As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, 7 rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. 8 Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. 9 For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; 10 and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power. (Colossians 2:6-10 NKJV).
In our last lesson, we ended by looking at verses 6-7. I made the point of how we received Christ is relevant to how we walk in Him. I mentioned Peter and his first message, preached in the streets of Jerusalem, on the Day of Pentecost as the poured out Holy Spirit came. In Peter’s first message on the “Day of Pentecost,” he proclaimed Jesus alive from the dead after the Jews insisted that Rome crucify Him. Peter preached that God raised Him and seated Him on the throne of His Glory. Many Jews were convicted by the Holy Spirit and asked the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” “Then Peter said to them, Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call” (Acts 2:38-39 NKJV). It does not get more authentic than this.
How we receive Christ is essential! I was hindered in my growth in Christ because I received Him through the traditions of my denomination, not by the authentic word of God. Yes, I had received God’s forgiveness for my sins, but it took many years to grow into a genuine biblical encounter with the living God. I call this receiving of the good news of the kingdom, “INITIATION.” Acts 2:38 is the “initiation” verse. Unbeknown to me, my growth in Christ had been significantly hindered. It could have moved much faster if I had been taught the fullness of the “gospel of the kingdom of God” in full faith and power and understanding about persecution.
Repentance is the first response we should have regarding faith in Christ Jesus and His finished work on the cross. Repentance from our sins, of course, but it also includes any other way we tried to please God. It is in the emptying of ourselves by putting our complete trust in Christ for our life, now and in the future.
Secondly, it is being baptized, not for religious gain, but as an obedient disciple to the Lord. Baptizing is so essential because it is vital to understanding our true identity in Christ. We surrender our old man nature in Adam to Christ’s death, which now becomes our death to self and a new life in Christ’s resurrection life. We are joined with Him in the “new creation man” He is raising up in the earth and in heaven for those who have already experienced physical death.
Lastly, opening of one’s heart to the promise of God in receiving the Holy Spirit as the Father pours out His Spirit upon all those who receive His Son. Through obedience, we receive the Holy Spirit just like those who received on that first Pentecost Sunday, fifty days after the resurrection of Christ from the dead. Then being daily filled with the Spirit as Paul admonishes in Ephesians 5:18-19.
From that point, Paul speaks in Vs. 7 to these saints about being “Rooted and grounded in Christ-built up and established in the faith. All this comes through teaching that produces abounding and growing in the faith. Receiving all this, I thanksgiving for what we have learned regarding “the faith” found in Christ is vital to continuing to grow and develop.
We must continually examine ourselves and make sure we are in the faith. We must be sure we have been taught that which causes us to respond to Christ’s Lordship as head over all things to His church. Not man, not a church structure, but Christ alone. As we do this, then we will have rejoicing in our self alone, and not another. Paul’s point is that we are all responsible for ourselves in the responsibilities we have received through the redemption of Christ.
Verse 8 gives to us a substantial warning. “Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.
Multitudes are cheated every day in Schools, in Media, in Religion, in Entertainment, yes, in Politics or Government, and through false or unbalanced Business practices. Some have called these 7 areas the Mountain of culture. Philosophy and empty deceit is a perfect description of “dark culture.” A lack of love, a lack of trust, and a lack of God at the culture’s core value. Paul calls this “the tradition of men.” Man has traditions, but God has “redemptive values.” When the Bible speaks of the “world,” it is speaking of its lost condition. The world is in need of redemption from demonic corruption and a sinful heart with lusts of the mind to include self-centeredness and, at times, no regard for the needs of others.
Jesus the Christ brought a whole new way of thinking and acting in our relationship to God and to one another. Jesus’ declaration in John saying, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man comes to the Father, but by me.” No man had ever said it that way and with that kind of authority. Jesus came to do a “new thing” on the earth. The earth and the nations are His, and He is commanding as the Sovereign King a whole new way of thinking and living. This is why repentance is a must, and baptism into His death and resurrection is of absolute necessity. This life cannot be believed without the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit.
For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; 10 and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.
In Jesus, “all the fullness” dwells. The complete Godhead is embodied in Christ. Think of it, the God of the universe, the one who fills all things. The one, who is omnipresent, everywhere at once, has supplied a human vessel with the totality of Himself. In the bodily form, the Godhead has revealed Himself to His highest creation, man. Man, made a little lower than the angels, crowned with glory and exalted to the highest heaven to be seated at the right hand of the Father. This is mind-blowing and not possible to express or figure out through our limited intelligence. Only in the Spirit can one begin to have a small degree of understanding and appreciation for Jesus Christ and who He really is.
God is Spirit but came in bodily form. On the Mountain of transfiguration, the three disciples, Peter, James, and John, saw a measure of the Lord’s glory. This Mountain top experience in part is what Jesus is referring to in Matthew 16:28 when He said, “some of you will not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His Kingdom.” The other part of fulfillment is in the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD when all saw the sign of the Kingdom that Jesus mentions in Matthew 24:30, “Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and the shall see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.”
Jesus is completeness! He is the total of the work of God in man. Nothing less and nothing more. He is the “Last Adam,” He is “the firstborn among many,” and He is” the “Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending.” Jesus is the beginning of a whole “New Creation in the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 5:17). What is so important to understand is to know that Jesus is “presently reigning as King.” He has purposed through His body, His church, and the “Redeemed Holy Nation,” to finish the work of dealing with the “devils kingdom of darkness and disciplining the nations to submit to His Kingdom authority by receiving Him as Lord or receive His judgment.
Verse 10 gives us a wrap for today, when Paul says, “and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.” In future teaching, we will see that Jesus “disarmed principalities, and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it” (Col 2:15).
Our completeness is not in our ethnic background, it is not in the local church to which we belong, nor the denominational affiliation we belong to. Our wholeness is neither in our education nor our social status. It is in the “blood of Jesus,” it is in His New Creation work by the Holy Spirit, which translates to being “heavenly citizens, a royal priesthood, a holy nation and members of His body” (see 1 Peter 2:1-9).
This is where our peace can be found, this is the only thing that satisfies our longing for contentment. Jesus said, “come and follow me.” Some did and found what they could not articulate, but their hearts cried to have. While others could not surrender their all to Him because they had much to let go. Then, some had such hardened hearts; they hated Him but did not know why so they had to create lies so they could do away with Him. Nothing has changed since the time Jesus walked among His own, and His own would not have Him, but to as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believed in His name.” It was those who received the Light of lights.