GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Ver. 11. The True Circumcision.
- Is not an outward rite, but an inward change.
- Is an excision of the body of sin by our union with Christ, who has conquered sin.
- Is not an external observance, but a spiritual experience and a holy life.
Ver. 12. The True Baptism—
- Is spiritual regeneration.
- Is being buried and raised again with Christ.
- Is secured by an active, realising faith in the power of God.
- Renders circumcision and all outward rites valueless as means of salvation.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 13, 14.
The Transition from Death to Life.
In relation to man, the physical order is a descent from life to death, the spiritual order an ascent from death to life. The soul of man is held captive in the dark and dismal prison-house of sin, and the Divine law—at once its judge and gaoler—has declared its condemnation to death. The great Mediator offers Himself a ransom for human sin. He is accepted. The sentence of condemnation is cancelled, and spiritual liberty proclaimed.
I. That the natural condition of humanity is one of moral and spiritual death.—1. Man is in a condition of spiritual insensibility. “You, being dead in your sins” (ver. 13). The dead know not anything. They are as unconscious as the dust in the midst of which they slumber. The sweetest sounds or the brightest scenes appeal in vain to the locked-up senses. This figure strikingly depicts the moral condition of man. The soul may be keenly alive to the relations and interests of the outer world, and at the same time dead to the grandest spiritual realities. He is insensible to the character and claims of God, to the sublimest truths, to the most ravishing prospects. With faculties to appreciate all that is lovely in nature and wonderful in art, he is insensible and unresponsive to the highest moral beauty.
2. Man is in a condition of moral corruption.—“And the uncircumcision of your flesh” (ver. 13). Death unbinds the forces that brace up the body in life and health and leaves it a prey to the ever-active power of corruption. The flesh is the carnal principle—the old corrupt nature; and its uncircumcision indicates that it has not been cut off, mortified, or conquered. It is the loathsome, putrid fruit of a nature spiritually dead—the outworkings of a wicked, unrenewed heart, through all the channels of unchecked appetites and passions—moral putrescence fattening on itself. No description of sin can surpass the revolting spectacle of its own self-registered results.