Jesus our Fullness (Colossians 2 verses 6 to 23)

Introduction

I had a friend who, having come from a troubled past, became a Christian in his teens. When he became a Christian his life changed and it was there for all to see. He was passionate about the Gospel and made every effort to grow in his faith- many of us believed he would go on to do great things for the Gospel.

However, today he doesn’t even darken a church door and some of those old struggles have become an issue for him again. His is the sad story of a young man who was taken in by false ideas and false people. He believed the lie that there must be more because Jesus was not enough- he was led away from the fullness of life that is found in Jesus alone.

My friend is a perfect illustration of what was concerning Paul as he penned the Letter to the Colossians- and especially our passage today. Colossians 2 verses 6 to 23 is the very heart of the letter and states its central theme: Only ever in Christ- the supreme and sufficient Lord and Saviour- will we find all we need to live a full life for God.

A life pleasing to God is about trusting in Christ as Saviour and then making Him Lord over every part of our lives. In our passage we see this has three vital components: To live a life pleasing to God we must…

…stay focussed on Christ alone…

…seek fullness only in Christ…

…stay clear of anything not of Christ.

In these verses we see Paul’s chief concern in writing this letter: that Believers would find fullness of life in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

In the Gospel Believers depend fully on Christ and the fullness of His person and work. Only in Christ, united to Him by faith, can Believers experience true fullness- a life of holy contentment and growing Christlikeness. When we have Christ we have everything, so let us never be distracted anything else.

When we have Christ we have all we need to live a life pleasing to God, and so we must… Stay focussed on Christ alone.

At the beginning of each golfing season the legendary Jack Nicklaus had one simple routine to prepare him for the gruelling season ahead.  Each year he would return to his home club and meet his first coach, Jack Grout. He would walk up to his mentor and say, ‘Mr. Grout, please teach me to play golf.’ Now Nicklaus was a champion many times over, but he knew the key to staying a winner was to focus on the fundamentals.

In verses 6 and 7 Paul calls Believers to live a life pleasing to God by staying focussed on the fundamentals of their faith: Jesus Christ the Lord. Here we see the life of a Believer is focussed on pursuing a deeper understanding of the Gospel message and how it must impact every part of life in every way.

This is not a call to pursue new knowledge but to pursue a deeper, soul understanding of the fundamentals of the faith and how they apply to how I think and act and feel and speak. Jesus- the supreme and sufficient Lord and Saviour, must be the focus of every part of who I am and who I am becoming. He must be my Lord and I must live under His Lordship.

In verses 6 and 7 Paul is calling Believers to live a life pleasing to God by grounding themselves on the truths of the faith- who Jesus is and what He has done. The Christian life is about pleasing God by trusting only in Christ- His person and His work.

And so Paul starts by saying:

 ⁶ So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him…  

Becoming a Believer is about receiving the message about Christ and believing it. It is about receiving the message of the Gospel by hearing it, understanding, and believing what you are taught about Jesus.

Remember Paul has given us a grand description of Christ and the Gospel in Chapters 1 and 2. Jesus is fully God, He is supreme over creation, ruler of the New Creation, totally sufficient for salvation, the fulfilment of God’s plans for the universe, the repository of all wisdom and knowledge. So, what Paul is about to say about Christian living is based on Believers receiving and believing a substantial body of teaching- summed up as ‘receiving Jesus Christ as Lord’.

Solid teaching is not an alternative to evangelism, it is the proper means of evangelism. We don’t seek to make the Gospel ‘relevant’, we make it accessible as we declare it in its fullness. Christ is received with understanding. Christians grow as they are taught and as they listen to and understand Christ-centred teaching.

 

Living a life pleasing to God then, is about how we respond to the Gospel message. We begin by looking to Christ, and Christ alone, for all our spiritual needs; and we continue to look to Him. Christ, and no other, must be the One to establish our values, guide our thinking and direct our conduct. Jesus must be the Ruler over all of our lives.

Paul continues in verse 7:

…⁷ rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

Paul is really saying we are part of Christ and He is our source of our true spiritual life. We must humbly accept our utter dependence on Him. The energy for our Christian lives comes from Christ- the true vine- and our connection to Him.

Living a God pleasing life is about keeping the main thing the main thing. We need to continually see the greatness of our Lord and Saviour, and be thankful for Him. This is about deep soul gratitude for what we have in Him. If we are focussed on what we have in Jesus then we won’t want or need anything else.

So are we really focussed on Christ alone? Are we spending time pondering the truth of who He is and what He has done? Are we deliberately and intentionally applying the truths of the Gospel to what it means to be married, being a parent, facing difficulties, living in a hostile culture? Do we even know the truths of the Gospel as well as we should?

Let us keep these questions in mind as we consider how we must…

Seek fullness only in Christ.

As we study our passage today, we must remember Paul is writing because his pastor’s heart is worried that the Colossians will be sucked in by false teaching that cruelly promises much but delivers little. He wants to address false teachings that could significantly dent their confidence in Christ as they live for God.

And so, in verse 8 we read:

⁸ See to it that no one 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.

Paul is warning the Believers at Colossae in the strongest terms. The term ‘takes you captive’ pictures someone being carried off by a slave trader never to be seen again. And the fact that this is the first command in the letter underlines the importance of what Paul is saying here.

As Believers we must be alert to any teaching that would drag us away from Christ. It is a matter of life and death that we stay focussed on Jesus and seek fullness of life only in Him. The Christian life is ‘Christ alone’, not ‘Jesus plus…’.

The reality is that here are hundreds of philosophies inside and outside the Church that would try to deceive us. However, Paul makes the point clear by reminding us that the root problem of all of these is that they are not from or about Jesus; they do not have Christ in His proper place: supreme and sufficient.

So the next time you hear a new theology, read the latest Christian book or listen to a sermon think: What is this saying about Jesus? Is this making me love Him more and want to live for Him?

With verses 15 to 20 of Chapter 1 firmly in mind, Paul follows this warning about false teachers with a rich explanation of why the Colossians should reject such teaching. In verses 9 to 15 Paul tells Christians about the benefits available by virtue of being united to Christ. He calls on them to understand all the resources they have in Christ so they employ those resources to live a life pleasing to God.

In verse 9 we see that in Christ, fully God and fully man, we meet with God fully- we do not need to go anywhere else to meet with God. Any philosophy that takes us away from Christ takes us away from God. In verse 10 we see that in Christ Believers share in Christ’s power and authority over every rule and authority by virtue of their union with Him. And so, we have everything we need in Christ. We lack nothing and have nothing to fear.

This truth is brough home in verses 13 to 15- which we considered earlier with the children. Here we find a truly remarkable description of the fullness we experience in Christ in the form of a series of vivid metaphors. Using circumcision, Paul teaches that, in our union with Christ, the old sin life has been removed and we have been welcomed into God’s Covenant Family. Believers no longer live under the influence of sin but have been transferred to the Kingdom of Christ and live through and in Hm, under His lordship.

And, using baptism, Paul teaches that Believers have died with Christ and been raised with Him. In Christ sins have been forgiven and the record against us has been torn up and cancelled, there is the certainty of victory over sin and the Accuser. Dying and rising with Christ signifies death to the power of sin and Satan plus empowerment to live the new life pleasing to God.

This is the Gospel! Through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus our debt has been cancelled, our old life has been ended, we have been filled with the Spirit, we have been given a new life and a new identity- we are invited to play our part in the Family of God. Christ transforms our situation from death, darkness and disconnect to fullness of life and true fellowship as a child of God in the Family of God.

This should then transform how we live our lives. Our motivation is now grace- in the face of all we have been given our response is love and a life centred on Christ. In Jesus we have all we need for this life and the next. In Jesus we are on the side of the conqueror who makes us more than conquerors. So why turn from Christ to lesser things?

In these verses we see Paul’s chief concern in writing this letter: that the Believers would find fullness of life in Christ alone. Paul knew that when Christ and the Cross are no longer ‘enough’ to be reconciled to God then the Believer is robbed of confidence and contentment.

And this is not the Gospel of Jesus Christ that the Colossians received at first. In the Gospel Believers depend fully on Christ and the fullness of His person and work. Only in Christ, united to Him by faith, can Believers experience true fullness- a life of holy contentment and growing Christlikeness.

So Believers must resist any teaching or tradition that would take them away from Christ, would make them believe He is not enough, or make them question their standing before God. Any life apart from Christ will always end in discontentment, dissatisfaction, and a depressing lack of assurance.

We see this as we consider, finally, how we must…

Stay clear of anything not of Christ.

The world of sport is littered with people who never fulfilled their potential. These are people who had been given a particular gift but never got to enjoy their gift to its fullest. There are many different reasons for why this happens- bad advice, bad choices, bad habits. But at the core of every one of these stories is a tale of how their focus shifted and they believed the lie that they needed more or could get away with less.

We have been given the greatest gift of all- new life in Christ. The issue is what we will do with this gift. If we are to live a life pleasing to God, then we must stay clear of the many influences that would distract us from Jesus.

In verses 16 to 23 Paul is sounding a warning to the Colossians: stay clear of anything that is not of Christ. Paul is concerned that these Believers would be led astray by false ideas that sought to add or take away from the Gospel. Paul was concerned that through subtle attacks Believers would be robbed of the fullness of life they have in Jesus.

In verses 16 to 23 Paul was concerned with three lesser ‘philosophies’:

Legalism (in verses 16 and 17)- This is when our sanding before God becomes more about the things we do for God than what Christ has done for us. In Christ God has revealed His wonderful Rescue in the ultimate Rescuer.

Mysticism (in verses 18, 19)- Inside and outside the Church there are people who crave fantastical experiences rather than an encounter with Christ. But only in Christ can true life be found and enjoyed.

Self-discipline (in verses 20 to 23). The Church has a history of people have sought to get to God on their own terms by becoming fanatical about rejecting things, even God given things, in their pursuit of God. Paul calls this what it is- self-made religion which only takes us away from God.

Paul has an answer for all of this: Christ. In Him the fullness of God lives and in Him we find our fullness.

So the answer to legalism is a continual realisation of the grace of God- what Christ has done, not what we do, is where we find our acceptance, holiness and life. The answer to mysticism is pursuing an understanding and true experience of how we are related to Christ and how we grow in and through Him. The answer to self-discipline is to go to the Cross, to go to Jesus. His life, death and resurrection are the fulfilment of all that was promised- we are free from the authority of sin in Him.

In Christ we have the freedom from these false and deceptive ideas. Who we are and what we do is based on who Jesus is, what He has done and who we are and what we have in Him. We are free to live for Jesus because we are united with Jesus.

Paul again and again takes the Colossians, and us, back to the Cross and to Jesus. In Him we have all we need to live a full life and a life free from the fears of this world and the next. The life pleasing to God is a life centred on the truths of the Gospel, the work of the Cross and the person of Jesus.

 

Conclusion

 

Jesus is our fullness. In Him we have all we ever need to live a life pleasing to God- the very definition of a full life. We must stay focussed on Christ- the supreme and sufficient Lord and Saviour of His People. Only Jesus must be the Lord of all we are and have. We must seek fullness only in Him- only in Christ’s perfect sacrifice are we reconciled to God and given all the benefits of belonging to God’s Family. We must stay clear of anything that is not of Christ. Only Christ can save. Only Christ can satisfy. Only in Christ, and His fullness, will we find the confidence and contentment to live a life pleasing to God. So let us stay focused on Him, find fullness only in Him, and stay clear of anything that is not of Him.