The TV show “The Chosen” is one of the most eye-opening I’ve ever seen. It is a series depicting the ministry of Jesus in as realistic a way as possible. It is powerful. One of the most appealing things about it is that you really get the feel of what it would be like to live like one of the disciples. It would be absolutely incredible to be able to live and witness what the disciples did.
However, we tend to forget that we have it even better because we are able to virtually walk in Jesus sandals. When we became believers, the Bible tells us that we should associate our life with the life of Jesus. No we don’t go back and live like a carpenter, speak Aramaic, and live on the road for 3 years. But the key events of Jesus life become ours.
It is not merely that we believe what Jesus did for us in dying on the cross. But we are actually living in his life. His life becomes our life. And that changes everything for us.
Jesus was filled with God’s holiness and presence.
Jesus put off all temptations.
Jesus died and was buried.
Jesus physically rose from the dead.
All these things that He experienced, we also experience because we are IN HIM.
We are continuing in Colossians today and beginning in chapter 2:6 Paul writes this:
“Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. 8 See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.”
What is he saying here? Don’t be distracted or deceived into thinking Christianity is just human tradition, just a philosophy, just a way of thinking. NO! It is the life of Christ in you. You received Jesus the Lord, so you are walking IN HIM and WITH HIM.
As we look further into these verses, I would encourage you to notice in your Bible and underline all the places where “in him” and “with him” is found (at least 9 times!). It is a key concept for us because we find our identity and security and hope and future based on being IN and WITH Jesus every day of our lives.
I think of those school bus drivers who pick up kids on the way to school every day. They get inside the bus and they are safe. They are safe from the cold. The driver knows the route and will get them through the snow and ice and finally to the destination. All because they are IN the bus. They put their trust in the bus driver and the bus.
In a similar way, when we become believers, we are putting our lives in the hands of Christ. He is like that bus and his life becomes our life. His security becomes ours. His entire journey is ours. And we know how that ends – with victory!
What in Jesus life can we claim for our life as his followers?
First, notice that JESUS WAS FILLED WITH GOD’S DEITY and so are we!
Verse 9 – “For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.” Did you catch that? IN HIM (Jesus) is the fullness of deity. Jesus has all of God’s presence in him. Although he had a body, God’s presence filled him from head to toe from the moment he was conceived through all his earthly life to today. He is 100% God.
And then verse 10 makes this shocking statement – “and you have been filled IN HIM.” What does that mean??? It means that when we place our trust in Christ, when we lay our lives in his hands, God the Father looks at us as if we were his own Son! We are filled with Jesus life. His life substitutes for ours. His holiness and godliness is overshadowing our failure and sins.
We don’t have to work and toil and sweat in order for God to look upon us with favor and blessing. We don’t need to prove to God our goodness and godliness so that he approves of us and loves us.
When we are IN HIM, God look at us as holy, pure, sacred, priceless, as his own child. And he receives us as his own. Yes, we should do good things, and try to follow the commandments and bless others and serve. But these things are not to gain his approval, but out of the fact that we already are his own. We are filled with life of Jesus over our entire body, soul, and spirit!
What else can we claim for our life as Jesus followers?
JESUS WAS CIRCUMCIZED, HE PUT OFF THE FLESH, and so do we.
Verse 11 – “In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ.”
Circumcision in the Old Testament was a sign of being part of God’s people. It was a physical operation. But it was ONLY physical and did not change the inward person, the spiritual. God warned his people many times to turn from their sins and circumcise their heart. Deuteronomy 30:6 “And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.”
Unfortunately, we sometimes treat baptism like they sometimes treated circumcision – as a physical act that of itself guarantees eternal life. Some say: “I’ve been baptized and therefore, I’m saved. The rest of my life I can live however I want because I’ve been sealed with eternal life.” But this is missing the whole point of baptism. Yes, God’s Spirit is in the water through the word. Yes, his Holy Spirit indwells in us when we are baptized. But the question is, where is your heart today? Who is your LORD today? Baptism is a birthday, but then we continue to grow all our lives in our walk with the Lord.
Circumcision meant putting off the flesh. They literally cut off a portion of flesh and that’s painful. But it was supposed to be symbolic of what happened INSIDE the heart. They were cutting off the old life. That’s painful to let go of self. We naturally want to live for me, myself, and I. But circumcision of the heart means starting off as a new person in the Lord. They had a new lease on life as God’s child.
Baptism is the same way. We don’t trust in our flesh and we don’t live according to the flesh, according to what we want to do in this body. We live according to the Spirit of God now.
There is a third aspect of Jesus life we can claim as his followers - JESUS WAS BURIED and we are buried with Him!
Verse 12 says: “having been buried with him in baptism.”
Jesus was crucified and literally bore on his body our sins. Then he died and was buried. And all our sins were buried with him. They were gone! Sent to Hell where they belong and removed from us. When we entered into this relationship with Christ and became IN HIM at our baptism, all our failures, sins, shame, and guilt were sent with Jesus to the grave.
Why do we insist on digging them up from the grave? Why do we want to look at them in horror and shame? Why do we continue to feel the guilt of what we have done?
If you have confessed your sins and repented, you can know that they are completely removed from you. Baptism is supposed to represent death. You enter into the water, go under the water which is death, and come up again alive. We die to the old life.
It says in Romans 6:2-4 “How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”
I picture a gravestone with my name on it “Timothy David Hinrichs” and underneath: “Buried with Christ.” And imagine that my old life of sins, and failures, and shame is buried there. When I sin and fail, I repent and return to this grave and say: “Lord I’m so sorry I went back to living like that guy who is dead and buried. That’s not me now. Forgive me!”
Or sometimes I go back in my mind and remember what I did a few years ago or what I said and I start to feel so ashamed of myself and separated from God. I need to go back to that burial and remember – that guy is dead! Those sins are gone and buried with Jesus when he died. Don’t dig things up! I died with Christ with all my sins.
What about you? Have you died with Christ? Your sins are ALL buried and put to death. Confess them and leave them there!
A final aspect of Jesus life we can claim as his followers: JESUS WAS MADE ALIVE and we are made alive with Him!
Verse 12 - in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.
It seems strange to talk about the resurrection of Jesus on the first Sunday of Advent. We are several weeks ahead of the topic. But actually, every Sunday is to be a remembrance of the resurrection of Jesus. That is why we worship on Sunday now instead of Saturday.
The rulers and authorities of Jesus day – the Romans, the Jewish leaders tried to keep him in the grave. They tried to shame him and lock him up in a tomb with a seal. But no one, no matter how powerful, can keep Jesus down. No one could stop him from rising from the dead. The most powerful forces on earth or in Hell cannot defeat Jesus. They have no power.
There are days when we feel defeated by the enemy. There are times when evil seems to be gaining the upper hand in our country when we see injustices among the unborn, racism, abuse, lies among leaders. We see Christian heroes who are found to be hypocrites. We listen to the news day after day and they seem to revel in all the latest bad news. And we can get swept up in all these things in our country, in our state, in our town, in our own families, and even in our own lives. It seems that evil is winning and we are going down.
But then we have forgotten that Jesus won. He disarmed the rulers and authorities. We are here in a spiritual battle and the victor is already declared – it is JESUS CHRIST. We know the end of the story and He wins. No matter what the courts decide or the authorities or the laws of a nation. No one gets away with injustice because there will come a reckoning day from the Lord.
Psalm 96:10-13 (from the Message): “Get out the message – God rules! He put the world on a firm foundation; he treats everyone fair and square. Let’s hear it from sky with earth joining in , and a huge round of applause from sea. Let wilderness turn cartwheels, animals, come dance, put every tree of the forest in the choir – an extravaganza before God as he comes, as he comes to set everything right on earth, set everything right, treat everyone fair.”
Jesus in the end will make everything right!
Jesus is alive and his Spirit lives NOW within you! And that is the great promise for each one of us that someday, that victory over the evils in this world will also be ours. He is IN YOU. He is WITH YOU. He does not abandon his own but we have died to the old life. We have been made alive with Jesus. And our future is the same as Jesus. Someday our bodies will also be resurrected and made eternal with Him.
The real question is this: where are you today? Are you IN HIM? Are you on the bus? Are you going off on your own? Is his life yours today?
Be filled with Him.
Put off the old life as he did on the cross.
Bury your sins with Christ.
Live anew with Christ.
Amen.
