Some time ago, the Marriage Partnership magazine listed the top 10 reasons people are too busy to pray today. Maybe some of these fit your situation: 1) You wake up feeling rested, then realize your alarm should’ve gone off an hour ago. 2) Your spouse is away on a two-day business trip that’s lasted all week. 3) None of the clean clothes you were able to find match. 4) Your teenager shaved… the left half of his head. 5) Your bills are due, and your toddler hid the checkbook. 6) A strange fluid is dripping from your car. 7) You accidentally delete your quarterly report ten minutes before a meeting with your boss. 8) You’re in charge of games for the church youth night tonight. 9) Your dog is throwing up. 10) Your toilet’s overflowing, but at least you found the checkbook. Ten reasons you really should pray today: See list above. (“The Top Ten Reasons You Are Too Busy to Pray Today,” Marriage Partnership, 1996, www.PreachingToday.com)
Life is like that. That’s why we need to pray. That’s why we need the Lord. That’s why we need to live in daily dependence upon Christ.
If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Colossians 2, Colossians 2, where we see the importance of living daily by faith in Christ.
Colossians 2:6-7 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. (NIV)
We received Christ Jesus, the Lord, into our lives by faith. Now, we are directed to live in the same way – by faith. Literally, we are directed to “continue walking around” in the same way we started our journey with Christ.
To put it simply, we are to live in grateful dependence upon Christ from the beginning to the end of our lives with Him. The Christian life is constantly a life of faith in everything we do.
We have been rooted in Christ (vs.7) – an agricultural term. We are right now being built up in Christ – an architectural term; and as a result, we are being established, or strengthened, in the faith. You see, when Christ is the root and foundation of our lives, then we become strong by our dependence upon Him. Not only that, we overflow with thankfulness.
So from beginning to end, we live in grateful dependence upon Christ, not in our own efforts. Daily, we walk around, strengthened by our faith in Christ.
In his book, Rescuing Ambition, Dave Harvey talks about what has been called the greatest rescue mission of World War II. Late in that war, American bombers were sent on dangerous missions over southern Europe to cripple Nazi oil supplies. Hundreds of crews in flying tin cans soared through storms of anti-aircraft shells. Many American pilots were forced to bail from their shot-up planes. The injured airmen drifted by parachute into occupied Yugoslavia, expecting to be captured or killed.
Instead, on the ground remarkable rescue teams were already in place. Serbian peasants tracked the path of the floating flight crews. Their sole mission was to grab the flyboys and bring them to safety – before the Nazis arrived.
Risking their own lives, the peasants fed and sheltered the downed solders. These rescued men were in friendly hands but on enemy soil. They still needed to escape.
The story of what became known as Operation Haylard builds toward a daring mission, a secret landing strip, and a clandestine evacuation plan. Amazingly, those Serbian peasants rescued every single American airman – over 500 in all.
Yet, in order to travel to the evacuation site, the airmen had to spend weeks following the Serbian freedom fighters, who alone knew the path to the evacuation site. The direction, the pace, and the destination were in the hands of their rescuers. The men had been saved from their enemy, but the journey had just begun. They still had to walk to freedom. (Dave Harvey, Rescuing Ambition, Crossway, 2010, pp. 63-64; www.PreachingToday.com)
That’s the way it is for those of us who have been saved by faith in Christ. Our journey has just begun! We are now on a walk to ultimate freedom from the very presence of sin. The One who saved us by faith is now calling us to walk by faith in Him. It’s nonnegotiable. Dave Harvey put it this way: “Though snatched from spiritual death, we soon discover that the Christian life isn’t an arrival; it’s an adventure.”
We trusted Christ to rescue us from our sins. Now, He asks us to trust Him with the direction, the pace and the destination in our daily walk with Him. “Just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in Him.” Continue to walk around in grateful dependence upon Christ, trusting Him to lead you in the right way and at the right pace to the right destination.
Live your life daily by faith in Christ, and don’t get sidetracked by trying to live your life by faith in yourself or in any other human scheme. Don’t let anyone capture you with false, empty philosophies and human traditions.
Colossians 2:8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. (NIV)
The Greek word, translated “basic principles” referred to the “elemental spirits of the universe” in ancient Greece. The false teachers in Paul’s day used the word to describe the angels and planets that they said influenced people’s lives. It was a form of Greek philosophy mixed with ancient astrology that false teachers used to control people. But Paul says, don’t live your lives by the stars; and don’t live your lives by their human traditions. Instead, live your lives by Christ.
David Neff, editor-in-chief and vice-president of Christianity Today International, talks about receiving a promotional Email from L. L. Bean. The subject line said, “Double Coupon Dollars: Our Gift to You.”
Neff said, “The old sales trick worked. The promise of something free compelled me to open the e-mail. But the first words I read from the e-mail itself gave me a different message: ‘EARN Double Coupon Dollars.’ Wait,” Neff said. “Didn’t the subject line say it was a gift? Now they want me to ‘EARN’ their gift?” (www.PreachingToday.com)
I’m afraid that’s the way some churches operate. They SAY salvation is God’s free gift, but when you get involved you find that there are a lot of things you have to do to EARN their acceptance. Maybe you have to give up something for lent, or attend special services, or do any number of things that come from human tradition and not necessarily the Bible.
It’s the classic “bait and switch” technique. They may tell you that “salvation is free,” but to become a part of the “in-group,” you have to EARN it. In Paul’s day, they were saying you have to be circumcised, eat only certain foods, and worship on Saturday to become super-spiritual and one of the elite.
Well, the Bible says, “Don’t fall for that stuff.” Don’t let anybody take you captive “through their hollow and deceptive philosophy” (vs.8). In other words, such nonsense is empty and false. Human, religious traditions don’t deliver on what they promise. They cannot make you a better person; only Christ can! So…
LIVE YOUR LIVES IN GRATEFUL DEPENDENCE UPON HIM, NOT ON ANY HUMAN SCHEME.
Continue your life with Christ as you started it, by faith in Him. There is no bait and switch here. Just walk around in thankful reliance upon Jesus. Why? Because Jesus is all you need!
WE ARE COMPLETE IN CHRIST, WHO IS GOD HIMSELF.
We have our fullness in Christ who Himself is fully God.
Colossians 2:9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form… (NIV)
Jesus is fully God in a human body! The false teachers in Paul’s day taught that Jesus was just an angel who only appeared to have a body. But that’s not the case at all. The Bible is very clear here. Jesus is fully God living in a literal, physical body.
Colossians 2:l0 …and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority. (NIV)
Why would we go anywhere else to become fully alive? We have our fullness in Christ. Or as Kenneth Wuest, a Greek scholar, put it in his very literal Expanded Translation, “And you were in Him, having been completely filled full with the present result that you are in a state of fullness.”
What more could we want? What more do we need? When we have Christ, we don’t need anything else! We just need to appreciate what we already have in Jesus!
I remember when our kids were little that sometimes they seemed to enjoy the box more than the toy in the box. Do you know what I mean? You buy them what you think is the perfect gift for their birthday or for Christmas, but when you give them the gift, they tear open the package, fiddle around with the toy a little, and end up playing with the box, especially if it’s a big box.
I think that’s a little of what some of God’s people do with God’s perfect gift of His Son.
Paul Tripp says, “We who know Christ have been given the most awesome gift that could ever be given. It’s gorgeous from every perspective. It’s a gift of such grandeur that it’s hard to wrap human vocabulary around it and explain it. It’s beautiful from every vista… It’s the gift that every human being needs. It’s a gift that in all of your work and all of your effort and all of your achievement you couldn’t have ever earned; you could have never deserved; you could have never achieved. It is absolutely without question the gift of gifts. It’s the gift of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, [but] I am deeply persuaded in the face of this gift, there are many Christians who are content to play with the box.” (Paul Tripp, “Playing with the Box,” Gospel Coalition; www. PreachingToday.com)
Oh, we may fiddle with Christ a little at the beginning. But so often we end up playing with the trappings of Christianity, rather than enjoying our relationship with Christ Himself. Please, don’t let that happen to you. Continue to live your lives in grateful dependence upon Christ, appreciating HIM, and all you have in Him.
Specifically, appreciate the purity you have in Christ. Treasure what Christ has done in removing the power of sin from your life. Value the freedom from sin you can have when you know Christ.
Colossians 2:11-12 In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. (NIV)
False teachers taught these Gentiles believers in Colossae that they had to be circumcised like Jews in order to reach the highest levels of spirituality. But Paul tells them, in Christ, they have already been circumcised, not physically, but spiritually, in a circumcision of the heart done by God Himself when Christ died and rose again.
You see, when we put our faith in Christ, Romans 6 says we were “baptized into His death.” Therefore, we were “buried with him through [that] baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead… we too may have a new life” (Romans 6:3-4).
In other words, we are so identified with Christ as believers that we died when He died; we were buried when He was buried; and we arose when He arose from the grave. That’s the baptism Paul is talking about here in Colossians 2, not an immersion into water, but our immersion into Christ Himself. And that immersion sets us free from the power of sin and death, making it possible for us to live a whole new life!
That’s because Christ cut away the hold that sin had on our hearts when we came to know Him. He put off the “sinful nature” verse 11 says. In other words, He took away sin’s control on our lives. This is TRUE circumcision, a circumcision of the heart that God always looked for in His people.
Way back in the book of Deuteronomy, God pleaded with His people, “Circumcise your hearts… and do not be stiff-necked any longer” (Deuteronomy 10:16). This was after they had turned away from God and worshipped a golden calf while Moses was up on the mountain receiving God’s law. Centuries later, in Jeremiah 4, after they had again turned away from God to Baal, God again said to them, “Circumcise your hearts you men of Judah and people of Jerusalem” (Jer. 4:4). Even though these Jewish men had the outward, physical sign of belonging to God, their hearts were far from Him, and that broke God’s heart.
You see, God is not concerned about the cutting off of physical flesh. He wants the rebellion cut from our hearts, and that’s exactly what Jesus does for us when we trust Him with our lives. He cuts away the rebellion, the inward pressure to sin.
Rick Ezell, in his book Seven Sins of Highly Defective People, talks about receiving a different kind of a recall notice in the mail. It looked like a normal recall notice for a car, but this one was more personal. Stamped in big red letters across the top were the words IMPORTANT RECALL. Then came the following:
“The maker of all human beings is recalling all units manufactured, regardless of make or year, due to the serious defect in the primary and central component, the heart. This is due to a malfunction in the original prototype units, resulting in the reproduction of the same defect in all subsequent units. This defect has been technically termed Subsequential internal non-morality, or more commonly known as SIN, and its primary symptom is a lapse of moral judgment. If one is susceptible to loss of direction, foul vocal emissions, lack of peace and joy, or selfish behavior, then one is inflicted with the defect. The manufacturer, who is neither liable nor at fault for this defect, is providing factory authorized repair and service, free of charge, to correct this SIN defect, at numerous locations throughout the world.” (Rick Ezell, Seven Sins of Highly Defective People, Kregel, p. 5; www.PreachingToday.com)
All you have to do is come to Christ, and He repairs the heart. Or to use the language of Colossians 2, He circumcises the heart; He cuts away the rebellion and sin and gives us a whole new life!
Oh dear believing friend, stop looking for purity in anything else but Christ. “Just as you received Christ, continue to live in Him… strengthened in the faith… and overflowing with thankfulness.” Appreciate the purity you already have in Christ.
More than that, appreciate the pardon you have in Christ, as well. Treasure His forgiveness of ALL your sins. Value the cancellation of ALL your moral debts in Christ.
Colossians 2:13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins – i.e., all our false steps… (NIV)
Colossians 2:14 …having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. (NIV)
You see, the Law said, “Obey and you will be blessed; disobey and you will be cursed.” Well since none of us could keep God’s Law, we were all cursed, condemned to die. But Jesus died in our place, nailing the record of our wrongs on the cross upon which He died.
You see, in the First Century, when the Romans nailed a criminal to a cross, they also nailed a plaque with the charges against that criminal on that same cross. That way everybody could see what the poor soul had done to deserve such punishment. Well here it says that the charges against us were nailed on Christ’s cross. In other words, Christ was dying not for His own crimes, but for mine and yours. Jesus was being punished for the things WE had done, for OUR false steps.
So now, God can forgive us of ALL our sins, because Jesus paid for them all. And now, the law can never, ever condemn us again, because it too becomes null and void on the cross. The written code, with its regulations, is cancelled forever!
Bob Sheffield, on staff with the Navigators, knows what that feels like from a very personal experience. Before he became a Christian, Bob played professional hockey in Canada. He was tough, loved to fight, and found himself in jail one night after a barroom fight. Later, Bob and his wife became Christians and eventually accepted a temporary assignment with The Navigators… in the United States.
Bob had to apply for landed immigrant status, which would allow him and his wife to continue their ministry in the United States. But because he had a criminal record, his request was denied… They decided to apply in Canada for what is called the “Queen’s Pardon.” Following thorough investigation, the pardon was granted, and Bob Sheffield received the following notice in the mail:
“Whereas we have since been implored on behalf of the said Robert Jones Sheffield to extend a pardon to him in respect to the convictions against him, and whereas the solicitor general here submitted a report to us, now know ye therefore, having taken these things into consideration, that we are willing to extend the royal clemency on him, the said Robert J. Sheffield. We have pardoned, remitted, and released him of every penalty to which he was liable in pursuance thereof.”
Now, when Bob is asked on any document if he has a criminal record, he can honestly answer no. The pardon meant that he was released from any possible punishment for the crimes, and the record of the crimes themselves was completely erased. (Tom L. Eisenman, Temptations Men Face, Intervarsity, 1992, pp. 21-22; www.PreachingToday.com)
Well, that is the kind of pardon we have in Jesus Christ. We are set free from any penalty or punishment. So when we’re asked about our past sins, we can honestly answer, “There is no record,” because we have been pardoned by the King of Heaven Himself. We no longer have to let the guilt of our past keep us from serving Christ wherever He calls us.
I like the way John Piper put it in his book, Bloodlines. He said, “If you wait till you are beyond criticism to pursue your dream, you will never do it. You won’t marry or stay married. You won’t decide to have children or raise them. You won’t take your first job or keep it. You won’t go into missions or stay there… Few things paralyze people more than their own imperfections. And there are always people around to remind you of your flaws and suggest you can’t move forward until you’re better.” (John Piper, Bloodlines, Crossway, 2011, p. 109; www.PreachingToday.com)
Dear believing friend, please don’t let anybody do that to you, because you have been fully and completely pardoned in Christ. Pursue the dreams He has placed on your heart, and don’t let anyone or anything keep you from serving Him.
“Just as you received Christ, continue to live in Him… strengthened in the faith… and overflowing with thankfulness.” Appreciate the purity you have in Christ. Appreciate the pardon you have in Christ.
And finally, appreciate the power you have in Christ. Treasure what Christ has done in disarming the proponents of sin. Value the victory He won for you on the cross over Satan and all His forces.
Colossians 2:15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. (NIV)
Jesus stripped Satan’s forces bare when He died on the cross, exposing them all to public shame. The Greek word for “disarm” literally means “to undress,” and that’s exactly what Jesus did to all the powers and authorities of hell on the cross. He undressed them of all their power and then paraded them in shameful defeat before the citizens of heaven.
This is what victorious Roman generals did in Paul’s day. When they returned home victorious from war, they paraded the vanquished warriors through the city streets, stripped of all their armor, all their wealth, and all their power. They were made a public spectacle, paraded in disgrace for all to see. Well, that’s what Jesus did to Satan and his demons on the cross. He stripped them bare and shamefully exposed them in disgraceful defeat.
Do you know what that means? It means, we don’t have to take Satan’s stuff anymore! Oh dear believing friends, please don’t live in defeat anymore. Don’t let Satan or any of his forces victimize you ever again. Instead, keep on trusting Christ and enjoy the victory He won for you on the cross.
“Just as you received Christ, continue to live in Him… strengthened in the faith… and overflowing with thankfulness.” Appreciate the purity you have in Christ. Appreciate the pardon you have in Christ, and appreciate the power you have in Christ today!
