Last
week we looked at Paul’s comments in the first chapter of Colossians regarding
Christ’s deity and humanity. It’s BECAUSE of who He is – God incarnate – that
He is able to forgive sins and reconcile us who were God’s enemies because of
our sins. It’s BECAUSE of who He is – God incarnate that Jesus can reconcile us
with the Father because of His substitutionary and atoning sacrifice of the
cross. With that quick backdrop, we now move into chapter two, beginning with
verse six and through verse 23 for context:
Colossians
2:6-8 Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the
Lord, so walk in Him having been firmly rooted and
now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as
you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude. See to it that no one
takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the
tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the
world, rather than according to Christ.
For in Him all the fullness of Deity
dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete, and He
is the head over all rule and authority; 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; 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.
When
you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your
flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our
transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt
consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has
taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. When He
had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public
display of them, having triumphed over them through Him. Therefore no
one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in
respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day, things
which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but
the substance belongs to Christ.
Let
no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting
in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand
on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by
his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the head, from
whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints
and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God. If you have
died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why,
as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees,
such as, “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!” (which
all refer to things destined to perish with use)—in
accordance with the commandments and teachings of men? These are
matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made
religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but
are of no value against fleshly indulgence.
We’ll
not have time today to unpack this entire text, so we will return to it next
week. But for today, let’s first turn our attention to verses 6-7: “Therefore
as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having
been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and
established in your faith, just as you were
instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.
The
entire New Testament instruction about receiving Christ follows a clear pattern:
First, we learn about Jesus from reading Scripture and from those who
accurately teach God’s word. We then accept by faith who Jesus is – that being,
God incarnate whose sacrifice on Calvary is entirely sufficient for our
salvation – meaning specifically that He substituted Himself to receive the Father’s
wrath against us for our sins, and that by His atoning blood has forever purified
our sins and fully reconciled us to the Father.
Paul
then goes on to tell his readers that since they received Christ by faith, they
must now WALK by the same faith in obedience to all His commandments. Paul goes
on in verse seven to instruct those who have received Christ to become “firmly rooted and
now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as
you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.”
Which
ought to now raise the question, “How do we get to be firmly rooted, built up,
and established in our faith”? As we would expect, God tells us how throughout
His word. Here are only a scant few examples:
First,
regularly reading and meditating on what God tells us from Genesis through
Revelation. Peter tells us, 1 Peter 2:2-3 “Like newborn babies, long for
the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in
respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.”
Paul
adds: “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching,
for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so
that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” 1
Timothy 3:16-17
And
again, he writes, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a
workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of
truth. 2 Timothy 2:15
A
person who has access to the Bible and is able to read or listen to it being
read, has no excuse whatsoever to neglect reading and studying the Bible. Sin
will keep you from the Bible, or the Bible will keep you from sin. It doesn’t
get any simpler than that.
And
beware ANY church or church leadership who dissuades or penalizes people from
reading God’s word. Such dissuasion is sure evidence of an ungodly, satanic
attempt at a deadly control of your eternal destiny.
How
else to be firmly rooted? Maintain an ACTIVE prayer life. If prayer was not a
vital practice for the Christian then Jesus would not have wasted time praying,
as He so often did throughout the gospels. Neither would He have given His
disciples a pattern for prayer in Matthew 6 – best known as the “Lord’s Prayer.”
And neither would the apostles have spoken so often of their own prayers and
requested the prayers of their readers.
How
else to be rooted? Participate in discipleship programs such as regular
attendance at church, local Bible studies, and prayer meetings. “Let us
consider how to stimulate one another to love and good
deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of
some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the
day drawing near.” (Hebrews 10:24-25)
Please
be sure of this: Being “rooted and built up” in Christ requires a continuous pursuit
of a relationship with Him through the things I just mentioned. And it requires
of us a resolute decision to live obediently to His commandments. There is absolutely
no advantage in studying scripture, living a life of prayer, and regularly
attending church if one is not equally determined to live in DAILY obedience to
God’s commandments. Please, do not deceive yourself or be deceived to think
otherwise. The possibility of self-deception could be why Paul continued his
letter with this warning in verse 8:
"See to it that no one takes you
captive through philosophy and empty deception, which are based on human
tradition and the spiritual forces of the world rather than on Christ."
The Greek work Paul used here for ‘captive’ has
the idea of being carried off as a prisoner of war. And that’s what happens to anyone who gets
seduced by humanistic and anti-Christ ideas. They become casualties, prisoners
of the spiritual war all around us.
Alistair
Begg correctly identifies three major lies of which Satan has convinced a huge
swath of biblically illiterate and morally compromised humanity, each of which
will make captives of all who swallow the lies.
Lie
number one: There is no God. The universe and human life are the product of
chance; Lie number two: There is no absolute moral truth. Right and wrong are
matters of personal preference rather than based on God’s revelation; Lie
number three: There is no absolute truth. Truth is subjective. Each person can decide
what is true for them.
Anyone
with unveiled spiritual eyes will immediately recognize these poisonous lies have
infiltrated and nearly overwhelmed our culture – even many of our churches. One
example is the ever-popular mantra of the pro-abortion crowd, “My Body, My
Choice.” And so, we sacrifice more than 2,000 precious babies each DAY on the blood
stained altars of American abortion clinics. Two thousand Monday. Two thousand
Tuesday. Two thousand Wednesday, and so on through the week, week after week.
Month after month.
Another
example of Satan’s deadly corruption is evidenced by the annual June celebration
in America of ‘Pride Month’? The sin for which God judged Sodom and Gomorrah arrogantly
marches in streets across our nation and insinuates itself in governments at
all levels, the media, entertainment, many churches – and even in grade school
classrooms. In other words, Satan’s evangelists shout, “No one – even God, if
He exists – no one has the right to tell ME how to conduct my life and my
choices.”
All
of what’s happening around us is neatly summed up in this mournful verse: “Pride
is like a fountain pouring out sin, and whoever persists in it will be full of
wickedness.” (Ecclesiasticus 10:13)
Christian
– listen to Jude’s warning: “Godless people have slipped in among you. They
turn the grace of our God into unrestrained immorality and deny our only master
and Lord, Jesus Christ.” Jude 1:4
Christian,
be aware of such people. You will know them by their fruits. Listen to Paul’s
warning to Titus about them: Titus 1:16 “They profess to know God, but
by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient
and worthless for any good deed.
Christian, listen to Jesus: “Therefore everyone
who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a
wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and
the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house;
and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. Everyone
who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a
foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, and
the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it
fell—and great was its fall.” Matthew 7:24-27
Christian: “Be of
sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls
around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist
him, firm in your faith.” (1 Peter 5:7-8a)
It is the fool who, while knowing the truth of God’s final judgement
of sin, continues t5o walk the path that leads to eternal death.
Let’s
return now to our text in Colossians chapter two. Paul continues in verse nine:
“For in Him [Christ] all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily
form, and in Him you have been made complete.”
All
the fullness
of God dwells in Christ. All. Not 90% of God, not 99% of God, 100% of God
resides in bodily form in Jesus. This is one of the clearest examples in all
Scripture that testifies to the deity of Jesus. And it is – once again – it is
because of Jesus’ deity that those who are ‘in Christ’ have been made complete.
The Greek word translated “complete” carries the idea of being filled,
made full, or brought to completeness. Nothing lacking.
One
of the several heresies circulating around the churches in Colossae promoted
the demonic-inspired doctrine that Christ alone was not sufficient for
salvation. They explained that the Christian needs additional mediators – even angelic
mediators. They said Christians also need the secret knowledge available to
only a few chosen spokesmen for God, and they need to add legalistic practices
to their faith to be saved.
Of
course, all the New Testament writers loudly condemned those heresies. And they
should be loudly condemned today as well. Christians are ‘complete’
because – and only because – they are joined to Christ by faith. Their
righteousness, their justification, their forgiveness and their full acceptance
before God are all theirs through that union.
Application
time: Think for a while about what that means for YOU, who, because of your
repentant heart, are now joined with God the Son. It means you are fully
accepted by God because you belong to God incarnate. You don’t have to DO
anything more to be accepted by the Father who loves you so much that He gave
His Son to be YOUR propitiatory sacrifice – our atoning sacrifice that
satisfied God’s righteous wrath against our sins. Listen to St John describe
it: “And this is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent
His Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins." (1 John 4:10)
The
Christian is fully complete in Christ. There is nothing else we can do to make
us more acceptable to God. Listen again as Paul continues in today’s text:
“If
you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the
world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself
to decrees, such as, “Do not handle, do not taste, do not
touch!” . . . in accordance with the commandments and teachings of
men? These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of
wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment
of the body but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.”
(verses
20-23)
We
could live alone in a cave and still actively live in sin. Adhering to various
Dos and Don’ts are of no value against the lust of the flesh, the lust of the
eyes, and the boastful pride of life. And why is that? Because of our sin
NATURE. Although sin no longer reigns in the life of a Christian, sin
nevertheless remains in the Christian and will continue to remain until
we are no longer in our body. And while that uncomfortable truth can send us
toward depression and the temptation to give up the fight, we should always
remember St Paul’s agonized cry in the last part of Romans 7:
“For
I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the
willing is present in me, but the doing of the
good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I
practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very
thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells
in me. I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one
who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of
God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the
members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a
prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man
that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?” Romans 7:18-24
Who
will set him free? Who will set US free? Paul answers his own question, and I
will get to it in a moment, but first, my brothers and sisters, please hear
this: There not a Christian in all history who has striven to serve God and has
not at the same time also known the experience Paul wrote about. And that is
why his answer to his own question has been a glorious encouragement to every
Christian who has struggled against their own sin nature:
Therefore,
there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the
law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from
the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as
it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the
likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He
condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be
fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to
the Spirit.”
(Romans 8:1-4)
We
do not need to hold strict adherence to a list of Dos and Don’ts in accordance
with the commandments and teachings of men to make us acceptable to God.
We only need faith, trust, bold confidence in what He has done for us in Christ
and to live in obedience to His commandments that results from our faith.
We’ve
run out of time to look any further into Paul’s letter to the Christians in
Colossae – and by extension, to the Christians in Ashwood. So, let me summarize
all that we’ve looked at today:
Christian
– 1) Be firmly rooted and built up in Christ. 2) Be alert that you are not
taken captive by ungodly and false philosophies about God and biblical
morality. 3) Hold fast to the biblical truth that all the fullness of God
dwells in Christ. And finally, 4) Persistently reject the false notion that
what Jesus did on Calvary is insufficient for our salvation, that we must do
something to add to what He did.
We
will continue with Paul’s letter next time.
