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Home > Resources > Sermons > Colossians

How do you walk with Christ? Thousands of books have been written on the subject. Multiplied hundreds of conferences and tapes have been produced to address the Christian walk. With these come a variety of ideas, formulas, experiences, and steps which the Christian must attempt to follow. When all is said and done, many believers are left confused on how to walk with Christ.

 

I hope we are all convinced that the Christian life is meant to be lived! We are not reconciled by Christ, justified through his satisfaction at the cross, and forgiven of our sins so that we might remain in neutral. The One who begins a good work in us continues it until the day He brings us into His eternal presence (Phil. 1:6).    

 

The cagey group who sought to bring down the Colossians through their shrewd arguments and trumped up talk of divine mysteries were ever at the forefront of Paul's thoughts in this epistle. Some have said that this passage is the hinge of the entire letter. For here the Apostle explains that you cannot do better than Christ! You cannot improve on what Jesus Christ has done and what the believer has received of Him in the gospel.

 

The Apostle Paul had a way of simplifying profound truth. Our text offers a good example on the very subject of walking with Christ. Without any formula or five-guaranteed-easy-steps, Paul sets forth how the Christian is to walk with Christ. In your daily walk you should never get away from the foundation of the gospel. Some try to insist on new levels of experience apart from Christ or receiving a new aspect of the divine being apart from Christ and the gospel. Our text points us back to sanity in our walk with Christ.

 

I. You must have a beginning

 

There is much presumption in the name of the Christian religion. While millions profess to know Christ, many of these who profess have never known the joy of saving grace in their lives. They have gone through the motions of Christianity and presume that they are believers. Then they meet with great frustration when told they are to walk with Christ and press on to maturity. They work hard. They expend their energies. They find no delight in the process of maturity. And why? Because they have never begun the Christian life in the first place.

 

It is presumptuous to try to walk with Christ without first receiving Him as one's own Redeemer and Lord. Would you try to fly without a plane? Or would you attempt to eat without food? Then how much less can we walk with Christ if we have not begun with him by faith in his merits at the cross? "Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him."

 

1. Gospel truth delivered

 

The word "received" is a technical term that points to the authority of the message delivered. It refers to a particular body of truth that was authoritatively delivered to particular people. For instance, Moses received the Law then delivered it to Israel with all authority. He then passed it along to Joshua who delivered it authoritatively to succeeding generations.    What Paul had in mind by the use of this technical term was that what the Colossians received in terms of the gospel was the true, apostolic gospel. Keep in mind that the trouble-makers at Colossae were trying to impress the Colossians with their secret knowledge and hidden mysteries. Paul's use of this term was to remind them that they received the real thing. This was no half-gospel which needed to be added to before it could complete their salvation. It was the true gospel, full in every sense, and completely adequate for the salvation of those who believe. Nothing could be added to it for improving it. It needed no changes, no dressing up, no accommodation of local ideas.

 

This reminds us that our faith must be built upon the foundation laid by the apostles and prophets, the gospel of Jesus Christ (I Cor. 3:10-11; Eph. 2:20). It is this gospel which we find in the pages of Scripture. It does not need updating for a new century for it has been proved adequate for the centuries before us. Nor can it be updated for it was final and complete when it was given (I Cor. 15:3-11). It is this gospel alone, the apostolic gospel, which is "the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes" (Romans 1:16-17).

 

Since the gospel was delivered authoritatively by the apostles and prophets, then recorded for later generations in the Scriptures, it is truth which we can read, discuss, and understand. It is not like that which the Colossian detractors proposed, mysterious, hidden, unknown except to its initiates. Nor is it simply an experience which someone has but cannot explain in rational terms. It is truth, powerful truth, which is stated propositionally, appealing to the mind for understanding.

 

2. Living Person received

 

But having identified the gospel as an authoritative message delivered, we must also recognize that it is a living message. For the gospel involves receiving a living Person. "Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him." We must not slide over the language used. For here the Apostle identifies the Lord in a three-fold fashion as "Christ Jesus the Lord."

 

As "Christ" our Lord is identified as the Messiah or 'Anointed One' promised to Adam, Abraham, Israel, and Moses. The title points to the One whom Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Micah prophesied of. Isaiah declared, "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners; to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God..." (Is. 61:1-2). As the Christ, our Lord is the Prophet who has declared to us the good news of salvation. He has exercised his prophetic office in proclaiming Himself as the only way to God.

 

Paul also uses the common name "Jesus." The name was that given by the angel to Joseph, "You shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins" (Matt. 1:21). Jesus Christ would not simply declare salvation but he would become salvation to all who would believe. So in this case, we find the title Jesus expressing the Priestly or Mediatorial work of Jesus Christ. It was Jesus who both offered the sacrifice for our sins and became the sacrifice, bearing the judgment of God for us at the cross.

 

We also find Paul identifying Jesus as "Lord." The early confession of the church was, "Jesus Christ is Lord." In defiance of emperor worship and the worship of a hundred other gods, the Christians were willing to lay down their lives in order to offer the good confession concerning the Lord. As Lord, Jesus Christ executes his office as King over our lives. Yes, he is King over the universe, ruling in sovereign power. But in a special way, He is King over the lives of all those whom he has redeemed with his own blood.

 

Notice that Paul says nothing about receiving part of Jesus. The description given reminds us that when we receive him, we receive him in all of his fullness. There are no more experiences to add to what Christ has already done. There is no separate receiving of Jesus as Lord or receiving a so-called 'second blessing'. Paul was declaring to the Colossians, 'you do not need what the trouble-makers are foisting upon you; you have received Christ Jesus the Lord; can you add anything to him?' Charles H. Spurgeon describes this in his own powerful way. We took him for all that we knew of him, and we found that he was much more than we then thought he was; but we did not pick and choose, and say, "We will have his pardon, but we will not have his sanctification." We took the many-sided Christ, the Christ of many glorious characters, the Christ of ten thousand times then thousand beauties; we took Christ to teach us, Christ to lead us, Christ to feed us, Christ to cheer us, Christ for us to obey, and Christ for us to delight in; we took a whole Christ. And then we gave him our whole selves. We said, "Lord, take us, body, soul, and spirit;" we prayed that the sacrifice might be bound with cords to the horns of the alter for ever. We made no bargains with him; we gave the freehold of our souls to Jesus, and of our bodies too, and we only asked that we might not have a pulse beating except for him, or our lungs heaving except as he was our very life [MTP, vol. 55, 587].

 

Have you received Christ Jesus the Lord? There is no sanctification, no growth, no discipleship, no maturity apart from first receiving Him by faith.

 

II. You must have a pattern

 

The little word "as" helps us to see where the Apostle is heading in this brief text. "Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him." It means, in the same way that you received Christ, you are to walk in Him. Again, in the context of what Paul was addressing, it is a reminder that there is no mysterious experience awaiting us if we are to have real growth. It is Christ Jesus the Lord alone whom we need for beginning and progressing in the Christian life. As Rick Melick expressed it, "They were to reflect on how they had received him and that was to be a model for their present lives" [NAC, 246]. So Paul's exhortation for spiritual growth points right back to the beginning of the Christian life.

 

1. Look to the foundation

 

Verse 7 is made up of a series of participles pointing back to the experience of having received Christ Jesus the Lord. "Having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude." The first participle varies in tense from the rest, showing its uniqueness as the foundation. "Having been firmly rooted" is a perfect passive participle in the Greek. What that means is that it refers to a foundation which is forever laid, never to be repeated, never to be found inadequate. The passive voice reminds us that we did not lay the foundation of our Christian lives, but it was accomplished by the Lord himself.    

 

The metaphor, "firmly rooted," was used in both agricultural and construction terminology. The agricultural term reminds us of the necessity of the roots of a giant oak or for that matter, even a small plant. If there are no roots, the plant cannot live. The life of the plant is found in its roots. So much of a farmer's time is spent cultivating good roots to ensure the growth of his plants. Are your roots in Jesus Christ alone? That is the point of the statement, being firmly rooted in Christ Jesus the Lord. "According to Paul we cannot find (and therefore should not seek) a different element in which to grow than that in which we were planted" [BST, R. C. Lucas, 91].

 

Or we could switch to a construction metaphor in which this term applies to the foundation of a building. If you do not spend adequate time laying a good foundation for a building, then it will soon topple. What Paul is telling us is that everything in the Christian life arises out of the foundation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. If we attempt to build anything in our Christian life that does not mirror the foundation, then it is futile. "This means that our experience of first coming to Christ," writes Kent Hughes, "ought to mirror how we walk in him all the days of our lives" [Preaching the Word--Colossians, 60]. Or to express it a little differently, Dick Lucas writes, "The Christian who grows in knowledge can claim fuller enlightenment only in so far as he remains loyal to the saving gospel truths that first he was taught, and which led him to Christ" [92]. Keep looking at the foundation. Keep thinking upon Jesus Christ and Him crucified, buried, and risen from the dead on your behalf. Everything in spiritual growth relates back to the foundation, or else it is spurious growth.

 

2. See the structure

 

Keeping to the building metaphor, Paul is telling us that the building never stops! "Having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him." The use of the present tense verb shows that the building keeps on going. Do not think of the Christian life as a one or two-story house. Think of it as a skyscraper which has unlimited potential for increasing since its foundation is the infinite sufficiency of Jesus Christ the Lord!

 

What is being built upon the foundation? The passive voice awakens us to the fact that the Lord is the One who is building upon the foundation in our lives. Yes, "He who began a good work in you continues it to the day of Jesus Christ!" Indeed, "for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure" (Phil. 1:6; 2:13). Paul says that we are "being built up in Him." It is in the sphere of Christ, the realm of relationship to Him, the reflection of His glorious life in which we are being built up.

 

Perhaps no text states this any clearer than Romans 8:29. "For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren." The Father is not finished with us until all of His children are a reflection of His Son, Jesus Christ. What is Christian growth all about? It is the believer being conformed to the image of Christ. This is what is happening in the whole process of sanctification. Leon Morris expresses this clearly. "It is God's plan that his people become like his Son, not that they should muddle along in a modest respectability" [The Epistle to the Romans, 333]. And God will accomplish this work in all whom He has redeemed through Christ. For John tells us, "We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him as He is" (I John 3:2). Christian growth or sanctification is the process of becoming "like Him." But how do we get there?

 

3. Recognize the materials

 

The Apostle explains that believers are continually "established in your faith, just as you were instructed." The word "established" refers to being continually strengthened or becoming more solidified. But solidified in what? In your faith, just as you were instructed.

 

"Faith" and "instructed" combined help us to understand how Paul is using the word "faith." It can be used subjectively, referring to the believers trust in Christ. But here it is quite apparent that he is using it objectively, referring to the body of truth which we believe. "Instructed" confirms this interpretation. Now, let us consider what he is telling us.

 

The Christian is to continually seek to grow in his understanding of divine truth. He is to be on the pursuit of a greater knowledge of all that is given in the Word. Can he learn more than the gospel? Yes, for there is much in the Scripture which we might identify as being outside the parameters of gospel. But what he is telling us is that we are to never think we can grow beyond the rich truth contained in the gospel. Indeed, we can never exhaust the depths of the Incarnation, justification, adoption, etc. Everything we learn and understand must be related back to the gospel. The interpretive key for all of the balance of what we learn is in the foundation stone of the gospel of Christ.

 

If you ever become so educated and so sophisticated as to think the gospel is elementary and you have moved on to better things, then you have become, as Kent Hughes put it, "post-Christian and pagan" [63]. Spurgeon refers to the Puritan, Samuel Rutherford, who "used to pray for a larger heart, that he might hold more of Christ." Then he quotes his prayer, "Oh, that I had a heart as deep, and wide, and high as heaven, that I might hold Christ in it!" Then upon further thought, he prays, "Since the heaven of heavens cannot contain him, oh, that I had a heart as vast as seven heavens, that I might get the whole of Christ into me, and hold him in my arms!" [MTP, vol. 53, 123]. Maybe Paul's thought is summed up by the hymn-writer who penned, "More of Jesus, I would know....More, more about Jesus! More, more about Jesus! More of His saving fullness see; more of His love who died for me."

 

What are the materials you need for walking with Christ? Go to the Word. Immerse yourself in it. Feed upon the riches of Jesus Christ. And when you have satisfied yourself for the moment, be prepared to go back for more. For you will never exhaust Him. Your knowledge will never contain all that there is of Jesus Christ and the glories of his gospel. Everyday, go back to the foundation and be strengthened in the faith.

 

III. You must take action

 

Paul was not encouraging passivity in this passage. He reminds the Colossian believers of all that God was doing in them and for them. But he begins by telling them to "walk." "Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him."

 

1. Walking means progress

 

The word "walk" is a common term referring to the ongoing conduct or way the believer lives. It encompasses his moral, ethical, social, mental, and spiritual life. How he lives in relationship to others, how he responds to the tests of life, how he makes decisions, where he spends his time, what he does with his material possessions, all of these things make up the believer's walk.

 

For Paul, there was no question as to how the believer was to live. He was to relate everything to his relationship with Jesus Christ the Lord. All of life was to be shaped by the reality that "I am His and He is mine." And there was no question as to the manner in which he was to conduct his life, for as he received Christ by grace through faith, so the believer is to daily live. He does not need to get on the trail of a 'second-blessing' or a new prosperity gospel or an experience of being 'slain in the Spirit' or some other substitute for Christ. He is to live daily in the reality of having been purchased by the blood of Christ. He is to draw from the deep wells of divine grace for whatever he faces. He is to rest in Jesus Christ and his sufficiency.
   

The command to "walk" reminds us that we must personally get involved in the action of our spiritual growth. We are told to "walk in the Spirit," "walk in truth," "walk in love." All of these are actions of spiritual growth; intentional actions on the part of the believer. While the Lord is assuredly at work in every true believer, the Christian himself has the need to pursue those things which will help him grow into spiritual maturity. It doesn't happen by living in front of a TV set or a video game. It doesn't happen by living for recreation or entertainment. It doesn't happen by 'surfing the net', even when you find Christian sites. It happens when you immerse yourself in Jesus Christ and his glorious work.

 

Paul uses a present tense verb to remind us that this is a continual process in the life of the believer. A new Christian struggles to take "baby steps." But he is not to stay at the "baby step" stage of life. He is to keep growing in the ability to walk with Christ. And even as he matures in Christ, he is to continue to grow in his walk, never becoming presumptuous that he has arrived spiritually or that he can slack off in his spiritual discipline. As with the Apostle, we must "press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 3:14).

 

2. Gratitude implies dependence

 

"A thankless spirit betrays a life which is no longer focusing on the greatness of Christ," so writes Kent Hughes [63]. Paul ends his succinct exhortation for spiritual growth by stating a reality that comes when we walk with Christ as we received him: "overflowing with gratitude." A grateful heart means that our minds have been filled with the wonder and reality that Jesus Christ has saved us, unworthy sinners. Any time we begin to get cocky and prideful, it is because we have lost sight of the foundation of the Christian life, "Christ Jesus the Lord." Gratitude humbles us and keeps us in dependence upon Him who has redeemed us out of his infinite mercy and grace.   

 

Conclusion

 

Have you received Christ Jesus the Lord? Are you walking with him? May we be refreshed in what it means to walk with Jesus Christ.

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