The Face of God

 

We’ve been looking at the apostle Paul’s letter to the Christians at Colossae. As a reminder, Paul calls himself “an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are at Colossae.” (Colossians 1:1-2). And because he was an apostle, chosen by God, we are responsible to read his instructions as flowing inerrantly from the Holy Spirit – even we who live in another culture and in another time. God’s word is eternal and not bound by time or culture.

 

In the last few weeks, we’ve examined some of the guidance Paul gave his readers – including us in 2026. He admonished them – and us – to: 1) Be firmly rooted and built up in Christ. 2) [To] Be alert that they are not taken captive by ungodly and false philosophies about God and biblical morality. 3) [To] Hold fast to the unchangeable and undilutable truth that all the fullness of God dwells in Christ. And finally, 4) That obedient faith in Jesus is fully sufficient for salvation. Nothing else needs to be – or can be – added to what Jesus has done for us.

 

Which brings us to chapter three where Paul begins with the word “Therefore.” Let me pause a moment to remind us his ‘therefore’ refers to everything he’d written in the first two chapters. So, he writes, “Therefore, since you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. Colossians 3:1-4

 

Some Bible translations render that first verse, “IF you have been raised up with Christ,” but the Greek word can also be translated, ‘Since.’  And as we must do whenever we interpret the Scriptures, context is vital to our interpretation. That’s why ‘Since’ is the better translation because Paul was writing to Christians – not to unbelievers in Colossae. And Christians – also called ‘saints – already have been raised with Christ, as the apostle mentioned already in this letter.

 

So, Christians, “Since you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.” 

 

Yes, all Scripture is divinely inspired by God. But our faith is a rational faith, and therefore it is reasonable to delve a little further into the question of ‘Why God wants the Christian – who’s already saved, who already belongs to the eternal family of God – why does God want us to ‘keep seeking’ the things above, where Christ is?

 

I’m sure one reason is because God knows how we are EASILY distracted from truth. Spurious and ungodly philosophies and doctrines are one reason Christians can become distracted from Truth – capital ‘T’. And today’s Bible-believing Christian can’t help to notice how many churches have turned aside to follow Satan, preaching any number of false doctrines and allowing such sexual perversions into their fellowships that ought to turn our stomachs. That’s why Paul warned the Colossians, “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.” (Colossians 2:8)

 

But we can also be distracted from the gospel by the worries and the enticements of life. With the seed sown among thorns, in the Parable of the Sower, Jesus warned: “These [people] are the ones who have heard the word, but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.” (Mark 4:18-19)

 

Besides any of these distractions, bitter and heart-breaking life-circumstances can also pull us from God, events such as sudden and devastating illness or injury, or the death of a beloved family member, or chronic financial strains. Take your pick of any other circumstance that can easily pull us from God. It happens all the time. I don’t doubt many of you know of people who at one time followed Christ – until some tragedy struck and they stopped seeking, they stopped following, they stopped obeying.

 

Any of these distractions I’ve just mentioned can draw us from our steadfast walk along the straight and narrow path to the Kingdom. Surely, that’s why God tells us to keep seeking. And know this:” ‘Seeking’ doesn’t just happen. It’s an intentional undertaking. It’s something we determine to do every time we get out of bed in the morning and start our day with prayer and reading God’s word if we’re physically able to do so.

 

We need to keep seeking Him even when He seems silent. We need to intentionally keep seeking Him even when circumstances shake us to our very core. The biblically knowledgeable Christian understands such horrible life-circumstances are not unknown to the faithful throughout the millennia.

 

The Psalmist speaks to such circumstances in Psalm 13. Notice how the plasm begins, and how it ends: “How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, Having sorrow in my heart all the day?  . . . But I have trusted in Your lovingkindness; My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation.” (Psalm 13:1,2,5)

 

Here is Psalm 77. Again, notice how it begins, and how it ends: “In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord; In the night my hand was stretched out without weariness; My soul refused to be comforted. When I remember God, then I am disturbed; When I sigh, then my spirit grows faint . . . I am so troubled that I cannot speak . . . Will the Lord reject forever? And will He never be favorable again? Has His lovingkindness ceased forever? Has His promise come to an end forever? Has God forgotten to be gracious, or has He in anger withdrawn His compassion? Then I said . . . I shall remember the deeds of the Lord; Surely I will remember Your wonders of old. I will meditate on all Your work and muse on Your deeds.  Your way, O God, is holy; What god is great like our God?” (Psalm 77:2-13)

 

Writing just before the Babylon army ravaged its way through Jerusalem the prophet Habakkuk (3:16-18) put his thoughts on parchment for everyone to read: “I heard and my inward parts trembled, at the sound my lips quivered. Decay enters my bones, and in my place I tremble because I must wait quietly . . . for the people to arise who will invade us. [Nevertheless] Though the fig tree should not blossom and there be no fruit on the vines, though the yield of the olive should fail and the fields produce no food, though the flock should be cut off from the fold and there be no cattle in the stalls, yet I will exult in the Lord, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.”

 

Seeking God is a choice. Rejoicing in God – despite tragic circumstances is a decision. Both are intentional. They don’t ‘just happen.’

 

We do the right thing when life knocks out our teeth and yet we keep seeking Christ because we know God is our loving, merciful, and gracious FATHER. Whatever He allows into our lives – we take refuge in what He has repeatedly told us: Nothing “will separate us from the love of Christ. [Not] tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword.”  (Romans 8:35)

 

Nothing.

 

I see I need to move on. So, let’s go back to our text in chapter three and ask another question: What does it look like when a person continually seeks the things above, where Christ is?

 

Well, Paul delineates through the rest of this chapter what it ought to look like. I’ll read only portions of his text and without much comment because the results of our intentional seeking Christ are self-evident for the true Christian:

 

“Consider the members of your earthly body as dead to [sexual] immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience . . . But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices . . . [But] put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another and forgiving each other . . . just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity . . . Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.” (Colossians 3:5-17)

 

That’s quite a list of characteristics and evidence resulting in the man or woman who is either seeking what it above – or who don’t particularly care to seek Him.

 

Before I draw this message to a close in a few more minutes, I want to also speak yet of one more result we can expect of an intentional seeking the things above, where Christ is – but first I need to say once again something I have said many times over the past eleven years that I’ve been pastor here – and this is a critically important:

 

If we have little interest in seeking the things above where Christ is, then it might mean that we don’t belong to Christ. I hope you realize how serious this point is. The Lord Jesus warns us several times in the gospels that there will be those at the Judgment Seat who will stand in utter terror to discover they were not faithful Christians at all, but rather they’d deceived themselves all along. You can read what ought to be sobering texts in Matthew 7:21-23, Matthew 25:31-46, and Luke 13:22-28

 

I believe it is for that reason that Paul challenged the Corinthians to test themselves, to ensure they have saving faith. I bring this up again because I am responsible to God to appeal to all of us – me included – “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; Examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?” (2 Corinthians 13:5)

 

Do we have a hunger for God’s word? Do we regularly read it, study it, memorize it? Do we seek the Lord in regular prayer? Do we routinely gather with other Christians for friendship? Do we take whatever steps we think are necessary to be more like Jesus, following His commandments more closely with each passing year of our lives?

 

So, let’s look at yet one more expected result of an ongoing, day by day seeking Christ and living for Him. Here is verse 4 of chapter 3: When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.

 

Be certain of this: One day Jesus WILL be fully revealed to every eye on earth. “Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. So it is to be. Amen.” (Revelation 1:7) And for an overwhelming majority of humanity, that will be an incalculably terrifying moment.

 

At the Lord’s first advent He came metaphorically as a lamb, a sacrificial lamb whose mission was to die and make atonement for sinners. As a sacrificial lamb, Jesus took on Himself the full wrath the Father had against us for our sins. By His blood He has forever cleansed every sin, every stain, of every penitent sinner devoted to Christ.

 

Think what that means for YOU who have purposely made yourself a bondservant, a slave of Jesus Christ. What it means for You who intentionally seek the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father. You now – today – you stand blameless before God. He calls you righteous, justified, forgiven.

 

But at Christ’s second advent – which WILL occur because He said it would occur – at His second advent He will come metaphorically as a Lion – not to save humanity from the Father wrath, but to execute the Father’s judgment on all who have scoffed at Christ in their lives, against ALL who have rejected His atonement. Jew, or non-Jew, atheist or religious, cold to Christ or lukewarm – no one will escape His judgment.

 

However, the good news on the other side of this promised eternal devastation for the non-Christian is God’s promise to every born-again faithful follower of Christ. For every Christian, this text in Revelation describes one of the results we can expect for living a life of seeking and obeying Christ:

 

“And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems . . . He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses. From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. (Revelation 19:11-15) 

 

My brothers and sisters – WE will be in that army, clothed in white linen, following our Lord on white horses.

 

When Christ is revealed, every Christian will also be revealed with Him in His glory at His return to earth. Think what that means for YOU who live a life intentionally seeking Christ. The world and all the angels in heaven will see YOU in your glorified body returning with Christ to set up His kingdom on earth – the place where you and all who have loved the Lord will be for an eternity.

 

And what will that eternity look like? We catch only a glimpse in scripture of our future forever home: Revelation 21 “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. . . And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.” And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.”

 

Then He showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life . . . There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve Him; they will see His face . . .And there will no longer be any night; and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them; and they will reign forever and ever.” Revelation 22:1-5

 

Let me repeat something here: We will see His face. His lovely, beautiful, blinding, precious face – the face even Moses could not see. You might remember that passage in Exodus when the Lord said to him, “You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live! Then the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by Me, and you shall stand there on the rock; and it will come about, while My glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by. Then I will take My hand away and you shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen.” Exodus 33:21-23

 

You and I have a choice today, and tomorrow, and every day for the rest of our lives: We can seek what ultimately amounts to worthless vanity and striving after wind, filling our days with worldly pleasures and distractions, or we can spend our days seeking the eternal promises of the Christ’s eternal kingdom.

 

I urge you to pray for me, to pray for each other, to pray for yourselves – that we all learn to seek Christ better than we have in the past. That we learn to keep seeking Christ better than we have in the past.

 

Solomon said it well: “Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the issues of life.” Proverbs 4:23

 

Victory in Jesus

Because of our time limitations last week, we didn’t look as closely at the text I chose for my message in the second chapter of Colossians. So, let’s return to that text today. To maintain context, here is the whole section I cited last week.

 

Colossians 2:1ff 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.

 

I think it will be helpful to summarize what we have already seen in this text last over the past two weeks: 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.

 

One of the heresies circulating around the churches in Colossae was the demonic-inspired doctrine that Christ alone was not sufficient for salvation. They taught 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 that 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.

 

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, 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 obedient 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.

 

Paul then continues his instruction to the Colossians – and the those at Ashwood Meadows in verses 11-15 – “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.

 

Circumcision not only brought the child into God’s covenant relationship with God, but circumcision was always meant by God to be more than the removal of a piece of flesh. He intended it as a symbol of the removal of evil from the heart. Listen to Him speak through Moses: (Deuteronomy 10:16) “So circumcise your heart and stiffen your neck no longer.”

 

And, again in Deuteronomy 30:6 “Moreover the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.”

 

Now, listen to God through Jeremiah nearly 1000 years later (Jeremiah 4:4) “Circumcise yourselves to the Lord and remove the foreskins of your hear . . . or else My wrath will go forth like fire and burn with none to quench it, because of the evil of your deeds.”

 

So, when the apostle Paul continues in the next clause: “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,” we ought to humbly ask ourselves what is the use of being baptized if we do not seek the Lord in obedience? Isn’t that what John the Baptist declared to those coming to the Jordan? “Therefore, bear fruit in keeping with repentance; and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham.” (Matthew 3:8-9)

 

In other words, without living a life of repentance, circumcision becomes uncircumcision – as Paul wrote to the Christians at Rome: “For indeed circumcision is of value if you practice the Law; but if you are a transgressor of the Law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.” (Romans 2:25)

 

And I think it is equally true, without living a life of repentance, baptism becomes unbaptism.

 

Paul continues in today’s text: “ 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.

 

I’ve heard it preached that after the Fall we are diamonds but covered with mud. They say Jesus’ blood cleans off the mud. Where pastors get such erroneous ideas demonstrates either their biblical illiteracy, or their disbelief in the inerrancy, infallibility, and full inspiration of God’s word.

 

God threatened our first parents with spiritual death – a broken fellowship with God – if they ate of the forbidden tree: “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.” (Genesis 2:16-17)

 

St Paul understood the Genesis text to mean exactly as it is written, which is why he told the Ephesians they were dead – the word he used is the same we use for ‘necrotic’ – they (and you and I) were dead in their sins – until God, by His grace, made them (and us) alive.

 

When we were ‘born again’ God forgave all – all – our sins, having canceled out each one, having stamped on the ledger the equivalent of our ‘Paid in Full’ stamped on a financial debt we no longer owe. As the songwriter aptly described it: “He paid a debt He did not owe, I owed a debt I could not pay, I needed someone to wash my sins away; And now I sing a brand-new song, “Amazing Grace,” Christ Jesus paid a debt that I could never pay.”

 

And that surely is why the apostle continued his jubilant exultation: “When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.”

 

When Paul wrote that Jesus triumphed over the powers by the cross, he wasn’t talking about the powers of Rome. He was speaking about the same powers of the air that he speaks in his letter to the church at Ephesus: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Ephesians 6:12)

 

On Calvary’s cross, Jesus triumphed specifically over all supernatural demonic powers in all the unseen realms around us. That’s also why Paul tells us in his letter to the Philippians: “At the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:10-11)

 

Every knee. Every tongue. In heaven and on earth and under the earth. And that is all because of what God did on the cross when Jesus gave Himself as a sin offering for all who come to Him by faith. And because of the death of God-Incarnate, you and I who are IN CHRIST have victory (present tense) victory over sin, death, and the devil.

 

Victory over sin: “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

 

Victory over death: (1 Corinthians 15:51-57) “Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.  For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Victory over the devil: “Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7) Romans 16:20 “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.”

 

Christian, it’s because of our obedient faith in the substitutionary atonement of Christ that the spiritual armor Paul wrote of in Ephesians six is efficacious for the Christian: The helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the belt of truth, the sword of the Spirit, and the rest of the supernatural armor.

 

In HIM we are complete. We need nothing else to enter that place where, as Isaiah tells us, “He will swallow up death for all time, and the Lord God will wipe tears away from all faces . . . And it will be said in that day, “Behold, this is our God for whom we have waited that He might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited; Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation.” (Isaiah 25:8-9)

 

Well, we’ve run out of time again. Let’s stop here and return to chapter three next time. But for now, to reiterate what I hoped to make clear during this message:

 

First: We need nothing else to add to the atoning death of the Son of God on our behalf. No rules, no sacraments, no visions, no other mediators. Jesus, God incarnate, is fully sufficient for our eternal salvation.

 

Second point: Unless our hearts are changed, neither circumcision nor baptism mean anything of eternal value.

 

Third: In Christ alone the Christian has victory over sin, death, and the devil. The armor of God is overwhelmingly sufficient defense against our supernatural enemy. Therefore, be careful to wear that armor every day.

 

We will continue our study through Colossians next time.

Rooted in Christ

 

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 to 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.

 

I see we have run out of time, so let’s stop here and plan to return to it next week. But let me simply summarize today’s message: Be rooted in Christ. Be built up in Christ. Get to know Him better through careful and diligent reading and reflecting on His written word, and through daily prayer, and routine gathering together with others of like faith.

 

Time is shorter than any of us think.