Colossians 2:6-7
~17 min read
TRANSCRIPT
hidden page for editing transcriptOur text for this morning's message is taken from Colossians 2:6-7.
Allow me to read this portion of scriptures for you. Colossians 2:6-7: “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.”
The Lord bless the reading of His holy and sacred Word.
Is the Christian someone who tries to live a good life or tries to be a good person. Or someone who has learned some doctrinal truth about Jesus Christ? Or someone who has gone through the catechism and Bible knowledge classes of the church? Or someone who has heard the gospel, responded to the author call, professed his faith publicly, and obeyed the Lord's command in baptism? Or someone who comes from a family of Christian traditions - His parents and grandparents were fundamental Christians and perhaps that would qualify him to be a Christian?
There are churches that are full of people who believe themselves to be Christians based on the things that I have just mentioned today. There are thousands or even millions of people around Victoria and all over the world who are sitting in their homes on this Lord's Day with absolutely no desire to worship God.
And some of them have not stepped into the church for years, and yet they say, ‘I am a Christian.’ Some of them may even challenge you and say, ‘How dare you question whether I am a Christian or not. I am a Baptist. I'm a Presbyterian. I'm an Anglican. I have been baptised from young. And I come from a family of five generations of Christians.’
Do you really think so? Where does the Bible say that those are the biblical grounds for our assurance of salvation? The assurance of our salvation is not based on the day we say some magical words in prayers, or the day we were baptised, or we joined a church. It is not family tradition and most certainly not what we have done or have not done.
Salvation is not just an empty profession of faith. There ought to be evidence, and that is what we want to learn from this passage in Colossians 2:6-7.
The title of our message is: ‘The Evidence of Our Salvation’.
I. Walk in Him
Firstly, a Christian is someone who will walk in Christ.
Let us begin with verse six: “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him.”
The word Christ means the anointed one, the Messiah. And Jesus is the Greek word of the Hebrew word or name for Joshua, which means ‘the Lord is salvation.’
So to receive Christ Jesus is to believe that He is the promised Messiah who was prophesied in the Old Testament, who will come to save His people from their sins.
When we believe in Him, He becomes not only our Saviour but also the Lord of our lives. That is why we call Jesus our Lord and Saviour. Essentially, it is to be born again, which is the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit who has regenerated us and made us spiritually alive through the preaching of the gospel.
As Ephesians 2:8-9 said, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”
But our salvation does not stop at our conversions. It must continue in our sanctification. God who saves us, He saves us to the uttermost.
Therefore, Paul continued to say, If you have truly believed in Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, so walk ye in Him. To walk is the way we live or conduct our lives. In other words, we have to live a sanctified life. And the only way to live a sanctified life is to live as Jesus lived.
1 John 2:6 said, “He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.”
A true Christian will desire to walk as Jesus walked, to be like his Master. But then who can walk as Jesus walked? He is perfect. We are not.
There are two important things that must be present in our lives, and that is the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. The work of transforming us to be like Jesus is the work of the Holy Spirit, the third person in the Trinity. But the Holy Spirit will not work independently without the Word of God.
The Holy Spirit begins the work of transforming us to be like Jesus through sanctification. Sanctification is a theological word. It is a process whereby the believer becomes more and more like Jesus.
Some theologians describe sanctification as the process whereby the Spirit of God takes the Word of God and changes the believer to be like the Son of God. Though we may never be like Jesus perfectly, nonetheless there will be the evidence of His characteristics in our lives.
Remember the illustration I used to give of a son who admired his father who was a very big man and a very smart man too. Like all little boys, he wanted to be just like his daddy.
In winter time, the father would bring him into the snow. Even when he was just a little boy, when they walked in the snow, the father would take big steps, leaving behind footprints in the snow.
The one thing that the little boy wanted to do was to walk like the father walked. So he would stretch out his legs and put his little foot into those footprints that daddy had left behind.
You can imagine he would be stretching out further than he could ever go. He would look clumsy, and at times he would fall down. But you can tell by that picture that the greatest desire in his heart was to walk as daddy walked.
You can tell by looking at the little boy, he wanted to be like his dad, even though sometimes he didn't look anything like him. God says, “Be ye holy as I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16).
What is the greatest desire in your heart? Is your greatest desire to be like your Master? Are you seeking to put your foot into His footprints? This is the test. Examine yourself.
If you reflect upon your life since the first day of your conversion, that day when you cried out to Jesus to save you, do you desire to walk like Him? Or is there no such desire at all? You are still the same, desiring to walk like the world, to talk like the world, to act like the world, and to fellowship with the world.
We are not talking about rededicating our lives. We are talking about whether we are in the faith. The apostle Paul said, ‘You have received Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, then walk as He walked.’
To walk as Jesus walked is to consider all our decisions, our choices, the friends we associate with, the relationships we have, the jobs we do, the places we go to, our responses to the different circumstances in view of Him.
So we need to ask ourselves: What will my Lord Jesus Christ do in such a situation like this? If this is what my Lord will do, then this is also what I will do. Will Jesus approve of the things I say, do, or think? If yes, that is what I will do. If no, then that is what I will not do. That is what it means to walk as He walked.
II. Rooted and Built Up in Him
Next is to be rooted and built up in Him. To receive Jesus as our Lord and Saviour is also to believe that He alone is all sufficient for us. Jesus alone is enough for us. He is all we need for our lives.
Jesus said in John 15:5, “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.”
Jesus used the analogy of the vine and the branches. The branch cannot survive, let alone flourish and grow, even if it is just 1 millimetre apart from the vine. It has to be constantly attached to the vine in order for it to survive, flourish, and grow.
Paul used the same agricultural term, “rooted”. Just as the branch has to be attached to the vine, the believer has to be rooted in Christ, and only then he can be built up.
Allow me to quote a very familiar verse in Psalm 1:3. We all know that Psalm 1 speaks of the blessed man. The blessed man is the believer. And verse three says this believer “shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.”
Notice it is a planted tree, not a wild tree with no purpose. A planted tree is well taken care of. A planted tree implies that there is a planter. God is the planter, and He plants the believer.
In the gospel, Jesus said that God the Father plants the tree for a sovereign purpose. But there are many trees that He has not planted. And what will happen to them?
Matthew 15:13 said, “Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.”
So those who are not true believers will be uprooted, but those who are true believers will be rooted so that they may produce fruit for His glory. And notice carefully, it is a tree planted by rivers of water. Not just a river, but rivers. The emphasis is on the abundance of water to provide the nourishment, nutrients, minerals, and resources that the tree needs to grow and produce fruits.
A tree can never survive and grow without water. Just like the Christian cannot have spiritual life without the Word of God.
Dear friend, take a moment and consider yourself as a Christian in the church. You are surrounded with great resources. Isn't it true? With many opportunities to study God's Word through the Sunday School, youth programs, DHW classes, BBK classes, prayer meetings, Sunday worship services, online courses, made available to you through the encouragement that comes from fellowship groups and most importantly through the provision of the indwelling Holy Spirit to strengthen and empower you.
Are you not like a tree planted by the rivers of water? Is that not a description of you? Are you not thankful to be rooted in Christ through all the resources He has provided for you in the church?
That bringeth forth his fruit in his season. The fruit will not come immediately, but in his season it will come. It is not ‘maybe the Christian will produce fruit,’ but surely he or she will produce fruits. The difference is in the amount. Some will bring forth 40 fold, others 60 fold, yet others 100 fold. Christians are never without fruits.
The more you and I read and meditate upon the Word of God and seek to obey and live righteous lives, the more fruit we will produce to honour the one who has planted us.
Galatians 5:22 tells us about the fruit of the Spirit that the believer would produce in his life. The believer who is faithfully planted by the rivers of water, he will produce the fruit of love. He loves his Lord and he loves the people. He will bring forth the fruit of joy in times of sorrow. He will rejoice in the Lord and cause others to rejoice in Him too.
When there are troubles in the church and family, he will bring forth the fruit of peace. He’s a peacemaker in difficult times. He will bring forth the fruit of longsuffering. He’s patient. He’s gentle to the people around him. People who interact with him will experience his goodness. He’s humble. He is not proud of his accomplishments. He is able to exercise self-control in all things. That is a person who has brought forth much fruit.
His leaf also shall not wither. The leaf is not the fruit. It is an outward sign of life. The fruit will come in its season, but the leaves remain throughout the year. The old leaves may fall off to make way for the new shoots to come up, but they do not wither.
In my house, we do not have a backyard like some of your houses, but we do have a balcony. I don't have green fingers. My wife does. And so she used to plant herbs, vegetables, and flowers in the pots.
In winter time, sometimes we do not know whether the plant is alive or dead. Maybe the winter frost had killed the plant. Then all of a sudden we see this green leaf coming out. It is a sign that the plant is alive.
Have you ever been so discouraged and depressed, so much so that you feel as if you are dead? You no longer enjoy Christian fellowship. You no longer share the gladness you once used to have in serving God. You are drifting further and further away from God. You feel as if you have no spiritual life in you. You feel so awful. You know something is terribly wrong. You know you must repent from your complacency. You know something has to be done.
Have you ever felt like this before? Well, you are not alone. Many great theologians have been through the same experiences like you. Once Martin Luther, the great Reformer, was so depressed that his wife took just one look at him and she said, ‘Is God dead? Because you look as if God is dead.’
As Christians, when we have drifted away from God, who is the source of life, we will feel as if we are dead. That is when we must turn to God and the Bible, and the wonderful words of life will revive us again like those green shoots that come out from the plant. We are alive.
His leaf also shall not wither. And whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. When the believer is blessed with all the rich resources, and he immerses himself in them, he will prosper in whatever he does.
It does not mean that he will prosper in material things. It does not mean that he will prosper in things of the world or physically, because soon those things will fade away. But he will prosper in the spiritual things of God, for His eternal glory.
Dear friend, it is not by chance or coincidence that you are where you are. God has planted you, and wherever He has placed you, He wants you to be the person He wants you to be. Whether as a pastor, a member, a leader, a husband, a wife, a parent, or a children. He wants you to be rooted and built up in Him, using all the resources He has blessed you with, and then produce fruits for His glory.
The earlier you and I know this truth, the better it is so that we can live our lives to serve His sovereign purpose. It is not by chance. There's no such thing as lucky. We are placed in a particular place for a sovereign purpose. God is the one who has planted us.
III. Stablished in Him
Our final point is to be stablished in Him. Look at the second part of verse seven: “and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.”
To be stablished means to be stablished or confirmed. In other words, you must be stablished or confirmed in your faith in God and His Word. If God has saved us in the past as in our conversion, and He promised to save us in the future as in our eternal glory, why do we think that He would abandon us right now? He would not do that.
We say we believe God created the heavens and this earth, and by His very words He brought everything into existence. We say we believe God is in control of the entire universe, is all powerful, all knowing, and we are always in His presence. We say we believe God opened up the Red Sea and delivered the children of Israel from the Egyptians and sent manna from heaven.
We say we believe Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, came into this world, lived a perfect life, died on the cross, shed His precious blood to save us from our sins, and one day He will come for us again. He will bring us to heaven into the mansion He has gone to prepare for us.
All these are wonderful doctrines. But the irony is that when it comes to our trials, struggles, and afflictions, we do not believe that God is able to see us through our present situations. How ironic.
As believers, we must believe God is able to help us to resist the temptations of life. Remember 1 Corinthians 10:13 said, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”
God will open up the path for the believer that he may flee from it, or give him the strength to bear it. Perhaps you have been constantly troubled by temptations. You have resolved in your heart never to do it again—the things that are not right. And yet time and again you give in to those temptations. Well, God is able to give you the victory if you trust and obey Him.
We must believe that God is able to help us overcome the wiles of the devil, who is like a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour. Imagine the devil with thousands of years of knowledge and experience, walking about seeking those who are vulnerable to cause them to stumble and fall.
Every Christian is called to be a soldier. Sometimes we have to fight the same spiritual battle every day of our lives, and other times we have to fight a different spiritual battle which is totally unfamiliar to us, and we are caught off guard.
As Ephesians 6:12 said, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”
Whether it is in the global, political, social, and religious arena, or the value system of this lost culture, or the philosophies of this evil world system, or the most wretched immoralities—each and every one of us, whether young or old, would have to fight these spiritual battles.
Which one of us can stand against the wiles of the devil? Do you think your child would stand a chance against the wiles of the devil? None of us can fight against the spiritual forces of evil in our own strength. Not even for a moment. But faith in God is able to give us the victory. Only in God we can have the victory.
We must believe that God is able to help us to persevere and endure the trials of life. Afflictions will come, troubles will come, but God will say to us like the way He said to the Apostle Paul, “My grace is sufficient for thee, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9).
That was the reason why the Apostle Paul was able to say, “I can do all things” - not on my own strength but – “through Christ which strengtheneth me.” (Philippians 4:13). Only in Christ we have the strength, and we are able to persevere and to endure the trials of life.
We must believe that God is able to help us serve Him faithfully and effectively. We all love the church. We want to serve the Lord. But oftentimes we feel so insufficient, so lacking, and so weak in doing anything for Him. Perhaps you have known of Christians who had served the Lord many years ago, but sadly today they have become either pew warmers or even stopped attending church altogether. Will that also happen to us? May the Lord have mercy.
The only way we can resist the temptations of life, overcome the wiles of the devil, persevere and endure the trials of life, serve the Lord faithfully and effectively, is to be stablished in the faith.
As we have been taught, we have already dealt with what it means to be rooted and built up in Him, and that is through His Word. No doubt God will teach us through His Word. But there is another way God will teach us, and that is by allowing us to go through the trials.
Whenever we encounter trials, our first instinct is to get out of it. Right? However, God may want to teach us not by avoiding the trial, but by going through it. That is how He makes us strong and stablished in the faith.
If I may give you an illustration, it is like a teacher who placed a huge rock in front of his student's house and he said to the student, ‘Push the rock.’ The rock was massive, extremely huge, and he could not move it even an inch. Yet the teacher said, ‘Push the rock.’ The student kept pushing and pushing with all his strength. Day after day, he kept pushing and pushing, but nothing seemed to change. The rock still remained where it was.
In desperation, he said to the teacher, ‘Every day I pushed the rock with all my strength, but it is meaningless. The rock did not even move a bit.’ Finally, the teacher said to him, ‘I said push the rock. I did not say move the rock. Now look at your muscles.’
By then the man realised that he had built up his physical muscles through the vigorous exercise of pushing the rock. In a similar fashion, that is the way God will teach us.
The trials of life are just like those huge, massive rocks. But they are not intended to destroy us, but to build up our spiritual muscles, to build up our spiritual stamina, endurance, and maturity. And God who knows best, He knows the more we endure the trials, the more we will grow in our spirituality. So sometimes He allows trials into our lives to teach us spiritual lessons to build us up.
Dear friend, if you have forgotten whatever I've said, remember these three things. When we walk in Him, when we are rooted and built up in Him through the great resources that He has blessed us with, when we are stablished in Him, believing in who He is, that He is the Almighty God who will never forget, neither will He forsake us - then we will abound, which means our hearts will overflow with thanksgiving.
For we know that this is truly the one true and living God who has saved us and continues to save us and will save us to the uttermost. This is the evidence of our salvation. Walk in Him. Be rooted and built up in Him and be stablished in Him.
Let us pray. Our Father in Heaven, we give Thee thanks for this opportunity for us to consider this portion of Scriptures. Indeed, salvation is not just an empty profession of faith. There ought to be evidence. Thou who has saved us at the point of our conversion will continue to work in us.
That is why there will be evidence and this evidence that Thou has taught us this blessed morning that we walk in You, that we be rooted and built up in You, that we be stablished in You. And when we do that, out of our hearts will be overflowing with thanksgiving. For we know that we are not only saved at the point of our conversions, but Thou are continuing Thy transforming work in our lives.
That is the reason we are able to walk, be rooted, be built up, and be stablished in You. It is all Thy work. And we respond in good faith, trusting that this is Thy precious, infallible, and inherent Word. And whatever Thou has said and commanded, we will obey.
So may Thou help us that all of us who have professed faith in Thee that we will put into rightful application to continue this walk, to continue this being rooted and built up in You, and to continue being stablished and confirmed in our faith in Thee and Thy precious Word to the glory of Thy precious name.
We pray all this in Jesus' Name. Amen.