Rooted in Christ
August 9, 2009 Colossians 2:6-15
We continue our consideration of the book of Colossians with the theme “Living as Disciples…Facing Opposition.” Today we arrive at Chapter 2:6
Colossians 2:6-15 6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, 7 rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness
Many of you know that Cheryl and I have some land east of here that we hope to build a house on in the near future. I’ve been planting trees out there – oaks and pecans and fruit trees. Some of them live, some of them don’t. Other than making sure they get ample water, the key is to get them properly rooted. A former member here by the name of John was in the tree business. He once told me an old adage they use in the tree industry: “Plant em high they never die. Plant em low, they never grow.” (http://www.growingearth.com/smaller_is_bigger.htm) If you plant to root ball too far below the surface, you stunt the growth of the tree. If you plant the top of the root ball slightly above the surface, the tree will grow better and be healthy. I’ve tried to follow his advice with the trees I’ve been planting. I hope it works out. And I think that advice also applies to us in our spiritual life. We need to be rooted in Christ, attached to Him as our life source. But you can’t live your life below the surface. You can’t be completely buried with nothing above the surface. You need to be up in the world, living out amongst everyone else. Living as disciples we must be rooted in Christ. We need to maintain that connection to Him at all times. This is important as you face the opposition of the world, the devil, and your own sinful self.
Today’s text gets to the main message of this letter: STAND FIRM IN YOUR FAITH. He reminds his readers, including us, that they have been led to faith in Jesus, so He lives in their hearts. You need to be steadfast in that faith and relationship with Jesus as you live day to day. You need a conscious awareness of your connection to Christ, trusting His Word, cherishing the forgiveness He earned for you. Paul expands on what he means by “continue to live in Him” with four phrases:
Rooted in Christ; Built up in Christ; Strengthened; Overflow with thankfulness
Those who are rooted in Christ will draw their strength and nourishment from Him. As they do so, they will continue to grow or be built up by Him. The more you grow, the more deeply your roots will take hold of Jesus, which will result in increasing gratitude in your lives.
Paul warns what will happen if you are not rooted and built up in Jesus. He speaks of how so many are let astray by the opposition. They base their teachings not on Scripture, not on God’s revelation of Himself, but on human reasoning. Paul calls it what it is:
See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.
People who hold to the simple and clear teachings of Scripture are maligned and ridiculed as being unsophisticated, uninformed, even ignorant. That is part of the opposition we still face today. Those who cling to the simple message of salvation as a gift of God by believing in Jesus are laughed at. Tell the world you believe the Bible is the inspired word of God and many modern teachers of religion will look down on you as intellectually deprived and spiritually naïve. Paul cuts to the chase, calling those who take that attitude what they are: hollow and deceptive.
In stark contrast to the basic principles of this world that guide false teachers, Paul talks about the only thing necessary: Jesus. Colossians 2:9 is a key doctrinal statement, a crucial part of the teachings of Christianity. Very simply, yet powerfully, Paul tells us that Jesus is both God and man in one person.
For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form
This is one of those points that the hollow and deceptive philosophers will argue. They will try to lessen who Jesus was, arguing against the possibility that He was truly God, or that He was no different that other people. But Paul states that Jesus is both God and man: in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form.. Jesus made the same claims about Himself when He said, “Before Abraham was, I AM (John 8:58)… I and the Father are one (John 10:30).” Scripture clearly identifies Jesus as both human and divine. When conceived in the womb of Mary, Jesus became a man, God became flesh. When Jesus died on the cross, God died. His body and blood offered there purchased our salvation because all the fullness of God dwelt in Christ.
10 and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority.
By faith you are connected to that Savior, rooted in the one in whom all the fullness of God lives. We have in Jesus everything you need. Everything. He is the source of all blessings, spiritual or otherwise. I say this because so many false teachers then and now say “You need Jesus + …” and they will put in whatever they think is correct. “You need Jesus and you need to live a good life to be saved.” Or “You need Jesus and you need to send me a check if you are going to be saved.” False teachers have always been trying to add extra requirements for salvation that God didn’t put there. That is why we need to hear what Paul says here. Paul’s statement is “you need Jesus…PERIOD.” The fullness we have in Christ means we have everything we need: forgiveness for all sins, certainty of eternal life, and Christ’s promise to be with us every step of this life.
11 In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.
Paul makes a connection between circumcision, which was the sign of the God’s promise to Abraham, and Baptism. Some of the false teachers were trying to say that circumcision was an additional requirement for salvation, one of the things you had to do in addition to believing in Jesus. But Paul tells us that when our Baptism connects us to Jesus, it connects us to His death to pay for sin and His resurrection from the dead. Baptism is something God does, a spiritual circumcision of our hearts.
One of the really interesting things about this passage is that Paul tells us that Baptism replaces circumcision. Old Testament circumcision was the way male children were marked as part of God’s covenant people, the ones through whom the promised Savior would come. In Baptism, God provides a means for all children to become his children, to have their sins washed away be reborn. It is part of the new covenant God makes, allowing us to have a connection to Him, to be rooted in Christ.
13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.
These verses laser in on what God gives us in Christ. Those who were dead in sins are made alive in Christ because of what He did for us. Jesus kept every bit of “the written code” the laws that God gave to men. He did it all perfectly, and took every bit of our imperfection upon Himself in order to carry it to the cross and pay for it all. When Jesus did that, He defeated Satan.
And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
In Paul’s day, conquering generals would be welcomed home with a big parade through the city. As they marched into town, they would display all the spoils and their captives. The captives would be chained and humiliated, paraded before everyone as the defeated people that they were. Paul says that the defeated powers of hell are made to march as chained captives, a public spectacle, because of the victory Jesus won on the cross.
The point of this is that the devil and his forces have no real power over us. Yes, they are our enemies. They are part of the opposition we face each day as we try to live as disciples of Jesus. But we have the fullness of Christ on our side. And He defeated Satan. Because we are joined to Jesus, rooted in the one in whom the fullness of God lives, connected to Him through baptism, we have His victory. It is guaranteed. It is a certainty. That is what empowers us each day to Live as His disciples.
