October 15, 2024 - Colossians 2

Paul strongly encourages the Colossians as to how they are to live:  “Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving” (2:6).  Our lives are so intimately connected with Christ that John (chapter 15) was able to describe that relationship as ourselves having been grafted into the true vine, drawing our very life from him.  And here:  “rooted and built up in him" (2:7), “filled in him” (2:10), in him circumcised (2:11), “buried with him in baptism” (2:12), “raised with him through faith” (2:12), “made alive together with him” (2:13).  Furthermore, in Jesus we have all our transgressions forgiven, the Father “canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.  This he set aside, nailing it to the cross” (2:13,14).  “He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him” (2:15).

Down into the flowing river,

Lo, the Lamb of God we see;

There He speaks in clear example:

“Take the cross and follow Me.”

Gently buried with my Savior,

Let me sink beneath the wave;

Crucified to earth forever,

Hence alone to God I live.

Oh, how sweet to follow Jesus

In this ordinance, to show

That we’re cleansed in life’s pure river,

Even whiter than the snow.   -- D. S. Warner (1887)