THE BOOK OF COLOSSIANS

Don’t deviate from Christ

Colossians 2:6-12 SCC 3/18/12

 

LIVE YOUR LIFE BASED ON THE TRUTH OF SCRIPTURE 2:6-7

 

1. Conduct your life under this truth about Christ 6

           

Received Christ: So the form in which they received Christ by Epaphras is the basis upon which they must conduct their lives. That is, the content of teaching—the entire gospel. They had received this as the truth—the gospel message about the person and work of Christ. So this tells us something about the nature of faith, namely, that biblical faith trusts the evidence. In the Bible faith is not a blind leap. Faith is a rational decision, which extends beyond what is personally observed but not in contradiction to it. It is going out on a limb but not going in some direction other than that of the limb. The content of their faith, then, is everything they had learned about the person and work of Jesus Christ.

 

Christ Jesus the Lord: The Colossians had received the apostolic gospel centering on the Person of Christ. Faith had laid hold, not merely of tradition, but on a Person. It was the Christ, the only begotten Son of God, whom they had received. The order of the title here underscores the constant emphasis of Colossians on the divine nature of the Son. He is first Christ; but faith saw in Him Jesus the Savior, the One who stooped to man’s need by Himself becoming man, and bearing the guilt of man’s sins. Lord lays stress on the person of Christ as the pre-eminent and sovereign Lord and creator and head of the church as described in chapter one.

 

Continually walk in Him: The emphatic position of in Him stresses the fact that He is the sphere that is to occupy our walk. The term walk is picturesque in that it portrays the steady progress of one’s life taken one step at a time. With every step we are to draw upon His life as the source, force, and course of our lives.

 

LESSON: While we are conducting our lives day to day, the scriptures, properly observed and interpreted is the basis upon which I determine how I will live, what I will do, and where this should take me. There is no Christian life that is not lived based on the authority and content of the Bible. But what does it mean to walk or live in Christ as our protection against any false teaching?

 

2. This life is permeated with God’s power 7

 

This life or walk in Christ is now developed in four ways each describing what it means to walk or live in Christ as our protection against any false teaching. The first three reflect God’s activity and work of grace in the process. We must cooperate and respond, but it is He who is at work in us both to will and to do in us according to His purposes.

 

Firmly Rooted in Christ: Through faith in the person and work of Christ, there was an organic union established, rooted in Him, but that still becomes the perpetual source of life for the believer’s growth and health. We can never, or must never move away from Him as the source and resource of our spiritual lives. God placed this life within me I did not manufacture it myself. So I am firmly rooted in what it is He has done in me through Christ. This was something accomplished when I believed and of which the benefits extend to today.

 

Being Built Up in Christ: This is the steady growth of the spiritual structure of the believer’s life. Again, this stresses the fact that the Christian is the recipient of God’s work in his or her life. It’s the voice of grace and dependence on the Lord for growth and spiritual change. We do not edify ourselves. It is something God accomplishes in our lives through the work of His Spirit within us.

Established in your faith: As such, this is a call not to merely hold to the faith but to grow in the knowledge of the faith as it reveals the person and work of Christ so that we might experience God’s power over the world and the sinful nature that we all have. This is a call for continuous growth in the grace and knowledge of the Savior. Plainly, Christianity is Christ, and no one has arrived at full maturity. We all need to continue to pursue our upward calling for growth in Christ. No matter how much we may have grown or understand we have just barely begun to truly know the fullness of Christ.

 

Overflowing with Gratitude: Six times there is the emphasis on “thankfulness” (1:3, 12; 2:7, 3:15, 16; 4:2). Thankfulness takes our thoughts away from our accomplishments and ourselves as we grow and experience Christ. But we are not to just be thankful. We are to be constantly overflowing, abounding. It stresses our responsibility to actively engage in thankful hearts. No matter what life may bring, there is the need for an overflow of thankfulness because of what Christ brings into the equation.

 

LESSON: You just cannot get away from the fact that Christianity is Christ—Christ-centered; Christ-focused; Christ-directed; and Christ-honored. We are in relationship with a person not a religion. We are united with this person by means of a body not a religious regimen. There is no Christianity without Christ, that is, the Christ and His teaching through the apostles in the Bible.

 

DO NOT DEVIATE FRON THE TRUTH OF SCRIPTURE 8-12

 

1. Human philosophy is contrary to Christianity 8

Imperative: We are to watch out because of the dangers lurking at every corner in the world or society due to Satan’s many deceptive devices through his world system of ideas and false teachers who, though often appearing as angels of light, are agents of darkness.

Danger: Of being taken captive. Figuratively it is of carrying someone away from the freedom that comes from the truth in Christ into the bondage of error. The false teachers of this world are seeking to claim believers as their booty and so rob them of the fullness of Christ’s life.

Nature: Deception through empty, deceitful philosophy. It is deceitful and enticing because, in man’s spiritual blindness, it appears attractive through the presentation of the false teachers.

Source: (1) it is drawn from human traditions, (2) it is inspired by the elemental spirits of the world, but (3) it is not according (it ignores) the person and work of Christ in whom all the fullness of deity lives. False philosophies come in all sorts, sizes, shapes, and colors and we are in no short supply of them today. And regardless of nature, they all have their negative impact on the believer’s walk in Christ.

2. Only in Christ is all the fullness of God Himself 9

The opposite of the human philosophy is the fullness of God Himself in Christ. Apart from Him ones life is only emptiness. There is no fullness. In Christ is the essence of God in human form. Christ is full God and fully human fully. Ne is not an angel nor is he only a man.

3. Only in Christ have we been made complete 10

Not only is there fullness of the life of God there is completeness in Christ as we fully share the life of God in relationship with Him. We do that by sharing the body of Christ over which He is head exercising full authority and rule. He has no equal rivals. There is no reason to live on cue with the world’s priorities or wisdom for only in Christ can anyone be made full and complete.

4. Only in Christ have we been freed from our old life 11

Here we have a spiritual circumcision done by Christ when we received Him. Our ‘sin nature’ was decisively cut off by Christ’s death and resurrection. We can now be dedicated to God instead of enslaved to sin. Christ did this for us.

5. Only with Christ have we been baptized by the Holy Spirit 12

We are buried and then raised with Christ. The putting off of the old life occurs at the moment of salvation. This co-burial and co-resurrection with Christ accomplished by the Baptism of the HS.

 

LESSON: For the biblical Christian everything he or she has is found only in Christ the very one you first heard and believed and the very one in whom you continue to live every single day.