrible blunder. Signals of danger, however, are set up by God to save us from so tragic an end. False teachers were proclaiming fantastic doctrines, but of such death-luring lights the apostle bids the Colossians beware. We need the same warning. Error confronts us in magazines, newspapers, and pulpits. Paul would have us know that all doctrine is false which does not radiate from Christ. Note--
I. Mans condition is a necessitous one.
1. He has Divinely implanted longings for whose satisfaction he has to go out of himself. He has
(1) Social cravings. He was not designed for loneliness but for companionship.
(2) Mental cravings, which sometimes show themselves in the form of curiosity; but the more cultured a man becomes, his mental longings assume a higher form. The journeys taken, libraries collected, the efforts made to ransack past and present witness to these.
(3) Moral and spiritual cravings. What efforts he has made to know God and be at peace with Him.
2. These longings distinguish man from the animal creation, and witness to the grandeur of His soul.
3. Their existence implies that there is somewhere that by which they may be satisfied.
II. Mans necessitous condition is completely met by the Divine fulness. This fulness is--
1. The plenitude of the Godhead. Who can describe this? It is a fathomless ocean and a limitless sky. All we can say is that it is a fulness out of which all our need may be supplied. But we may know of boundless wealth, and yet remain destitute because not able or permitted to approach it. Is this so here? No. As the beams flow from the suns fulness within the reach and for the use of every tree and hedgerow, so the Divine fulness has come down to us all,
2. In the person of Christ, not typically but really.
(1) He meets our social cravings. He has become one with us in sharing our common life, with its sorrows and joys. No one need now be lonely, since here is One who has everything for which we yearn.
(2) He meets our mental cravings. He is the Truth, the Light of the world, the Wisdom of God.
(3) He meets our moral cravings in His revelation of the Father, and in His atonement for sin. Why, then, go to philosophy or sacraments which can only disappoint.
3. Present and unchanging. The Colossian heretics held a temporary fulness; Paul affirms the Divine fulness dwells in Him now and for ever. Earthly things filter away with pitiless haste, but He is the same to-day, etc. Then while we should avoid going elsewhere we should flee to Him at once. His willingness is equal to His ability to distribute. (E. H. Palmer.)
The fulness of God dwelling in Christ
I. The import of the text.
1. All the fulness of the Godhead. The original signifies that by which a thing is filled, completed, or made perfect. The earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof, i.e., all it contains. So the text means all the natural and moral attributes, everything which renders the Divine nature complete. It cannot mean anything less, for if one perfection were taken away there would be something wanting to, and therefore destructive of the fulness of the Godhead.
2. All this fulness dwells in Christ. The word is not that used in Joh_1:14, to dwell in a tabernacle--a temporary residence, but one which signifies to live in a house, a permanent habitation. So then all the fulness of the Godhead dwells in Christ abidingly.
3. Bodily means real and substantial as against shadowy and figurative. The Mosaic law was a shadow, Christ was the body.
II. This import corresponds with other scriptures.
1. We are taught in many places that the Father and the Spirit dwelt in Christ. Our Lord often declared that the Father dwelt in Him, and added He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father. He is also represented as having the Spirit without measure. Now the whole Godhead is included in Father, Son, and Spirit. Wherever these dwell there is the Divine fulness. They dwell in Christ.
2. Christ is represented as possessing all the perfections of Deity--omnipotence in creation and Providence; omniscience in His knowledge of the Father, and of the heart of man; omnipresence in being with His disciples alway. In fact, He is all in all, and therefore has the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
III. Inferences. If all the fulness of the Godhead is in Christ, then--
1. In Him alone can God be found. Men have forsaken God; but they must find Him again or be lost for ever. It is His will that men should seek after Him if haply they may find Him. Now if we wish to find any one we must go to His residence. So since the whole Godhead resides in Jesus as in a permanent habitation, we must repair to Him to find God. I am the Way, the Truth, etc. No man knoweth the Father but the Son, etc. Men may seek Him in the works of creation, in providence, in His Word; but they will never find Him till they come to Christ, for even the Scriptures can only make us wise unto salvation through Him. But if we come to Him, God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness will give us the knowledge of His glory in the face of Jesus Christ.
2. No man can obtain a portion of that fulness except by applying to Christ. Did all the light of the universe dwell in the sun; none could obtain light except from the sun. Were all the water that exists collected into one reservoir none could obtain water but by applying to that reservoir. Now, unless we obtain some of this fulness, we must pine in eternal want. The mercy which pardons sin, the light which illumines the mind, the grace which purifies the heart, the strength which resists and overcomes, the consolation which supports, bright hope and everlasting joy flow from this, and no man can partake of them without partaking of it. Infinitely better to be destitute of everything else than to want this. For it the Saviour invites us to apply to Him.
3. The necessity and worth of faith in Him. Look first at Him and see in Him an inexhaustible fulness of blessing; look next at mankind wanting everything and therefore wretched. Now what is wanted is a channel of communication through which this fulness may flow, so as to be filled with it. Such a channel is faith. Hence John says of believers, and of those only, Of His fulness we have received. (E. Payson, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v11 Chapter 2 Part 4
Chapter 2 Part 4
THE TRUE CIRCUMCISION
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Col_2:11-13 (R.V.)
THERE are two opposite tendencies ever at work in human nature to corrupt religion. One is of the intellect; the other of the senses. The one is the temptation of the cultured few; the other, that of the vulgar many. The one turns religion into theological speculation; the other, into a theatrical spectacle. But, opposite as these tendencies usually are, they were united in that strange chaos of erroneous opinion and practice which Paul had to front at Colossae. From right and from left he was assailed, and his batteries had to face both ways. Here he is mainly engaged with the error which insisted on imposing circumcision on these Gentile converts.
I. To this teaching of the necessity of circumcision, he first opposes the position that all Christian men, by virtue of their union with Christ, have received the true circumcision, of which the outward rite was a shadow and a prophecy, and that therefore the rite is antiquated and obsolete. His language is emphatic and remarkable. It points to a definite past time-no doubt the time when they became Christians-when, because they were in Christ, a change, passed on them which is fitly paralleled with circumcision. This Christian circumcision is described in three particulars: as "not made with hands"; as consisting in "putting off the body of the flesh"; and as being "of Christ."
It is "not made with hands," that is, it is not a rite, but a reality; not transacted in flesh, but in spirit. It is not the removal of ceremonial impurity, but the cleansing of the heart. This idea of ethical circumcision, of which the bodily rite is the type, is common in the Old Testament, as, for instance, "The Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart". {Deu_30:6} This is the true Christian circumcision.
It consists in the "putting off the body of the flesh"-for "the sins of" is an interpolation. Of course a man does not shuffle off this mortal coil when he becomes a Christian, so that we have to look for some other meaning of the strong words. They are very strong, for the word "putting off" is intensified so as to express a complete stripping off from oneself, as of clothes which are laid aside, and is evidently intended to contrast the partial outward circumcision as the removal of a small part of the body, with the entire removal effected by union with Christ. If that removal of "the body of the flesh" is "not made with hands," then it can only be in the sphere of the spiritual life, that is to say, it must consist in a change in the relation of the two constituents of a mans being, and that of such a kind that, for the future, the Christian shall not live after the flesh, though he live in the flesh. "Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit," says Paul, and again he uses an expression as strong as, if not stronger than that of our text, when he speaks of "the body" as "being destroyed," and explains himself by adding "that henceforth we should not serve sin." It is not the body considered simply as material and fleshly that we put off, but the body considered as the seat of corrupt and sinful affections and passions. A new principle of life comes into mens hearts which delivers them from the dominion of these, and makes it possible that they should live in the flesh, not "according to the lusts of the flesh, but according to the will of God." True, the text regards this divesting as complete, whereas, as all Christian men know only too sadly, it is very partial, and realised only by slow degrees. The ideal is represented here, -what we receive "in Him," rather than what we actually possess and incorporate into our experience. On the Divine side the change is complete. Christ gives complete emancipation from the dominion of sense, and if we are not in reality completely emancipated, it is because we have not taken the things that are freely given to us, and are not completely "in Him." So far as we are, we have put off "the flesh." The change has passed on us if we are Christians. We have to work it out day by day. The foe may keep up a guerilla warfare after he is substantially defeated, but his entire subjugation is certain if we keep hold of the strength of Christ.
Finally, this circumcision is described as "of Christ," by which is not meant that He submitted to it, but that He instituted it.
Such being the force of this statement, what is its bearing on the Apostles purpose? He desires to destroy the teaching that the rite of circumcision was binding on the Christian converts, and he does so by asserting that the gospel has brought the reality, of which the rite was but a picture and a prophecy. The underlying principle is that when we have the thing signified by any Jewish rites, which were all prophetic as well as symbolic, the rite may-must go. Its retention is an anachronism, "as if a flower should shut, and be a bud again." That is a wise and pregnant principle, but as it comes to the surface again immediately hereafter, and is applied to a whole series of subjects, we may defer the consideration of it, and rather dwell briefly on other matters suggested by this verse.
We notice, then, the intense moral earnestness which leads the Apostle here to put the true centre of gravity of Christianity in moral transformation, and to set all outward rites and ceremonies in a very subordinate place. What had Jesus Christ come from heaven for, and for what had He borne His bitter passion? To what end were the Colossians knit to Him by a tie so strong, tender, and strange? Had they been carried into that inmost depth of union with Him, and were they still to be laying stress on ceremonies? Had Christs work, then, no higher issue than to leave religion bound in the cords of outward observances? Surely Jesus Christ, who gives men a new life by union with Himself, which union is brought about through faith alone, has delivered men from that "yoke of bondage," if He has done anything at all. Surely they who are joined to Him should have a profounder apprehension of the means and the end of their relation to their Lord than to suppose that it is either brought about by any outward rite, or has any reality unless it makes them pure and good. From that height all questions of external observances dwindle into insignificance, and all question of sacramental efficacy drops away of itself. The vital centre lies in our being joined to Jesus Christ-the condition of which is faith in Him, and the outcome of it a new life which delivers us from the dominion of the flesh. How far away from such conceptions of Christianity are those which busy themselves on either side with matters of detail, with punctilios of observance, and pedantries of form? The hatred of forms may be as completely a form as the most elaborate ritual-and we all need to have our eyes turned away from these to the far higher thing, the worship and service offered by a transformed nature.
We notice, again, that the conquest of the animal nature and the material body is the certain outcome of true union with Christ, and of that alone.
Paul did not regard matter as necessarily evil, as these teachers at Colossae did, nor did he think of the body as the source of all sin. But he knew that the fiercest and most fiery temptations came from it, and that the foulest and most indelible stains on conscience were splashed from the mud which it threw. We all know that too. It is a matter of life and death for each of us to find some means of taming and holding in the animal that is in us all. We all know of wrecked lives, which have been driven on the rocks by the wild passions belonging to the flesh. Fortune, reputation, health, everything are sacrificed by hundreds of men, especially young men, at the sting of this imperious lust. The budding promise of youth, innocence, hope, and all which makes life desirable and a nature fair, are trodden down by the hoofs of the brute. There is no need to speak of that. And when we come to add to this the weaknesses of the flesh, and the needs of the flesh, and the limitations of the flesh, and to remember how often high purposes are frustrated by its shrinking from toil, and how often mists born from its undrained swamps darken the vision that else might gaze on truth and God, we cannot but feel that we do not need to be Eastern Gnostics to believe that goodness requires the flesh to be subdued. Everyone who has sought for selfimprovement recognises the necessity. But no asceticisms and no resolves will do what we want.
Much repression may be effected by sheer force of will, but it is like a man holding a wolf by the jaws. The arms begin to ache and the grip to grow slack, and he feels his strength ebbing, and knows that, as soon as he lets go, the brute will fly at his throat. Repression is not taming. Nothing tames the wild beast in us but the power of Christ. He binds it in a silken lash, and that gentle constraint is strong, because the fierceness is gone. "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and a little child shall lead them." The power of union with Christ, and that alone, will enable us to put off the body of the flesh. And such union will certainly lead to such crucifying of the animal nature. Christianity would be easy if it were a round of observances; it would be comparatively easy if it were a series of outward asceticisms. Anybody can fast or wear a hair shirt, if he have motive sufficient; but the "putting off the body of the flesh" which is "not made with hands," is a different and harder thing. Nothing else avails. High flown religious emotion, or clear theological definitions, or elaborate ceremonial worship, may all have their value; but a religion which includes them all, and leaves out the plain moralities of subduing the flesh, and keeping our heel well pressed down on the serpents head, is worthless. If we are in Christ, we shall not live in the flesh.
II. The Apostle meets the false teaching of the need for circumcision, by a second consideration; namely, a reference to Christian Baptism, as being the Christian sign of that inward change. Ye were circumcised, says he-being buried with Him in baptism. The form of expression in the Greek implies that the two things are contemporaneous. As if he had said-Do you want any further rite to express that mighty change which passed on you when you came to be "in Christ"? You have been baptised; does not that express all the meaning that circumcision ever had, and much more? What can you want with the less significant rite when you have the more significant? This reference to baptism is quite consistent with what has been said as to the subordinate importance of ritual. Some forms we must have, if there is to be any outward visible Church, and Christ has yielded to the necessity, and given us two, of which the one symbolises the initial spiritual act of the Christian life, and the other the constantly repeated process of Christian nourishment. They are symbols and outward representations, nothing more. They convey grace, in so far as they help us to realise more clearly and to feel more deeply the facts on which our spiritual life is fed, but they are not channels of grace in any other way than any other outward acts of worship may be.
We see that the form of baptism, here presupposed is by immersion, and that the form is regarded as significant. All but entire unanimity prevails among commentators on this point. The burial and the resurrection spoken of point unmistakably to the primitive mode of baptism, as Bishop Lightfoot, the latest and best English expositor of this book, puts it in his paraphrase: "Ye were buried with Christ to your old selves beneath the baptismal waters, and were raised with Him from these same waters, to a new and better life."
If so, two questions deserve consideration-first, is it right to alter a form which has a meaning that is lost by the change? second, can we alter a significant form without destroying it? Is the new thing rightly called by the old name? If baptism be immersion, and immersion express a substantial part of its meaning, can sprinkling or pouring be baptism?
Again, baptism is associated in time with the inward change, which is the true circumcision. There are but two theories on which these two things are contemporaneous. The one is the theory that baptism effects the change; the other is the theory that baptism goes with the change as its sign. The association is justified if men are "circumcised," that is, changed when they are baptised, or if men are baptised when they have been "circumcised." No other theory gives full weight to these words.
The former theory elevates baptism into more than the importance of which Paul sought to deprive circumcision, it confuses the distinction between the Church and the world, it lulls men into a false security, it obscures the very central truth of Christianity-namely that faith in Christ, working by love, makes a Christian-it gives the basis for a portentous reproduction of sacerdotalism, and it is shivered to pieces against the plain facts of daily life. But it may be worth while to notice in a sentence, that it is conclusively disposed of by the language before us-it is "through faith in the operation of God" that we are raised again in baptism. Not the rite, then, but faith is the means of this participation with Christ in burial and resurrection. What remains but that baptism is associated with that spiritual change by which we are delivered from the body of the flesh, because in the Divine order it is meant to be the outward symbol of that change which is effected by no rite or sacrament, but by faith alone, uniting us to the transforming Christ? We observe the solemnity and the thoroughness of the change thus symbolised. It is more than circumcision. It is burial and a resurrection, an entire dying of the old self by Union with Christ, a real and present rising again by participation in His risen life. This and nothing less makes a Christian. We partake of His death, inasmuch as we ally ourselves to it by our faith, as the sacrifice for our sins, and make it the ground of all our hope. But that is not all. We partake of His death, inasmuch as, by the power of His cross, we are drawn to sever ourselves from the selfish life, and to slay our own old nature; dying for His dear sake to the habits, tastes, desires, and purposes in which we lived. Self-crucifixion for the love of Christ is the law for us all. His cross is the pattern for our conduct, as well as the pledge and means of our acceptance. We must die to sin that we may live to righteousness. We must die to self, that we may live to God and our brethren. We have no right to trust in Christ for us, except as we have Christ in us. His cross is not saving us from our guilt unless it is moulding our lives to some faint likeness of Him who died that we may live, and might live a real life by dying daily to the world, sin, and self.
If we are thus made conformable to His death, we shall know the power of His resurrection, in all its aspects. It will be to us the guarantee of our own, and we shall know its power as a prophecy for our future. It will be to us the seal of His perfect work on the cross, and we shall know its power as Gods token of acceptance of His sacrifice in the past. It will be to us the type of our spiritual resurrection now, and we shall know its power as the pattern and source of our supernatural life in the present. Thus we must die in and with Christ that we may live in and with Him, and that twofold process is the very heart of personal religion. No lofty participation in the immortal hopes which spring from the empty grave of Jesus is warranted, unless we have His quickening power raising us today by a better resurrection; and no participation in the present power of His heavenly life is possible, unless we have such a share in His death, as that by it the world is crucified to us, and we unto the world.
III. The Apostle adds another phase of this great contrast of life and death, which brings home still more closely to his hearers the deep and radical change which passes upon all Christians. He has been speaking of a death and burial followed by a resurrection. But there is another death from which Christ raises us, by that same risen life imparted to us through faith - a darker and grimmer thing than the self-abnegation before described.
"And you, being dead through your trespasses, and the uncircumcision of your flesh." The separate acts of transgression of which they had been guilty, and the unchastened, unpurified, carnal nature from which these had flowed, were the reasons of a very real and awful death; or, as the parallel passage in Ephesians {Eph_2:2} puts it with a slight variation, they made the condition or sphere in which that death inhered. That solemn thought, so pregnant in its dread emphasis in Scripture, is not to be put aside as a mere metaphor. All life stands in union with God. The physical universe exists by reason of its perpetual contact with His sustaining hand, in the hollow of which all Being lies, and it is, because He touches it. "In Him we live." So also the life of mind is sustained by His perpetual inbreathing, and in the deepest sense "we see light" in His light. So, lastly, the highest life of the spirit stands in union in still higher manner with Him, and to be separated from Him is death to it. Sin breaks that union, and therefore sin is death, in the very inmost centre of mans being. The awful warning, "In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die," was fulfilled. That separation by sin, in which the soul is wrenched from God, is the real death, and the thing that men call by the name is only an outward symbol of a far sadder fact-the shadow of that which is the awful substance, and as much less terrible than it as painted fires are less than the burning reality.
So men may live in the body, and toil and think and feel, and be dead. The world is full of "sheeted dead," that "squeak and gibber" in "our streets," for every soul that lives to self and has rent itself away from God, so far as a creature can, is "dead while he liveth." The other death, of which the previous verse spoke, is therefore but the putting off of a death. We lose nothing of real life in putting off self, but only that which keeps us in a separation from God, and slays our true and highest being. To die to self is but "the death of death."
The same life of which the previous verse spoke as coming from the risen Lord is here set forth as able to raise us from that death of sin. "He hath quickened you together with Him." Union with Christ floods our dead souls with His own vitality, as water will pour from a reservoir through a tube inserted in it. There is the actual communication of a new life when we touch Christ by faith. The prophet of old laid himself upon the dead child, the warm lip on the pallid mouth, the throbbing heart on the still one, and the contact rekindled the extinguished spark. So Christ lays His full life on our deadness, and does more than recall a departed glow of vitality. He communicates a new life kindred with His own. That life makes us free here and now from the law of sin and death, and it shall be perfected hereafter when the working of His mighty power shall change the body of our humiliation into the likeness of the body of His glory, and the leaven of His new life shall leaven the three measures in which it is hidden, body, soul, and spirit, with its own transforming energy. Then, in yet higher sense, death shall die, and life shall be victor by His victory.
But to all this one preliminary is needful-"having forgiven us all trespasses." Pauls eagerness to associate himself with his brethren, and to claim his share in the forgiveness, as well as to unite in the acknowledgment of sin, makes him change his word from "you" to "us." So the best manuscripts give the text, and the reading is obviously full of interest and suggestiveness. There must be a removal of the cause of deadness before there can be a quickening to new life. That cause was sin, which cannot be cancelled as guilt by any self-denial however great, nor even by the impartation of a new life from God for the future. A gospel which only enjoined dying to self would be as inadequate as a gospel which only provided for a higher life in the future. The stained and faultful past must be cared for. Christ must bring pardon for it, as well as a new spirit for the future. So the condition prior to our being quickened together with Him is Gods forgiveness, free and universal, covering all our sins, and given to us without anything on our part. That condition is satisfied. Christs death brings to us Gods pardon, and when the great barrier of unforgiven sin is cleared away, Christs life pours into our hearts, and "everything lives whithersoever the river cometh."
Here then we have the deepest ground of Pauls intense hatred of every attempt to make anything but faith in Christ and moral purity essential to the perfect Christian life. Circumcision and baptism and all other rites or sacraments of Judaism or Christianity are equally powerless to quicken dead souls. For that, the first thing needed is the forgiveness of sins, and that is ours through simple faith in Christs death. We are quickened by Christs own life in us, and He "dwells in our hearts by faith."
All ordinances may be administered to us a hundred times, and without faith they leave us as they found us-dead. If we have hold of Christ by faith we live, whether we have received the ordinances or not. So all full-blown or budding sacramentarianism is to be fought against to the uttermost, because it tends to block the road to the City of Refuge for a poor sinful soul, and the most pressing of all necessities is that that way of life should be kept clear and unimpeded. We need the profound truth which lies in the threefold form which Paul gives to one of his great watchwords: "Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God." And how, says my despairing conscience, shall I keep the commandments? The answer lies in the second form of the saying-"In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature." And how, replies my saddened heart, can I become a new creature? The answer lies in the final form of the saying -"In Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh." Faith brings the life which makes us new men, and then we can keep the commandments. If we have faith, and are new men and do Gods will, we need no rites but as helps. If we have not faith, all rites are nothing.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv9–11 9–12. For in him dwelleth all the fulness, etc.…
9–12. For in him dwelleth all the fulness, etc. You must not be drawn from Christ. He is all in all. In him is the divine fullness (all divine power). In him as revealed was God in bodily form. Compare John 1:14.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv9, 11 Col_2:9. In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the…
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
Col_2:9. In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.—There is no minimising the significance of this statement. It is either true or it is the wildest raving of blasphemy. “Dwelleth”—has its settled abode. A change of prefix would give us the word in Luk_24:18. “Dost thou alone sojourn?” etc. Dualism separates God from matter as far as possible; the Incarnation unites Him for ever with it. “Great is the mystery.” “Godhead.” Though twice before in our A.V. (Act_17:29; Rom_1:23), the word here differs from both.
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Col_2:10. And ye are complete in Him.—These minor powers of whom you have heard are all subordinate to Him in whom directly you have all you need. There is no need to go viâ Philip and Andrew, Mary or Michael, when “we would see Jesus.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Col_2:9-10
The Divine Fulness of Christ a Pledge of the Believer’s Perfection.
Christianity is the true philosophy. Here are its profoundest depths, its loftiest themes, its most substantial discoveries. The philosophy that is not after Christ is vain and misleading. It was a false conception of the Colossian heresy that the divine energy was dispersed among several spiritual agencies. The apostle boldly declares that in Christ dwells the whole πλήρωμα, the entire fulness of the Deity, and that it is in vain to seek for spiritual life in communion with inferior creatures.
I. The divine fulness of Christ.—
1. In Christ is the fulness of the Deity. “For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead” (Col_2:9). A small text, but a great subject. These words contain the sublimest truth in the narrowest compass. Fulness is a term used to signify all that anything contains. Hence we read of the fulness of the earth, the fulness of the sea, and that the Church is Christ’s body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all. In Christ inhere all the perfections, attributes, and qualities that essentially constitute the divine nature—power, wisdom, eternity, self-existence, omnipresence, truth, love, holiness. The deities of the heathen never pretended to possess more than a few divine attributes, some portion of divinity. But Christ contains in Himself the totality of divine powers and excellencies.
2. The fulness of the Deity in Christ is present and permanent.—“Dwelleth.” The present tense is used. It is not as a transient gleam or as a brilliant display to serve a temporary purpose, but as an ever-present and unchanging reality. Mystery of mysteries! the body that hungered and thirsted, that bled and died, that rose and ascended on high, is still the temple of illimitable Deity! The manifestations of God through angels and prophets were brief and partial. The Shekinah, or visible glory, that hovered over the ark of the covenant was a symbol only of a present deity, and disappeared as mysteriously as it came. But in Christ the transcendent fulness of the Godhead finds its permanent home, never to depart, never to vanish.
3. The fulness of the Deity in Christ has a visible embodiment.—“Bodily.” In the person of Christ every moral perfection of the Godhead was enshrined, and brought within the range of human vision. He presented and proved the fact of the divine existence. He embodied and declared the divine spirituality. He delineated the divine disposition and character in the days of His flesh. Gleams of the divine nature occasionally broke forth. “We beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten Son of God.” And now, from that subtle, glorified human form of our exalted Mediator, the splendour of the Deity rays forth, filling the universe with light and glory and joy. In Christ the Godhead is revealed, not as a changing, shadowy phantasm, but as a positive, substantial reality.
II. The supreme authority of Christ.—“Which is the Head of all principality and power” (Col_2:10).
1. Angels are the principalities and powers of the universe.—They are called spirits to express their nature, and angels to designate their office as messengers sent by God. They are called sons of God, to indicate their lofty relationship; cherubim, because of their composite nature, and because they are placed under the presence of Jehovah, whose moving throne they appear to draw; seraphim, because of their burning ardour in executing the commands of God; stars of the morning, to set forth their brightness; a flaming fire, because of the fierceness and celerity with which they carry out the vengeance of Heaven; and they are called principalities and powers on account of their exalted rank and superior endowments.
2. Among the principalities and powers of the universe Christ has supreme authority.—He is the Head of all angelic hierarchies. He called them into being. He endows them with vast intelligence. He designates their rank. He controls their beneficent ministries. He fills the circle of their bliss. To worship angels, or to seek their mediation in the affairs of the soul, is not only gross idolatry, but an insufferable insult to the fulness of the Deity in Christ.
III. The believer’s fulness in Christ.—“And ye are complete in Him” (Col_2:10).
1. In Christ is the inspiration of the believer’s life.—The soul finds its true life by believing on the Son of God. “He that hath the Son hath life.” In ourselves we are like empty vessels; but in Christ we are filled up to the brim. As there is an original and divine fullness of the Godhead in Christ, so there is a derived fulness communicated to us. Every advance in Christian experience, every aspiration after a more exalted spiritual tone, every yearning of the soul after clearer light, every struggle for victory over self and sin, is prompted and accelerated by the impetuous inflow of the divine life.
2. In Christ is the perfect ideal of the believer’s character.—Christ has exalted human nature. He took not on Him the nature of angels, but the seed of Abraham. He has shown what human nature can become, and what it can do. In Him we have the illustrious pattern after which our souls are to be fashioned and rounded off into a full-orbed completeness. “Christ is the mirror that glasses God’s image before us, and the spirit is the plastic force within that transfers and photographs that image; and so, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, we are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”
3. In Christ is the interminable bliss of the believer’s future.—The present life is a training for the future. The more it is in harmony with the will of Christ the happier will it be. Every attempt, amid the multiform relations of life, to do our duty in a Christly spirit, is bringing us into closer sympathy with Christ, and preparing us for a joyous life with Him hereafter. The apostle expressed the condition of the highest conceivable bliss to the believer in the words, “And so shall we ever be with the Lord.”
Lessons.—
1. Christ is essentially divine.
2. There is an ineffable fulness of salvation in Christ.
3. All secondary mediators between God and man are superfluous.
4. The soul is complete in Christ only as it believes in Him.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
Col_2:9-10. A Presentation of Two Great Truths.
I. That all Christianity centres in Christ.
II. That union to Christ makes the soul independent of others.—Dykes.
Col_2:9. The Fulness of Christ.
I. Christ is full of the power of God.
II. The love of God.
III. The grace of God.
IV. The faithfulness of God.
V. The purpose of God to punish sin.—Preacher’s Magazine.
Col_2:10. The Completing of the Soul.
I. We are made complete in Christ by inspirations.
II. We have ideas and ideals in Christ.
III. We are set in a various scheme of relations that we may have a training in virtues equally various and be perfected in them and by means of them—Bushnell.
The Believer Complete in Christ.
I. Complete in Him with respect to the work which He hath already performed.—
1. His obedience and atonement were precisely what God Himself had prescribed.
2. That He obeyed and atoned, we have the perfect evidence of observation and testimony. He Himself declared, “I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do.” “It is finished.” To this the Father and the Spirit have expressly borne testimony: by signs and wonders; His resurrection; His ascension; the descent of the Spirit; conversions; the glorification of His people.
3. Into His righteousness thus perfect the believer is admitted.
II. Complete in Him with respect to the work which He is now performing.—
1. interceding in heaven.
2. Ruling on earth, and thus giving grace and affording protection.
III. Complete in Him with respect to the work which He is hereafter to perform.—
1. As the Resurrection.
2. As the Judges 3. As the Glorifier.
4. As the Consummation and Communicator of eternal blessedness.—Stewart.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On v11 11. As physical birth in Judaism emblematized regeneration, circumcision,…
ARGUMENT 10
CIRCUMCISION, BAPTISM, AND SANCTIFICATION SYNONYMOUS
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11. As physical birth in Judaism emblematized regeneration, circumcision, following quickly, typified sanctification. (Deu 30:6.) Here we know it is spiritual, as it is “made without hands;”
12. As the baptism here mentioned is in grammatical and logical apposition to circumcision, and only separated by a comma, it is synonymous with it. The resurrection mentioned is by the Spirit, as it is by the same power that raised the body of Christ from the dead; i.e., the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit. It is parallel with Rom 6:4-6, where the crucifixion of the old man, his burial into the death of Christ, and the resurrection of the new man, are all imputed to baptism. It is none other than the one baptism (Eph 4:5) in the glorious plan of salvation. Is that baptism a burial? Not so revealed. We are buried by baptism; i.e., the burial of the old body of sin is one of the effects of baptism, like the crucifixion; but the baptism is the agent, while the crucifixion and burial are the wonderful work wrought by the baptism of the Holy Ghost.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v11 the sins of
the sins of
Omit "the sins of."
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v9 Christ’s Work for His Church, Resulting in Sanctification.
Christ’s Work for His Church, Resulting in Sanctification.
The glory of Christ in His work of salvation:
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v. 9. For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
v. 10. And ye are complete in Him, which is the Head of all principality and power;
v. 11. in whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ;
v. 12. buried with Him in Baptism, wherein also ye are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised Him from the dead.
v. 13. And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses;
v. 14. blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to is cross;
v. 15. and having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.
The apostle here brings his reasons for admonishing the Christians to lead such lives as are conformable to the high character of their calling. In the first place, they have part in the fullness of His Godhead: Because in Him dwells the entire fullness of the Godhead bodily. Here is a plain and unmistakable asseveration of the deity of Jesus Christ. Paul does not merely state that He is divine, that He has some attributes of God, but he says that the deity, the essential majesty of the Godhead, dwells in Him bodily, according to His body. The fullness of the Godhead assumed human nature in the person, in the body, of Jesus Christ. When the Son of Mary was born at Bethlehem, the eternal Word, the Son of God from eternity, became man; when the Prophet of Nazareth died on the cross, God Himself died, for in His body the fullness of the divine Godhead lived; the fullness of the essential deity had been communicated to Him in such a manner that it partook of all the functions of the human body. Since the same Christ has ascended to the right hand of the majesty of God, it is our Brother, our flesh and blood, in whom the fullness of the eternal Godhead dwells bodily.
In this fullness the believers take part: And it is in Him that you are made full, who is the Head of all principality and power. In Christ the believers reach their full life, in fellowship with Him through faith they are filled with all the fullness of God, Eph 3:19. They have life, divine, abundant, active, fruitful life, in Him, Joh 10:11. In Him they come behind in no gift, 1Co 1:7. This fact ought to have all the greater influence upon the believers since this Christ who lives in them with His gracious power is the Head of all principality and power. The entire universe, including the domain of all the angels, both good and bad, is subject to Him. Therefore we also, to whom this fullness has been imparted, fear no power on the earth or under the earth, since we have Christ on our side, since we are united with Him by the bonds of the most perfect union.
The Christians, furthermore, have in Christ regeneration and a new life through Baptism: In whom you also were circumcised with a circumcision not performed with hands, in the stripping off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ. The apostle here, in addressing a congregation which consisted chiefly of Gentile Christians, compares the sacrament by which they were received into the Church with that by which the Jews of old were made members of the outward people of God. This sacrament is not, indeed, like the circumcision which was performed with hands, in a slight operation upon the body, but it is a sacrament in which the body of the flesh is put off, in which the old, sinful nature of man is laid aside like a filthy garment, never to be donned again. A circumcision of Christ the sacrament is called by which the believers of the New Testament are joined to the Church of Christ. All believers in Christ are in full possession of all the promises which were given to Abraham to apply to all nations. Through this sacrament of admission all believers have become a peculiar people, a people consecrated to the Lord.
The apostle now says expressly what he has reference to: Buried with Him in Baptism, in whom you also were raised up through the faith of the operation of God, who raised Him from the dead. The circumcision of Christ, the stripping off of the sinful nature in man, is Baptism. That is the visible means by which the Lord works regeneration in our hearts. The old Adam in us was mortally wounded when the Lord received us as His own in Baptism. So the figure is consistently carried out: We were buried with Christ by Baptism into death, Rom 6:4, because in Baptism we became partakers of all the spiritual gifts which He earned for us by His entire life, death, and resurrection. Buried with Christ and dead to sin, we now, through the effective working of the word in Baptism, become partakers also of Christ’s resurrection: We are raised with Him. The blessings of His redemption are transmitted to us through faith. Not, indeed, as if even this faith were our own meritorious work, for it is a faith of the operation of God. When we were dead in trespasses and sins, He quickened us together with Christ, Eph 2:1-6. He wrought faith in our hearts through the Sacrament of Baptism. It was a proof of the same divine power by which God raised up Jesus from the dead. Note: The casual comparison between circumcision and Baptism in this passage affords a very strong argument in favor of infant baptism; for the rite of circumcision, as practiced by the Jews, had to take place on the eighth day, and Baptism is spoken of as being parallel to circumcision.
The third great benefit of our union with Christ is this, that we now have the assurance that all sin and guilt is forgiven: And you being dead through trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made you alive with Him, having forgiven us all trespasses. The apostle here presents the work of regeneration much as in Eph 2:1-6: When the Colossians were dead through, by reason of, their sins, when they were lying in spiritual death and were subject to eternal damnation. That this was a lasting condition of the Gentiles, Paul indicates by speaking of the uncircumcision of their flesh. He is speaking of a spiritual condition, Deu 10:16; Jer 4:4, of the sensuous, sinful nature of natural men, of their inherited state of disobedience and enmity toward God. While they were in that condition of spiritual death, while they had no longing for spiritual life, when all their thoughts were at variance with God’s holy Word and will, then it was that God quickened them, made them alive with Christ, made them partakers of the resurrection and of the life of Christ. Paul here skillfully changes his address from the second to the first person, thus softening the harshness of the passage and including himself as a recipient of this blessing. This great gift, this wonderful blessing of being awakened to spiritual life, was transmitted to us by the fact that God forgave us our trespasses; He graciously canceled the debt which was charged against us.
This miracle the apostle proceeds to describe in greater detail: Having blotted out the handwriting in ordinances that was against us, which was directly opposed to us, and He has taken it out of the way by affixing it to the cross. Without Christ the Law was before us like a bond or note of hand, made by us as the debtors in writing, always held before us as a debt which must be discharged. We were under obligation to keep the Law of God, its unfulfilled decrees were a continual accusation against us. No matter which way we turned for relief, there was the Law before our eyes, an insatiable creditor. But then Christ came and paid the entire debt of all mankind, He paid the guilt of all their sins, He secured a complete redemption for them all. Therefore the handwriting is blotted out, the note is canceled, its constant menace has been removed from between God and us. And here Paul, in his eagerness to impress the fact of this great truth upon his readers, uses the strongest possible figure: God has affixed the handwriting of our guilt to the cross. When Christ was crucified, laden, as He was, with the guilt of mankind, God thereby nailed the Law to His cross. Thus it shared in His death, thus it was abrogated, thus it was canceled. See 2Co 5:21; Gal 3:13. Thus there is no more guilt to condemn us, the Law no longer has power over us: Christ’s death has brought us eternal life.
In Him, therefore, we also may triumph over all the powers that oppose us: Having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a show of them with boldness, triumphing over them in it. God, being in Christ for the purpose of reconciling the world to Himself, while He was at the same time the great Ruler and Judge of the universe, made the principalities and powers the object of spoil and booty, He divested those spirits that were opposed to Him, the angels of darkness, of their authority and power. The evil spirits are now no longer able to accuse and condemn the Christians; one little word can fell them. In proof of the fact that the principalities of darkness had been fully conquered, God made a show of them openly, frankly, freely. It was done with that easy confidence and certainty which marks a complete, permanent victory. By virtue of this fact every Christian can point the finger of derision at the mighty spirit of evil, so long as he adheres to the Word, which makes him certain of the great victory. Yea, God has made a triumph of Satan and his host in the cross. Like a mighty general that has fully vanquished a dangerous opponent and is leading him along bound in fetters, so God made the Cross, otherwise the symbol of shame and sorrow, the sign of victory and final triumph over all His enemies. This entire victory, with all its blessings, is ours through the gift of God, by faith. We are victors over the kingdom of darkness, we can triumph over all our enemies, even here in time, and hereafter in one glorious hymn of triumph in all eternity.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v10 You have been filled in him
You have been filled in him
Paul speaks of people as though they were containers into which God has placed Christ. AT: "You are made complete in Christ" (See: Metaphor)
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who is the head over every power and authority
Christ is the ruler over every other ruler (See: Metaphor)
In him you were also circumcised
Paul is speaking of those who belong to Christ as if they were inside Christ's body. This can also be made active. AT: "When you joined the church in baptism, God circumcised you" (See: Metaphor and Active or Passive)
a circumcision not done by humans
With this metaphor, Paul says that God has made Christian believers acceptable to himself in a way that reminded him of circumcision, the ceremony through which Hebrew male babies were added to the community of Israel. (See: Metaphor)
You were buried with him in baptism
Paul speaks of being baptized and joining the assembly of believers as if it were being buried with Christ. This can be made active. AT: "God buried you with Christ when you joined the church in baptism" (See: Metaphor and Active or Passive)
in him you were raised up
With this metaphor, Paul speaks of the new spiritual life of believers that God made possible by making Christ come alive again. This can be made active. AT: "because you have joined yourself to Christ, God raised you up" or "in him God caused you to live again" (See: Metaphor and Active or Passive)
you were raised up
Here to raise up is an idiom for causing someone who has died to become alive again. This can be stated in active form. AT: "God raised you up" or "God caused you to live again" (See: Active or Passive and Idiom)
translationWords
head
authority
circumcise
baptize
faith
power
God
die
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v11 2:11 Christ performed a spiritual circumcision: Spiritual conversion to…
2:11 Christ performed a spiritual circumcision: Spiritual conversion to Christ is the Christian counterpart to physical circumcision. • the cutting away of your sinful nature (literally the cutting away of the body of the flesh): Just as Jewish boys have the flesh of their foreskin cut off to mark their initiation into the people of God, so believers have metaphorical flesh (translated sinful nature) cut off when they come to Christ.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.