"In Christ"
Colossians 2:6-15
Preached by Bart Erlebach on 16th February 2025
Scripture
6 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
8 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. 9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. 11 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, 12 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. 13 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, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.
(ESV)
Generated Transcript
Today's reading is colossians chapter 2 starting from verse 6 to 15. It can be found on page 1 1 8 3 of the church Bibles. So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lie in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught and overflowing with thankfulness. See to it that no 1 takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ. For in Christ, all the fullness of the deity lives in in bodily form.And in Christ, you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. In him, you are also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put was put off when you were circumcised by Christ. Having been buried with him in baptism in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of god who raised him from the dead.
When you were dead in your sins and in this uncircumcision of your flesh, god made you alive with Christ. He forgave us, all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us. He has taken it away, nailing it to the cross, and having disarm the powers and authorities. He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. Great.
Thank you, Paul. My name is Bart. I'm pastor here at Hope Church. And if you're new, it's great that you're here. Do transfer me afterwards, I'd love to get to know you a bit better.
We're in a sermon series in colossians, and thank you Paul for, reading that. Also, I just want to say thank you to for doing that all age slot, that was great. And having Jemima do that, that was brilliant. Let's, let's be learning that verse together as well over the coming week looking forward to having that video come around. Let's pray together we look at god's word.
Heavenly father, thank you for your work. Thank you that you speak to us every time we open the Bible. And so we pray please now that you would help us to be attentive, help us to under stand your word, by your spirit at work in us, open our eyes to wonderful truths in your word, and shape us then and change us to live out what we read, amen. Now I don't want to be aegis, here, and, this opening illustration could, imply that I am. But it tends to be, may not be true for you.
The different generator deal with technology differently. It tends to be that older folks tend not to be quite so good at it. Now that there are exceptions. I know around the room, there are exceptions. And you can see this because, obviously, sometimes older folks, and I'm I realize I'm starting to get into this category myself, have to ask their children how to use their phones, or how to use other bits of tech.
And, this could be, funny. It can also be, annoying for, for the younger generations, or it could be frustrating. And I don't know whether you've had this situation. We've had it before where, we've visited older family members. And you've got our children.
This was a few years ago, but you've got our children, who've got their phones, we we we gave them phones after a certain age, but they were always our castoffs, always the the, you know, out of date phones that are now slow, they've not got much to them. And those are the phones they've got, but then you visit older family members who have the means to buy far, far better phones, but who have no idea what they've got. And you can see the frustration in our kids that 1 of their grandparents maybe in particular, I won't say which because they might visit the church, and I don't want you to talk to them about it, but had bought a phone, which was fast superior to any that we've got, far superior to any that our children have got. And yet all they did with it was text people and phone people with it. And actually, even then, why phone people using your mobile if you've got a landline?
They just had all this tech power and no idea that that's what they've got. And you can see the frustration our kids had with them. Now being a Christian is a bit like, in a way, being 1 of those older generation We have so much as Christians, but we don't realize all that we've got. And much of the Christian life is spent realizing understanding what we actually have as Christians and then living it out in day to day life. Indeed, a lot of our difficult a lot of our struggles in this life, our frustrations, our guilt, our anxieties, our anger, even our dryness as Christians, and we all go through, some of those things, at but a lot of it is because at root is because we're not really appreciating what we already have in Christ.
And often, we need someone to sit with us at times, and and and when we, you know, explain our struggles and our difficulties, we often need someone to sit with us and say, you know what you've got. Do you realize what you have or ready in Christ. You see, when someone becomes a Christian, huge changes take place. Massive things take place, and yet you're unaware of it of all of it. You know, for some becoming a Christian is a dramatic thing.
Happens at a moment, and you can point to the date. For others, it's over a longer period of time, and you might not know the exact date, but it happened over a period. And yet for either, for both, if you've become a Christian, the big changes have taken place. The Bible talks about you, we've seen it earlier in colossians going from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of god's son. That is a huge change.
It is a a sort of nation changing moving house kind of kingdom change that has taken place, which you might not be aware of. Or, the Bible also talks about us going from death to life or elsewhere, talks about you becoming a child of god. And all these things, these are massive changes, big things that you don't realize that you then need to work through the your life to see what what have I actually got as a Christian and to live in the light of it? And the thing Paul talks about today in the passage is that a Christian is someone who is in Christ. Which is why the choice of songs today has been brilliant.
And that chill children's song that we were starting to learn is was a great choice. Because this passage, I think, is all about us being in craft. We saw last week in the passage that we looked at, that Paul had talked about the fact that Christ is in you as a Christian. We saw that was kind of, amount in top moment within the book of colossians. The Paul has talked about who Christ is in chapter 1.
Amazing truths. And then in chapter 1, he gets to a point where he says, and Christ is in you, the hope of glory, an amazing thing. But now in this passage, he talks about the fact that you, if you're a Christian, are in Christ. And if this is a very common way for Paul to talk about Christians, to talk about Christians as being in Christ. And so verse 6 and 7, notice how many times Paul talks about you being in Christ.
He says, so they then. Just as you received Christ Jesus as lord, continue to live your lives in him rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught and overflowing with thankfulness. So he says, just as you receive Christ Jesus as lord, continue to live in him. Live your life in Christ. In other words, being in Christ should make a difference to your day to day life, to how you are at home, how you are at work.
It more literally says, say then just as you receive Christ Jesus as lord, continue to walk in him. Now walk and live in Greek, you get the same kind of verb. And, and, and, therefore, Paul is saying you know, live it out, walk it, be it day by day in Christ. Because the alternative is verse 8. See to it, he says that no 1 takes you active through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human traditions and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.
He says there is a danger. You see, I want you to live your life day by day in Christ. Rooted built up in Christ, but there's a danger you'll be taken captive. You'll be taken captive by hollow and deceptive philosophy. In other words, by teaching, which sounds good, but actually is empty.
It's like a drum. It it, you know, makes a lot of noise. It sounds sounds big, but actually inside it's just hollow. There's nothing to it. And it depends on, he says, human tradition.
It's about the traditions, but it's human traditions or or it depends on the elemental spiritual forces of this world. It's a kind of spirituality. But either way, and we'll come back to them, and we'll come back to them in next week as well when, David Glenn preaches for you next week. But either way, either of those 2 options, the problem is they're not based on Christ. Paul is saying don't be fooled.
Don't be taken captive. Live your life in Christ. So what does he say about being in Christ? What does this mean? What is it that you've got if you're a Christian?
Versus well, the rest of the versus that we've had read go into this. Have a look at verse 9 and 10. He says for in Christ, all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form. And in Christ, you have been brought to fullness. So he reminds us what we saw in chapter 1.
In Christ, all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form. Now, that's a reminder what we saw in chapter 1. This isn't about you being in Christ, but it's saying in Christ, in the person of Jesus Christ, all the fullness of the deity lives. Jesus is god with us, the man who lived 2000 years ago, all the fullness of the deity is in him. And then he goes on and in Christ, you've been brought to fullness.
So here's our first point. We've got 3 points. In Christ, you have fullness. So Paul is saying, this union that you have, if you're a Christian with Jesus, you have been brought into, that you are connected with Jesus, and therefore for, you have been brought to fullness. And notice it's a past tense thing.
You have been brought to fullness. This is some something you have as a Christian. And it seems that this was, as we've said in previous weeks, this was a word that the false teachers in colossi were using, that they were trying to offer people fullness. They were saying if if you come to us, yeah, Jesus is good, but if you want fullness, if you want the real thing, the real Christianity, if you want the real deal, then come to us, and we can give you fullness. Come to us and come to our tradition and you'll have fullness or come to our spiritual experiences, and you can have fullness.
But Paul is saying in Christ, if you're a Christian, you're in Christ, and you have already been brought to fullness. You've already got it. It's a bit like if you've done shopping, in the supermarket or if you've done it online, and you know you needed something for a recipe and you didn't bother to check whether you'd already got it in the cupboards. You go and you buy it and you come back, you look in the cupboard, what do you find? You've already got 2 or 3 of them already there.
It's like the the false teachers in Colosi are saying, yeah, we can give you fullness. Come to us. Come to our, us, our tradition our spirituality, and we can give you fullness. And Paul's saying, look in the cupboard. In Christ, you've already been brought to fullness.
You don't need it anywhere else. Now this, is true for you, however long you've been a Christian. From the very first day that you are a Christian till the very last, if you've been a Christian for a day, if you've been a Christian for 80 years, 90 years, maybe. You have fullness in Christ. Now, this is important for us.
We don't need to find some technique or some other spirituality to get us close to god because you've already got fullness in Christ. Now I'm not saying you can't have a more intimate experience of god. We do at times. In our lives. But the question is how do you get to that greater closeness with God?
The answer is not through some other technique through traditions, through other spirituality. It's not through those things. You, you draw close to Christ, to God by realizing what you already have in Christ. That's important. When you feel distant from god, when you feel dry, what do you do?
Well, often people will go off on their own, maybe they'll go into the countryside, spend time in quiet. Those are good things to do, but they are good things to do, not because you draw close to god in the country side, but because those times give you space to remember and realize what you already have in Christ. Do you see what I mean? Actually being in the countryside doesn't get you any closer to god. But it might give you space to go, actually, I remember what the Bible already says about who I am in Christ.
You don't need techniques. You don't need anything else. You need Christ. You have fullness in him. Second.
In Christ, you died and were raised to life. Okay. Now the language in the next bit from verse, 11 onwards gets, a little bit confusing, but I want you to keep in mind the main point. I think the main point is this. What happened to Christ happened to you?
By being in Christ, connected to Christ, what happened to Christ in the past happened to you. That's the big point. And actually, that's a really important point to for the hold of the rest of the letter. Let's see it in the verses. Like I say, it starts a bit tricky.
Verse 11. In him, you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ. Okay. So we're into thinking about circumcision now.
And and it's an odd thing to say. So it's someone, if they became a Christian, they need to do it next time, you know, somebody says, yeah, I became a Christian last week or something to say. You were circumcised. Okay. Pretty sure I wasn't.
Think I'd have noticed. Yeah. Okay. You're probably saying it's not a circumcision done by hands. So it's not an actual sort of physical circumcision, but that doesn't mean to say it's real.
He's saying there is a circumcision that has been done to every Christian, whether male or female. What is it? Well, it's a cutting off of your whole self, he says, not a small part of the body, which what happens in circumcision, not a small part, but he's saying it's the whole of you that is in a sense being cut off, how? He says your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, let's keep going into verse 12, having been buried with him in baptism. Okay.
Let's just pause there. Notice there. What Paul is saying is happened is that the Christian has been buried with Christ, buried with Christ. In other words, what happened to Christ 2000 years ago when his body was put in the tomb, if you are in Christ, that happened to you. You were buried in Christ.
That's the connection. Now he's talking about decision as being this is a cutting off of your whole self, your whole body as it were. And he will come back to this because this has an impact then on, on your behavior. So he will come back to this later in colossians about this sort of you died. When Christ died, you died.
It and were buried. So he'll come back to this. It's very practical. But for the moment, we just need to keep the truth in mind. What happened to Christ happened to you?
When he died, you died. When he was buried, you were buried. And he's saying, having been buried with him in baptism. In other words, baptism is a symbol. It is a sign.
It is representing your union with Christ. So when someone is baptized, I know there are different ways of doing baptism, but if they baptize them if they're dunked, then the going down under the water is a sort of symbolism of saying when the person goes under, it's like they're being buried. And when they're buried, it's like they're buried with Christ. There's like a a connection through the 2000 years of the person who's under the water connected to 2000 years ago and the tomb outside Jerusalem where Jesus body was. He's saying that shows the connection.
You were buried with him. And verse 12, you were raised with him. So having been buried with him in baptism in which you were also raised with him through faith. So again, when on that first East the morning, Jesus rose from the dead. This is saying, you rose from the dead if you are in him because what happened to him happened to you.
His death your death. He's rising to life. You're rising to life. And what's the thing that connects you with Jesus? First 12, having been buried with him in baptism in which you were all I raised with him through your faith.
Faith is essential. It is faith in Jesus that connects you to him, that unites you to him. It is what some have called the faith union. And that faith union means you are connected to Jesus, which means Jesus is more than your substitute. Jesus is your substitute when he died on the cross, but he is more than that.
It is absolutely true to say Jesus is your substitute that he died in your place. And absolutely true. Christ died for sins once for all the righteous for the unrighteous. In other words, in your place, he died there. Absolutely true.
But this takes us a little step further, doesn't it? You see, we don't just say Jesus died for me in my place It's true, but you might think it's a bit like, you know, if you go to the theater and, you went to go and see some superstar actor in a play and you arrive there and you find he's ill, and therefore you've got the understudy, you know, that actually isn't that main actor. You've got the substitute. You've got him there, and therefore you kind of feel short changed because you wanted to see the other guy. That sort of feels like if they're a substitution, they're not really connected.
And you might feel that when you think, oh, Jesus died for me in my place. The thing is he did that, but you also stay connected to him because you're in him. Do you see? You're in him, and therefore, what happened to him happened to you. So therefore, you can say not just Jesus died for me, but when he died, I died.
It is that closer connection? So what? What difference does that make? You think, well, we've just covered a whole load of pipe theology there? So what?
How do you live in Christ? That's what Paul's telling you to do. At the beginning, he said, so then just as you receive Christ, Jesus, as lord continue to your lives in him, walk day by day, in him. What difference does it make that I'm connected to Jesus? 0.3, in Christ, your sins are again.
Go on. Thank you. In Christ, you have forgiveness of sins. First 13, when you were dead in your sins and in the unso a decision of your flesh. God made you alive with Christ.
He forgave us all our sins having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us. He took it away, nailing it to the cross. Okay. There is lots of application of the fact that you are in Christ. There are lots of places you can look in the New Testament to see applications of this.
Here is a huge 1. A big 1. It is that you as Chris as a Christian are totally forgiven your sins. He says, you were dead in your transgressions and sins. You were dead before you became a Christian, and then it talks about the charge of our legal indebtedness, and you probably glaze over at that moment, you thought, oh, whatever.
But the charge of our legal indebtedness, that's very significant. That is saying there is a list of charges against you. You could look at the old testament commands. And you know, if you know those commands, you know that there are ones that you have broken, and they stand as a sort of charge sheet against you, a list of things that you have broken, even the 10 commandments, even so if you're not sure whether this is true of you, Jesus was asked once to summarize the Old Testament law. What are the greatest commandments.
And he said, they are too. Love the lord your god with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength. And the second, love your neighbor as yourself. How do you do compared to those 2 commands? None of us managed to do them.
Either of them. We don't love god with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind, all our strength, and we don't love our neighbors as ourselves. We fail on both of them. They stand as charges against us. And if you go through the old testament commands, you see that there are lots of them that stand against you and me, and they act like a great sheet of of charges against you and me.
And what it says is that Jesus dealt with them how verse 14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us, he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. That great sheet, that great list of charges. God took and nailed it to the cross of Jesus. Now some commentators very helpfully, I think. Say this is a bit like, you know, when Jesus died on the cross, there was a charge above his head that was nailed there.
It wasn't just Jesus that had that, that's what they tended to do. It said why the person was being executed? In other words, this is the reason they are hanging there in agony, dying. This is the charge. And this is saying, site god takes your charge sheet and nails it to the cross above Jesus.
Why did he die? Why is he in agony? Because of what he you did, your charge sheet above his head, those charges. That's what he died for. And if his death is your death, then that charge sheet is completely dealt with.
And he rose to life again. All those charges dealt with, and when he rose, you rose. And therefore, being in Christ. If you're in Christ, your charges are dealt with. You are completely forgiven.
And that means, day to day, you and I need to live as those who are in Christ. As those who have died and risen to life again. In other words, as those who are completely forgiven, all your charges dealt with. And you will say to me, if you've been a Christian for a while, yeah, yeah, I know that. I know I'm forgiven.
For which the answer is, no, you don't. Because cause. Many of us walk around this week, walked around last week as if we had the charge sheet still over our heads. It comes along with us. Wherever we go.
It's like an annoying bit of loo roll that's stuck to your shoe that goes with you wherever you go, and you feel guilty because of past things you've done past things you've said. And you don't really know that in Christ, you died, and you were risen life, and the charges are fully dealt with. And when we feel like that, when we feel guilty, when the charges still seem to stick with us. That is the point at which we are most in danger, I think, of being taken captive by other things, because we still think the guilt is on us, and we still fee it. And therefore, we might be tempted to look to something else that will help us get rid of that feeling of guilt.
And it might be traditions that we say, well, I'll go and do those traditions because maybe they will help me feel better or it might be other spiritualities that you got, I need something else to make me feel clean or or to feel better to lift me up. So I will go for that other thing. And we need to remember at those moments what we have already in Christ because being in Christ means the charges have been dealt with. You've just gotta get that sinking through into your heart. And when we do, When being in Christ starts to sink more deeply into us.
The changes such that the end of verse 7 happens to us. Verse 6, So then just as you receive Christ Jesus as lord continue to live your lives in him rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. As being in Christ sinks more deeply into us, that is the result. I think when we read those verses initially and you read our, yeah, overflowing with thankfulness. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Whatever. But that's because we've not grasping what it means to be in Christ. They have since fully dealt with.
And if we did, we would be overflowing with and our stakeholders. Now there's 1 last implication of, being in Christ that I just want to take you to. It is much, much, much, much brief, very brief. But it's important, and it is the It's our last point. In Christ, the powers and authorities are defeated.
We'll come back to this, but we pull touches on this, in this passage. First 15, and having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them triumphing over them by the cross. Paul has talked about the colossians, possibly being taken captive. 1 of the things that they could be taken captive by is, those who focus on the elemental spiritual forces. In other words, kind of spiritualities, or it might be a focus on worship of angels, or it might be focused on demons.
It's a kind of spirituality like that kind of he's saying he's he's concerned. They might be taken captive with that. And in verse 10, he talks about Jesus as being head over all the powers and authorities, and here he says Jesus defeated the powers and authorities. And it says he made a public spectacle of them triumphing over them by the cross. Actually, the image is it like, a Roman general coming back from a victory over a city where he's taken some captive and he brings them back and they're in that sort of train after the army just, in chains, shackled, brought along as those who've been defeated.
And this is saying that's what Jesus did to the powers and authorities. In Jesus, the powers and authorities are defeated. So Paul saying, why would you go towards them? Don't be taken captive by them. Jesus has defeated them.
By the way, I think colossians is a really good place to come with people who are into other spiritualities or tempted by them. They may be very superstitious thinking about that their lives are controlled by spiritual forces. This says Jesus defeated all other powers and authorities. In him is victory over them. Jesus has disarmed them, triumphed over all powers and all authorities at the cross.
So Paul is saying, don't go anywhere else. That was the end of that point. Don't go anywhere Don't go to other powers. Don't go to other authorities. Don't go to traditions.
Don't go for those things. Just go for Christ. Because as a Christian, you are in Christ. That is what happened when you became a Christian. When you put your faith in Jesus, you became in him.
And so you have fullness in him. In him, you died and rose to life. In him, you have forgiveness. And in him, the powers and authorities are disarmed, so don't go anywhere else. Live your life in him rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith, and overflowing with thankfulness.
Father, thank you that, for this wonderful truth that those who are Christians are in Christ. Father, we pray, please, that you would help us therefore to grasp better what we have. Father, we are understanding, and are living, but betray the fact that we don't really fully grasp, even a fraction of what it means to be in Christ. So father, please give us greater understanding and help us to live out, be being in Christ today and this week, amen.