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Good morning friends,
The Apostle Paul was a man of unusual energy, passion and evidently high pain tolerance as he suffered beatings, stonings and other torture, in his missionary travels. I think I found a secret in our reading of Colossians chapter 2. Actually, you’ll see it in the last verse of chapter 1: “…I labor, struggling with all His energy, which so powerfully works in me.” Do you see it?
“All His energy” means Paul was empowered, energized by the risen Jesus Christ, through the Holy Spirit of God who lived in Paul. It’s a theme we’ll see often in these final letters of Paul. It causes me to ask the question… “are you and I living empowered by the Holy Spirit or is it all our own effort?”
You’ll notice Paul continues this theme through 2:7, as he explains his driving passion, his purpose, his sense of a God given mission in life: “…that they may have…complete understanding…of Jesus Christ, in whom are hidden all treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Initially Paul’s travels took him to places where the name of Jesus was unknown, and his privilege and passion was to introduce Jesus and His Gospel for the first time. Then, as people trusted in Christ, Paul’s passionate focus shifted… to teaching them the things Jesus had taught; and helping them develop a deeper understanding of the uniqueness of Jesus Christ the Son of God; and growing in their vibrant relationship with Jesus through the Holy Spirit’s work in them.
Friends, do you see the progression in that?
You’ll see these letters from Rome assume most of his readers have already been introduced to Jesus and have trusted Jesus for their salvation. Now Paul is focused on their need for deeper teaching, greater understanding of Jesus’ truths, and fertilizer for the growth of their living relationship with Jesus. How about you and me, and our friends? Where are we in that progression?
Look back one year. . .what can you identify as specific areas of spiritual growth in your life? How much more mature, more vibrant is your relationship with Jesus and God’s Word today than one year ago?
If you can’t identify any change, why not? What does that mean my friends? Spiritual stagnation is very dangerous. It’s similar to muscular atrophy, which can happen when a person has an arm in a cast for a very long time. Could it be, even as busy as we all are, spiritual atrophy might be happening in your soul and mine?
Notice that in vs. 8 Paul challenges his readers to be sure they are alert to any religious talk that is rooted in human wisdom, philosophy, trendy new thinking, or even old traditions that are simply that…traditions. Look around us today. What has been driving public opinion about things which are God’s to determine?
For instance. . .who decides when life begins? God or a courtroom debate?
Who decides what gender a person is, God or that person’s feelings on any given day?
Who determines those qualified to be married to each other? God or the voters?
So here’s the question friends…can we distinguish between those issues which are God’s to decide, and those issues which God invites human beings to decide? God said through the prophet Isaiah: “I the LORD speak the truth, I declare what is right…” (Is. 45:19) Each of us, all of us have to decide…who determines truth & moral right/wrong... God or public opinion or the voters or the courts or the congress or the president?
Verses 9-12 are powerful statements about the uniqueness of Jesus, and the change which takes place when a person legitimately trusts Jesus Christ fully to save them from their sin. For Jewish men, circumcision was a very big deal. An irreversible mark identifying them as being part of the select race of people, descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob…Jews. For Christians, Paul wants us to understand a “…circumcision done by Christ…” is available to men or women, Jew or Gentile. It is NOT a physical act, nor is it gender specific. It is a spiritual act, our salvation, accomplished and applied to us by God Himself in response to our faith in Jesus.
Do you see the descriptions in these verses? “You were dead in your sins…God made you alive with Christ.” We’ll see this theme several times in Paul’s upcoming letters. It’s very important because it deals with the question of self-saving. If we could do anything to save ourselves from our bondage to sin, then Jesus died for nothing!
“He forgave us all our sins…” Because Jesus paid the full price for our sin debt in his atonement death, God is able to pardon us. Justice has been served!
Friends, look closely at vs. 15 “And having disarmed the powers and authorities, He (Jesus) made a public spectacle of them, by triumphing over them by the cross.” Crucifixion was a public and humiliating execution. Crosses were normally placed along busy roads so people could stand and watch, and be warned about the consequences of breaking the law. Often those crucified had little or no clothes on them, so it was profoundly humiliating. The public and the executioners often mocked those on the crosses, even throwing stones at them, adding to their pain and humiliation.
So do you see in this verse, the Holy Spirit led Paul to write that while humans had done all they could to humiliate Jesus as a public spectacle in His crucifixion, in truth God was making a public spectacle of Satan and sin and even our entire sinful human population, for Jesus’ willing death on the cross, and His victorious resurrection to eternal life, and His return to heaven to reign in sovereign authority over all in heaven and on earth… defeated the all powers of evil, and sealed their fate!
Therefore, as we see in the rest of Colossians 2, we who have been set free from evil and it’s power through our trust in and relationship with Jesus Christ, can now live free from the stranglehold of sin, free from the shame and guilt of sin, free from the influence of Satan and his demons, free from the pressures of our sinful world to join with them in evil, and free from the justice condemnation to an eternity in hell.
We who have been rescued by Jesus, can live victoriously over all that, and live each day thanking Jesus for His rescue of us. We can live honoring God, living our lives for His glory as His holy people! Tomorrow, in chapter 3, we’ll see some very clear specifics about how to do that and what it should look like in our lives. For today, may I leave you with a couple of questions to ponder?
1. How do you recognize “God’s energy” at work in someone’s life, as we saw in vs 29 of chapter 1 in Paul’s life?
2. What spiritual growth progress do you see happening in your life? What’s causing this growth? If you see spiritual atrophy in your life, what will you do about that?
3. How do you prevent verse 8 from happening in your mind and heart, as we are all surrounded by ‘hollow and deceptive philosophy…” in our world?
Oh Lord Jesus, thank you for your victory over sin, Satan and death, and the powerful work you want to do in our lives. Help us see the things that might be restraining or preventing that great work.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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