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becomes true the moment salvation is experienced. In just the same way the raising of
the believer with Christ must be God's work alone. No dipping in water or raising out of
it by a man can accomplish this. The dying, burial, quickening, raising and seating of the
believer in Christ in the heavenlies is, we repeat, solely the operation of God. To bring
any ritual operated by man here is to spoil the wonders of the context and ruin the
Apostle's argument. He tells us that types and shadows have vanished because we now
have the fullness of spiritual reality, being completely identified and made one with
Christ in His death, burial, resurrection and ascension. It is pitiful to bring in water
baptism here. This sticks out like a sore thumb. Even if one believed in baptismal
regeneration (as do the Roman Catholic and high Churchmen) it is still out of place. If
we are enjoying the glorious spiritual reality to the full, we need not be concerned with
the types that once set it forth and even then not perfectly. We can surely let the `picture
book' go and praise God for the stupendous fact that in Christ, we are now filled to the
brim with His fullness and that is all of His doing.
No.59.
The Epistle to the Colossians (9).
pp. 201 - 205
Having stressed the glorious fact that by the working of God the believer has been
identified with Christ in His death, burial, quickening and resurrection, all his sin having
been graciously forgiven, the Apostle Paul also proclaims the fact that each member of
the Body of Christ is now free from the dominion of the law which was `contrary to us'
and `against us':
"Having blotted out the bond written in ordinances that was against us, which was
contrary to us: and He hath taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross" (2: 14 R.V.).
The word cheirographon, handwriting, was a statement of debt signed by the debtor,
setting forth his `indebtedness'. The law of God with its ordinances stands as a Divine
statement of our indebtedness as sinners. This has been cancelled and removed by the
death of Christ, because not only did He perfectly fulfil that law, but He stood in the
sinner's place and accepted in His Own Person the penalty due to the law-breaker. Thus
the law as an instrument of condemnation has been dealt with by God and cancelled. It
has been satisfied completely by the offering of the Son of God and now has no power to
accuse or condemn and it is in this sense that it has been removed as far as the believer is
concerned.
But this is not all that results from the victory of the cross. Not only has the bond of
the law been cancelled, but it also spells victory over the spirit forces of evil:
"Having put off from Himself the principalities and the powers, He made a show of
them openly, triumphing over them in it" (2: 15 R.V.).
This was like a conqueror who strips his foes and leads them as captives behind his
chariot in his victory procession. Finally, Calvary means utter defeat for Satan and his