Grace Fellowship    7/26/09    Full Confidence in a Full Salvation        Col 2:20-3:4

CLICK HERE to listen to this sermon in MP3 audio.

Many years ago, I engaged a friend of mine in a conversation about salvation.  In the course of our chat, I told Joe that I knew I was going to Heaven when I died.  His response to that statement surprised me: “Nobody can KNOW for sure that they are going to Heaven!”  Joe was a lifelong member of a local church and claimed to be a Christian.  But he felt I was being arrogant in my confidence in regard to eternal life.  And he is not the only person I’ve ever spoken to who has responded that way to such a statement.  Apparently many people equate confidence in one’s eternal destiny with arrogance or ignorance or both.

I remember when Sharon and I first heard John MacArthur on the radio.  Sharon’s initial reaction to his preaching, was that he was arrogant.  The reason he made that impression was because of his confidence in the Scriptures.  His style of preaching and teaching was one that reflected a confident assurance in the trustworthiness and reliability of the Bible.  In addition, I found out later that Dr. MacArthur spent 40 hours a week in sermon preparation, and as far as I know, he still does today.  

That kind of study, combined with a sincere dependence upon the Holy Spirit, and a conviction that the Bible really is the Word of God, produces confidence in preaching and teaching the Bible.  If the material is reliable, and you know the material, and you’re trusting in the Lord to bless your efforts, you can speak with a considerable degree of confidence.  Since the Scriptures are the inspired Word of God, the Bible teacher can speak from the text with authority.  But to many people, that kind of biblical authority comes across as being self-confident, prideful, arrogant, and even bigoted.  They have that attitude because they don’t understand the Person of Christ or the nature of the Scriptures.

Look in your bulletin and read this quote with me from A.W. Tozer entitled “Do Not Hope to Win the Lost by Being Agreeable”:

“IN OUR DAY, RELIGION MAY BE VERY PRECIOUS to some persons, but hardly important enough to cause division or risk hurting anyone’s feelings!  In all our discussions there must never be any trace of intolerance, we are reminded; but obviously we forget that the most fervent devotees of tolerance are invariably intolerant of everyone who speaks about God with certainty.  And there must be no bigotry—which is the name given to spiritual assurance by those who do not enjoy it!

The desire to please may be commendable enough under certain circumstances, but when pleasing men means displeasing God it is an unqualified evil and should have no place in the Christian’s heart.  To be right with God has often meant to be in trouble with men.  This is such a common truth that one hesitates to mention it, yet it appears to have been overlooked by the majority of Christians today.

There is a notion abroad that to win a man we must agree with him.  Actually, the exact opposite is true!  The man who is going in a wrong direction will never be set right by the affable religionist who falls into step beside him and goes the same way.  Someone must place himself across the path and insist that the straying man turn around and go in the right direction.” ¹

In the book of Colossians, Paul addresses this issue of being pleasing to men at the risk of being displeasing to God.  More specifically, Paul tells us that as Christians, we must be disagreeable towards those who differ when it comes to our faith in the Lord Jesus.  People who are confident in their faith are forced to be disagreeable with those who aren’t.  And we have every reason to be confident in Christ as the object of our faith.  Paul spends the majority of this book encouraging this kind of confidence and assurance in the Lord Jesus.  It will require us to be at odds with the thinking of the world.  I want to read chapter 2 with you once again.  And even though we’ve already looked at this text a number of times, and I need you to pay close attention to what is being said here by Paul.

Colossians 2 ESV

1 For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, 2 that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 4 I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. 5 For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ.

6 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

8 See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.  9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. 11 In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

16 Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. 17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. 18 Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, 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.

This is all about being sure in your understanding of who Jesus Christ is.  Paul is recounting all that has been accomplished by God through Christ for the sake of every believer.  In Christ, we died.  In Christ, we were raised from the dead.  In Christ, we were given eternal life.  In Christ, we were joined together with  Him in circumcision in a spiritual sense.  In Christ, we have even been raised up into glory.  Paul keeps reminding the Colossians and us that our salvation is “in Him,” in Christ, not in ourselves, not in our own efforts.

According to verse 2, he speaks of full assurance in Christ.  In Him are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.  In verse 7, he encourages us to be rooted and built up in him and established in the faith.  We can be confident in who Jesus is and what He has done!  We have a confident faith because our Savior has done all that is necessary to secure salvation for us!  

Then in verse 8, he warns against those who cast doubt against this confidence, those spiritual pirates who would rob us of our assurance.  Paul uses a phrase that helps us understand his point: according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.  Then skip down to verse 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?

What does this phrase “according to” mean?  Those who want to destroy confidence and assurance in Christ preach:

according to human tradition
according to the elemental spirits of the world
according to human precepts and teachings
and not according to Christ

The English phrase “according to” is a prepositional phrase meaning “in agreement with.”  This entire second chapter of Colossians boils down to a basic question: “As a Christian, who do you agree with: God or the world?”  As a believer, should we seek to be agreeable with worldly men and worldly thinking?  Can you be in agreement with those who insist you must have faith in yourself in order to be saved?  Or are you in accord with Christ, and your faith is in Him, do you live and think according to what He has done, and who He is?  Those are our choices.  

If we exhibit full assurance in Jesus Christ as Paul says here; if we have complete confidence in Christ alone to actually save us as Paul says He has done; if we reject the worldly notions and the human traditions that say no one can ever be sure they have eternal life; then the faithless people of the world will think we are arrogant and prideful and stupid.  They will pity us for being so foolish as to believe that all we need for eternal life and the forgiveness of sins is Jesus.  That is the universal, elemental, faithless spirit of an unbelieving world.  It is NOT according to, or in agreement with the Person and work of Jesus Christ.

And that is the choice: Are we going to be agreeable with those who say Jesus is not enough?  Or are we going to live our lives and walk in this world in agreement with who He really is?  And the strength of our faith in Christ is in direct proportion with how well we know and understand Him.  Ignorance of Christ produces weak faith.  Knowledge of Christ produces a strong faith and a confident assurance in Him.  

If we think according to Christ, we will think in heavenly, spiritual terms and not in earthly, worldly terms.  That kind of thinking will result in a changed life.  Look with me now at chapter 3.

Colossians 3, 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. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

What does Paul mean here by the phrase, “If then you have been raised with Christ”?  Is he talking about being raised from the dead?  Is this a reference to Jesus’ resurrection, and our union with Him?  In chapter 2, verse 12, Paul says the believer is buried, brought alive from our dead spiritual state as unbelievers, and raised from the dead with Christ by the power of God.  

But that is not what he’s talking about here in chapter 3.  Look at it carefully.  Added here to the list of things in which we are united with Christ is His ascension to Heaven!  Christ has been raised to the right hand of the Father.  Christ is above, in glory!  And we have been raised in Him, in a spiritual sense, to be with Him above!   

How is this possible?  How is it that we are already somehow with Christ in Heaven?  Paul gives a very brief explanation in verse 3:  For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.  That is his explanation.  Not a lot of detail.  It tends to create more questions than it answers.

John 14:19 (ESV) Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me.  Because I live, you also will live. 20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.

Look with me for a moment at 1 Corinthians 1.  There, Paul presents the contrast between the ways and the thinking of the world, the “elemental spirits of the world,” and the heavenly thinking of a believer whose mind operates according to who Christ really is:

 20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age?  Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

 26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 30 And because of him [God] you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness [from God] and sanctification [out of the world and for God] and redemption [from sin], 31 so that, as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord."

Christians are made to be partakers of a heavenly life.  The world contributes nothing to it.  God’s work on our behalf is to place each believer in Christ Jesus (v 30).  The Lord Jesus is now in Heaven at the right hand of God.  Consequently, somehow, because we have been placed into Christ Jesus, we are in heaven with Him.  God has done an other-worldly work through Christ on our behalf and because that is true, we are exhorted by Paul to seek the things that are above, (in that other world) where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.  Set your minds on things that are above BECAUSE you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

Our salvation is so complete that even though we have not yet died physically, we are in a spiritual sense in Heaven already.  We are, in some glorious and mysterious way, already in Heaven, in Christ, in God.  Therefore, we are not to think according to worldly standards.  We have no reason to be persuaded by worldly people to think worldly thoughts about worldly attempts to be pleasing to God.  Rather, because of the completely surpassing and infinitely valuable work of Jesus Christ on our behalf, we can have such assurance of our eternal destiny that we may legitimately boast in Him!  

There is a holy confidence in an all-sufficient Savior, and an assurance that is ours that we can speak of, which is not the fruit of any self-righteous arrogance or pride in anything we have done.  That would be worldly.  But because our salvation is complete in Him, and because we are filled in Him, we can gladly and joyfully boast in Him with full assurance that He has and He will save us!

If we are going to think and live according to the truth as it is in Christ, then we cannot be agreeable with and think according to the ways of a world that says Jesus is not enough, or that we make too much of Him.  We have every reason to make much of Jesus.  We have every reason to be firm in our faith, confident in His life and death and resurrection and exaltation to Heaven.  We boast in Him because He is worthy of such boasting.  Look at what He has done!!  He is at the right hand of God, and in some real sense which I cannot fully explain or comprehend, so are we because we are in Him.

That is why Paul says, “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory."    

IF you ARE above, with Christ, in Heaven, at the right hand of the Father, hidden with Christ in God . . .
THEN, seek the things that are above, set your minds on things that are above.

We as Christians are in a unique position to be able to contemplate heavenly realities.  We are already there!  In Christ, we are already there.  How does that manifest itself practically?  We’ll look at that next week.

----
1. http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/tozer10.html; Do Not Hope to Win the Lost by Being Agreeable, by A.W. Tozer (April 21, 1897 - May 12, 1963), Renewed Day By Day, September 3; Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. 1 Corinthians 16:13