- Lesson 7 from the BaptistWay Press Connect360 unit “The Fullness of Christ” focuses on Colossians 2:8-15.
Humans hunger for value and significance. Humans also have an unquenchable desire to know more, do more and be more. This aspect of human nature is both a blessing and a curse. On the blessing side, the desire to improve can motivate positive behavior. On the curse side, it can become an uncontrollable impulse that drives us to make unwise decisions and take dangerous risks. This juxtaposition was the situation facing the church in Colossae—and continues to challenge us today.
God became flesh in the person of Jesus (John 1:1, 14; Col. 2:9–10). God’s dwelling in fullness in Jesus gave him the power to defeat sin by living a perfect life and paying the penalty for our sins by dying on the cross (Col. 2:11). Our baptism symbolizes dying to our old self and dying to sin (Col. 2:12). By faith in Jesus, we were also in Jesus when he rose from the dead; thus, by faith, we have died to sin and our old life. Just as Christ physically rose from the dead, we spiritually rise as new creatures in Christ, given a new nature that desires to please God (Col. 2:12). This complete salvation allows God to crucify our old sinful self and raise us as new creatures in Christ (Col. 2:13). By faith, we have been raised, given a new quality of life, and a new power to live it. God saves us, once and for all, and reconnects us to his eternal and life-giving presence. We have complete forgiveness.
Free from our past guilt
“Forgiveness” is a beautiful word. It is a word which, in the Greek language, describes untying a boat from a dock and letting it go out to sea. When we turn to Christ, all the filth, hurt, destructiveness and guilt associated with our sin and past is untied and taken away. God frees us. He takes our vessels of sin over the horizon. They are gone, forgiven and no longer tied to the dock of our lives. When we recall a sin, we can know that God already has taken that boat away because the blood of Jesus paid for all sins—past, present and future. God’s word promises that if we confess (agree with God regarding) our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to keep on cleansing us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).
Compiled by Stan Granberry, marketing coordinator for BaptistWay Press.
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