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Plainly Speaking
with Karl J. Forehand
Living
the Resurrected Life
(Colossians 2:8-15)
by Karl J. Forehand
Listen
to Mark’s account of the resurrection:
And when the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary
the mother of James, and Salome, bought spices, that they might come and
anoint Him. And very early on the
first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen. And they were saying to one another,
"Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the
tomb?" And looking up, they saw
that the stone had been rolled away, although it was extremely large. And entering the tomb, they saw a young
man sitting at the right, wearing a white robe; and they were amazed. And he said to them, "Do not be
amazed; you are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who has been crucified. He
has risen; He is not here; behold, here is the place where they laid
Him. "But go, tell His disciples
and Peter, 'He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him, just
as He said to you.'" And they
went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had gripped
them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. Now after He had risen early on the first
day of the week, He first appeared to Mary Magdalene, from whom He had cast
out seven demons. She went and reported to those who had been with Him, while
they were mourning and weeping. And
when they heard that He was alive, and had been seen by her, they refused to
believe it. And after that, He
appeared in a different form to two of them, while they were walking along on
their way to the country. (Mark
16:1-12)
What were the people doing? The women were doing practical
things. They were going to put spices
on the body, which was a considered an act of dignity – it was the right
thing to do. They were asking
practical questions like, “How are we going to get the stone rolled
back? The men were in a board meeting
addressing their fears (as is often the case in board meetings). I’m sure they asked the question, “Are we
next?” I am sure they were addressing
“damage control” issues and wondering how this would affect the
ministry. After all, the central
figure had just been executed. God’s
representative, the angel, was there at the right time to comfort, direct,
and give just enough information.
In all of their business, what they still
had trouble doing was believing. They
had seen all the signs, been given first had information as to how all of
this would play out. Two of the three
disciples that were closest to Jesus didn’t believe at first. Later others would see proof and not
believe. When they finally did
believe, they became the future leaders of the New Testament church.
Most believers were doing practical
things. The soldiers were
guarding. The Jews were probably
rejoicing. But God was
resurrecting! The women thought that
Jesus needed some dignity in his death.
The men thought that Jesus would want them to worry and plan. But, dead men don’t need help! Colossians 2:13 describes us as dead. You see, dead men don’t need help – they
need life.
We often spend more time talking about the
cruelty of the cross than the reality of the resurrection. The resurrection is the very hinge that
our Christian faith swings upon. Did
you know that it is one of the most verifiable things in history? Let’s talk about it.
Why the
Resurrection Matters
1. The
condition of the past
And when you were dead in your transgressions and the
uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having
forgiven us all our transgression (Colossians 2:13)
If you are a believer, the condition you
were in is that you were dead. If you
are not a believer, it is your condition now. You are not just morally deficient or religiously void – you
are dead. If you condition is that of
death, you don’t need a spiritual band-aid – you don’t need spiritual
anointing – you need new life! John
put it this way:
And the witness
is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His
Son. He who has the Son has the life;
he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. These things I
have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, in order that
you may know that you have eternal life.
(1 John 5:11-13)
2.
The Captivity of the Present
See to it that no
one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to
the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world,
rather than according to Christ.
(Colossians 2:8)
The Colossians were becoming captive to
hollow and deceptive philosophy.
Philosophy, of itself, is actually a noble thing. It is the “love of wisdom.” It is a yearning to understand. It is using our brains to discover
answers. But, if we ignore God in our
philosophy, we ultimately find no real answers (they are hollow). When this happens, we begin to invent
answers that work well for us (or seem to).
We say things like, “As best I can conceive….” The answers are deceptive because they are
not based on truth, but reasoning. We
know that truth is often not logical or reasonable.
Pelagius, in the 4th century,
said “The enemy here is philosophy that believes that he power of God rises
from natural things, that nothing can be made from nothing, that the soul
cannot have a beginning or be mortal, that a virgin cannot conceive, or God
be born of man or die and rise again.”
If we start with the assumption that God is not in the picture, our
philosophy is destined to be hollow and deceptive. When we start without God, we end without truth or
substance. Where you begin has a
determination on where you end up.
This philosophy is through the
tradition of men. Most often we
start with an experiment. We try
something to see if it works. If it
has the appearance of success, other imitate it. Eventually, if enough people copy a method or methodology, it
becomes a tradition. The Pharisees
did this with the law. But,
traditions are never suitable for doctrine.
Tradition is only fit for doctrine when it originates from God’s
Word. Most philosophy is really just
a combination and analysis of traditions.
Remember, though, in Noah’s day it was traditional to murder.
If we do not constantly evaluate our
traditions, we eventually “nicely set aside the commandments of God in order
to keep (our) traditions” (Mark 7:9).
Tradition-based philosophy not only interferes with doctrine – it
often replaces it. Tradition is a
sorry support for doctrine, belief or even philosophy.
This approach is based on the
principles of the world. When
this passage says, “elementary principles,” we would translate it “ABC’s” or
“basic elements of nature.” The
Colossians were going back to the worship of angels and the elements of
creation. Today, we see similar
things such as: the worship of angels, nature worship and the worship of
Mary. Jesus said:
For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and
worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who
is blessed forever. (Romans 1:25)
When we
replace God with elements of His creation, we are not thinking correctly. The key problems is that we are not basing
our doctrine and philosophy on Jesus Christ.
He is the standard by which all doctrine is measured. If what we are thinking changes Him or
demotes Him or even ignores Him, it is wrong!
3.
The Reality of the Present
For in Him all
the fulness of Deity dwells in bodily form,
and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all
rule and authority; and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision
made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the
circumcision of Christ; having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you
were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised
Him from the dead (Colossians 2:9-12)
If we are going to avoid hollow and
deceptive philosophy, we must examine what is true. This verse begins “For in (Christ) all the fullness of the
Deity dwells…” Everything God is
dwells in Jesus Christ. He is full
and complete. God has permanent
residence in Christ. Therefore…
We
are complete because Jesus is.
We often waste our lives trying to find “fulfillment” and “completion”
when we have it already. We strive
and struggle to make our lives more full, when the fullness of God dwells
within us because of Christ. What else
do we see as reality?
We can be under control because Jesus
is the head. He is the head and
rule of all things. We cannot usurp
His authority and exclaim “I want to rule my own life.” If he is in control, how could our lives
ever be out of control?
We can live righteously because the
flesh has been circumcised. This
means that our sinful self has been “stripped off.” The body of flesh that is naturally sinful has been removed –
we are a new creation. We only go
back to our sinful ways when we choose to – we don’t have to.
We have been buried with Him. Because of Jesus’ sacrifice, our sins have
been forgiven – they have been laid to rest.
We are also raised with Him. The power that raised Christ from the dead
is active in us! Through faith, we
access the resurrection power. The
question is, “Do we have the faith to LIVE the resurrected life? Jesus left the tomb – the disciples left
the tomb – we must move on to “newness of life.”
4. The
Rewards of Christ’s past (because of what He did)
And when you were
dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you
alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of
debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has
taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. When He had disarmed the rulers and
authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them
through Him. (Colossians 2:13-15)
He made us alive. We weren’t just sick – we were dead. By His bodily resurrection, we were raised
with Him. He forgave us of the
debt we owe and cancelled it.
He has taken that subject out of the discussion. It is still “nailed to the cross.” The cross didn’t get resurrected. We can’t keep punishing ourselves for sins
that are forgiven. He also disarmed
our adversary. Satan has no claim
on your life. To listen to him is
like obeying your former boss when you work for another person. We have to inform him, “You have no
business here.”
Will you step into the resurrected life?
You have been made alive – You are
complete, because of what He did.
What are you still allowing to continue
in your life?
Are forming a methodology that is
hollow and empty or basing your life on Christ?
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