Complete

Colossians 2:8-15

Text Introduction:  This passage is the heart of Paul’s defense of the gospel to the Colossians. 

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Let me tell you a story.  I don’t recall ever telling it before but this seems an appropriate time.  It’s a story about a crisis of confidence, a crisis of faith—though I didn’t know the term then. 

One afternoon, when I was in my mid-teens, I found myself home alone.  That was pretty rare because my mother hated to drive and she usually waited until my father was home before she would go anywhere.  It must have been summer when I would have been home from school.  Anyway, I suddenly felt  as if any hope of salvation I may have had had crumbled.  I can’t say why.  I couldn’t have said why then.  I just felt that way.  I felt despair and dread.  It would be decades later and after many hours spent studying church history that I realized some of the best known of God’s men and women had had similar experiences.  Had I know that then, it might have made a difference in how I dealt with the problem.  As it was, I did something I had never done before and would never do again.  I called my pastor and told him about it. 

He had two words of advice about this crisis of faith—though that may be too strong a term and, besides, I wouldn’t have known the term then anyway.

First, he warned me against relying too much on feelings.  I’ve tried to remember that advice, sometimes maybe too much.  Still, it’s good to recall that feelings come and go.  If we base our hope of salvation on our feelings, we may find ourselves feeling doomed to perdition after a foolish midnight encounter with last week’s pizza.  More likely you’ll feel spiritually degenerate and cast off should you lose it with an incompetent clerk.

Second, and more important, my pastor asked me to remember who the Savior was in the first place.  When it came to salvation, did that responsibility belong to me or Someone else?  If it were left to me, I would bungle it.  If it were left to Jesus Christ, he’d get it right.

The Colossians’ crisis of confidence was generated, in part, because they forgot who does the saving when it comes to dealing with our sins.  It was such an important fit of amnesia that Paul felt it  worth the risk of being called an alarmist!

Warnings are designed to capture our attention, to make more aware of potential hazards and dangers, to keep us from harm.  And, as the fable of the boy who cried wolf confirms, warnings must not be issued casually. 

The words of verse seven constitute a warning to the Colossian believers. He pictures the potential devastation resulting from believing the false teachers in vivid terms:  “Watch out!  Don’t let anyone carry you off as spoil.”  In was still customary in Paul’s day for invading armies to snatch individuals and take them back to the homeland to be slaves.  In the spiritual realm, Paul didn’t want that happening to the Colossian believers through their becoming captivated by a philosophy which is “a hallow sham.” (TCNT) 

This is not a condemnation of philosophy per se or of intellectual reflection;  it is a condemnation of any system which purports to be of divine origin but is really based on human tradition and the “basic principles of the world.” 

No matter how much the proponents of such a philosophy promise, it is “deceptive” philosophy because it does not deliver what it promises.  In fact, the point seems to be that the source of the philosophy assures its ultimate failure. 

How much better, Paul says, to base one’s world-view upon Christ.  No matter how appealing the alternatives may be, we have to ask:  Does this provide what Christ provides?

Paul’s description of the teachings which had caused such consternation at Colossae offers a withering answer to that question.  The notions of the false teachers don’t provide what Christ provides because they can’t provide what Christ provides.

*                        Their teachings are based on human notions, not based, as the false teachers claimed, on special revelation given to the elite few.

*                         Their teachings reflected the “elemental teachings of the universe.” (Amp)  or some childish “theory about the nature of the universe.” (Norlie)   Exactly what Paul means here is not entirely clear, what is clear is that he wasn’t being complimentary.

Paul is suggesting that embracing the notions of the teachers at Colossae instead of the gospel of Christ is like preferring astrology over astronomy, phrenology over neurology, alchemy over chemistry.   It’s like treating Harry Potter as history and A Stillness at Appomattox as fantasy. 

In short, Paul told the Colossians that the teachings they had been making so much fuss over, which they had allowed to generate a crisis of confidence, were like the “boogieman” stories older children tell younger to give them nightmares.

How much better to hold onto the gospel of Christ.  What gives Paul the confidence to make such a bold claim?  The answer comes as Paul reminds the Colossians—along with you and I as we read over their shoulders—of what we have in Christ.  If the Colossians were to keep focused on that, their crisis of confidence would disappear.

The erosion of the Colossian’s confidence came from their fears that what they had in Christ was not enough.  They feared that somehow, somewhere they had to find another way to please God.  They would by no means be the last to believe this.  In every generation, in every church, there are those who, despite years of Sunday school lessons and sermons, believe that their salvation, their hope of an eternal home with God, depends upon Jesus+(plus).  Every Good Friday they recall the horrors of the crucifixion, every time they participate in the Lord’s Supper they recall what Christ did in giving his body and blood.  Still, they wonder “Was it enough?”  This kind of thinking prompted Paul to ask the Galatians: 
“Are you crazy?  How did your new life begin? Was it by working your heads off to please God? Or was it by responding to God’s Message  [of grace] to you?  Don’t you know only crazy people would think they could complete by their own efforts what was begun by God?”  That way of thinking wasn’t limited to the Galatians.  The problem was different in Colossae but the effect was the same, fearful people thought they needed Christ plus….

Imagine you are driving down I-71 toward Cincinnati.  It’s not a really long trip but you’re glad when you come to that great bridge over the Little Miami River.  It signals you’re near Cincinnati.  As you drive high above  that great gorge, you suddenly realize the bridge doesn’t go all the way across.  It just stops.  In seconds you’ll hurtle off into thin air, on your own to get across the chasm.  You’ll be on your own to get across because the bridge isn’t complete.  Do you ever fear finding out the salvation Christ offers isn’t complete, that it won’t get you where you want to go?

Paul addresses this fear when he insists we are spiritually complete in Christ.  Through Christ we have all we need for salvation and right-standing with God.

How can Paul make such a claim?

I

 WE ARE SPIRITUALLY COMPLETE

BECAUSE OF WHO CHRIST IS

(vs. 9-10)

Paul’s confidence begins with an understanding of who Christ is.  “All the fullness of the Deity” simply means all that God is.  This is a clear affirmation of the incarnation.  Paul had already reminded them in the first chapter, now he says it again, the One we call Savior was God in human flesh.

To solve our great spiritual crisis God refused to send a subordinate.  He came himself.  To solve our great spiritual crisis God refused to merely wear a human costume, to just appear to be really human.  The Second Person of the Trinity chose to come “in bodily form” as a real man.  The language implies that this incarnation continues.  That’s the thought expressed in Murray Harris’s paraphrase:  “For it is in Christ, and Christ alone, that all the fullness of God’s being now has its permanent abode in bodily form.”

The Christ who is the subject of the church’s proclamation is not a subordinate creature.  He is God. 

That allows Paul to make this claim:  “you are complete in him.”  This is one of the times I think the modern translations lose something by not following the Authorized Version (KJV).  I’m glad the New Evangelical Translation picks it up by rendering the verse, “in Him, who is the Head of all rulers and powers, you are complete.”  There’s nothing wrong with the way the other translations render the verse but they miss the powerful way that single English word addresses the Colossians’ crisis of confidence.

They were beginning to wonder if Christ was enough, Paul answered, “You are complete in Christ—you need nothing more.”

Once in a while you will encounter Christians who find the concept of grace so hard to believe that they don’t believe it.   So, even though they have made professions of faith in evangelical churches, been baptized, and have faithfully attended Sunday school, they take on the impossible task of winning God’s favor on their own.

They are among the most miserable Christians you will ever encounter.  They are constantly uneasy, constantly uncertain, always wondering what else they might do to insure their salvation.  They are enveloped in a crisis of confidence.

Don’t confuse this with self-righteousness.  That’s rooted in pride.  This frenzy of activity is rooted in fear—and misunderstanding.  Clear up the misunderstanding and the fear will often disappear.

This is why it is so important to understand who Christ is—God incarnate—and to remember that God finishes what he starts.  We need to remind ourselves that God wouldn’t allow his Son to die so he could provide a halfway salvation.  Just as Paul wrote to the Philippians, “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion,” he says to the Colossians and the rest of us, “When Christ saved you, he saved you completely.”

II

 WE ARE SPIRITUALLY COMPLETE

BECAUSE OF WHAT CHRIST HAS DONE

(11-15)

Paul now draws several word-pictures to explain how what Christ has done on our behalf confirms how we may be spiritually complete in him.

1)  Christ gives us potential for a new way of living.  (11)

Sometimes false teaching is reflected in speculation, sometimes it is reflected in a passion for rituals.  Both passions seem to be part of the Colossian error.

One of those rituals was circumcision, the rite which historically was identified with the Jews. This points to a possible Jewish origin of the false teachers.  The false teachers were calling upon the Colossians to adopt Jewish rites and practices to assure their salvation.

In the face of those calling for all believers to undergo a physical circumcision, Paul says believers have undergone a spiritual circumcision.  What does he mean?

He is inviting us to compare the two acts and their consequences:  The rite of physical circumcision removes only a small portion of the body, but the “circumcision done by Christ” removes the whole “sinful nature.”  Paul invites us to ask, “Which act is the greater?” 

Now, this is a difficult idea to convey.  Any honest believer will admit that we Christians don’t always behave as if our sinful nature has been excised.  Paul knew this.  Paul knew we Christians will know constant spiritual struggle within until we are at home in heaven.  Yet, I think he is telling us that we Christians have a potential for a life we never before imagined.

And we can move toward the realization of that potential without enslaving ourselves to legalism and ritual.

2)  Christ gives us new spiritual life.  (12-13a)

Circumcision is the initiation rite of the Jewish faith, baptism is the initiation rite of the Christianity.  All of the believers in Colossae had been baptized, only those with Jewish roots had been circumcised. 

Paul focuses on baptism to underscore what happens to us when we trust Christ.

Believers are seen as “buried with him” and “raised with him.”  The rite of baptism itself possesses no innate power.  It has meaning only if the one being baptized possesses “faith in the power of God, who raised [Christ] from the dead.” 

Without such faith it is an empty ritual.  While this certainly suggests an argument against infant baptism, it more directly addresses the problem of ritualism.   An infant, baptized and raised in a Christian home, may come to trust Christ and live faithfully for him—Ruth Graham, Billy’s wife, was a case in point.  At the same time, one who merely submits to baptism for a ritualistic or superstitious reason has no foundation for a relationship with Christ and no impulse to follow him.

The spiritual reality which is dramatized in baptism is defined in verse 13.  “When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ.”

Two crucial points are being made here:

--We were dead, dead because of our sins and “the uncircumcision” of our flesh.  The first phrase probably refers to willful acts of sin, the second probably refers to the sinful nature we have from our kinship to Adam.  The point is, we were spiritually dead because we were sinners by birth and sinners by action.

--Through Christ, God has made us alive.  He countered the impact of our rebellion which had resulted in our spiritual death.

3)       Christ gives us forgiveness.  (13b-14)

Forgiveness is the yearning of many human hearts.  We know that we have done those things we ought not to have done and left undone those things we ought to have done, but are unable to find some relief for the nagging guilt we bear.

Jesus Christ, the Crucified and Risen, deals with our guilt in the most efficient way possible:  He forgives. 

Even the little words Paul uses are important.  He tells us God forgives “all” our sins, all, not just a few.  

Using another vivid picture he describes what God has done.  Paul borrows the notion of a “certificate” of indebtedness which the borrower had to sign to acknowledge that the debt was valid.  We owed a debt to God which demanded obedience to his law.  Because of our sin we could not pay.

But, in the death of Christ, God took that legitimate debt and canceled it in view of Christ’s perfect obedience.  He then is pictured as nailing the canceled debt to the cross for all to see.

In the words of the worship chorus, “I owed a debt I could not pay, he paid a debt he did not owe.”

What did this meant to the Colossians and to us?  Let me try to answer.

Once upon a time, there was a young woman named Jenny.  When Jenny was seventeen she got pregnant.  Her parents, her boyfriend, and Jenny herself were convinced what she should do.  An afternoon of discomfort and she could get on with her life.  And, so she did what seemed the best thing to do and promptly forgot about it.

Forgot about it until she was a junior in college and, through the influence of a roommate, she became a Christian. 

Though she believed Jesus was her Savior she was haunted by the memory of what she had done.  Every time she heard a baby cry, every time she saw a pregnant woman she felt a pang of guilt.  She even began to doubt if she could ever be truly forgiven.

One weekend she attended a retreat at a church camp.  As Jenny entered the auditorium for the Friday evening service she noticed that a simple wooden cross had been erected in a small clearing next to the building. 

The speaker’s theme was forgiveness.  On the basis of Colossians 2:14 he explained how Jesus had borne all our sins on the cross, that the bill listing our spiritual debts had been stamped “paid in full” and nailed to the cross.

The speaker closed by asking each person to search their hearts for any sin which still weighed upon them.  He told them God didn’t want the burden of that sin to spoil the joy of their salvation.

He urged them to pray, asking God to impress the verse upon their hearts.  He, then, told them to write the name of their sin on a small slip of paper, to find a quiet time to visit the cross in the clearing, and, using the hammer and tacks they would find there, nail the paper to the cross.

Just before dawn on Saturday, after a night of tearful prayer and reflection, Jenny slipped out of the dormitory and visited the makeshift cross.  There she tacked up a piece of paper which simply said, “my abortion.”

Even after the papers had been taken down and burned, even after the retreat had ended, Jenny never again doubted her forgiveness was complete.

Jesus offers the same forgiveness to each of us.  No matter what you might write on your slip of paper, God will forgive completely.

And, he offers more.

4.       Christ gives us victory.  (15)

Here is a final shift of imagery, one which recalls the might and pride of the Roman military.  In those days it was customary for a conquering general returning to Rome to lead a parade through the city.  Wearing his finest panoply, he would ride in a chariot.  Behind him, bound by chains, would walk the most prominent citizens of the conquered city or nation.  Those chains demonstrated their helplessness.

Paul pictures the “powers and authorities” which played so large a role in world-view of the false teachers as being conquered by Christ, the crucified.  Christ is seen as a conqueror leading these vanquished beings in a parade where their defeat is broadcast for all to see.  This gives a new image of the Cross.  One commentator refers to the cross as the victor’s chariot of triumph.

The first century world-picture imagined the air around us as the domain of these demonic beings.  Thus, Christ, seemingly helpless on the cross, was elevated into their very stronghold.  There he defeated them—on their own turf.

In light of this victory, believers have nothing to fear from these entities (whatever they may be).  Nor should believers allow themselves to become subservient to them (cf. Vs 8)

Bible students are undecided if Paul accepted as real the existence of these “principalities and powers” or if he was simply using the language of the false teachers.  What is clear is that he is telling us that no one who trusts Christ need be dominated by any other power.

Dermot McDonald comments, “Today’s men turn to black magic, to the horoscope, to drugs, to numerous cults, to find release from the pressures of life and an answer to the problems of mind and heart.  To any one of these it is easy to become a willing, and finally, a degraded slave.  But the cross liberates from every bondage;  for the cross is Christ’s cosmic victory, his holy conquest, over every evil power and all human schemes.  His scaffold is his throne;  and his cross is his chariot.”

We share the victory Christ has won for us.   We don’t have to be demeaned or dominated by any memory, habit, or obsession.  He liberates us. 

CONCLUSION

The Colossians could review all Christ had done for them on the cross and understand how spurious were the claims of the false teachers.  In Christ they had all they needed.  Because of Christ they had no need to experience a crisis of confidence.

What English professor would go into a bookstore and say, “Give me a copy of Shakespeare’s complete works, but I don’t want Romeo and Juliet in it.”  Without Romeo and Juliet it wouldn’t be complete.

What person would go into a car dealership and say, “I’d like a new BMW but I want it with only three wheels.”  Without four wheels it wouldn’t be complete.

What child would go into a McDonald’s with his or her parents and say, “Mom, Dad, I want a happy meal—only without the toy.”  Without the toy a Happy Meal isn’t complete.

Now, what person would say, “I want salvation but I don’t want it to include peace, assurance, grace, or forgiveness.”  Without these things salvation wouldn’t be complete.

That’s the kind of salvation the Colossians would have had without the Christ of the gospels.

A Hindu once asked missionary-statesman E. Stanley Jones, “What does Christianity have that we don’t?”

Jones replied, “Jesus Christ.”

Jesus is central to our salvation.  Yet, one survey of students on Christian college campuses shows that almost a third of those students no longer believe in the uniqueness of Christ. 

They fail to understand that any salvation apart from Christ is incomplete.  Any salvation through Christ is all we need, it makes us complete.