Who Do You Think You Are?

Who Do You Think You Are?

Sunday, March 7, 2016

Newton UMC

Colossians 2:6-14 (NASB)
⁶  Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him,
⁷  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.
⁸  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.
⁹  For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form,
¹⁰  and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority;
¹¹  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;
¹²  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.
¹³  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,
¹⁴  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.

As I’m sure is true for each of you, certain principles were instilled in me by my parents. Among these was an almost instinctive understanding that others were more important than me. Throughout my life I have seen myself as common and others as special. While this has had some negative effects, such as a general lack of confidence, it has also given me the ability to serve others and look out for their interests.

This is the way I have seen myself for my entire life. At times I have tried to act differently, but because such behavior is inconsistent with who I think I am, in the end it doesn’t last and I am right back to seeing others as more important than me. Now you know how to take advantage of me.

In this section of Colossians we are given some important information about what Jesus did for us and who we are as a consequence. Let’s unpack this text a bit.

⁶  Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him,

“As you have received” here means “in the same way as you have received”. How did we receive Christ Jesus the Lord?

Ephesians 2:8-9 (NASB)
⁸  For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
⁹  not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.

John 3:16 (NASB)
¹⁶  "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

Romans 4:16 (NASB)
¹⁶  For this reason it is by faith, in order that it may be in accordance with grace, so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants, not only to those who are of the Law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all,

In this same way, walk in Him. The word translated “walk” here is in the present imperative.  περιπατεῖτε (peripateite) implies, in this context, a continuation of something already begun. The verb is used literally to refer to a person “walking” and is thus used metaphorically to refer to the way a person lives his or her life.
--NET Bible.

So what this is telling us is that we are to walk—or, live our lives on an ongoing basis—by faith; by trusting in Jesus Christ and His finished work.

2 Corinthians 5:7 (NASB)
⁷  for we walk by faith, not by sight—

Galatians 2:20 (NASB)
²⁰  "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

We are to walk by His grace through faith, just as we were saved by his grace through faith and now verse seven shows us why it is the natural thing for us to do.

Now we’ll look at what Paul says in this passage about who we are in Christ, and as we do, keep in mind that we accept what is written about who we are by faith, just as we accepted Christ Jesus.

⁷  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.

Notice that we are said to have been (past tense) firmly rooted. Here in the hills and hollers of West Virginia we see what happens to things that are not firmly rooted. When the winds come, they fall over; but this passage says that we have been firmly rooted.

Ephesians 1:13-14a (NASB)
¹³  In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise,
¹⁴  who is given as a pledge of our inheritance,

This pledge is like earnest money, a down-payment, if you will. A little skin in the game, so to speak, that guarantees the promise we’ve been made.

So we have been firmly rooted, but we are being built up in Him. It’s very important to notice that this is something that is actually occurring. There is no instruction here that we should build ourselves up in Him. Think about it; how could we, who can barely scratch the surface of what it means to be in Him, possibly hope to do that?

But Paul tells us that we can confidently confess—agree with God—that we are firmly rooted, that we are being built up in Him, and that we’re being established in our faith.

That’s who we are.

⁸  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.

One of the biggest issues we face as Christians is our tendency to follow popular psychology, traditions, and the principles of the world, rather than the principles of the Kingdom of God. These things make sense to our flesh. They feel right to us. They fit the patterns of behavior and thought that we’ve been taught and in which we’ve lived most of our lives.

One example is the kind of standing for Christian values and principles that is commonly thought of when the world talks about “evangelicals” or “fundamentalists”—like fighting over whether the Ten Commandments should be on walls in courthouses and schools. That is a fleshly thing that appeals to our senses and has nothing whatever to do with life in the Spirit.

I realize this may seem a little radical to some of you and I’ll talk about this concept in more depth in the future.

Real Spirit-life often looks foolish and seems to make little sense. That’s because it is not about our senses at all. Spirit-life is non-sense. It’s grace and faith.

Now back to our text again.

⁹  For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form,
¹⁰  and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority;

You have been made complete in Him who is the head over all rule and authority. Did you get that? You have been made complete in Christ. You aren’t missing something. You aren’t on the outside looking in until you die. You are complete. The word here <4137> is Accomplishment, Completion, Completely, Fill, Fill up, Fulfillment, and it’s describing you.

For years I thought I needed more of Him, a renewed filling, to walk closer to Him, but that’s not what Scripture teaches is true under the new covenant. This verse says I’m complete, it’s accomplished, I’m filled up with Him.

Under the old covenant the Spirit “came upon” a few people and they were able to prophesy, be brave in the face of danger, and even raise the dead. Under the new covenant, the Spirit lives in everyone who believes.

John 15:4-5 (NASB)
⁴  "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.
⁵  "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.

John 17:20-23 (NASB)
²⁰  "I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word;
²¹  that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.
²²  "The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one;
²³  I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.

This sounds like a pretty tight fusion of the Holy Spirit of God with us, doesn’t it? How much more of Him could we possibly get? NONE! He is in us in the same way that He is in the Trinity.

That’s a God we can love. That’s Abba!

¹¹  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;

This verse is telling us that something has been removed from us—removed by Jesus. The body of the flesh. Obviously this can’t mean our physical bodies. Those, I regret to say, didn’t change when we accepted God’s wonderful gift, so He must be talking about something else. It was our sinful nature.

The next verses explain this.

¹²  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.

You were buried with Him. Who gets buried? Dead people! And you were raised with Him. Baptism is the way we visually demonstrate this. Down you go; and then, up you come.

This is also called rebirth. The first time we were born we were Adam’s seed. We were “in Adam.” Born into sin. But we were reborn; the seed of the Spirit. We are “in Christ.” Born into righteousness.

Who we are is not determined by behavior. Who we are is determined by birth.

Then, to be sure that we don’t miss the full force of this, Paul goes on…

¹³  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,

How many of our sins has He forgiven? ALL of them. All of the sins we had committed when He paid for them on the cross? We hadn’t yet committed any at that time, had we? Even Granny Nester here was not around back then. So it’s not just those that we committed before we placed our trust in Him.

What does the text say? It says “all.” You can be confident that when Scripture says “all” it means all, all the time, and that’s all “all” means.

God is not confined to our temporal realm. Neither is the covenant in Jesus’ blood.

All your sins have been forgiven. Your past sins. Your present sins. And the sins you have yet to commit.

So you’re forgiven.

¹⁴  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.

What is that certificate of debt?

Ephesians 2:15 (NASB)
¹⁵  by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace,

2 Corinthians 3:7-9 (NASB)
⁷  But if the ministry of death, in letters engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, fading as it was,
⁸  how will the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory?
⁹  For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory.

You are:

·       firmly rooted

·       being built up and established in your faith

·       complete in Him

·       buried with Him

·       raised from the dead with Him

·       forgiven—totally, completely, forever

·       debt free—the debt we owed, but could not possibly pay, has been taken away

“Who do you think you are?”

Your answer to this question will either suck the life out of you or it will infuse you with spiritual power.