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Jesus in the Middle

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6  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. Colossians 2:6-7



How do we battle what wars with Jesus for first place in our hearts?  Continue as you began.  Continue to live your lives in Christ.  Continue to look to Christ and Christ alone for all of your spiritual needs. If Jesus is the only sufficient thing to cling to at the beginning of my Christian life, and Jesus is the only thing sufficient to cling to at the end of your Christian life, what do you cling to in the middle of it?

This makes us consider another question. Who is Jesus (and the gospel) for? Generally we think the gospel is for those who have not believed. That’s not wrong necessarily. But it is wrong to think that it is only for unbelievers.  The good news of Jesus saving me from my sin is for me as a believer every day. As you received Jesus initially, so walk or live or carry on in him. Every day, every moment I have the choice to either believe the gospel or not.  Jesus is not just the door we walk through to get into the house of our Christian life, He is the whole house.  All of the rooms are his.
  
Every closet we try to hide has to do with Jesus.  He is even the air and the food within the house that gives us energy to stay alive.  And when we step outside, guess what? He owns it all and is the point of it all out there too. Having initially received Christ will be of no value to you if you do not continue to live your life in him.  We live our whole life by faith in Jesus.  So we don’t get into the Christian life by believing Jesus to be all our righteousness before God and then spend the rest of our lives trying to find righteousness in ourselves. 

Verse seven encourages us to send our roots down deep to draw nutrients from the soil and foundation of Jesus Christ and all that he has done on our behalf. We are built up in confidence and security and strength not because we keep telling ourselves we are confident and worth it and building ourselves up, but instead knowing that our cornerstone is Christ and our whole life stands and is secure when built on Him.  Not a single bit of the building up of our spiritual house can be done without dealing with (relying on) the cornerstone and what he means and does for the whole building.

As we continue to walk in Christ we are established & taught in the faith. Established means not moving or shifting from it, sure and steadfast.  To keep with the building motif, we do not switch contractors in the middle of our life. We have established and are committed in our faith in Christ.  Notice too that this faith is that which we have been taught.  IF we have truly been taught faith in Christ alone as is laid out clearly in the Scriptures, then there is no reason to shift or listen to those who would clearly contradict it.  If we have not been taught what true faith in Christ in all about, we must seek that teaching and let it transform us as we are established in it.

Finally as both an encouragement to action and as a result, Paul finishes our verse with “abounding in thanksgiving.” Lack of thankfulness means a lack of really realizing what we have received.  It is an indicator to us that we have not fully done the heart work of dealing with what the gospel really means.  I think that if we truly see the gospel correctly, the cross of Jesus and the good news of what he has done for us as sinners becomes, not less exciting, overwhelming and reason to give thanks, but more.  I see how great and grand a rescue plan it was for God to save me. It becomes helpfully overwhelming as I realize more and more the immensity of sin and rescue needed in my life.  

I start seeing that the sin I realized when I first came to Christ is only the tip of the iceberg of just how messed up I really am.  The realization of what Jesus did on the cross for me is all the more overwhelming.  Finally, I start to see the magnitude of the cross, the immense and sheer grace that it is for Jesus to take on himself the punishment for my sin though he deserved none of it and I deserved even more than I imagined. Thankfulness then abounds with Christ Jesus the Lord as the only hope for the Christian life, beginning, middle, and end.

In Christ, My Only Hope, Pastor Steven


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