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Colossians

The Colossians seem to have become caught up into practicing the rituals of the Law - even performing circumcision! Maybe they had been influenced by the Pharisee teachers that had bothered other churches in the region - as we see from Paul's other letters - or maybe it was just another religious fad that they had got caught up in. Paul explains where their thinking had gone so wrong. When we trust in Jesus we don't just get a SIGN of cutting off the flesh - we don't just get a PICTURE of new birth. Jesus gives us the reality: He gives us the actual death to sin and resurrection to life that the Law was always dreaming of. The ancient Church from Abraham down to Pentecost used the sign of circumcision to point to that reality - and Paul says that baptism points to just the same reality from Pentecost on. Baptism and circumcision are both signs pointing to the same reality - verses 11-12. If we have joined a local Church with the sign of baptism we have got the physical sign of the living reality. We don't need to go and get circumcision as well! If we do that it shows that we haven't understood what is going on with Jesus and His birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension. We only need one sign of death and resurrection. The bloody sign of circumcision that the ancient Church used has been replaced by the water sign of baptism.