Tuesday after Quasi modo geniti Sunday
Posted on April 9, 2024 by under
Scripture: Colossians 2:9-15 (NKJV)
2:9 For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; 10 and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.
11 In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. 13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, 14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. 15 Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.
Devotion
In this passage, the Apostle Paul connects baptism to circumcision. In the Old Testament, circumcision was the God-given sign of the covenant He had established with the people of Israel. Similarly, Christ claims us as Christians in our baptism. But there are important differences—circumcision belonged to the Old Testament. It was designed to point to the coming of Christ, but when Christ came, He fulfilled that Law and we are no longer bound to that covenant. Baptism will continue until the end of time, because of Christ’s command.
Baptism is powerful—Paul ties it directly to our faith, because just as God the Father raised Christ from the dead in His resurrection, even so He brings life to us through faith in Christ, which He works in us through baptism. This righteousness which comes to us in Word and Sacrament—including baptism—is directly opposed to righteousness by the Law and works. Such faith is reliance not on our own worthiness, but trusts that Christ has fulfilled all of those requirements for us. It is Christ’s obedience to the Law that God sees when He looks at us, and the faith that He works in us through Word and Sacrament connects us to Him forever. This is the “circumcision made without hands.”
Collect: Grant, we beseech Thee, Almighty God, that we who have celebrated the solemnities of the Lord’s Resurrection, may, by the help of Thy grace, bring forth the fruits thereof in our life and conversation; through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
