Dennis Tuuri

# Walk In Him

I was just going to come over there, Louie, and preach from over here so you guys could accompany me with violins. I wanted to be part of the band today. Sort of felt like, oh, I knew I shouldn’t do that. How delightful to be right here where you can hear the strings so nicely.

Okay, so today’s sermon is called “Walk in Him,” which comes from the very first line of the text, and the text is Colossians 2, verses 6-23.

We’re going through Colossians in big blocks, but we are going to pause next week and take a smaller block from this same text. So we won’t deal with necessarily the whole thing in detail today, but we are going to read it. It is our sermon text and we’ll do an overview of it as we begin.

So please stand for the reading of God’s word. Colossians 2:6-23.

That last psalm. Wow. Not sure you’re going to hear that sung in most places, but it’s part of the inspired book of God’s psalms that we are to sing. Praise God.

Our Sunday school class today was actually on the doctrine of hell and witnessing to people and a common objection. I would encourage you to maybe get the study guide from Tim Keller’s book. It’d be good for you to think about that topic. And I do think it’s significant that we believe in comprehensive psalmody and end up singing songs, psalms like that with the important truth of God’s judgments that are in the earth.

Okay. Colossians 2:6-23, and this is germane to the song we just sang, as you’ll see.

As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. 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.

For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power. In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.

And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.

So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ. Let no one cheat you out of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body is nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God.

Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations? “Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,” which all concern things which perish with the using, according to the commandments and doctrines of men? These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.

Let’s pray. Father, we thank you for this text, and we thank you for its continual relevance for the last 2,000 years in the history of the world. Bless us today, Lord God, that we might leave this place committed once more to walk continually in our Savior, being rooted in Him. In Jesus’ name we ask it. Amen.

Please be seated.

There’s this—I don’t know if it’s still there or not. There used to be an airport terminal, United, I think it was the United Terminal in Chicago, that was kind of famous among frequent travelers. My brother Rick would frequently route his flights deliberately through the United Terminal in Chicago because he liked the terminal walkway so much. And so you had to go, as you went down this tunnel, there was a big tunnel or wall or whatever. Kind of felt like a tunnel. And there were these crazy fluorescent lights on the side and kind of strange oriental or eastern music tinkling away. And then there was a voice saying, “Keep walking. Keep walking. Keep walking. Keep walking.”

So for those of us raised in the late sixties and early seventies, it was an interesting experience to walk through that terminal. Well, keep walking. That’s the point of today’s text. That’s where it begins. And the rest of the text today is kind of the things you need positively to remember that God has done for you to keep walking. And then the things you need to avoid—you have to beware of certain things in order that, because you don’t want them to keep you away from walking in Christ that you’ve received.

So what we’re going to do today is we’re going to look at the overview of the text. Hopefully, you have the handouts, the outlines, because that’s the way we’re going to deal with it. We’re going to look at the A sections first and the B sections. We’ll work our way into the middle, but we’ll look at them in matched sets, right? Or matched pairs. Okay?

So after we do that, you know, then we’ll talk about some positives at the very beginning of the text that are assigned to the walking in Christ—things that God has done for us which call for the response of our walking. And then we’ll look at four central truths of great encouraging things for us that the text goes on to say God has accomplished for us.

And so that’s kind of the way we’re going to do this. We’ll be looking at the positives in the last two points of the sermon, but here we’re going to take the overall context and then in the future we’ll deal a little bit more with some of the details of the text as it’s laid out.

Now, I know it’s strange, but the very first word you’ve got underlined in the outline in the A section is “as.” Believe it or not, there are only two occurrences. Now, I know there’s another word translated “as” later in this same section, but it’s a different Greek word. The only two occurrences of the Greek word “as” in the A sections are at the beginning and then toward the end. Do you see it?

So you see the first one, right? “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus”—actually, I should have completed that sentence—”Christ Jesus the Lord.” This is the full title given here. Okay. So we’ve got here kind of a summation of where we’ve been up to now in Colossians and a major new section opening up. He’s going to talk about some of the problems they have to be aware of. But first, he’s calling them to embrace the Lord Jesus Christ—Jesus Christ the Lord. The full title, it’s all there kind of put forward for emphasis, right?

And we’re supposed to walk in Him. But very importantly, by the use of these terms “as,” we see a relationship between two different kind of “ases.” So in verse 6, “as you therefore have received Christ Jesus”—so the point is you continue to walk. The verb is durative. It’s an ongoing action. You’re supposed to continue to keep on walking. That’s the command here. But you’re going to do that “as you have learned of Him,” right?

So the “as” is very significant. It says that our lives, our walk—and “walk” is comprehensive. It’s everything that we do. In everything we do, we’re supposed to be walking in Christ. And that walking in Christ is, in context, as we have received Him. Okay.

So as He—He’s had relationship initiated with us. With Jack this morning, by being baptized or actually by being placed in the context of a Christian family with new converts—no doubt of which the Colossians were some. The preaching of God’s word comes to them, they convert. And so it’s as they’ve received Christ, how? By means of the word. Jack is baptized according to the word. So the word is the way we’ve received Christ. And that’s one of the keys, then, as the text opens up. I know we can blow right by it, but it sets up the context for how we’re going to walk. What does it mean to walk in Christ? The context is as we have—as we’ve been—as we received Him.

Now there’s a different “as” dropping down. Where is it? Yeah. So if you look at the A prime section, verse 20: “Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world”—that’s another match. The text moves from a discussion of the basic principles of the world to the basic principles of the world. What does it mean? Well, it could mean like the ABCs, right? So, and actually this word, these basic principles of the world, this could actually be referring to an alphabet, you know, blocks or number systems—fundamental sort of things, the things the world has at its elemental stage, so to speak. Okay, so they’re elemental things of the world.

And what the problem is, they’re being tempted to leave the ruler of all the world to instead focus upon itty-bitty little elemental things of the world. And we’ll talk more about that in a minute. But so there’s a danger here to them, right? And what he says here is, why are you, then, if you’ve died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to its requirements?

So “why, as though living in the world?” That’s the distinction. The beginning of the text reminds us that our life is “as we have received him” in Christ. And the danger is that we can be moved away from the centrality and sufficiency of Christ to end up trying to do all kinds of this-and-thats, abstain from this, do that to receive spiritual strength or blessing. And it’s as though we were saying we were in the world, which we’ve been delivered from through Christ—the fallen world of men.

So there’s two perspectives. I guess maybe today we might call them worldviews. I’m not sure that’s a good term. But there’s two contexts, right? The beginning and end. Received Christ, walk in Him. At the end, you’re going to be tempted not to walk in Him because you’re going to become—if you become too attached to the world system.

Now, brothers and sisters, this is important for us. This is important. It’s always important. The word of God is always sure and relevant. But in our particular day and age, we’re living in a culture that has gone apostate from Jesus, which was the foundation of our country’s establishment. And yeah, I know you hear this kind of stuff all the time, but remember it’s true. I mean, remember, we have gay marriage. We’ll soon have incestuous marriage. We’ll soon have polygamy. Do you understand? Things have radically altered and changed. And it’s quite disturbing to us. And it should be, right?

All kinds of strange things are going on. We live in a world now that is more and more weird and more and more apart from Jesus. And our temptation is not to necessarily go whole hog, but our temptation is to let all of that start to color who we are. You know, he’s going to talk about foods here, right?

So I’m listening to the radio this morning and there’s some show on that talks about counseling and mental health and stuff, and there’s somebody talking about diet and its relationship to curing depression, right? And they actually talk about some foods as being demonized. I mean, the fact is that in a country that moves away from Jesus, it turns to other idols. And food is an idol. Food has always been seen throughout the history of fallen mankind as a way to achieve salvation, wellness of mind and soul and spirit.

Oh, you know, food is important, sort of. Paul says it’s, you know, kind of okay. But if the Bible thought that food and what you ate in food was going to be very significant for your spiritual and mental health, we would have got a lot more about it. It doesn’t talk about it because it’s not that important. It’s one of these elemental principles. It becomes more important to us and starts to dominate our lives. Why? Because we’re leaving the context of walking in Christ as we have received Him, having that be the fullness of our life. And we’re becoming more and more affected by the world around us and having that become our perspective.

You know, the way that battle works is through words, usually, right? The control of words, control of terminology. You know, I was listening to an NPR show this week and there was a black conservative on and he was saying, “Yeah, you know, you can’t use the word ‘urban’ anymore in reporting on NPR.” Well, why is that? Because it means it’s code word for black. If you talk about the urban problem or the urban crisis, you’re really saying it’s a black crisis. So it’s a racist comment. I mean, ridiculous, right? But that’s where we’re at. Words are getting new definitions.

I know that some of you, you know, think I don’t quite get it. But there are words—I’ve talked about this before. I’m going to talk about it again right now: guilt, shame, fear. I would throw in a couple more: safe, control. These are now code terms that don’t mean—that are not necessarily wrong. Okay? They are necessarily abusive. And the word “abuse” now has been redefined in eighteen million different ways to mean something other than what it used to mean.

Guilt is something God wants us to feel when we sin. Shame is close to what we’re supposed to want to feel if we sin in front of other people. It’s a good thing. Now, can it be wrong? Absolutely. Can it be manipulative? Absolutely. But to throw that word out or to redefine it as ipso facto wrong—that’s the world speaking. That’s the world of psychiatry. That’s the world of self-actualization, self-realization: don’t tell me what to do, right?

Control. I’m starting to hear this word now. “Control is a bad thing.” Control is a good thing, okay? We want control of the Holy Spirit. How does the Spirit—how does the Holy Spirit help us to become? We don’t really want self-control. That’s really not possible. But we want to be Spirit-controlled, right? How’s that going to happen? Well, the Spirit’s going to speak to us through His word and the Spirit’s going to speak to us through other people. But wait a minute, that means that word and those other people are trying to control me. Well, yeah, we actually are. You’re trying to control me. You’re trying to make me into a better person. You’re part of my sanctification, right?

So it’s—it again, it can be negative. It can be sinful, and we want, you know, these words are being used in new and novel ways and we want to try to root out sinful uses of these things.

“Safe” is another word. I don’t know what’s safe about the Christian life. I mean, honestly, I’ve been doing this for a long time. It’s not safe. If that’s what you’re looking for, you’re in the wrong religion. This isn’t safe. This is a—this is a religion. This is the reality of God glorifying you and having a firmness and a solidity in Jesus Christ, having an identity in this text we just read in the one who has triumphed over all principalities and powers.

Brothers and sisters, we got a Scotsman here. So we should start renewing the old phrase we used to use: the crown rights of King Jesus. He’s triumphed over all principalities and powers. He’s safe that way, okay?

But if we think, you know—they have safe rooms now in universities. And so a speaker will come in, a woman or a man, and some women have this ultra-feminized sensitivity thing going on. And when somebody says something that they’re concerned about—if a feminist, a conservative feminist speaker, and they are those shows up—women will run off to a safe room where they’re going to feel safe because they feel threatened by the very presence of this person who holds a different form of feminism than them. That’s the world we’re creating today, okay?

And as that stuff happens in the world, those are things of the world, the fallen world system. That’s their gig, to try to achieve salvation, well-being, et cetera. And we’re told in the text, beware lest you become booty for someone else or plunder for someone else. And how this happens is set up in the bookends.

If we move from the totality of seeing our lives and all that we have and identity with Christ—okay, in Him as we have received Him—and we move over to “as if we’re in the world system,” and we’re not, we’re in Christ. Now, if we do this, to whatever extent we do this, and we do, all of us, somewhat, of course—it’s impossible not to do. This is the water we swim in. And so we’re affected by it. But steel yourselves, brothers and sisters. Don’t, you know, try to remember this is who we are. We’re in Christ. That as we start living as the world sees—with these elemental principles detached from Jesus—nothing wrong with ABCs, nothing wrong, you know, with the basic building blocks of this, that, or the other, nothing wrong with numbers, but when they become the whole gig rather than them serving the kingdom of Jesus Christ, you see?

What did he already tell us in Colossians? He’s the Creator. Everything was created in the context of Him, by Him, and for Him, including the elemental fundamental principles of life. Okay.

Now, so the point is, and I’m going on too long about this, but that’s okay because this is really the whole game, what I just said in terms of this section. There’s details that he’ll talk about, but this is really the whole nut. That’s the way these structures usually tend to be. If you see the bookends, you sort of get what’s going on, how to interpret all these other things that are happening in the text.

So the A section has two different “ases,” right? Walk and beware—competing A’s. So “as we have received Christ, so walk in Him.” Philosophy—that’s a matching term in the beginning and end. And of course, again, this kind of makes the point. Philosophy is the love of wisdom, right? “Philo”—love, “Sophia”—wisdom. And wisdom is Sophia. All right. So we got the love of wisdom and wisdom as bookends. These are both used pejoratively. This is the wisdom of the world. And of course, what is the wisdom that he has already told us about, over and over again, in the first chapter? Jesus is the wisdom. In Him all wisdom resides, right?

So it’s the same message. Are we going to be in Christ or are we going to act as if we’re in the world? Are we going to look to wisdom and understanding how the world works in relationship to Jesus, which means His word and His Spirit and His people, right? We’re the body. Is that what we’re going to do? Or are we going to look over here to secular philosophies, secular wisdom? That’s the thing that’s set up by these bookends of these particular terms.

So, you know, he says “walk” and then he also says “beware.” Let me—I wanted to mention that here. So he says “walk” and then he says in verse 8, “Beware lest anyone cheat you through this philosophy.” Okay, so here’s the deal: the word “cheat you”—I was going to translate it as “booty” or “plunder.” I think I might have “plunder” on your outlines, but that’s the idea. It doesn’t mean you’re going to be cheated out of something you have, like he’s going to get your car. What it means is, if you live as if you’re in the world and not in Christ, you’re the plunder. You’re the thing that’s taken captive by him, by the enemy, okay? Or by the false religious system. You’re what’s at stake.

Are you going to be a free person in Christ or are you going to become booty or plunder for someone else? You see, that’s the way it’s set up here. And so we’re commanded to walk in Christ. And as part of that walking in Christ, we’re commanded, beware. Watch out. There are principles going on.

Now, just a word about what these errors or problems were, and we’ll talk more about this in the future. This word for “plunder” or “beware” that I’ve been talking about here—or “spoils”—it is a word that, if I was to say it in Greek (but if we were to hear it in Greek) would sound very much like the Greek word “synagogue,” which was what the Jews would gather in, okay?

So we have the opening kind of information here given to us that maybe what Paul is talking about is Judaizing—right, Jews. Again, now, I think that’s true, not the whole thing—that’s not all there is here—but that’s part of it. Now these are different kind of Jews. He’s going to talk about circumcision, right? And so obviously he’s going to talk about Jewish covenantal system, but I don’t think it’s restricted just to that.

The days thing—all kinds of pagan philosophies have to do with observance of days and moon cycles and what’s your sign and blah, blah. So it’s not just that, but I do think that this early reference here to the synagogue by way of a sound-alike word indicates to us that the problem at Colossae was in part Judaism. And it wasn’t the same kind of thing that was going on at Galatia where people were saying you had to be circumcised. They took pride in their circumcision is what this text seems to tell us. But a lot of words that are used here—while it’s not obvious like this word for “plunder”—seem to be indicating that this is really Judaistic stuff.

So the “basic principles” or “basic elements” of the world, right? There is a good argument to be had, and I’m not going to look at the scriptures now. There’s four or five of them. There’s a good argument to be had that the Old Testament system that was set up was sort of seen as the rudimentary, basic elements of the world, right? So that’s the basic stuff. Now it finds its completion and saturation in Jesus.

So when the building blocks—if you’re going to, if I’m going to type up a sermon or an email or something, I’m not playing with my building blocks anymore. They’re in there. They’re in my use of them, right? I know that. But I’m not doing that anymore because I’ve moved on to maturity. I’m doing word processing now, okay? I’m not using building blocks. I don’t sing my ABC songs anymore. And that’s what in part is happening here.

We’ve come to maturation and fullness in Christ. We’re not—we don’t throw the alphabet away. We’re using it, but we’re using it maturely. And these people want us to go back and start going back over all the details, all of which were fulfilled in Christ, and not seeing those details as pointers to Christ, but saying that in the practice of the Levitical calendar, for instance, you’re going to get grace. That if you eat your diet regulated by their actual perversion of the kosher laws (but let’s say the kosher laws), that somehow that food you eat is going to strengthen you spiritually.

This is what it says in Hebrews. Hebrews says, you know, the spirit or the heart is not strengthened by food. We have a table that the—that they, the Judaizers, can’t eat at. This—this is not food. It’s the grace of God that is symbolized to us and signed to us here. It’s the covenant that strengthens us. It’s in Christ, you see.

So they actually thought and were trying to teach people that if you eat kosher food, it’ll be good to your spirit, you’ll be spiritually better. And just like the person on the radio this morning was saying, if you eat the right kind of food, you won’t have depression or it’ll fix your depression. You know, not as if there’s no relationship, but do you see what I’m saying? Okay.

So the point here is this: with this booty thing, we’re told to beware lest we become plunder. And we’re given the first indication that part of the problem that Paul is addressing at Colossae are Judaizers—different kind. We won’t get to this today, hey, but he’ll talk about mystical religion, right? He’ll talk about the worship of angels. He’ll talk about experiences and stuff indicating this kind of mystical sort of trance-like stuff, almost like an ultra-charismatic worship service where revelation comes through kind of a mystical involvement and kind of losing your rationality and stuff, okay?

So they were those kind of Judaizers—different than the ones at Galatia, but that’s what they were.

Now, the other point I’m going to make, though, is this: we can look at all the specific problems that he lists, including his basic principles of the world. We can see a connection to Judaism, but it’s not overt. It’s not overt. Why? He could have made it clear. Do you know that commentators have been arguing about what the error of the Colossians were? What’s threatening the Colossians? They’ve been arguing about this for 2,000 years. Well, they don’t argue like that about Galatians. They know exactly what was going on in Galatians because it’s quite clear.

My point is I think my best read of that is that Paul doesn’t want us to make an exact one-for-one—this is the only correlation. The words he uses could also be used of pagan philosophical systems, okay? Other forms of mystery religions, other form of the idolization of the mind and intellect. I think all of these words are used in a way that could include them. So the Colossian references—yes, Old Testament festival seasons, which were supposed to be brought to completion in the Lord’s day. But beyond that, don’t be ignorant of the fact that lots of pagan philosophical systems, observance of days, moon cycles, sun, blah, blah, are very important to it, okay?

Which is to say that for us, even though we’re not tempted to Judaizing influences, we are tempted to other pagan philosophies. This world system for us doesn’t include Jews or different kinds of Jews. You know, the “as” in “the world” as opposed to “as you receive Christ”—it isn’t that for us. But the epistle has even more significance for us, and we recognize it’s intended to cause us to beware of all kinds of pagan philosophies and different forms of spirituality and this, that, and the other thing.

So, so that’s kind of sets up the whole thing in the A sections, which I’ve gone on about now for a while. So let’s look at the next section, the B section, next on your outline. And what does it say? It says, completeness and supremacy of Christ in us.

Again, this is what I’ve already kind of pointed us to, but if you look at the B section here: “In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principalities and powers. … Having disarmed principalities and powers.” So the principalities and powers are a match, right? The head is a match. The bodily reference is a match.

If you look at verse 17 on your handout, there it says, “which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.” “Substance” is underlined. It’s the same word. It’s body. And if you have a New American Standard, you’ll see a little footnote off to the side: literally body. Okay. So if we translate it “body,” “substance” is a good word. I mean, body has different references and different, you know, kind of meanings, but if we—but the point is it’s a match. And so it shows us the relationship of the B and the B prime sections. And that relationship is pretty simple, really.

And what’s being said is that in Christ all the fullness of God dwells bodily. Tremendous statement. He’s already told us, you know, earlier in that great set of verses in chapter 1, that in Him, you know, in Him God is pleased to dwell. But this now talks about God dwelling in Him. All the fullness of deity dwelling in Him bodily. So there’s a completeness to Christ.

When you see Christ, when you see Christ through the word, you’re seeing God. All the fullness of God dwells in Him bodily. He didn’t give up deity to become a man. That’s a theory. He empties Himself, right, of godlike characteristics and attributes. This text, I think, says otherwise. This says no, he was fully God, fully man. All the fullness of God dwells in Him bodily.

So that’s a theological point. But the applicational point is that, hey, you think there are more important powers and stuff to observe? He’s the deal. He’s everything. He’s God, okay? He’s triumphed over all principalities and powers. He’s over them. He led them in procession.

That means, you know, the Romans would come back and they conquer a group. They’d bring back booty or, you know, plunder that they’d taken, and they’d bring back the prisoners of the other country’s army in tatters, and they’d bring the king, and then they bring him in, and then they cut off his head, right? So they’re being led in procession as defeated enemies. And the imagery here is that’s what Jesus did. Now, how did He do it? He did it at the cross. This text tells us He defeated all the enemies, principalities and powers, made an open show over them at the cross.

Now, the cross is a singular event—the cross, the resurrection, the ascension above all rule and authority, okay? But what the point here is that our fullness, our self-actualization, our finding out who we really are, our coming to contentment with who we are in the world, is related to this one because it says that in Him all the fullness of Godhead bodily and you are complete in Him. You’re complete in Him.

He has all the fullness of God in bodily. We’re in Him, and we are complete. The meaning and self-actualization of our life is found in Jesus Christ and only in Him. You want to know who you are, what you’re supposed to be doing in this world? You do the “as you have received Him” here. You don’t say, “Well, I’m a Christian, but now I’ve got to go over to the world and find out what they mean by self-actualization and start doing that stuff. I got to go to a seminar and find out who I really am, what I really want to do.”

No. This is who you are in Him. You’re complete. You find your completion. You find your purpose. I find my purpose, my meaning in life, in Christ now—Christ bodily. We’re in the body of Christ. You, Louie, Lorine, Joseph—you guys are part of my completion. You’re my self-actualization, and I’m yours. We’re together. In other words, the world wants us to think of ourselves as little ball bearings, completely isolated. We got to figure out who we are, not in relationship to anybody else because that’s dependence.

But Christ, over here, as the way you received Him—is you were brought into the body of Christ. We—Jack became part of the body of Christ today, okay? And his life, to walk in God, isn’t abstracted from his relationship to his parents—directly related to it, right? And then it’ll be directly related to the kids he plays with and the adults that are in this church, and you became his sponsors. Those relationships are part of this fullness that we have in Christ. In Him, we are full. We’re complete because in Him dwells all the fullness of Godhead bodily. And He’s above every principality and power.

Beware that you’re going to find some kind of meaning and purpose outside of the Lord Jesus Christ, His people, the relationships He’s brought you into context with, right?

Now, we’re individuals. I understand that. I’m not getting rid of that. But I’m saying that we’re individuals like leaves on a tree, and our self-actualization, our meaning and purpose in life, is connected up to what Jesus has done with us in His providence and the people He’s put us in relationship to. We’re full. We have fullness of life in Christ.

So these B elements, right? The two distinctions—which “as” are you going to be part of? And then the second thing going in is, you know, He’s triumphed over all this world has to offer. They’re subservient to Him. He has crown rights over every bit of it, and He’s exercising it. And you’re going to find your actualization in Him. You’re going to become complete in Him. You’re going to find your fullness in Him because in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. He is the divine Creator of the world.

All right, so the C-sections: circumcision without hands frees us from handwritten requirements.

So here he moves on then to talk about circumcision, which is kind of at the center, and I talked about that a little bit when we baptized Jack Murray this morning. So he then moves into this discussion, and clearly now there are references to Jewish practices, and his point is that you’ve got a much better circumcision than they are proud of in their circumcision, okay?

And so there are your circumcision made without hands and then there are these handwritten ordinances that stand against us. And because we’ve been circumcised without hands—which is union with Christ, His circumcision, which means His work on the cross, okay? Putting away the old man, His work on the cross, His circumcision. We’re united to that. And we’re united to that so that we’re free from the handwritten ordinances of men. We’re free from the condemnatory powers of all decrees and punishments, including the ones that we justly deserve through God.

So there’s this movement, then, again, and at the center, from death to life. And that’s actually what, at the very center of this text, is referenced. So at the very center, then, we have flesh, death, and resurrection. Very nice stuff going on here at the center of the text, where he’s putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you were raised—and then the E section: raised with Him from the dead, and you being dead.

Okay. So at the center, really, is death. And so the reminder is that we’re in Christ because over here there’s deadness. We were dead there. And Jesus has made us alive in Christ. God has brought us into union with Him through the circumcision made without hands, in baptism, and our union with Christ. We move from death to life.

So that’s at the very center of the text.

So that’s kind of an overview. So at the heart of the thing, the reason why you walk in Christ and beware the false teachers, the reason why you avoid those false emphases on elementary principles of the world, the reason why you don’t get captive anymore, taken captive by the world system—at the heart of it is an understanding of who you are. Who you are in Jesus. You’ve been moved from death to life in Him, okay? And we’ll talk about that in just a minute, in a little bit more.

We are rescued from death in Christ. And so that’s at the very center, okay.

God’s gifts and our responses. So verses 6 and 7 on your handouts. And we mentioned this earlier. “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.” And then it gives us a series of context: “rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught.”

Okay? So “walk in Him” is active. That’s something you’re supposed to do, and it’s continual action. Keep on walking. Keep going. Keep walking. Keep walking. Keep walking. Right? That’s the text today. Walk in Christ as you received Him. And you do this because of what God has already done for you.

Rooted. That’s a passive word. In other words, you don’t do the rooting. God rooted you, okay? God rooted Jack today. Built up in Him. Again, there’s passive. You don’t work to build yourself up. God is building you up in Him. And He’s growing you in Him, okay? That’s God’s work.

And so you got two metaphors being used: agricultural, right? Rooted—you’re like a tree blossoming, new creation, right? But the new creation isn’t just the restoration of the garden. It’s a building. And so you got building imagery here as well. And we’ve seen this already in Colossians: don’t leave the foundation of Jesus Christ.

So the point here is that God has given us certain things. Jack didn’t decide this morning. And even if he was twenty-five years old and came to faith in Christ and was baptized, he didn’t decide that either, right? We can’t choose this. The text made just clear in the verses we looked at. We’re dead apart from Jesus. Dead people can’t choose to live. You can’t do that. So whether it’s Jack, an infant, or a twenty-five-year-old Jack, or whatever it is, right? The rooting is something God does. He gives you faith. He gives you—He brings you to life.

You know, Gordon and Molly, we’ve got a dead baby because the baby’s born in Adam. We need him brought back to life. Jesus brings people back to life. The water is applied. He’s brought back to life. That’s a metaphor. Don’t push it too far. But that’s the imagery here, right? Jesus brings new life. And that new life comes in union with Him.

And so that’s a gift of God. This rootedness, built up in Him, established in the faith, right? And so all this is tied again to the faith, to the way he received it. And we can make connection again to the word of God. We don’t want to leave that out. Behind all of this is the word of God that’s operating on them. It’s the word that is the way they receive Christ. It’s the word, the text said earlier in chapter one, that will continue to grow. You’ll be built up in the word and knowledge of the word. There is your wisdom coming from the word of Christ, the scriptures.

So these are the gifts of God to us that form the context for our response. How do we respond to this? The fact that God has rooted us, built us up, established us in Christ—we respond with faithfully walking in Him. That’s something we do now. It’s by the power of the Spirit. All glory to God. But you take a part in that when you leave here today. Walk in Him. Don’t walk as though you’re in the world, right?

That’s the response. The other response is to beware. Go away with the sense, oh, wait a minute. The world might have some things that common grace stuff is bringing to us in the church. That’s true. But careful. Beware. Because those influences—as America moves further and further away from Jesus—all kinds of alternative methods of reconciliation and salvation are coming to bear. And what is it doing? Is it creating reconciliation? It’s tearing the country apart. Black and white, liberal and conservative, different kinds of sexuality. I mean, the world is being torn apart. Divorces skyrocketing because men and women can’t get along anymore because nobody knows what it’s all about.

When we’re left without the standard of God’s word and a culture that seeks to find other systems, psychological evaluations, counseling techniques to bring about what only God and His word will bring about, political systems to try to bring reconciliation and unity—forget it. God is judging it.

So our proper response to God’s gracious gifts to us is to walk in Him and to be careful to try, kind of, avoid the pollution of the world in your heart, in your family, in this church, in the extended body of Christ. And all you got to do is look at the extended body of Christ and what do you see? You see worldliness. You know, and that’s not the worldliness of dancing and drinking. It’s the worldliness of vain philosophies, views of self-actualization, building things on top of Jesus that have nothing to do with Him. That’s the worldliness that’s in the church today. And we don’t want that. Beware is our second response.

Our third response is thanksgiving. That’s what the text says. Who couldn’t be thankful? Look what God did for you. He rooted you in Christ through union. He established you in faith. He’s building you up. Who wouldn’t give thanks? And as much as we worry about what’s going on in the world today, this text is assurance after assurance after assurance that you don’t need to worry about it.

Hey, you got to worry about you—unless you start becoming like them—because what we read, what we sang in the psalm today is this is being judged and destroyed. Don’t sweat it. You have victory in Jesus. He’s openly triumphed over all that stuff, okay? Don’t worry about it. Short-term, great problems and difficulty. You got to work through some of it. But look, the text is filled with optimism.

So when things get really bad, it’s not that we get sad. We become more and more convinced that in Christ’s resurrection, He’s the victor, right? Christ is Victor. He’s the risen Christ, the victorious Christ over all these enemies, okay? Who couldn’t be thankful for that?

Be careful. Don’t let it influence you. But don’t think somehow that God’s lost control of the situation. We don’t know what He’s doing in the short term, but we know what He’s doing long term. He’s always destroying the kingdoms of men that His kingdom might be established. There were ancient things in this country for a long, long time—sins that God was displeased with—and they’re coming to full fruition because He’s dealing with it, okay? He’s dealing with it. Don’t sweat it. You’re safe in Christ. You’re more than conquerors through Him, right? He’s triumphed over His enemies, and we can triumph over our enemies.

In Revelation, the rod of iron that King Jesus has in Psalm 2, the saints exercise that rod of iron over these kingdoms in our prayers, okay? We’re in Christ. He’s victorious. So who couldn’t respond with thanksgiving? “Abounding in it with thanksgiving” is the way the text tells us.

Finally, finally, finally, last point. Boy, how bad is it of me to give this such short shrift because this stuff is astonishing. Avoiding becoming plunder by focusing on God’s actions. What did God do? What are things he did for us, and what are things he did in us?

For us, He defeats sin and Satan, okay? “Having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us.” You get that doubling up? So Adam and—when Adam fell, there was a handwriting of ordinance. He was sinful. He had sinned and transgressed. And you can think of the law later being added. These are the handwritings, the laws that were written. They’re not bad in of themselves, but they have a condemnation for all people who fail to walk in conformity and faithfulness to God, right? And because of that, it has judgment attached to it. It’s the judgment for our sins that’s being talked about here.

And look how bad it is for us. It says it “was against us, which was contrary to us.” Double it up. The law of God is holy and just and good. But what it tells you is you’re a sinner. You’re destroyed. It’s against you. It’s way against you because you’re sinful, and in—of yourself—in our fallen nature, sin is working against us. It’s against us. It’s way against us.

And what has God done for us? He’s nailed it to the cross. He’s taken the condemnation for your sin and for mine. He’s nailed it to the cross. It’s in Christ. He took it. He took the judgment for our sin. Praise God, right? So what has God done? This is something He’s done for us. He’s saved us from sin, and He’s—what does it say to us? “He has taken it out of the way. Having nailed it to the cross.” Praise God, right? Taken it out of the way.

Secondly, “having disarmed principalities and powers, he’s defeated Satan and all forces in opposition to you.” Not only has He freed you from sin, He’s freed you from the ability of Satan to control you. He has disarmed principalities and powers. He’s triumphed over them. Look, these are things God has done for you, right? These are things for which we’re to be grateful and thankful. These are the things for those who are over here in Jesus, right? As you receive Christ, those that are walking in Him, He has disarmed principalities and powers. He made a public spectacle of them.

You know, hell isn’t a place where Satan’s happy. That’s judgment for him, too. You realize that, right? So God has done these things. And then secondly, He’s done a couple of things in us. What has He done? He’s brought life from death. We’ve talked about this. But “in Him you are also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him.”

So what has He done? He’s done a couple of things for us. He’s removed the condemnation for our sins, the handwriting, ordinance of judgment against us. He’s removed the satanic ability to control us the way he controlled Adam and Eve in the garden. That’s done away with. Those are things He’s done for us. And now in terms of directly in us, what has He done? He’s moved us from death to life. He’s moved us from the flesh and the death of the flesh, and we died. We were dead in our trespasses and sins, and He’s made us alive.

So He’s dealt with our sin outside of us, but He’s renewed our lives. He’s made us alive in Him in us, okay?

So He’s done things for us. He’s done things in us. And plus, get this: He’s circumcised our hearts. That’s what the text’s talking about is circumcision. Removing the body of flesh. What’s the body of flesh? It’s this thing over here. It’s the world. It’s the fallen world system. It’s all the results that come forth from the Adamic fallen nature that the world has. And the flesh can indicate whatever we’re wearing, right? Flesh is the stuff that we wear in our bodies. And you know, for some people, flesh is, you know, them being part of a Jewish religion that’s apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. For some people, their flesh is they find their identity as a banker, or they find their identity in what they do at work rather than in Jesus. That’s the flesh they wear, and that flesh controls the way we walk. It makes us do things contrary to the will of Christ.

And what He has done for us is He has cleansed us from all those false identifications. He has removed us away from any tribe, any allegiance, any subset of this world that we are part of. And all of us are part of something in our fallen nature. And He’s cleansed us from that. So He’s made us over here to be Christians at work and Christians in our religious observance and Christians in the way we relate to our neighbors and Christians in the way we relate to sports and recreation. You see, He’s cleansed us. He’s done that for us.

Yeah. Death to life. Praise God. But praise God also that while we live this life, He’s removed our sinful nature and made us alive in Christ so that now our desire is to continue to walk in Him. Now, he doesn’t say you’ve got a choice: walk in Him or not. He says, walk in Him. And by the way, as you’re walking, be careful because there’s stuff over here. But you see, because you were circumcised, your sinful nature removed, you’re over here. You’re walking in Jesus. That’s who we are. That’s our identity.

He’s brought us to life. He hasn’t just left us in that newness of life, neutral. He’s given us a new nature. He’s removed the Adamic fallen nature, and He’s filled us with the Spirit. That’s who we are in Jesus, okay?

Now, so this is a text that is frequently examined primarily for what it warns us against. And that’s important. I’ve done a little bit of that. But this is a text that has some of the greatest gospel truths just sounding throughout it. And if we get all hung up on the beware stuff, we’ve missed the forest for the trees, okay? We’ve missed the whole thing over here and all the wonderful things that God has done for us and defeating our sin, defeating Satan, giving us new life, and a new life that’s sanctified and driven by the Spirit to walk in Him.

We’ve lost the fact—if we focus on that—He has sovereignly and graciously rooted us in Jesus Christ, established us as His building, and He’s building us up. That’s the focus of the text. And that’s why you shouldn’t do this stuff. That’s why you want to beware. But look, this is over here, the real kind of deal. This is, you know, what has God done for you? This is what should cause our hearts to respond to that and say, “Yes, my identity is in Jesus Christ. My actualization is in Him and in His providence and the way He’s created my life and the people He’s put me in relationship to, because I am thankful that He’s brought me out of death to life. And I am thankful that He’s given me the Holy Spirit to walk in newness of life. And I am thankful that just like Jack have been rooted, you’ve been rooted as well. I’m thankful that He’s built me up. I’m rejoicing in that thankfulness for what He’s done for me. And as a result of that, you bet—when I leave church today, I’m walking in Him. I’m going to keep walking.”

Let’s pray.

Father God, we do pray that you would bring these tremendous gospel truths to our remembrance this week. Help us to think about this handout, the outline, the text that’s in it, and the great gospel truths in it. Bless us, Lord God. Help us to be properly cautious. Beware of those that would take our very lives, our very persons, into bondage to things that really are never seen, not with their power, but rather that are to be in subjection to Jesus Christ.

Help us to rejoice in thanksgiving and to respond to your great gospel truths by committing ourselves afresh to walk in Him. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.

Amen.