Resist Part 1

Intro

There are two common temptations Christians have faced throughout the centuries, which the Colossians were also facing in their times. First, there is the temptation to rely on our religious faithfulness to save us rather than relying on Christ. The second is a temptation to take up the world's standard and apply it to ourselves. Today we will focus our of Colossians 2 on the first common temptation addressed here.

Paul encourages us to resist the temptation to justify ourselves through religious practice. (16-19)

Truth

I. We must resist the temptation to elevate the shadow over the substance. (16-17)

A shadow isn’t a real thing when you think about it, but it is cast from the real thing. What’s better, seeing the shadow of the one you love or embracing the one you love?

Once we have the one we love we will still enjoy their shadow, but we now know him or her and so the shadow has more meaning and we have a new perspective on it.

This is what knowing Christ does to religion. It isn’t that religion goes away but it become truer, deeper, and more intimate when we have met him.

We must resist the temptation to, after having met Christ, return to shadow religion without the substance of Christ at the center.

Before Christ, our outward signs were the proof that we were in the family of God (circumcision, law keeping, etc).

In Christ, he proves that we are his through inward transformation.

This doesn’t mean that there will be no outward signs because of course there will be. Those who walk by the Spirit in Christ will see our inward motivations change leading to behavior reflecting the new reality of God’s kingdom rather than the world.

The difference here is that before our motivations were forced to follow our deeds. Not our deeds flow out of our redeemed motivations.

Because of the old nature of religious practice, we are still tempted to focus on the shadow rather than the substance.

Take church attendance, Bible reading, prayer, financial giving, and etc for example. These are all good things that we should absolutely be doing but in our human nature we can begin to think we are somehow attaining merit in God’s kingdom through religious faithfulness.

These things are designed by God to focus our wandering hearts on Christ but we are so good at sin that we can take the guideposts and essentially worship them rather than the one they point towards.

Case in point: John 5:39-40

John 5:39–40 ESV

You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.

By making our religion about the shadows, we actually lose the substance. Yet if we practice the shadows with the substance in mind, then the shadows elevate the substance in us.

In Christ, we have rested from our works.

Hebrews 4:8–10 ESV

For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.

We have rested from our works, but this does not mean we no longer work. It just means we no longer work for the rest but from it.

In Christ we already have everything so now we are at rest. Again, we work with Jesus not to earn his approval. We are building on the foundation of his grace by his grace. We no longer need to pour the foundation. That is done.

II. We must resist the temptation to boast in our experience or works rather than in Christ. (18-19)

Asceticism can appear on the outside to be spiritual discipline but the intent is very different. spiritual discipline is about growing near to Christ while asceticism is about proving ones worth.

We must be careful because anytime we find ourselves working for God’s approval or the approval of others rather than working with God for his glory, we are not walking a gospel path.

This reminds me of Christ’s words in Matthew 7:22-23. There are many who believe in Christ but still live as if they are saving themselves by working hard for Christ.

The religious world is okay with us embracing Christ as an addition to its own terms for salvation which it has conjured up, but to the religious world the idea of salvation in Christ alone apart from human effort is scandalous.

Such a salvation is exactly what Paul is advocating for here. We are saved in Christ alone, by his righteousness alone and we are both justified and sanctified through his grace alone.

Our standing in Heaven (past, present, or future) has nothing to do with anything we have done or can do but is solely based upon what Christ has done on our behalf.

The religious world is working for heaven. Christians are working with heaven because we already have it. You don't have to work for something you already possess.

In those days there was a branch of Jewish mysticism that elevated people as super spiritual who had experienced certain things.

This mysticism was mixing with gnosticism in Colossae to form a weird cult of people who sought to have experiences seeing the throne room of heaven and worshipping God there, but were being tempted to worship the angels themselves rather than God.

Secondly, we are called to seek Christ, not experiences themselves. When we are walking with the Lord experiences will happen but they should not be what we are in pursuit of. We are in pursuit of Christ alone.

Chasing experience is a problem in our day too. I love Richard’s story about how he wanted to go to all of the charismatic meetings happening around OKC back in the 70s but God told him no. Instead, he was to sit in the stillness with Jesus and read.

Like Richard, God has called us to see out Christ first, to make him the blazing center of our lives and when we do that we won’t care about experiences because Jesus is enough, but that’s also the place when we will probably have the most of them.

Matthew 6:33

Application

The number one thing we can take from everything Paul is saying here is to let go of any right we think we have to earn a place in God’s kingdom and hold fast to Christ.

There is this great scene in the movie Onward where the younger brother is just discovering that he is a wizard. He creates an invisible bridge that he must cross but the kicker is, it is only there if he believes it is. He has to walk by faith that the bridge is there.

This reminded me so much of what our life in Christ is about. If we are going to go with Christ, we cannot hold onto any plan b. It is Christ or nothing for us. We have to let go of our sense of control and jump into his arms.

He will absolutely carry us, but he cannot carry us if we are still trying to hold ourselves up.

Landing

The pastor who discipled me as a young man drilled it into my skull that Jesus plus something will always equal nothing. On the flip side, Jesus plus nothing equals everything.

I believe the Holy Spirit would call everyone here today to make our lives about Christ alone, to chase after Christ alone, and to do all things for the glory of Christ alone.

Do you tarry with him? Do you desire Christ more than the gifts he might bring to you? We must all regularly ask these things because it’s only when our faith is squarely in Christ that we can have pure experience in him.