Colossians 2:15

‘Having put off from himself the principalities and the powers, he made a show of the openly, triumphing over them in it.'

This action clearly refers to Jesus directly. Whether we take the ‘He' of the previous verses as God or Jesus Christ matters little. It was God's action in Christ. In Him dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.

‘Having put off from Himself the principalities and powers.' He had been fighting them all His life, from the time when Herod sought to destroy Him as a young child (Matthew 2:16), through His temptations in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1), then in His ‘battle' with evil spirits when as the Stronger than Satan He constantly bound him and took his goods (Luke 11:22 and parallels), then when Peter tempted Him to avoid the way of suffering (Mark 8:33 and parallels), followed by Satan's plans through Judas (John 13:2; John 13:27). So He knew His opponents well.

Jesus had no doubts about what He would face. ‘The prince of this world comes and has nothing on me' (John 14:30), He said in the Upper Room, and then shortly afterwards, in the Garden, ‘this is your hour and the power of darkness' (Luke 22:53 - compare ‘the power of darkness in opposition to Him and His kingdom in Colossians 1:13). And now we learn that in His final hours on the cross He ‘put off' from Himself (an alternative translation is ‘He completely disarmed') the principalities and powers, and then led them in chains in His march of victory in the resurrection. This suggests close confrontation and vicious assault as they pressed in upon Him, then the stripping of them off followed by His triumph. Redemption for mankind was obtained both by the payment of a ransom and by the ignominious defeat of the powers of evil.

‘Triumphing over them in it (or in Him).' The pronoun can be translated either ‘it' or ‘Him', referring either to the cross or to Jesus Himself. If we take the latter the subject of the sentence would be God. But the context strongly favours that the triumph was directly through the cross where sin was annulled.

We Must Therefore Concentrate on Christ and Not Be Taken Up With Rites and Ceremonies (Colossians 2:16 to Colossians 3:4).