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10/4 Colossians 2:12
12 . . . having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.
Paul was trying to help the Colossians understand that all they needed was Jesus--Jesus plus nothing else. They didn't need to follow any kind of works or traditions or rituals. Since the fullness of God is in Him and believers are filled with Him, what more could be needed?
Some of the Jews were trying to convince the men to be circumcised. Paul was telling them that the important circumcision is that of the heart. Baptism into Christ is what changes our behavior. When our sinful nature is put to death with Jesus and is buried with Him, then we also rise with Him to new life by the powerful working of God. The old things we once loved we now deplore, and things we once avoided we now love. God's resurrection power has transformed us.
Now we can choose to yield to that power moment by moment every day. The old lusts lose their appeal. The expulsive power of a new affection causes us to shun the old pleasures. We just want to live to please the One who gave Himself for us.
Prayer: Lord, increase my love for You, and help me to yield to Your life residing in me
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It is exceedingly beneficial to our souls to mount above this present evil world to something nobler and better. The cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches are apt to choke everything good within us, and we grow fretful, desponding, perhaps proud and carnal. It is well for us to cut down these thorns and briers, for heavenly seed sown among them is not likely to yield a harvest; and where shall we find a better sickle with which to cut them down than communion with God and the things of the kingdom? In the valleys of Switzerland, many of the inhabitants are deformed, and all wear a sickly appearance, for the atmosphere is charged with miasma, and is close and stagnant; but up yonder, on the mountain, you find a hardy race, who breathe the clear fresh air as it blows from the virgin snows of the Alpine summits. It would be well if the dwellers in the valley could frequently leave their abodes among the marshes and the fever mists, and inhale the bracing element upon the hills. It is to such an exploit of climbing that I invite you this evening. May the Spirit of God assist us to leave the mists of fear and the fevers of anxiety, and all the ills which gather in this valley of earth, and to ascend the mountains of anticipated joy and blessedness. May God the Holy Spirit cut the cords that keep us here below, and assist us to mount! We sit too often like chained eagles fastened to the rock, only that, unlike the eagle, we begin to love our chain, and would, perhaps, if it came really to the test, be loath to have it snapped. May God now grant us grace, if we cannot escape from the chain as to our flesh, yet to do so as to our spirits; and leaving the body, like a servant, at the foot of the hill, may our soul, like Abraham, attain the top of the mountain, there to indulge in communion with the Most High.