Jesus Christ Lord of All #4: He Is Lord...
He Is Lord Over Philosophies of the World - Colossians 2:8–12
Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him…
Beware of the World
Paul’s warning, “Beware lest any man spoil you (carry you off as a captive, as spoil). How will they spoil you? Though worldly philosophy and vain deceit.
The word philosophy is φιλοσοφία, philosophia; the love of wisdom. In this case, vain, empty, worthless wisdom, wisdom in name only. In Paul’s time all thoughts and theories about God, the cosmos, the meaning of life was philosophy. He warns them against man’s theories instead of God’s truth.
He also warns them against vain deceit - the empty lies of this world..
All the world’s philosophies and lies go back to the lies told to Adam and Eve in Paradise. Lies planted like deadly weeds by Satan, the god of this world.
In John 8, Jesus in talking to the Pharisees who were slandering him as a liar said this in John 8:40 “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not.” They were so deceived that they could not recognize the truth. Much like the world today.
Here are the lies that are the foundation for all the lies and false wisdom of all the ages. All the lies Satan uses to deceive are based on these first lies in …
Genesis 3:5 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
Lie 1. You will not die. Don’t think about dying. This lie is deceiving by telling us not to be concerned about death and dying. We hear it echoed today in ideas like, Live for today. Eat, drink and be merry. Be in the present. Be in the now. This philosophy of life is all about getting all you can now and not planning for or even thinking about the certainty of death and even more important what will come after we die. Deny death, and you deny judgment, heaven, hell and eternity that come after death.
Lie 2. Satan said, “God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof then your eyes shall be opened,” Satan was intimating that God hadn’t Adam and Eve everything. God didn’t tell you everything. God is keeping back some knowledge, some wisdom, some experience and not telling you. If you disobey God in this one small thing, it would be worth it to gain that knowledge, feel that experience that God was denying them.
This is the heart of Gnosticism and the heart of every cult and worldly religion in existence today. There is something more, something you don’t know, something God got wrong. And all you have to do to see what God is denying you or what wisdom is found outside of God is to disobey God, deny God way and God’s word and the world opens up to you like a great beautiful flower fragrant with the wonder of all the world.
Lie 3. Satan the master of deception goes on and now makes the offer they can’t refuse, He says, “You will be as gods, knowing good and evil. Satan is saying, don’t settle for living in God’s paradise, be your own god and make your own paradise. What is better than obeying the God’s commandments? Being your own god and make up your own commandments. Decide for yourself what is good and what is evil.
The Mad World Today These lies are accepted as truth and the truth is now seen as the lie. That is where we are today. This world has been driven mad, insane with the lies of Satan and any who speak the truth are rejected as fools, and judgmental haters.
“In a mad world only the mad are sane." - Akira Kurosawa.
Let me give you a few examples of the world’s madness, its immoral insanity. You know what is insane? Homosexuality is insane. Insane because it means the slow destruction of the human race if practiced by enough people. Insane because even if practiced by just one person it destroys their own life. The highest rate of suicide of any social group is among homosexuals. The highest drug use, the highest lethal illnesses, the highest alcohol use. But the mad world says that the truth is a lie, so instead of believing the truth, be what you want, do what you want and try anything you want. That is the lie of Satan that turned Paradise in Pandora’s box of death.
This is also true of transexuals, bisexuals and yest unmarried sexuals. It’s true for the recreational use of alcohol, marijuana, fentanyl and any other drug taken in order to alter your reality, mind or mood, just to get a new experience. It’s true for the cultists, for the evolutionist and for the atheist. Aren’t they all just vain deceits trying to deny God, His commands, and His truth? These are the lies, the false philosophies of the world that deceive by telling you they will bring fulfillment, joy, and wonderful experiences but the truth is they are as deadly to us as the fruit Eve plucked from the tree.
Be Safe In Christ
Paul says the safe shelter to the world’s bombardment of lies is in Jesus. Colossians 2:9-12 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power: In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.
Let’s list what Paul says about Jesus and our completeness in Him
First: In Him is Completeness “in him dwells the fulness of the Godhead bodily. The Greek word for Godhead or deity is the abstract noun for God and includes not only the divine attributes but also the divine nature -Charles F. Pfeiffer and Everett Falconer Harrison, Eds., The Wycliffe Bible Commentary. In Jesus was all of God. For he was God in the flesh, very God of Very God.
Second: In Him, We are complete. Satan lied to Eve and said, there is more than what God is telling you. Gnosticism was lying to the Colossians saying there is something else, something better. The world is lying to us and saying we are missing something if we listen to His truth. But God’s Word says “We are complete, lacking, needing nor desiring nothing else but Jesus Christ, Lord of Lords and King of Kings.
Third, In Him, We are Circumcised (marked as belonging to God) Old Testament circumcision changed a portion of the body, but New Testament circumcision changes every part of us. Jewish circumcision marked the body identifying the people of God, but New Covenant circumcision, marks our soul identifying as belonging to God. Physical circumcision was no help in living defeating sin, but spiritual circumcision gives us victory over sin. We need nothing else.
Fourth, In Him, We are Alive. Our salvation by faith in Christ, means that we are also spiritually placed in Christ. His death, burial and resurrection is our death, burial and resurrection. Paul said, in Romans 6:3-4 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Can the world offer us anything better than Christ? Can it offer us anything comparable to being a child of God? Can it give us a better hope than the hope of eternity? Can it give us greater power than the power over sin, death and hell?
As Paul wrote, “You are complete in Him, and He is Lord of all principality and power.” There is nothing the Lord lacks, and there is nothing you lack in the Lord for none is greater than our Lord!
He Is Lord Over Pathology of Sin - Colossians 2:13-14
And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;
Be Quickened
Three salvation actions God did through Christ in our salvation.
We, Paul says, we were in a state of death, “being dead.” Dead in our sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, the immorality of our body. Being in that state of death, 1) God quickened us with Jesus Christ. This word quickened is another compound word, two word joined together to give a new word. The two words are συνάγω synagō; which means together and our word synergy comes from it. Also, the word ζωοποιέω zōopoieō; which means to make alive. Quickened together, made alive with and through Christ.
In order to make us alive, God had to remove that which was keeping us that state of living death. (Did you ever think of the lost as being zombies? Well, spiritually speaking, we all were, animated, moving but lacking the real life that can only come from God.) But we have been given spiritual life by 2) God’s forgiveness of our trespasses. Here is a word I wasn’t prepared for. I thought it was just another word for sin, but it says more than just that. This word is παράπτωμα paraptōma; another para word that Colossians is full of. It literal means a side-slip, a simple lapse or deviation. It could even be an unintentional error or transgression. We may not have realized it was sin, or intended to sin but it was sin and we committed it, but God forgave us.
Then Paul gives us a legal description of how our guilt was dealt with through forgiveness. He says that God blotted out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us. Those accusations, sins, trespasses and bills of debt were taken out of the way and nailed to the cross of Jesus. Ordinances is the word δόγμα, dogma, this word is used of the laws and decrees of the Roman law, or the rules of the Old Testament Law of given to Moses. In the Roman culture of Paul’s time there was a handwritten note that was signed note by someone who owed money to another. It was like an IOU. A person under the Law of the Old Testament every time they broke the law was signing IOU upon IOU until he amassed a debt he could never pay.
Paul gives us a picture here of the crucifixion of Christ but brought into the focus, the line of sight of our own eyes. Just as Pilate had nailed the accusation of the Jews “King of the Jews” over the head of Jesus, God nailed the IOUs of all laws that we were guilty of to the cross of His own Son. As Jesus bled and died upon that cruel cross, his blood blotted out my debt. It blotted out my guilt. All that could be seen from that time forward would be the blood of Christ covering my sin.
Be Alive In Christ
Paul is telling the Colossians and us that we are alive in Christ and that life can only be found in Jesus Christ.
We see this same theme running through Paul’s other prison epistle of Ephesians 2:1-6 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, (isn’t that a wonderful phrase) Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
Under Roman law if you were in debt and couldn’t pay it, the man you owed could claim your life and make you his slave. But when a man paid off his debt, he was free. He then would take the ordinance of his debt, now paid in full and he would nail it over the door of his house, so that all who passed by would know that the debt was paid and the person living in this house was free. This is the picture Paul knew the Colossians, would understand. A true illustration of what God did through His Son Jesus Christ. He made them alive and he made them free.
The hymn says, He Paid A Debt He Did Not Owe,
I Owed A Debt I Could Not Pay,
I Needed Someone To Wash My Sins Away;
And Now I Sing A Brand New Song,
Amazing Grace All Day Long,
Christ Jesus Paid A Debt, That I Could Never Pay.
Paul has one more superlative to lay like a crown at the feet of Jesus His lord in vs. 15 He says…
He Is Lord Over Principalities and Powers – Colossians 2:15
And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.
Be Victorious
This is what God did in Jesus winning our salvation. In the battle of the cross Jesus spoiled authorities and powers. He stripped them, despoiled, disarmed and defeated the authorities and powers under Satan command.
Paul says Jesus, is our great conquering hero and the cross was his greatest battle ground and ultimate triumph. At the cross he defeated death, hell and the all the power and authority that Satan has in this world. Jesus dying for us took death captive.
When a Roman general would win a great victory he was given a Triumph. He would ride through the streets of Rome while people cheered and threw flowers upon him and his army as he rode. And in that triumphal parade, marching behind the conquering hero would also be the enemies he had conquered walking with their heads down and chained as slaves, now the property of the conqueror.
WA Criswell said about this passage, “All of these principalities and powers, named and unnamed, known and unknown, presided over by Satan, all of them – sin and death and darkness and damnation and hell and decay and corruption – all of them, misery and tears and grief and age and suffering and pain and sorrow and death – all of them marshaled … against God; and on the cross, … that final war…the consummation of the strife of the ages, all on the day of the cross, on Calvary.
Look at His chariot! There chained to His chariot is Satan and death and hell and the grave. Oh, it goes beyond imagination. It goes beyond word and sentence to bear the thought what God hath wrought for us in the victory of the cross. - W A Criswell
Isaiah 53:12 Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Ephesians 4:8 Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive
Be Triumphant In Christ
Do you know who else marched in the triumph of the conquering general, the soldiers of his army. They would share in the triumph because they had obeyed and followed their great hero.
Marching With the King. There are powers in this world that I can’t defeat. There are enemies that I can’t overcome. When I think of the pandemic we have come through, when I think of those we lost, when I think about the regret, the guilt, the sense of loss I feel. I am overwhelmed and ready to admit defeat.
But when I stop and consider Christ. When I think about my Lord, Jesus. When I think about what He did upon the cross. When I grasp the scope of the victory He won on Calvary’s mount. When I see the enemies, I can’t overcome, disarmed, defeated, and captured there on Golgotha hill, then I am overwhelmed not by defeat but by victory, the triumph I can claim through Jesus, Lord of Lord, King of Kings, the undisputed, undefeated, undeniable conquering Captain of the Lord’s Host.
1 Corinthians 15:55-57 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? -- The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Hallelujah, What a Savior by Phillip P Bliss
Man of Sorrows! what a name
for the Son of God, who came
ruined sinners to reclaim.
Hallelujah! What a Savior!
Bearing shame and scoffing rude,
In my place condemned He stood;
Sealed my pardon with His blood.
Hallelujah! What a Savior!
Guilty, vile, and helpless we;
Spotless Lamb of God was He;
“Full atonement!” can it be?
Hallelujah! What a Savior!
Lifted up was He to die;
“It is finished!” was His cry;
Now in Heav’n exalted high.
Hallelujah! What a Savior!
When He comes, our glorious King,
All His ransomed home to bring,
Then anew His song we’ll sing:
Hallelujah! What a Savior!
Conclusion
Where do we stand today? Are we being held captive by this world’s false wisdom and empty lies or are we marching in the triumph train of Jesus Our Lord and King? Are we marching in the truth of God’s word or are we being defeated by Satan, the father of lies?
Do you remember Moses last words to the children of Israel before he died? He said in Deuteronomy 30:19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life.
It really is that simple, that acute. Life or death, victory or defeat. Christ Jesus Lord and the cross of forgiveness or Satan and the corruption of his world. Life or death, so choose life. Choose Christ.
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