Colossians 2:4-15
As one who made their living in sales, I can a test to this fact, the toughest person to close a sale on was the boss who never allowed you to meet him and you had to deal with people under him who could say no, but not yes. If we examine whom the Apostle Paul is addressing in this letter, it is a church that has never seen his face. And what is the central theme he is putting forth, it is that all the mysteries and all the knowledge of God are hidden in Christ, and Christ is living in you? That is unless you have not by faith put your total trust in Christ’s finished work on the cross.
How does something like going from believing that Jesus is the Christ, the promised Messiah to acknowledging you have needs that only He can meet in a personal relationship with the living Christ? It is a simple truth, and yet so hard, the answer is found in Galatians 2:20. “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Crucifixion brings about death, not to the flesh but to that old man who has always gotten his needs met outside of Christ. And both the flesh and the enemy of your soul will do all in their power to keep one from asking Jesus to take over management of your soul.
The Apostle Paul is addressing people who have done so in Colossians 2:6-10, “Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.”
What an amazing teaching of what has happened to me, and I pray to you also, we entered into Christ by God’s grace, and by the faith He has extended to us. And I’m fearful that many of us are wrongly taught, we did not learn from the
Scriptures simple truth, as in this world you will have troubles, but Jesus said I’ve overcome the world. Our hope is found in Christ, it’s located in the new life Christ has promised now, not just in heaven. Do you recall this saying of Jesus found in John 10:10b? “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” Why is it so many have made the word abundance apply to worldly wealth, and not to peace and joy, while in the middle of living life in a trouble world? Let me end today's “Back Porch” with the answer to that question. The flesh wants to buy into that wealth brings both peace and joy, but all one has to do is look at those who have worldly wealth to see that it is a lie from the one Jesus refers to as the thief or the devil.
From the Back Porch,
Bob Rice
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