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 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.