Every day, all over the world, people are having surgery. They’re being put under anesthesia and go under the knife while a medical expert operates on their body. It’s a scary thing having someone cut at you like that. We allow it because we know it’s for a good reason. If we have a tumor we want the tumor removed. If we have a ruptured appendix we want the appendix taken out.
If we have a gallbladder that keeps acting up it’s got to go!
But all of those surgeries are done to serve the physical body. There is a more important body to worry about: The spiritual. Our spiritual bodies can likewise become damaged and corrupted, in need of repeat by a qualified expert. Unfortunately, we aren’t qualified to repair our spiritual bodies. You’ve maybe heard of a doctor who performed emergency surgery on himself, but no one is capable of performing emergency spiritual surgery on their soul. There’s only one person capable of doing that…
and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ;
(Colossians 2:11)
Paul says that Jesus performed a surgergy on our soul, cutting away the sin that would have destroyed us. When did He do this? Paul says…
having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.
(Colossians 2:12)
When we submit to Him and are baptized into Him, He cuts away our sins. We often use the expression “wash away” our sins, and there’s a Biblical reason for that (Acts 22:16), but here the analogy is of surgery. Jesus cuts away our sins like a doctor cuts away a tumor. He removes it from our body like a doctor removes a ruined gallbladder. And after the spiritual surgery is over, we rise from the operating table to walk in newness of life (Romans 6).
Thank God for spiritual surgery!