Like many other kids who grew up in church, I had an extremely legalistic perception of how Christianity works. I rarely thought about Jesus\u2019s death freeing me to become a joyful and hope-filled person. Instead, I asked questions like, \u201cWhere is the line, and how close can I get without crossing it?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There\u2019s rightfully been a backlash against that way of thinking, but since we can often tend toward legalism, we\u2019ve made new laws to replace the old legalism. We ask questions like, \u201cHow does God want to bless me today?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In both systems, I can hear Paul saying to me and us, \u201cYou\u2019ve got it all wrong. Do you know who Jesus actually is and who you are because of who He is?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Paul wrote to the Colossians at a time when all kinds of heresies were flying around, including several varieties of Gnosticism, which promoted a special knowledge for salvation. In every case he wrote about, the focus was not on the person and their actions but on receiving the gift of Christ\u2014a gift bursting at the seams with grace, power, and glory! Paul warned the Christians not to be taken captive by the current culture\u2019s philosophies because of who they had become in Christ (Colossians 2:8). He reminded them of who Christ is and why this was great news for their identities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Christian identity is this: we have been filled by Christ, who is fully God, \u201cthe head over every ruler and authority\u201d (v.10). The outward expressions of our faith reflect the extraordinary news that Christ\u2019s submission to God led to His death and resurrection. The same power of God that raised Christ brings about our own salvation, forgiveness, and alive-ness now (vv.11\u201313). Our unpayable debt, the one that guaranteed our doom and forced us to endlessly try to be enough, has been paid by Jesus (v.14). And finally, as Christ\u2019s death brought triumph over His oppressors, our life in Him means we will ultimately be victorious over our oppressors (v.15). Goodbye, legalism\u2014of every kind!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All of this is extraordinary. But how do we remember it and not return to one form of legalism or another? How do we stay balanced? I think this is actually simple but just not easy: we seek to be \u201coverflowing with gratitude\u201d (v.7) for who Christ is and what He\u2019s done for us. We get our focus off ourselves and onto God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019d like to encourage you to take one aspect of the awe-inspiring truths Paul gives us in this passage and think about it throughout the day. Celebrate that Christ is alive in you! Or that your debt of sin has been erased! Or that you are victorious, even in your darkest circumstances, because Christ has overcome! Most of all, celebrate Christ!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Like many other kids who grew up in church, I had an extremely legalistic perception of how Christianity works. I rarely thought about Jesus\u2019s death freeing me to become a joyful and hope-filled person. Instead, I asked questions like, \u201cWhere is the line, and how close can I get without crossing it?\u201d There\u2019s rightfully been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":109,"featured_media":71281,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[289],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-philippiansandcolossians"],"acf":{"hero_background_image":false,"author_name":"","author_bio":"","guest_social_media":false,"related_plans":[71272],"weekly_truth":false,"grace_day":false,"share_text":"#SheReadsTruth","devotional_text":"THE TRUE GOSPEL<\/b>
\r\nby Ginny Owens<\/i>
\r\n
Like many other kids who grew up in church, I had an extremely legalistic perception of how Christianity works. I rarely thought about Jesus\u2019s death freeing me to become a joyful and hope-filled person. Instead, I asked questions like, \u201cWhere is the line, and how close can I get without crossing it?\u201d<\/p>
\r\n
There\u2019s rightfully been a backlash against that way of thinking, but since we can often tend toward legalism, we\u2019ve made new laws to replace the old legalism. We ask questions like, \u201cHow does God want to bless me today?\u201d<\/p>
\r\n
In both systems, I can hear Paul saying to me and us, \u201cYou\u2019ve got it all wrong. Do you know who Jesus actually is and who you are because of who He is?\u201d<\/p>
\r\n
Paul wrote to the Colossians at a time when all kinds of heresies were flying around, including several varieties of Gnosticism, which promoted a special knowledge for salvation. In every case he wrote about, the focus was not on the person and their actions but on receiving the gift of Christ\u2014a gift bursting at the seams with grace, power, and glory! Paul warned the Christians not to be taken captive by the current culture\u2019s philosophies because of who they had become in Christ (Colossians 2:8). He reminded them of who Christ is and why this was great news for their identities.<\/p>
\r\n
The Christian identity is this: we have been filled by Christ, who is fully God, \u201cthe head over every ruler and authority\u201d (v.10). The outward expressions of our faith reflect the extraordinary news that Christ\u2019s submission to God led to His death and resurrection. The same power of God that raised Christ brings about our own salvation, forgiveness, and alive-ness now (vv.11\u201313). Our unpayable debt, the one that guaranteed our doom and forced us to endlessly try to be enough, has been paid by Jesus (v.14). And finally, as Christ\u2019s death brought triumph over His oppressors, our life in Him means we will ultimately be victorious over our oppressors (v.15). Goodbye, legalism\u2014of every kind!<\/p>
\r\n
All of this is extraordinary. But how do we remember it and not return to one form of legalism or another? How do we stay balanced? I think this is actually simple but just not easy: we seek to be \u201coverflowing with gratitude\u201d (v.7) for who Christ is and what He\u2019s done for us. We get our focus off ourselves and onto God.<\/p>
\r\n
I\u2019d like to encourage you to take one aspect of the awe-inspiring truths Paul gives us in this passage and think about it throughout the day. Celebrate that Christ is alive in you! Or that your debt of sin has been erased! Or that you are victorious, even in your darkest circumstances, because Christ has overcome! Most of all, celebrate Christ!<\/p>","share_image_height":"640","day_number":"18","scripture":"Colossians 2:8-15, Deuteronomy 10:16-17, John 1:1-5, John 1:10-18, Romans 2:25-29","available":true,"ad_banner_name":"","ad_banner_image":false,"ad_banner_url":"","songs":"","key_verse":"","key_verse_reference":"","background_image":false,"background_color":"#FBF7F3","scripture_references":false,"share_image":false,"show_ad":true,"ad_override":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/109"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}