COMPLETE IN
HIM
MF Blume
MARCH 7,
1999 pm
Colo 2:6-15 As ye have therefore
received Christ Jesus the Lord, [so] walk ye in him: Rooted and built up
in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein
with thanksgiving. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain
deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and
not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:
In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands,
in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:
Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with [him] through the
faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. And you,
being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened
together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; Blotting out the handwriting
of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it
out of the way, nailing it to his cross; [And] having spoiled principalities
and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.
It is hard to believe in something that we can do if we do not understand
we can actually do it.
When you truly understand what
the Bible teaches about the work God accomplished for us, then you will appreciate
your value and power, and easily believe.
The Bible teaches that we are
made righteous the moment we are saved.
Gala 2:16 Knowing that a man is
not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ,
even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified
by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for
by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
In order to understand this,
we must take a look at Adam, and how he affected us.
- Christ and Adam both affected
others in similar ways.
- If we can understand how
Adam made humanity sinful, then we will understand how Christ makes believers
righteous.
Roma 5:12 Wherefore, as by one
man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon
all men, for that all have sinned:
Roma 5:19 For as by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
One man, Adam, made the Human
race a sinful race.
Those of us who believe understand
that.
- That is why we are saved,
because we understood our need of salvation.
- We learned that we did
not have to steal, kill or harm in order to be called a sinner.
- We simply were born in
Adam's race, and Adam's disobedience made us all sinners before we were even
born.
- The world does not know
that, but we do.
- However, we may not know
that Jesus made us righteous.
- If we can understand that
Adam's transgression made us sinners, then by the same token we should understand
that Jesus' obedience made us all righteous.
Do not seek righteousness, now
that you are re saved.
Being in Jesus Christ makes us
righteous.
If a man can make all people
sinners, then by the same rule another man can make us all righteous.
- We have half of it right
when we understand that Adam made us sinners.
- But we may have trouble
believing the second half, that Jesus already made the believer righteous.
Adam was ready to give us all
life, in the Garden,. but instead he gave us death.
- Death is a condition.
- Not an experience.
- Jesus came and brought
the primary need to the world.
- He said "I am come that
they might have life." John 10:10.
It is so sad that people do not
see that everything they need is in Christ.
Judas betrayed the Lord and sold
Him for thirty pieces of silver.
- He informed the would-be
killers of Jesus where they could find him.
- "I know where he prays.
In Gethsemane."
- They gave him the blood
money of 30 pieces of silver as reward.
- He betrayed Jesus and indicated
to the soldiers who He was by kissing him.
- After Jesus was incarcerated,
Judas regretted his actions.
Matt 27:3 Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when
he saw that he was condemned, repented himself....
Did you read that?
- Judas repented!!!
- But the trouble was, He
did not look to Jesus when he repented.
- The thief on the cross
repented and admitted his sin to Jesus before he died.
- And Jesus told him that
day he would be in paradise.
Matt 27:3-4 Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when
he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty
pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, Saying, I have sinned in
that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What [is that] to
us? see thou [to that].
Judas tried to correct the problem,
without going to Jesus.
- (You cannot solve your own
problems and save yourself from sin.)
- He tried to give the money
back and be clean of the crime and sin he committed.
- But the priests and elders
refused to accept it.
Matt 27:5 And he cast down the pieces of silver
in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.
Then he hanged himself.
- He knew he was worthy of
death.
- He knew he was a sinner.
- BUT HE FAILED TO SEE THAT
JESUS DIED BECAUSE WE WERE WORTHY OF DEATH.
- If he only had waited a
little while, with faith in Jesus, JESUS WAS HUNG ON A CROSS IN OUR PLACES!!!!
Moses lifted up the rod at the
Red Sea.
- When that was done, we read
that Israel was baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea (1 Cor 10:1-2).
- They were united to Moses.
- He typifies Christ.
- He shows that we are united
to Jesus when we are baptized in water and Spirit.
- He is the winner, and we
need to unite with Him.
- Moses already passed through
40 years in the wilderness, and succeeded!
- Now it was Israel's turn,
and they had to unite with one who already knew how to do it!
- The wilderness already
changed Moses.
- We need to be changed,
too.
- The wilderness is the changing
process.
- We must unite with Christ
because Christ overcame, and we are complete in Him.
- We need to unite to Him
because we find all we ever need in Him.
Right from the start of our christian
lives, we had all we needed.
- If we are complete IN HIM,
then from the first moment we were put into Him, we have been complete.
- That means that we lacked
nothing.
- But we did not know that.
- We try to make ourselves
righteous, after we are saved, and we fail to see that we are righteous IN
HIM.
Colo 1:21-23 And you, that were sometime
alienated and enemies in [your] mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable
and unreproveable in his sight: If ye continue in the faith grounded and
settled, and [be] not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have
heard, [and] which was preached to every creature which is under heaven;
whereof I Paul am made a minister;
We are told that we were reconciled
to God when we were put in Christ.
- But we must recognize that
we have need of CONTINUING IN THE FAITH.
- We do not pack it away
in our pockets and say that problem is solved.
- We must CONTINUE IN FAITH.
- We must become grounded
and settled and built up in Him now that we are in Him.
- It is not just enough to
be in Him.
- We must now root ourselves
in Him.
- This means that we must
recognize that everything we need is in Him, and we have it all now.
- And we must be aware of
that fact.
- We must be so aware of
it, that anybody who tries to deceive us into thinking there are things we
lack although we are in Christ that we need to go and acquire for ourselves,
that we will recognize that as a lie.
- We are so grounded in the
FAITH that all we ever need is in Him, that we need only go to Him about everything!
- This is why we read a warning
in chapter 2.
Colo 2:6-10 As ye have therefore received Christ
Jesus the Lord, [so] walk ye in him: Rooted and built up in him, and stablished
in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.
Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the
tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete
in him, which is the head of all principality and power:
The way I received Jesus is the
way I must walk in Him (verse 6)
- How did I receive Him?
- He was everything I needed
to be saved.
- When I received Him to
be saved, I was finally convinced that I could not save myself, could not
take myself out of sin.
- Only Jesus could do that.
- I knew it was insane for
me to not think that Jesus alone could save me.
- My salvation was complete
when I sought Jesus.
- That is how I received
Him.
- He was everything.
- And we are told that we
must walk in the manner in which we received Him.
- In other words, we must
recognize that it is just as incorrect to think that we can add to our salvation
with our own efforts and good deeds as it was insane to think we could save
ourselves.
- As much as Jesus was EVERYTHING
we need to be saved, he is also EVERYTHING we need now to grow in our salvation.
- NOT VERY MANY SAINTS UNDERSTAND
THIS.
- That is why there are legalists.
- I AM COMPLETE IN JESUS
CHRIST.
- If I need strength, He
has it for me.
- If I need better behaviour,
HE HAS IT FOR ME.
- I looked to Him for everything
when I received Him, now I must look to Him for everything that I may WALK
this walk.
It is not a complex thing.
- Its so easy, people trip
over it.
Colo 1:28-29 Whom we preach, warning every man, and
teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in
Christ Jesus: Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working,
which worketh in me mightily.
Paul's entire purpose as a minister
was to preach Christ being the fullness until everybody he preached to were
convinced of that, and would look to Jesus for all their needs.
- As the priests held up the
ark of the covenant to open the way through into the promised land, I am standing
here upholding the truth of Jesus and the Blood, and how through Him you
already have all that you will ever need to face anything in this life, until
all of you cross this Jordan barrier into the land of all God's promises.
- I will preach it until
you finally are convinced and no longer fear the giants of life that have
threatened you into intimidation in the past, and you go forward.
- YOU ARE COMPLETE IN CHRIST.
- From t he start you always
were complete.
- But you simply were not
aware of it.
- You felt like God did the
entire work to save you, but then He gave you a push and said, "Now get on
with it yourself, and I hope I see you at the end!"
- WRONG!!!!
- He is not only the AUTHOR
of salvation, but HE IS THE FINISHER.
- While you RUN, KEEP LOOKING
TO HIM.
Hebr 12:1-2 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed
about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight,
and the sin which doth so easily beset [us], and let us run with patience
the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher
of [our] faith; ...
I have in recent years began
to fully understand that from the start I have been complete in Jesus Christ,
and simply did not know it.
How do we walk worthy of this
calling to salvation?
- Do we work harder and try
to perform more in order to please Him?
- NO.
Ephe 4:1 I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord,
beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,
Colo 1:10-11 That ye might
walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work,
and increasing
in the knowledge of God; Strengthened with all might, according
to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;
Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of
the inheritance of the saints in light:
He says that increasing in the
knowledge of God is the way to walking worthy.
- FIND OUT WHAT YOU HAVE GOING
FOR YOU.
- You have been complete
in Him from the start, when you first got into Him.
This is only true for you if
you were baptized in the water and Spirit into Him.
Roma 6:3-4
Know ye
not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into
his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like
as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so
we also should walk in newness of life.
Look at what Jesus is described
as:
Colo 1:13-19 Who hath delivered
us from the power of darkness, and hath translated [us] into the kingdom
of his dear Son:
- ...In whom
we have redemption through his blood,
- ...[even]
the forgiveness of sins:
- ...Who
is the image of the invisible God,
- ...the
firstborn of every creature:
- ...For
by him were all things created, that are in heaven,
- ...and
that are in earth,
- ...visible
- ...and
invisible,
- ...whether
[they be] thrones,
- ...or dominions,
- ...or principalities,
- ...or powers:
- ...all
things were created by him, and for him:
- ...And
he is before all things,
- ...and
by him all things consist.
- ...And
he is the head of the body, the church:
- ...who
is the beginning,
- ...the
firstborn from the dead;
- ...that
in all [things] he might have the preeminence.
- ...For
it pleased [the Father] that in him should all fulness dwell;
Look at all the qualifications
Jesus has!!!
- Jesus will be the One in
whom all things are reconciled to God.
- I WANT TO BE IN
THAT KIND OF SAVIOUR!
- What can we lack
if we are IN HIM?
- That is why we must REMAIN
IN HIM!
- Faith put us in Him and
we must continue IN THE FAITH.
- WALK IN HIM AS WE RECEIVED
HIM.
God's Spirit is now in us.
- He is there to LIVE IN US.
- This was not at our disposal
before we were put into Christ.
- Our sins separated us from
God.
- But He removed our sins
and gave us His Spirit.
- We can live by what is
called the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:2).
- This is a law that helps
you live victoriously.
- It is being able to depend
upon Him for all your needs and victories.
- People without the Spirit
cannot live by the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus.
- We now do not have to let
sin have power over us.
- We have almighty power
on our side because we have God's Spirit in us.
Some sing, "Oh what needless
pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer."
- That is not all the story.
- There are some things that
you have to LEARN.
- PRAYER will not solve everything,
as if you do not need to grow in knowledge of the truth by HEARING THE WORD.
- You will fail
miserably if you think all you need to do is pray and never learn what the
WORD teaches.
- Prayer without
knowledge is like trying to travel to a strange land without a map.
- We often bear needless
pain because we do not KNOW.
- God's people are destroyed
for a lack of KNOWLEDGE.
- We need to have the eyes
of our understanding opened THAT WE MIGHT KNOW...
- We need a spirit of revelation
and wisdom IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF JESUS CHRIST.
I know people that pray a lot,
but do not KNOW they are complete in Christ and therefore they try to make
themselves more holy, when all along we have been holy by just being in Christ.
- Thought it is one thing
to be holy and another to BEHAVE holy, the way to holy behaviour is not by
making ourselves do better, but by seeing we have HIS HOLINESS IN US, and
must LEARN TO LET HIM LIVE IT OUT OF OUR LIVES!!!!
Let us walk in Him, in
full reliance upon Him as our only hope, as we have received Him.