Victory in Jesus Colossians 2:11-15 (NKJV)

Transcription

1 Victory in Jesus Colossians 2:11-15 (NKJV) There is an old hymn that I grew up singing that some of you would know if you grew up like I did in the traditional setting. I heard an old, old story, how a Savior came from glory, how He gave His life on Calvary, to save a wretch like me. I heard about His groaning, of his precious blood s atoning, then I repented of my sins and won the victory. O victory in Jesus, my Savior, forever, He sought me and bought me with His redeeming blood. He loved me ere I knew Him, and all my love is due Him, He plunged me to victory, beneath the cleansing blood. Notice, it was when He gave His life on Calvary that victory was secured. The victory is not in my works, my attempts of morality, or even in a religious ceremony it s in Jesus. When we put our faith in Jesus, we are then plunged into victory. And here Paul, in Colossians 2, is making that very clear. It s here he moves from the false teacher that was presenting a different Jesus, to the legalist that is putting the emphasis on man and no longer on Jesus. The heading in your New King James Bible says, Not legalism but Christ. Let s read verses and then we will make our way back through it. Vs. 11 In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ Among those who were promoting a different Jesus, there was also a group of Jewish legalists that were promoting and pushing rules and regulations, holidays, and diets that would bring you closer to God if you practiced them. Copyright 2015 Chris Fraley 1

2 Of course, if you re a Jewish legalist and you re rubbing shoulders with a Gentile believing church, you re going to hit them up with circumcision. And Paul writes to remind them as he has many of the Gentile believing churches that it s not an outward circumcision that is performed by man, but the inward circumcision of the heart that is performed by Christ. The legalists were saying, Hey if you want to go deeper, if you want to get closer, it s Jesus and circumcision. But it didn t stop there though. So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths Colossians 2:16 (NKJV) It was their diet. If you want to get closer to Jesus, then refrain from eating meat. Instead, eat salads, get into juicing with Jesus and you ll feel His presence in a deeper and greater way. Paul is reminding them when it comes to these outward works, especially circumcision, they don t have the ability to bring you closer to the Lord. They can t change the heart. They don t have the ability to deal with our sinful flesh. Actually here is what took place at salvation; notice, Paul reminds them we put off the body of sins that were in our flesh. It s what our baptism symbolizes. Vs. 12 buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. When we baptize people I often say, Buried with Him in baptism raised to walk in newness of life. That is taken from this passage here in Colossians. What does that mean? It speaks of an inward work that took place in our hearts. Paul describes that work in Second Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NKJV) Copyright 2015 Chris Fraley 2

3 It was here that we drew a line in the sand to the old way. The life of being dominated by the flesh, a life that was full of sin and death, it was conquered at Calvary. It was buried there and just as He was raised to life, we are also raised to life a new life. One that is now lived for Christ in the power of the Spirit. Listen to Paul speak about this in Romans Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Romans 6:3-10 (NKJV) The old man was crucified; the old flesh was conquered when we came to Christ. Now you might say, Wait a minute, but I still struggle with sin and that fleshly man you re talking about still lives in me. I know because he is always trying to lure me off the path of righteousness. Yes that is true, he is still there and will be there as long as we live in this body. But now you have the Spirit of God living in you; the flesh has been dethroned. That s why Paul goes on and reminds us in Romans Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being Copyright 2015 Chris Fraley 3

4 alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. Romans 6:11-13 (NKJV) You don t have to be ruled by sin any longer. Yes you re still going to sin, but sin is no longer the king in your life King Jesus is. And now you can put off the sinful nature. Before Christ, we had no other choice but to live for the sinful nature. But now in Christ, the One who overcame sin, He can empower us to overcome sin. We have victory in Jesus! It s what Paul goes on to describe here in the next set of verses. Vs. 13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses... Before we gave our lives to Christ, there was a deadness in our soul spiritually. Paul says it this way For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23 (NKJV) Some of us can look back and see the death; the wages of our sin, of walking in sin, of embracing sin was death. There was death in our relationships, death in our workplace, there was death in our minds, and most of all there was death in our hearts. We were a dead man walking. Alive physically, but dead spiritually. Not until we gave our lives to Christ did we come alive spiritually. Not until we encountered the cross did we wake up spiritually. And notice Paul reminds the church here having forgiven you all trespasses How many trespasses? All. Those you committed and those committed against you. I think that can be one of the most difficult things for us to work out. Being able to let go of our past is much easier than letting go of what someone did to us in the past. Every time we see them that file cabinet opens up and we look back at what they did and how they treated us, and how they spoke against us. Copyright 2015 Chris Fraley 4

5 And we can find ourselves with a bitter root. So what s the answer? Nail it to the cross just as your sin was nailed to the cross. You nail that sin against you to the cross. Don t claim you re a victim; nail it to the cross. What did Jesus do with the sin that we committed against Him? He nailed it to the cross. This will keep you out of years of therapy and mounds of money spent on medication. Just keep nailing it to the cross and when you do, you will be set free from not only your sin, but the sin of those against you. Jesus forgave all your trespasses. All those lists you have in your file that you committed and all those lists that you have of those who committed sin against you. Paul will remind us of the list that God had and what He did with it, notice Vs. 14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. What are the handwriting of requirements? It s the Law of Moses. The list of commandments that were written which man failed to follow. They became the very list to prove to us that we were lawbreakers. For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them. Galatians 3:10 (NKJV) And what did Jesus do with this big, fat list that He has against us? Verse 14 says He wiped out the handwriting of requirements, He has taken it out of the way and nailed it to the cross. He didn t just gloss over our sin, nor did He lower His standards when it came to sin. He wiped them out by nailing them to the cross. That word wiped out is not a surfer term. It s what takes place when someone writes something on a chalkboard and then erases what was written. Copyright 2015 Chris Fraley 5

6 Did you hear that believers? He wiped out our sins, nailing them to the cross. The very thing that the enemy had against us our sin God nailed it, wiped it out, and therefore, made our forgiveness complete. Vs. 15 Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it. Notice what took place on the cross. Notice the imagery here. The word disarmed can be translated to strip off or to spoil. In other words, the power of Satan in the life of the believer has been spoiled. The only thing he has against the believer is what we give him. Don t put back in his hands what was stripped from him. We do this when we sin or after forgiveness has been given we don t walk in it. We walk with our heads down and our hearts heavy. Nothing wrong with having a humble heart, but don t walk around with a defeated heart. It gives room for the devil to get a foothold and eventually he will find a stronghold, and then we find ourselves defeated by the one who has already been defeated. Jesus was triumphant over him, Satan, and now that we are in Him, we are also triumphant over him. Paul said it this way What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? Romans 8:31 (NKJV) He will even remind us when life is not going exactly the way you hoped it would, you can walk in victory. Notice Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height Copyright 2015 Chris Fraley 6

7 nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:35-39 (NKJV) That phrase more than conquerors can be translated super conquerors. We are super conquerors in Christ Jesus. It s what Paul said to us last week in verse 10 and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power. Colossians 2:10 (NKJV) He has saved us, forgiven us, and brought victory to us, and let me add, there is an eternal home waiting for us. Let me read you the last part of the song, Victory in Jesus I heard about a mansion, He has built for me in glory. And I heard about the streets of gold beyond the crystal sea; about the angels singing, and the old redemption story, and some sweet day I ll sing up there the song of victory. That s the final victory heaven. I wonder what that song is going to sound like when all of heaven sings it? Let s pray Copyright 2015 Chris Fraley 7