Wednesday – June 8, 2016
It is Wednesday, hump day, and time for us to dive deep into the Word of God, making His Word our word. Yes, repentance is important for sinner and the saint who sins. Now back to our primary text.
Colossians 2:19-23 (ESV)
19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.
20 If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations—
21 “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch”
22 (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings?
23 These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.
Colossians 3:1 (ESV)
1 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
We must repudiate (reject, disclaim, renounce, retract, disavow, and not accept) all that is not of God and seek His face diligently that we may do it His way and not according to our own reasoning or what has been passed down masquerading as the will of God. We must repudiate all shows of false wisdom, rules and regulations that exceed maintaining good order (legalism), the giving of place (subject to) to angels, all asceticism, and recognize we are nourished from one source and one source only, Christ Jesus. You might say well we can’t throw out the baby and the bathwater. Between you and me there is very little baby and way too much bathwater in the Church.
Now let us focus for a bit on the phrase “raised with Christ” from Colossians 3:1. This verse shown above goes on to explain that Christ is “seated at the right hand of God.” So where do you figure we are seated? Yes, we are seated with and in Christ Jesus at the right hand of God (the Father, Majesty on High). Colossians 3:1 also admonishes us to seek the things that are above where Christ is and by implication quit indulging the ways of the world aka the devil. This does not mean we are to be focused on going to Heaven or even what is going on in Heaven. We are citizens of Heaven, we are born from above of the Holy Spirit, and we are on assignment in the earth as Ambassadors of God, of Heaven. We are the highest ranking officials from Heaven in the earth and I am not excepting (excluding or saying except for) the Holy Spirit. Our mission, our assignment is not to get to Heaven but to build the Kingdom of God in the earth. When our job is done and we and God are satisfied we can go home to Heaven. Let us now look at another wonderful passage of Scripture that goes hand in hand with our text.
Ephesians 2:1-7 (ESV)
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins
2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—
3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,
5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
When we were dead in our sins walking like the rest of the world following the prince of this world (Satan) carrying out the passions of our flesh, God rich in mercy in His love reached out until we said “Yes, Lord”. In an instant of time Grace, the Holy Spirit made us alive in Christ Jesus. We passed from darkness to light, from death to life. Then, Ephesians 2:6, we were raised up to Heaven and seated with and in Christ Jesus. This is not figurative or some future event, it is right now! We can indeed be in two places at once, perhaps more. Our relatives in time past can look over at the Throne of God and see us seated there in Christ Jesus and rejoice. We have Heaven’s perspective, we can see just as Jesus sees, we have the mind of Christ. His ways and His thoughts are above the unsaved and the unrenewed mind but His thoughts are to be the thoughts and ways of the renewed mind.
By Dr. David R. Wood, Bible Teacher, Author, and Prophetic Voice
