Easter Gifts

Apr 5, 2026 Mark

We have reviewed the suffering and death of Jesus in payment for our sins. Today we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. When we think about Easter, we tend to focus on only one aspect of what Jesus came to do for us. In Colossians 2:11-15, we find three things that Jesus’ death and resurrection accomplished for us. In Christ we are freed from the power of sin, we are freed from the Law that justly condemns us, and we are freed from those who accuse us!

Notes

Scripture quotations from the New International Version (NIV) (1984)

Freed from Sin’s Power

11 In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ.

Long ago, God promised to circumcise the hearts of His people “so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live” (Deut 30:6, NIV)
- To love the Lord your God means to “listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life” (Deut 30:20, NIV)
Long before that, God spoke to Cain, the son of Adam, warning him, “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it” (Gen 4:7, NIV).
- Cain gave in to sin and became its slave
- You and I once had power to choose right and wrong (Ro 7:9),
- but like Cain, we surrendered to sin and became its slaves (Ro 7:14)
Here in Colossians 2:11, Paul declares the fulfillment of God’s promise, defeating the power of sin dwelling in us and freeing us from its bondage
In Christ, God has removed our sinful nature
In verse 12, Paul says that that circumcision took place as we were united with Christ in His death and resurrection, as we received baptism
- Baptism doesn’t circumcise us; Christ does
- Christ removes our sinful nature
- By our faith in being united with Christ in His death and resurrection, as illustrated in baptism, as Paul points out in the second part of verse 12
  - Taking you out to the river, plunging you under the water and bringing you back out has no value beyond the picture of death and resurrection
  - Unless it is combined with faith—faith in the power of God to give you new life just as He brought Jesus back from the dead on Easter morning (Gal 3:26-27; 1 Peter 3:21-22)
  - It’s the same as physical circumcision
    - What Paul says about physical circumcision applies also to baptism:
      - Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, you have become as though you had not been circumcised.... A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man's praise is not from men, but from God. (Romans 2:25, 28-29, NIV)
  - In the same way that physical circumcision is meaningless if there is no change in life, so also is baptism meaningless unless there is a change of life
  - As Colossians 2:12-13 tells us, that change of life comes by faith in Christ, who makes us a new creation (2 Cor 5:17)
One of the things we struggle with before trusting in Jesus is the idea in verse 13 that we are dead in our sins and the uncircumcision of our hearts
- We don’t feel dead, as we walk around experiencing life without believing in Jesus
  - But we only look at our lives on this earth
  - God looks at things from a higher and eternal perspective
  - When we are unsaved, we are walking dead men in the eyes of God (Eph 2:1-3 (NIV)
    - God defines “dead” as cut off from Him, insensitive to His Spirit, His Word and His leading, ultimately ending up in torment forever in Hell
    - That’s why Jesus and the Apostles often spoke of physical death as “sleep” in order to distinguish it from God’s understanding of death (Mt 9:24; Mk 5:39; Lk 8:52; Jn 11:11-14; Acts 13:36; 1Cor 15:6,18,20; 1Th 4:13-15; 1Th 5:10)
  - But when we hear the Gospel and believe who Jesus is and what He accomplished at Easter
    - He makes us an eternally living being
    - True life is defined as living forever in righteousness and holiness, beginning the moment we believe the Gospel
Again, verses 12 and 13 tell us that we who believe have been raised to life, made alive in Christ Jesus.
- But you don’t feel any more alive or dead after believing in Christ, do you?
- You’re still walking around in the same old body
- Same old feelings, joys and sorrows, frustrations and victories
- But if you truly believe in Christ, something significant has changed
  - You are sensitive, alive to God and His leading
  - You see it by your response to God’s Word
  - His Spirit convicts you when you do wrong
  - You desire to make all things right as quickly and completely as possible
  - You are truly new
The sad truth is that while we have been released from enslavement to sin, we have not yet been freed from the influence of sin
- It still desires to control us
- But now we have the ability to say “no” to sin and “yes” to godliness (Titus 2:11-12)
- Or as Paul says in Ephesians 4, to put off the old self and put on the new
- Or as he writes in Romans 6, to stop giving our bodies over to sin and start giving them over to righteousness
- The struggle is real, but the struggle is winnable
- Before trusting in Christ, there was no struggle! We were wholly slaves to sin and children of the devil (Jn 8:42-44)
- Now that we who believe have been set free from sin, we work to clear the sinful remains from our former way of life

Freed from Lawful Condemnation

He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.

Our sins have indeed been forgiven
- Sins of the past, present and future
- More than that, we’re empowered to sin no more (1Jn 2:1-10; 1Jn 5:1-5)!
- But our sins aren’t just tossed aside or overlooked or ignored (Mt 5:17-18)
There has been a legal transaction that allows God to release you and me from judgment for our sins—and still remain righteous and just
- The list of sins you’ve committed, the legal documents, accusations, charges against you have been nailed to Jesus’ cross
- He took our place
- He took our sins on Himself
- He received the punishment we deserved
- In so doing, we no longer have to pay our own penalty
- But we share in His death
  - His death is applied to us
  - We die—by faith, illustrated in baptism
  - He makes us alive—a new creation!—by faith, illustrated in baptism
- Rom 7:1-4 (NIV)
  - Do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to men who know the law—that the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives? For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage. So then, if she marries another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress, even though she marries another man. So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God.
- Our inclusion in Christ’s death—our death in Christ—satisfies the demand of the Law for our death and releases us from its power and authority
The Law still has value to us
- It reveals to us who God is and how He desires us to live
  - The moral commands of the Law describe this new person we have been made in Christ
  - We are a new creation, but our minds are our old minds, and they need to be retrained according to the whole revelation of God, Old and New Testaments (Rom 12:1-2; Eph 4:23)
- As Paul writes in Romans 15:4 (NIV):
  - For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
  - That includes the Law and what it reveals about the character of God and His people

Freed from Our Accusers

15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

This is perhaps the strangest and most exciting statement in this passage:
- Jesus “disarmed the powers and authorities”
  - What powers and authorities?
  - clearly those powers and authorities that were using God’s Law against us, to accuse us—and rightly so!
  - Spiritual powers and authorities—the accuser of the brothers—the devil and his fallen angels (Rev 12:7-11)!
  - In fulfilling the Law’s demand for our death, Jesus stripped all our accusers of all ability to accusing us
  - We’re dead! We died in Christ! They got what they wanted! What more can they say?
- But He also made a public spectacle of them!
  - In submitting to the cross and dying a death He didn’t owe,
    - Jesus turned the tables on all these “righteous” accusers
  - They thought they had victory over Jesus
  - They thought they had us all condemned—along with Jesus!
  - But that was God’s plan for the redemption of His people from the very beginning of Creation
    - The lambs offered in sacrifice from Adam to Moses
    - The oxen and goats and sheep and doves commanded by the Law—their blood offered in place of our sin
    - None of these took away sin
    - None really satisfied the wrath of God to bring us forgiveness
    - All pointed ahead to the One perfect sacrifice—Jesus Christ the righteous Son of God
  - God fulfilled all His plans right in their faces, while they thought they were winning!
Instead, He made a mockery of them
- He rose victorious and is now seated beside His Father (Eph 1:19-23)
- And He will “bring those wretches to a wretched end” (Mt 21:41)
- “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves” (Col 1:13, NIV)
Jesus submitting to His Father’s will, going to the cross and dying was the victory (Mt 26:37-46; Heb 5:7-10; Php 2:5-11)!
- Rising from the dead was the proof of His victory
- And put all His enemies to shame—His enemies and ours

Conclusion

The death and resurrection of Jesus is miserable and glorious! The most righteous and holy person ever to walk the earth was condemned and put to death—unfairly, unjustly—so that you and I who deserved condemnation and death could be set free.

Those of us who believe in Jesus have no more fear of accusation. We are no longer under the judgment of the Law. We have much to learn, much to change—and we have been changed and we are able to make all necessary changes. But the Law and our accusers have no more power to demand our death. We are free to live in peace and security under the protection of the Lord who saved and delivered us into His holy kingdom.

If you have not yet accepted Jesus death in place of yours and acknowledged that He has been raised as your holy and righteous King, there is still time. “...If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9, NIV). It’s not too late. You too can be set free from the power of sin, the just condemnation of the Law and every hateful accuser.