Song of the Drunkards

JESUS FACED A CONSIDERABLE AMOUNT OF OPPOSITION FOR HIS HARD WORDS AND UNFLINCHING DEVOTION TO YAHWEH. NO SURPRISE THEN IF WE FIND OUR NAME FESTOONED IN BARROOM BALLADS (CF. PS 69:12).

Complete in Christ

March 23, 2009 in Bible - NT - Colossians, Meditations

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

For some weeks now we have considered the significance of this passage from Colossians for our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We have discovered that the Christian faith proclaims not the virtue of faith in general but the virtue of faith in a specific person, namely, the Lord Jesus Christ. Not only this, we have also found that it is not sufficient to profess faith in someone with the simple name “Jesus”; the Jesus whom we trust must be the Jesus revealed in the Word of God – for false Christs and false prophets have abounded and have sought to mislead the people of God with cleverly devised tales. Because Jesus is God Himself clothed in human flesh it is imperative that we listen as He speaks – for He speaks to us the very words of God and, therefore, His words have authority unlike the words of the Beatles, Hank Williams Jr., or Rush Limbaugh.

Today Paul declares to us that in Christ we are complete. What does Paul mean and what implication does his statement have for us? The word complete means to be filled to the full, saturated, needful of nothing else. When Paul was in physical want and the Philippians sent money to relieve his need, he wrote back to them saying that their gift had caused him to be filled to the full – needing nothing more than the gift that they themselves had provided. And now Paul uses this same word to describe us as the people of God – we are complete, filled up in Christ. We need nothing more.

What implications does this have for us? Note first of all that Paul is not urging his audience to be filled up in Christ. He is describing what they are in Christ not what they should be. The is an indicative not an imperative; a statement of fact not a command. You are complete in Christ. You are filled to overflowing. And so, Paul calls upon the Colossians in the next chapter, act out what you in fact are. You are complete in Christ – demonstrate it in your life.

If this is the case, if we really are complete in Christ, then why is it we so often seek out other activities or people to “make us complete.” Pop psychology, possessions, drugs, alcohol, sex, physical fitness, work. We wander around seeking someone or something else to fill us up. Why?

Might I suggest that one of the reasons we fail to appreciate our completeness in Christ is because we are so busy seeking what we do not have that we do not meditate sufficiently on what we do have. How often do we read the Word of God and ponder, “What wondrous things God has done for us! He has created us with life and breath. He has redeemed us from our sin and rebellion. He has granted us fellowship with Him by His Spirit.” Have we stopped to consider that “we are complete in Christ”? I fear not.

And so this morning as we enter into the presence of our Creator let us kneel together and confess that we have failed to perceive all that He has done for us in Christ.

Faith in Christ

March 9, 2009 in Bible - NT - Colossians, King Jesus, Meditations

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

Last week we remarked that one of the constant temptations which faces us as human beings and even as the people of God is to substitute our own religious ideas for the revelation of God. But all such substitutes Paul characterizes in no uncertain terms as vanity, emptiness, folly – teachings that are in accordance with the traditions of men but not according to Christ.

Paul informs us today that the reason these various unbelieving worldviews are vanity is because they are not connected to Christ in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. The reason it is folly to reject Christ is because when He spoke, God spoke; when He acted, God acted; when He wept, God wept; when He thundered, God thundered. Our Lord Jesus Christ was the full embodiment of the deity and so we can know that the things he spoke, thought, and did were infallible revelations of God’s person and will. No clearer revelation was possible.

Note what folly it is, then, to mess with the Scripture’s presentation of Jesus as God Himself clothed in human flesh. If Jesus is not God then the things he revealed are no more solid and sure than the teachings of Plato. If Jesus is not God, then we are left with the mere opinions and traditions of men. No wonder then that Paul’s most stern denunciations fall on those who preach “false Christs” – for if our faith is in any Christ other than the one Paul preached then our faith is in vain.

But glory be to God, the Scriptures clearly declare, both here in Colossians and in other places, that Jesus is fully God and fully man. He is fully capable of revealing the Father to us and fully capable of identifying with us – because He bears in His one person the two natures – divine and human.

It is no coincidence that of all the differences between the non-Christian religions of the world and pseudo-Christian cults, the one thing they hold tenaciously in common is a rejection of the fully deity of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Pseudo-Christian cults not infrequently accuse Christians of twisting the Scriptures to develop the so-called “monstrosity” of the Trinity. But Paul tells us quite plainly today – in Him all the fullness of the deity dwells in bodily form.

And so, knowing that our Lord Jesus Christ was indeed God Himself clothed in human flesh, let us confess before Him that rather than pay attention to His Word as we ought, we frequently resort to the opinions and traditions of men who can bring only vanity and emptiness. Let us kneel and confess our failure to listen to our Lord.

March 2, 2009 in Bible - NT - Colossians, Meditations

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

The number of different religious beliefs in the world is truly staggering. Varieties of spiritual expression have existed from the earliest days of human history (witness the Tower of Babel) and have continued down to the present day.

As we consider these various religious movements, Paul warns us in our text today that we need to beware falling prey to these systems – these systems that have the appearance of wisdom in the traditions of men but which truly rob us of wisdom and knowledge when carefully considered. Paul characterizes all non-Christian worldviews as empty deceit or vanity – emptiness. False religions promise various things to lure unsuspecting men and women into their pale – peace with god, peace with your neighbor, enlightenment, reabsorption into the One, freedom from the body, indulgence of bodily lusts. And while these promises frequently look solid they are really empty and hollow. Why? Because all these philosophies are based on the traditions and speculations of men – men like you and me. Men who wet their beds when they’re little and start going senile when they’re old. Men who bow down and worship sticks and stones. Men who get sick and die. Men who have headaches and have a hard time thinking. Men who are prejudiced and make unwarranted assumptions. Men who are anything but omniscient and accurate describers of the world around them. Men who fall under the injunction of Solomon, Vanity of Vanities, all is vanity.

And so what makes Christianity different from all these systems? Aren’t Christians subject to the same limitations? Yes and were we dependent upon our ability to search out and discover the truth we too would be lost. But thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! The Father considered our lost estate and sent His only Son to become flesh and dwell among us that He might seek out and save us – revealing to us His person and paying the penalty for our folly that we might not be left in futility.

And so Paul warns us – beware lest anyone take you captive through such empty deceit – deceit which is based not on God’s revelation of Himself in His Word and in our Lord Jesus Christ but which is based rather on the opinions and traditions of men.

Reminded of our propensity as sinners to turn away from God’s revelation and substitute in its place our own fancies and imaginations, let us kneel before the Triune God and confess our sin to Him.