Are you firmly rooted and built up in Jesus Christ?
Paul is stressing to the Colossians the sufficiency of salvation through Jesus Christ alone – “I say this so that no one will delude you with persuasive argument. For even though I am absent in body, nevertheless I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the stability of your faith in Christ. Therefore as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and being built up in Him, and having been established in your faith – just as you were instructed – and abounding with thanksgiving.” (Colossians 2: 4-7)
Several years after the church in Colossae was established by Epaphras, a false teaching that was later known as Gnosticism began to infiltrate the church. The false teachers taught that Jesus was only one of many ‘emanations’ who descended from God and that He was less than God. They taught that a ‘secret higher knowledge’ above Scripture was necessary for both salvation and enlightenment. These teachers also led the Colossians into believing that circumcision, rituals from the Old Testament; including dietary laws, festivals, and Sabbath observance were all necessary for salvation. They also taught that angels should be worshipped. (MacArthur, 1597)
Paul said he was ‘absent in body’ because he was in prison in Rome when he wrote this letter to the Colossians.
It is very difficult to be firmly rooted and built up in Christ and established in our faith if we are being lied to about who Jesus is. That is what is wonderful about the New Testament. It clearly tells us that Jesus was ‘Emmanuel’ – ‘God with us.’ It also tells us that God is spirit, so in order to come to earth and pay the eternal price for our sins God had to be ‘veiled in flesh.’ God entered into His broken creation in order to eternally redeem us.
Over my seventeen years of study of many different religions and false teachers and false prophets, almost all of them change what the New Testament teaches about Jesus. Many of them also go back into the Old Testament and put people under different parts of the law of Moses. They ignore the fact that Jesus was born under the law, kept it perfectly, and fulfilled it completely. Under the New Testament, we are taught that as we place our faith in the finished work of Christ, we are born of God’s Spirit. He then begins a work of sanctification, changing us from the inside out as we partake of His word and walk in obedience to it.
The following writing on the “Glories of Christ” comes from MacArthur’s study Bible – “One of the great tenets of Scripture is the claim that Jesus Christ is completely sufficient for all matters of life and godliness (2 Peter 1: 3-4)! He is sufficient for creation (Col. 1: 16-17), salvation (Heb. 10: 10-12), sanctification (Eph. 5: 26-27), and glorification (Rom. 8: 30). So pure is He that there is no blemish, stain, spot of sin, defilement, lying, deception, corruption, error, or imperfection (1 Peter 1: 18-20). So complete is He that there is no other God besides Him (Isaiah 45: 5); He is the only begotten Son (John 1: 14, 18); all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are in Him (Col. 2: 3); the fullness of Deity dwells bodily in Him (Col. 2: 9); He is heir of all things (Heb.1: 2); He created all things and all things were made by Him, through Him, and for Him (Col. 1: 16); He upholds all things by the word of His power (Col. 1: 17; Heb. 1: 3); He is the firstborn of all creation (Col. 1: 15); He is the exact representation of God (Heb. 1: 3).” (MacArthur, 1599)
We are so blessed today to live in a time when we have Bibles available for us to read. For many years the Catholic church kept the Bible away from ‘common’ people. Only those in higher authority in the church were allowed to read it. Those who were involved in translating the Bible into English paid with their lives for doing so. In certain places in our world today, it is illegal to possess and teach from a Bible.
The Bible is the living word of God. It is compared to a two-edged sword. It can cut us as it reveals to us our sinfulness. Our Creator has given us His word. It is His story from the beginning of creation to the end of time. As days grow darker on this earth as we grow closer to the time of God’s final judgment on this earth, may we turn to Jesus Christ and be born of His Spirit, so that we may escape the wrath that is to come!
RESOURCES:
The McArthur Study Bible, 2nd Edition. 2020. Thomas Nelson.
