Colossians: Walking Free in Christ, As Secured By Christ

This fall we're studying our way through the book of Colossians.

We're asking the question: how do we live and grow with Jesus?

What does that life look like?

Our text today is Colossians 2, 6 through 23.

And Paul gives us a clear train of thought.

Verses 6 and 7, the call to walk in Jesus, 8 through 15, the reminder of who we are in Jesus, and then in the remaining passage, the challenge that we have to refuse to let people limit our freedom.

Colossians 2, 6 and 7.

We're going to read a couple verses and make sense of it as we go.

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.

So point number one is this we walk freely in Christ because we are secure in Christ.

The reason why we have freedom in our walk with Jesus is because Jesus is actually the one who secures us.

The cross and the resurrection give us our security, not our own work.

My second great teacher was Mrs.

Jordan.

Here's a picture of me ready for second grade.

I mean, imagine that coming at you on the playground.

That's an intimidating force on the playground, especially with the shores.

I mean, with those shores, are they high enough?

Is the question.

Can I get them any higher?

Now, during recess, Mrs.

Jordan would take us out on the front lawn to play Red Rover.

Do y'all remember Red Rover?

I don't think we played anymore because we broke too many arms.

There was two lines of people facing each other, a field in between, and you held hands with the classmate beside you, and you would swing your arms and you'd say, Red Rover, Red Rover, send Matt, ride over.

And the Matt, who's over there on the other side, would come bursting out of his line, and he's eyeing, like we all did, where's the weakest link, right?

Because you have to bust through.

If you bust through the other line, then you get to pick one of your classmates to go back to your line, to your team.

And you always pick the fastest and the stronger.

It wasn't me.

Nobody's just like, I don't think he can break through anything.

And so they would pick, they'd pick my buddy Kevin, is who they pick, and say, like, so Kevin would go back to the other team.

Now, it's possible that you got up all your steam and you're, you know, and then you you but and they they they hold and they held you and you didn't bust through.

And now you're on their team.

Like you have to join their line.

And what never happened, never happened, is what never happened, you never said, you know, I realize what just happened, but I just really feel like I'm still on Barry's team.

Um I understand I didn't bust through.

I I understand this, but I just I really how I feel, like in my heart, you know.

Um in my heart, I feel like I'm on the other team.

Like I really need to be on the other team.

That never happened.

Doesn't matter how you feel.

Like what just happened happened, and the truth is the truth.

It was objective.

You are now on Kevin's team.

You don't have a choice.

Like that's the way it was.

Now, verse 6 here, there's this phrase, received Christ.

And this is the Greek wording of past perfect tense, which has a meaning like it's done.

Like completely done, finished, nothing to add, can't be changed.

We don't have to do it again when we feel bad.

We don't have to do it again when our record is not adding up.

If I'm not sure, if I screwed up last night, if I'm not feeling it.

Don't have to analyze it over and over again.

If you believe Christ is Lord, and you've received Christ to be your forgiveness and your relationship with God, done.

That's why we walk freely.

Because we are his by him.

The truth is the truth.

It's objective.

We walk freely in him with him because we are secured by him.

The truth and the freedom of the cross and the resurrection.

Christ has rooted you, and now he is growing you.

And that's why we always say around here, we say, in God's grace, earning is over, even while effort is beginning.

It's all about him, his record, and our life is an overflow of it.

Verse 6 says, we're going to walk in him.

Okay, great.

How do we do that?

What's the process?

Tell me more about this.

Verse 7.

Rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

Point number two is this as our roots grow deeper in Christ, we flourish with gratitude.

This phrase, abounding in thanksgiving, it's like a five-year-old boy on Christmas morning.

He comes down the stairs to see like a shiny, brand new Schwinn bicycle.

And what does he do?

He's in the driveway in his pajamas, riding that thing.

It's freezing cold out.

He doesn't care.

He is abounding with thanksgiving because of the gift.

Now, here's the train of thought Paul gives us in 6 and 7.

Verse 6, as you received, done, finished, so walk, live.

Verse 7, as you were rooted, be built up.

Verse 7, as you were taught, be established in the truth.

Now, why?

Where are we headed?

Verse 7, as to abound in thanksgiving.

And my front yard is a huge, massive oak tree.

Here's a picture.

I walked outside, took this picture on Thursday.

Just huge.

And I love this oak tree.

And I hate this oak tree.

Anybody else own an oak tree?

If you do, you know what I'm talking about.

You love that oak tree and you hate that oak tree.

Because I'll fill the rest of you in.

They don't just drop leaves in the fall.

Okay?

Like they're dropping, excuse my, excuse my length.

Well, I just won't say the bad word, junk.

All over your house.

All over it.

All over your yard.

Just dropping it year-round.

Keeping you working.

You're out there working.

So you hate this tree.

You love this tree.

You hate this tree.

And then it's hard to grow stuff underneath this tree because it has all these roots.

They suck up all the water.

Now, an oak tree's root system can extend 90 feet beyond the edge of the tree.

Like my roots are all up in the Clarks and the Leps and the McGee's yard.

Like that oak tree is just sending out roots.

Here's a picture of the root system of an oak tree.

Found that online.

I'm learning about sinker roots and secondary roots and lateral roots.

Now we have a taproot, and the taproot goes the deepest.

Now think about verse 7.

As you were rooted, be built up.

This is imagery of a tree.

As we root down, we flourish upward.

The question for me this week was like, what am I tapped into for nourishment?

What nourishes my soul?

The news?

When it has informed you of something, when has it ever nourished our souls?

A 1312 Georgia victory?

That nourishes nothing.

It only fuels anger in me until 1230 at night when I finally fell asleep.

So many things that we try to pull nourishment from.

Where is my heart rooted?

And is that place capable to build me up?

Am I abounding in thanksgiving?

And if that's not true for my life, maybe not condemnation on us, but grace on us.

Maybe ask, where am I rooted?

Where am I pulling nourishment?

The commentary on this passage says something like this.

I paraphrased it.

Here it is, Faithful Christians are overflowing.

To be filled with gratitude is to be filled with the Spirit of Christ.

Christians rejoicing in this blessing of a thankful heart will have their eyes fixed upon the right person in the right place.

Right, so another way to say, root deep into Jesus.

As our roots grow deeper in Christ, we flourish with gratitude.

And if we're lacking gratitude, where are we rooted?

Colossians 2, 8 through 15.

This is a little bit of a read.

Is it a lot of verses here?

Maybe I should have broken it up.

I thought about that in the 915, so I was like, oh, that was maybe a mistake, a preaching mistake.

But what we see here by reading in one section is Paul calling us, all right, you receive Christ, you're gonna walk in Christ.

And what does he do next?

He just talks about Jesus a lot.

Now he uses imagery of baptism and circumcision, but he is really rooting us in Jesus.

Verse 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.

For in him the whole fullness of the deity dwells bodily.

And you have been filled in him who is in the head, who is the head of all rule and authority.

Verse 11.

In him.

I mean, are you noticing something here?

In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by 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.

So the same power that is at work in Jesus is at work in you.

Verse 13.

And you who were dead in your trespasses, in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with his 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.

And I don't hear a lot of language of like, in you, in your work, in your merit, in your ability to keep a list of rules.

It's just over and over again.

Paul says, You receive Christ, walk in Christ, look how much he's done for you.

Point three is this we walk in freedom with Jesus as we remember who we are in Jesus.

If we want more freedom in life, we're remembering more how sufficient Jesus is for us.

Now, I know you woke up this morning, you're like, I'm gonna go to church, and I'm hoping the pastor reads a passage about circumcision, and I hope he talks about it.

Like that's really what I want on Sunday morning.

So to be technical, not crude, but to be technical, circumcision is the removal of the foreskin of the male's penis.

Are you okay?

I mean, that was weird.

It was a little weird, a little uncomfortable.

I heard a laugh from a child.

He's like, Yeah, that was weird.

That happened in church.

Can we say that?

Well, I do have a picture to show you.

Okay, let's settle back now.

So in ancient biblical times, ancient biblical times, this was performed on the male baby, the eighth day of life.

It was a symbol of the removal of sin.

It was a symbol of purity.

It was a sign that these were God's people.

Practically speaking, it was a much healthier way of life for this baby.

And Paul is saying in this passage, Paul's saying, that external work, actually, you're free from these external works.

Like getting enough external works that now you are forgiven or now you are righteous.

Like, actually, that's a work in the heart by Jesus.

Paul's saying you don't have to fix yourself with all the external works no longer.

You don't have to do that.

It's all been done for you in Jesus and you receive it.

And Paul's point is we don't need a new religious rule or advice.

We need a new identity.

Now we love to build identities.

Right?

Adding a person to our life, adding a job, adding a workout, adding new leather boots, adding the Hinckley picnic boat.

I showed you last week, and three of you, like y'all way Googled it this week.

I know you did.

And we just keep thinking, like, I'll build my identity if I can only get to that or gather this.

And then we're we're quiet and it's just still us.

Like we actually need a new self, not just a set of rules.

Look at verses 11 and 12, where Paul sends us.

He just keeps sending us back to Jesus, root deeper in Jesus, know more about Jesus, study Jesus.

Verse 11, in him, verse 12, with him, with him, in him, with him, in him.

We have fellowship with Christ in our circumcision and baptism.

So Paul's building imagery for us here.

Paul's saying it's about our surrender, our death into Jesus, an open-handedness.

We're going to surrender our lives to him.

And in that we receive a new life.

And we don't need a special set of religious rules or circumstances or particular baptism.

We have it all in Jesus.

And then baptism becomes just this beautiful symbol for us of what's true about us.

That we're buried in Christ and we're raised to walk in a newness of life because of the works done in our hearts.

Imagine how free this is, how much freedom there is to walk in this.

All the forgiveness you ever need is in Jesus.

You don't have to manufacture your righteousness by being good enough or keeping enough rules.

Imagine how freeing that would be to walk in Jesus in that way, for Jesus to be your righteousness.

And what about your self-worth?

What if that was coming from a secure place like Jesus rather than work or relationship or people's approval?

Look at verses 13 through 15 again.

Let's read these again.

When you were dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ.

He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of the legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us.

He has taken it away, nailing it to the cross, and having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

Verse 14, some versions say, having canceled the written code.

Paul's talking about the law.

Today that takes form in like a Christian moralism or legalism.

If I obey, then God will love me.

But gospel is God loves me in Jesus.

Period, done, finished, past perfect tense.

Therefore, walk in him.

Therefore, I'm gonna try to be as godly as I can.

One way is freeing, one way is crushing.

And Paul says, all the rules in those ways are good, they're still a guide for us, but they no longer stand over you, condemning you, because Jesus is the fulfillment of them.

And he took the charge away.

Right?

We know the feeling of the charge because it's when you don't live up to your standard or up to God's standard and you feel the charge of condemnation.

And Jesus took that charge away.

Christ becomes the subject of the sentences in verses 13 through 15 as a way to emphasize that our freedom is in Jesus.

We are not the subject of the sentence when it comes to faith.

He is.

We are the recipient.

So much of our spiritual anxiety and lack of thanksgiving or abounding in thanksgiving as we keep flipping it around.

We keep thinking that we're the subject of the sentence.

But all the blessings and all the relationship that we ever need with the heavenly Abba is in Jesus alone.

Verses 16 and 17, last couple of verses.

Therefore, let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink.

And so this is talking about they had tons of rules about what you eat and don't eat and drink and don't drink in order to be holy or pure.

And Paul says, hey, Jesus is our righteousness, so don't let anybody cast judgment on you, or what you eat or you drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.

These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.

Paul is saying, just be done with other people's judgment on your life.

Amen?

I mean, anybody else?

You know, yeah, that's like trying to pull approval from other people's judgment.

The imagery of this text had me thinking how easily we move from a rebellious life to a religious life, but we never quite tap into a gospel life.

That in Jesus life.

It's like going on a like a long overnight hike through the mountains.

Like you got a pack on, you're hiking, you went out on this walk, you're gonna enjoy it.

And the rebellious life, which promises you so much, right?

And most rebellion is extremely fun at first, if we're just honest.

And then it enslaves you.

And your walk ends up being like a walk in shackles.

You never thought it would be.

But that's the feeling of your day-to-day life.

Rebellion's an illusion.

Fun at first, but always catches us and begins to enslave us.

So many of us give that up, and we give it up for a religious life.

I'm gonna get my act together.

I'm gonna surrender to Jesus.

And maybe you really do have salvation in Jesus, because you've said, I want to give my life to Jesus, but you also just picked up like Christian to-do lists, but you're gonna prove yourself to God.

Like you are, that's how you're gonna do it today.

That's how you're you're gonna earn the smile of God today.

And you're just gonna carry the weight of being worthy enough or righteous enough.

And that's just a toxic faith.

That's like Jesus plus my work equals everything.

We call that works righteousness.

But the rebellion was so horrible that we fall for another illusion that works righteousness, which is like walking with burden.

It's kind of like this image, this picture.

This is like religious life.

It's like, uh, I hope he posed for the picture.

That didn't look fun.

I hope he was just like posing for a picture.

That looks horrible.

Doesn't that just look horrible?

Just the heaviness of that pack to carry that around?

Just weighing you down?

The walking with Christ is different.

Will we allow someone else to carry the weight of our forgiveness?

Will we let someone else carry the weight of our righteousness?

Will we allow someone else to carry the weight of our worth?

Will we stop being the subject of the sentence?

Be willing to be the recipient.

That's gospel faith.

Jesus plus nothing equals everything.

And that's where we root into, as we root into that, we flourish a life of gratitude and godliness.

I think gospel life is much more like the hut to hut hiking in Switzerland.

It's on my bucket list.

It is my like um, it's like 3 p.m.

in the afternoon, and like I know I should keep working, but I just need a like a five-minute daydream.

I don't know, is it just me?

Am I the only one who does this?

And you just like pull your phone out and you're like hutt to hut hiking in Switzerland.

And all they wear, so the hut to hut hike, it's it's amazing.

All they wear is a little light day pack.

Usually they usually have a guide.

They don't have to worry about getting lost or being safe or not.

And you hike hut to hut.

All your luggage, the weight of all your stuff, it gets transferred from chalet to chalet for you.

Right?

So you wake up and you're just just free walking through the mountains, you're guided by somebody, you don't have a worry in the world, and just when you get tired, you just, you know, you cross over the crest of a mountain, you see a little chalet down there, and all your stuff's waiting for you.

Somebody else has already handled, and you're gonna get down there, you're gonna drink wine, and you're gonna eat food, but nobody's judgment over you because Paul said that.

Paul said, no judgment, so you're gonna go, you're gonna have a great time.

Like that's gospel life, that sort of freedom.

That you're safe and you're secure and you're not alone.

And you are walking.

Effort is not over, earning is over.

So you are walking.

You're walking with him, but you're walking in him.

And because of that, you're secure in him.

Because we have a helper in Jesus.

That's pretty good.

Heavenly Father, thank you that you love us, you call us to walk with you, but you do not leave us alone.

You both walk with us and you empower us to walk with you.

May our hearts abound with thanksgiving.

Help us even more to root into you for the nourishment that our hearts need.

And help our lives abound with thanksgiving.

In Christ's name.

Amen.