Last week, I just felt compelled to stop in the middle of our devotion and for you to ask yourself: “What position does Christ hold in your life presently?” If Jesus Christ is God, why would we want to put anyone or anything above Him? I hope you took the time to answer that question. If not, you may want to do that right now. Here is the Scripture we were looking at:
“For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority; and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him” (Colossians 2:9-15 NASB).
On my last post, we looked at the first reason we can trust Christ over all things that Paul gives us in this passage: 1) Jesus Christ is God – for in Him (Christ) all the fullness of Deity dwells (present tense – meaning ongoing) in bodily form.
The second reason Paul gives is: In Christ you have been made complete. That participle “have been made complete” is a perfect passive participle. If you remember, we talked about the perfect passive participle a couple weeks ago. The perfect tense means something that has happened in the past, but still has ramifications in the present. When you came to faith in Christ and were sealed by the Holy Spirit (Christ in you, the hope of glory), you were made complete (or you were made full) – you have everything you need! You do not need the traditions of man and the ABC’s of the world. This is a daily battle for me – as you can see from last week :-). Our Christian life needs to be lived moment by moment. It is so easy to allow the things of the world to take our eyes off of Christ and let the things of the world control us rather than the Spirit of Christ inside of us as believers. That is why I wanted to you to answer the question: What position does Christ hold in your life right now?
Paul also tells us that Jesus Christ is the head of all rule and authority (meaning the spirit world). In verse 15, he explains that Christ disarmed the rulers and authorities by making a public display of them on the cross and in his resurrection. The Bible teaches us that we have three enemies: 1) the world (can mean people and/or things that try to take us captive), 2) our flesh (our own desires and wants), and Satan (and his army). Paul is saying that Christ is indeed supreme over all of our enemies.
In the rest of the passage Paul explains more of the Gospel’s meaning. Paul reminds his Jewish Christian readers that it is not physical circumcision that is important. It is the spiritual circumcision of your heart that matters – that when you came to faith in Jesus Christ, your old nature was crucified (was buried), and in Christ you now have a new life – His life! The Jewish law is like a mirror that proves that you are guilty of sin. However, Christ took that law and nailed to the cross. He shattered that mirror that reveals your guilt. Now, if you looked at that mirror, you wouldn’t see your sin, but you would see Christ – His righteousness. You are no longer guilty; you have been set free in Him and you don’t have to live in captivity any longer (cf. 1:13-14). Don’t let philosophy and empty deception take you captive! Let’s allow Christ to have full rule in our life!