She was 33 years old, awoke for what was supposed to be an average, mundane day in her life, got in her car to head for work in Dallas. She didn't arrive at work. Many, many hours later, she found herself at 3:30 in the morning in Santa Fe, New Mexico, although she didn't know where she was and did not know how she had gotten there or why she was there. She booked a room in a motel, not sure what to do, awoke the next morning, looked across the motel room at the clothes draped over the chair and didn't recognize the clothes, didn't recognize her own purse, stumbled into the bathroom with the kind of fright you would feel and looked in the mirror and didn't recognize the woman in the mirror.
Amnesia
She had descended into that dark fog called amnesia. The next year, she spent every day in memory reclamation therapy. Slowly, but surely, getting herself back, getting her life back, getting her relationships back, getting her story back. At the end of the year, she said something quite profound about memory. She said, "Memory is not just about knowing where you put your keys; memory gets to the essence of understanding who you are. I think that in the church of Jesus Christ, there is a whole lot of memory loss.
I think, maybe in this room with a group this size, there is a lot of dysfunctional amnesia. Maybe, in the gospel sense of what this means, we can celebrate, on Sunday, truths that are quite distant from us during the week, quite forgotten by us during the week, quite far from our living. And it really is that thing that Paul speaks into in the passage that I want to have you look with me at this morning. Turn if you would to page 984 in your church Bibles to Colossians 2. I want to just begin by reading verses 6-8 because in verses 6-8, Paul gives us a concern and a warning.
Let me read for you: Therefore, as you receive Christ Jesus as Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elementary principles (I think that is a better translation) of the world, and not according to Christ. Paul is saying this, "Don't you understand that the gospel of the cross of Jesus Christ, the gospel of the grace of Jesus Christ, the gospel of the acceptance and provision and promises of Jesus Christ, is not just for your entry into faith, but it is meant to be the lifestyle of your faith.
Yes, it is only by means of the grace of the cross of Jesus Christ that we are given acceptance with God. Paul says, "Don't stop there! In the same way that you received Christ, deeply aware of your need for grace, deeply thankful for that grace, live that way; live out of the gospel." It is the gospel of Jesus Christ that is to form the way you live in your marriage. You live in your marriage in a way, not just because you trust your husband or you trust your wife, but because you trust Christ. You understand what you've been given; you live out of the gospel in your marriage.
You parent your children in the way that you parent them, not just because they are becoming growingly compliant and making your job easier, but you parent out of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the gospel that motivates you and directs you in your parenting. The way you respond to the material world rises out of the gospel; it's the gospel that gives you your values and protects you from asking the material world to do for you what it possibly can't do. It's the gospel that forms your relationships with your neighbors and your friends.
It's the gospel that forms and directs the way you live your private life; you face those private moments in your world, the way that you interact with leisure and entertainment; it's the gospel; it's the gospel; it's the gospel. It's that same message of the grace of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ that brought me into relationship with God that now is the tracks on which my life is to run. Now I would ask you this question, as I say that to you, does that have meaning? Or are you sitting there thinking, "Well, Paul, I sort of get what that means, but I'm not sure what it means to live the gospel."
I think there are many of us that need gospel reclamation therapy. We need to rediscover the truths of the gospel, not that we need to be saved again, but that our lives need to be directed again by the truths of the gospel. Now that is Paul's concern; hear his warning: See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental principles of this world, and not according to Christ. Now, immediately upon saying you live the gospel, Paul says this, "You have got to understand that there is a war being fought on the turf of your heart."
You say, "Paul, I don't see that in my passage." We have war language here: "See to it that no one takes you captive." That's war language. So Paul is saying that there is a battle for the rulership of your heart. Will your heart be ruled by the truths of the gospel that will shape your motivation, that will direct your behavior, that will guard your thoughts, that will give you hope and courage? Or is your practical life actually directed by the philosophies of the world? Now, I think that can happen to us; that the very gospel that we celebrate, that we have embraced actually isn't the thing that forms our living.
The Conversation of the Culture
Our living is formed by the powerful conversation of the culture that surrounds us. Now, that had a specific point and application to Colossae as it does to us today. Now, Paul is not arguing that the thinkers of our world have nothing to offer. What he is arguing is this; oh, you've got to hear this: That the philosophy of the world has no ability whatsoever to deliver the one thing that every human being needs. Here it is: redemption. Paul says it this way; these are not very complimentary words: That this philosophy is empty deceit.
The NIV translates that, "hollow and deceptive." This philosophy becomes packaged attractively; maybe it's in a dramatic movie that is advancing a particular philosophy. Maybe it's in a blog that is well written. Maybe it's in a television program, a magazine article, a tweet; some of you know what that means. It doesn't have to do with birds. And so, it's well wrapped; but in terms of the deepest difficulty of every human being, it has no ability to address that and to rescue you from that. Listen, I said this before; I will continue to say this: "Your deepest difficulty isn't your situation, isn't your location, isn't the relationships; it's your sin."
When I read this passage, I think of this event again and again; it's one of those moments that God gives you because of the metaphor He wants you to live with. I was in my younger days, not too long ago, a pastor in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Scranton was an old coal mining town, and it was in its dark days, other side of the mountain. And there was yet one remaining department store in Scranton called the Globe Store. And the Globe Store would always decorate its windows beautifully for Christmas.
If you wanted to see Christmas-decorated-windows, that was the one place in Scranton to go. I was there with my oldest son, Justin; he was four years old; he's now 34; pray for me! I'm not a recent graduate of college...and we were standing in front of the window, and right in front of us was this 4 foot high, gorgeously wrapped, Christmas gift, beautiful big bow on the top; I mean, it was magnificently wrapped. And little Justin stood before that package, taller than he was; his eyes went like this, and he said, "Daddy, that's what I want for Christmas!"
I said, "No you don't." He said, "I do! I do, daddy! That's what I want!" I said, "No you don't; that's not what you want" He said, "Daddy, yes, I do! I do want that!" I said, "I don't think you do" Now beginning to understand our conversation, he looked at me with a little bit of confusion in his eyes, and said, "Daddy, why don't I want that for Christmas?" And then I said words to him that forever changed his life. I said, "Because that package is empty." He said, "Empty? It's empty?" And I went on to explain to him that it was just for display; there was nothing in it.
The poor man still can't enjoy Christmas decorations. Now there is the indictment, the logic of a brilliant mind comes to you; the logic of a beautiful movie comes to you; the logic of the novel comes to you; the logic of a blog that is written well comes to you; but it's empty because it cannot deliver the one thing you need: redemption. And Paul tells you why; here it is: According to the elemental principles of this world and not according to Christ. The problem with the world's philosophy is not that it contains no insight; the problem with the world's philosophy is that it omits Christ.
Christ and his cross is the ultimate explainer of life. You cannot understand what's going on in this world without the cross of Jesus Christ; you can't understand your identity without the cross of Jesus Christ; you can't understand the purpose of your life without the cross of Jesus Christ; you can't understand what's wrong with you without the cross of Jesus Christ; you can't understand how it will be solved without the cross of Jesus Christ; you can't have proper values without the cross of Jesus Christ.
It's Christ; it's Christ; it's Christ. And so Paul says, "Just as you've received Christ, live in Him." The gospel is not just the ticket into the kingdom, and then you wander off following all the other philosophies that are in the air of human culture. No! No! No! What a tragedy that is! And I'm going to pastor you; there is evidence even in this congregation that that's happening. Some of us are in debt that doesn't speak gospel living; some of us are in broken relationships that doesn't speak gospel living; some of us are enslaved to things that we shouldn't be enslaved to that doesn't point to gospel living; some of us are in depressions and fear that don't depict gospel living.
The Now-ism of the Gospel
Maybe we once again need to reclaim our memory of this thing, the phrase I coined, but I am going to hold on to it: "The Now-ism of the Gospel!"...Not just the gospel past, not just the gospel future, but the present benefits of the work of Jesus Christ in the here and now. Well, again, maybe you are saying, "Paul, I hear the words, but I'm not sure I could fill in the contents of what that means." Well, in Colossians 2, Paul points to four things. This is a chapter that you could do a year-long series on, and I won't attempt to do that in the minutes we have left, but I want to point my finger to four things that are incredibly important.
First, verses 1-5: For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you, and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not seen me face-to-face, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the full riches, riches of a full assurance of understanding, and the knowledge of God's mysteries, which is, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. Though I am absent in body, yet I'm with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ.
Here's the first thing that it means to live out the gospel: In Christ, we have been given wisdom for the foolishness of sin. You don't celebrate the wisdom that is yours in Christ unless you first embrace your own foolishness. Sin reduces us all to fools: We think that we can angrily argue in another human being's face and still have a good relationship; we think that we can mess with sin, and we can control it, and it won't enslave us; we think that we can spend more money than we're making, and it won't result in crippling debt; we think we can eat more than any human being should ever eat and not carry the empirical evidence with us; you think you can yell with vile anger into the face of your child and have him or her still love and respect you; we think that we're smarter than God at points, that our way is better than His way.
You see, the fool that is most dangerous to each one of us is the fool that is inside of us. And Paul is saying something radical here. I don't know if you caught it; it is this: That in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Our theology is just this radical: That wisdom is not first an outline; it's not first a book; it's not first a theology; wisdom is a person, and his name is Jesus. If you are God's child, your foolish life has been invaded by the one who is wisdom. That's because there's not a day in your life where you don't need wisdom to protect you, wisdom to guide you, wisdom to rescue you.
If you're God's child, your rest is not in the fact that you understand it all; you won't understand it all. Even inside of the glorious theology of Scripture, there will be mysteries in your life; there'll be answers that you don't have; there will be situations that you won't understand. Your rest is in the fact that wisdom has taken over your story, and wisdom will guide; wisdom will direct; wisdom will protect; wisdom will provide; wisdom is your hope. You get up in the morning and you say to yourself, "No, I don't know what's going on with my life and it drives me crazy."
No! No! No! When you say that, you are preaching yourself an anti-gospel. You wake up in the morning; you say, "I know little about what this day will bring, but wisdom knows. And wisdom is in me; and wisdom is for me; and wisdom is with me; I can rest in the grace of wisdom." How beautiful is that? Uhmm, Paul's not done. Look at verse 9; these, too, are magnificent words, words that in our time, I cannot give full justice to: "Bring him Christ the fullness of Deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in Him, who's the head over all rule and authority."
(There is a second present benefit of the work of Christ) it's power for the inability of sin. Sin leaves us unable; sin leaves us weak; sin leaves us lame with an inability to be what we are supposed to be and to do what we are supposed to do. And Paul says this magnificent thing: "All the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in Christ in bodily form." Jesus was fully God and fully man, and then he draws this analogy, and he says, "Likewise you have been filled in Him." What is he talking about? He has now filled you with his grace by filling you with this presence.
Never Left to Yourself
You are now the Temple that this God of glory and grace lives in. That means if you're God's child, it's impossible for you to be ever left to yourself; it's impossible for you to ever be left to your strength because you have been filled by Him. Peter says it this way: "That we have already been given everything we need for life and godliness." So, we, in the morning, can say, "God, I don't have insight for me today, to be the husband that I am called to be by myself, but I'm not by myself anymore.
You have filled me with your power, and I am going to move toward my husband or my wife believing that that's true. I don't have the ability to be the wisdom counselor that you call me to be as a parent, but I know you will empower me today by your grace. I want to live in that power. I know I don't have the strength to stand against what I have to stand against in my University, but I will believe in your power; I will not live in timidity. I know in a world of temptation those temptations gripped me; they are attractive to me, but I believe I am not left to my power; I believe you give me the power to say, 'No!' And I want to say, 'No,' living in that power today.
I embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ. I don't say I can't deal with it; I can't face it; I don't know what I am going to do." All of that is preaching to you a falsehood and antigospel. Power has been given to you; He has filled you with every good thing, everything necessary for life and godliness. Do you live in fear? Do you live in timidity? Do you give way to things you shouldn't give way to? Do you say, "Yes," when you should say, "No," and "No," when you should say, "Yes?" Are you living the gospel of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ?
Third thing, verse11: In him also you were circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of flesh by the circumcision of Christ; having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith and the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. 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, by canceling the record of death that stood against us with his legal demands this he set aside, nailing it to the cross.
What an amazing gospel mouthful that is! I just want to point to the end here: "Having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands, this he set aside, nailing it to the cross." Now, I don't know all of you personally; I do not know what your theology of the cross is, but it is important to say this: When Jesus went to the cross, he didn't purchase the possibility of salvation; Jesus took names to the cross. This passage makes no sense if you don't believe it.
Notice what it says, "This, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands, this he set aside, nailing it to the cross." Now here is what He is picturing: Jesus actually took names to the cross, and under each name was a list of every iniquity we would ever commit. It's as if the picture Paul is writing is a list of charges as if they were written on the body of Christ. And when the nails went through the hands of Jesus, my particular debt was cancelled, that's the gospel.
Every specific sin I have ever committed, in committing, will commit was nailed to the cross to the person of the Sacrificial Lamb, the Lord Jesus, and the debt was canceled. Amen! Amen! That means I do not have to live in guilt any longer; I don't have to live in the dark hallway of shame any longer; I need not fear being known any longer, because anything that will ever be rediscovered has already been covered by the blood of Jesus. I'm free! And it means I'm liberated from the pathology of asking you to be my savior.
Oh, if you could just accept me, I'd feel better about myself. And I ride the roller coaster of your responses to me, and I'm hyper-vigilant watching your reactions to me. It's a horrible idolatry that the gospel blows away. I don't need you to be my savior; I'm saved. I'm forgiven; you're not my healer; you're not my messiah. And when I look to you to do that, it puts a horrible pressure on your back, and a horrible delusion for my heart. We're free! I'm convinced you can't have a healthy Christian community, unless you understand that.
Still Hiding From One Another
Can I say that in this church, we're still hiding from one another? There are people in these pews that are afraid of being known. You're afraid, "If I'm known, will there be love on the other end?" Well, I can tell you for sure that human love will be faulty, but there's love on the other end, the cross guarantees that. That's why the hymn says, "Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus." One final thing is verse15: "He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in Him."...freedom from the slavery or addiction of sin, wisdom for the foolishness of sin, power for the inability of sin, forgiveness for the guilt of sin, and freedom from the slavery of sin.
Now, notice the passage here. I want to correct what I think is a defective translation: "He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in Him" The word there is actually "it", and that's why the choice of translation, but if it is "it", then you wonder what is the antecedent of that word; what does that word refer to? Notice the logic here. He set them aside, nailing to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in the cross.
That closes the circle of his argument; that's actually what is being taught in this passage. Now why is that important? Because there is theology out there that sort of treats the cross as a momentary defeat, and God quickly acted to bail out that defeat with the resurrection, defective heretical theology. Paul is arguing that the cross of Jesus Christ is a triumph; the cross is a victory; the cross was God's idea. It was the moment where sin would be defeated, where God's anger would be satisfied, where atonement for sin would be made, where freedom would be purchased.
All of that happened on the cross. The cross is literally God mocking the enemy. Is this the best you have to throw at me? This moment of seeming victory is actually your defeat, my victory! Now that means you don't hope for victory over sin. You have been given victory over sin; that victory has already happened. That victory is already accomplished. What you do is you live out of the victory that you already have been given, so you refuse to be defeated by that which Christ has already defeated.
I'm not fighting that battle afresh; that battle was fought for me by Christ; that victory is His gift to me. Now my calling is to live as if I actually believe that that victory has happened; that victory is mine, and live out that victory in the situations and locations where I live every day. We can live in our everyday lives as if we're more expected of defeat than victory. Do you live a forward moving life with hope and courage because you've embraced the victory that has already been won on your behalf?
The now-ism of the gospel. It is sadly possible to live a life with the thing that you celebrate on Sunday that actually on Sunday brings joy to your heart, is quite distant from living, quite distant from your life, and that university or your life with your teenage friends or your life in your marriage or your life in your job or career or your private moments alone or your life with your parents or your life with your children. It is quite possible that you are a gospel amnesiac. I have to say this: I think there's evidence in some of our lives and the things that we are facing that we have forgotten who we are, and we have forgotten what we have been given.
If you're here and you say, "I don't know if I've ever embraced His faith", I can say to you the world will never offer you what can only be found in Christ; run to Him. Brothers and sisters, it's not enough for us to believe the gospel past and for us to embrace the gospel future. Paul says, "Just as you've received Christ Jesus, continue to live in Him." May the gospel of Jesus Christ be the tracks on which the most private moments of our lives run; may we not just believe the gospel of the cross of Jesus Christ; may we live it, the deepest level of desire, the most important level of thought, the deepest level of motivation, may we live the gospel.
Let's Pray: Lord, thank you for the gorgeous truths of this passage. Thank you that they remind us once again of who we are and what we have been given. May we live out of the Gospel of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ every day, in every way, we would pray. And we would pray this for the healing of your church. We pray this for the furtherance of your kingdom. And we pray this, for the praise of your glory. In Jesus name, Amen.
