Wednesday, August 4, 2010

My (Penney's) Responses regarding Colossians 2:6-15 post




1)  According to Strong’s concordance, "to have received Christ" means to “associate oneself with in any familiar or intimate act or relation” and “to learn...receive...take.”  

2)  We “walk in Him” by:
living our lives in a way that reflects Him, 
being rooted (stable), 
built up (edified and emboldened), 
established in the faith (relying on Christ constantly), and
abounding in thanksgiving (as an act of worship).

3)  “In Him” includes being:
given (my self) wholly to Him,
in a state of rest with Him,
filled by Him,
ruled by Him,
submitted to Him,
buried with Him (in baptism),
raised with Him,
made alive, and
forgiven (being relieved of the legal debt owed by us due to our sin, known and unintentional/unknown).

4) The legal consequences of our sin were nailed to His cross and are no longer debts owed by us!  Woot!



My paraphrase (I am NOT a theologian, but this is how this passage speaks to me):  

I have received Christ Jesus as my Lord and Savior, and I must walk in Him.  I have associated myself with Him, in a familiar or intimate act, and have taken on the “office” of Christian.  I must learn from Him, and receive the knowledge, wisdom, and gifts He gives to me.  I must walk in Him by living in such a way that it is obvious to others that I am occupied with Him and I am following Him with all of my heart.  

I must walk in Him by being stable in my faith, growing in the things He teaches me, edifying and strengthening others as He calls me to.  I must also remain constant in my reliance upon Him for salvation and must remain steady in my faith in Him.  I need to be abounding in thanksgiving and remain in active gratitude to God for all He has done for me, thanksgiving is part of a life of worship.  I must be perceptive (aware) of anyone who may try to lead me away from the Truth, via philosophy, deceit, religious tradition, or anything other than the way of Christ!

As I am walking in Him, I must give myself wholly to Him, and rest in Him.  He must completely fill me, He resides in me and I reside in Him.  He is the head and authority of my life, and I have been filled with Him (spiritually completed and perfected, fully supplied).  I must put off my human nature, with its frailties (physically and morally) and passions, and live a life of spiritual circumcision (living in a covenant relationship with Him, being set apart for Him and His purposes alone).  I have been buried with Him in baptism (immersed with and spiritually assimilated) and raised (spiritually revived and made alive!) with Him through the strong, effectual, and miraculous working of God, the supreme Divinity!  He has forgiven me all my sins, both willful and unintentional, and has blotted out and wiped away any record of any debt I owed as a result of those sins.  The legal demands of those sins were nailed to His cross, and Christ triumphed over rules and authorities by His resurrection so I am no longer liable because He has taken that liability on my behalf!  So the very least I can do is live for Him!

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