Word of Salvation – Vol. 24 No. 49 – September 1978
Christ Is All And In All
Sermon by Rev. K. V. Warren, B.A., B.D., M.Th. on Colossians 3:11b
Scripture reading: Colossians 1:11-20 & 3:1-11
Psalter Hymnal: 85; 302 (tune 58); 55:1, 3, 5; 427:1, 2, 4; 470:3-5
Beloved Congregation,
If, for you, the Christian life is smooth sailing, you’re either in the wrong ship, or on the wrong sea, or you’re fast asleep in your cabin. I remember an elder in one of our churches came to me after the service and he said: “What you just said, do you really believe that the Christian life is so difficult?” And I said: “My word, I do!” Then he said: “But Christ did it all for us!” Yes, praise God, Christ DID it all for us, but NOW, for you and me, TO WORK IT OUT, in daily life, THERE’s your struggle, there’s your difficulty! And when you read the New Testament letters to the early churches, we need very little convincing that the Christian WAY OF LIFE comes into being in the setting of struggle, self- denial, thorns in the flesh, sweat, blood and tears; NO smooth sailing, none of it! That is not true today, it wasn’t true in the PAST either.
This church in Colossae is somewhat hung up about how to live a God-pleasing life. If you’re a Christian – and they were! – you naturally desire to please Christ in the way you live, and… what a mess they made of it! This church really has to be warned in very strong terms about so many things in their lives that shouldn’t be there: 3:5 – no immorality, no impurity, no lust, THAT’s not the way to live! And there’s evil desire; and you’re greedy, there’s anger, and slander, gossip, bad talking, filthy language, telling lies to one another. Not a very pretty picture really!
Those Colossians must have known it of themselves, of course not to the full extent; but isn’t that your experience, ours, – that is: if we’re genuine about following Christ – we often KNOW where and when we failed the mark; a Christian has a sensitivity to the weaker aspects of his life, the Spirit of God makes us sensitive, (unfortunately the Christian at times has a greater sensitivity to the weaknesses in the lives of OTHER people), but by and large, a Christian is aware of failing his Lord! At least to a certain degree. If you’re not aware of that, of failing your Lord, if it doesn’t plague you at times, bother you, frustrate you, I think you may well ask yourself the question: AM I a Christian?
Here are these Colossians then, struggling on, ups and downs, and are they being tricked! That’s right: fooled they are, deceived, they were beginning to believe that in their Christian life – which was a struggle – things would go very much better if there were some more RULES and REGULATIONS. There were some people in the church, doing the rounds: ‘Hey you, come over here, having a bit of trouble living the Christian life? I thought so, you don’t look very happy, but we’ve got the answer for you, what your problem is, is that you don’t please God ENOUGH! You must make that life of yours deeper and wider. Take food and drink, you think that God is not concerned about that? He certainly is! And take a religious festival, and the sabbath (it’s all here in chapter 2), and worship of angels, and visions, and (2:21): when you really mean business for God, there’s plenty of things you ought not to HANDLE, not to TASTE, not to TOUCH!’
Have you ever romanticized the early New Testament church? Do you sometimes say: Ah, the way it was in the beginning, wasn’t it marvellous, so spontaneous and joyful, none of the complications WE are faced with after 2,000 years of church history! Don’t do it, don’t spin dreams about this young church! A careful reading of the New Testament may well turn some of your dreams into nightmares! Only look at this whole list of negatives (Ch.3:5,8), immorality, greed, slander, do you think that Paul is just making up these things? I doubt that very much, much of this must actually have been going on in that congregation, and… now they’re going to make things even worse by making these lists of do’s and don’ts a real part of their Christian life: don’t handle, don’t taste, don’t touch, THAT will bring us closer to God; but what a tragedy, congregation, for all these rules come out of the human mind, Ch.2:22: “according to human precepts and doctrines”.
THAT is the hardest, most difficult thing for a person to learn: that ANYTHING OUTSIDE of Christ is so much baggage and nonsense!
You don’t have to take our word for it, just look at 2,000 years of things that keep pushing in, crowding in, what MAN can do, what I can do; we may call that man’s fake contribution to a pseudo salvation for a make-believe heaven. How often do we hear it from unbelieyers: We’re alright. We’ve always been decent people; brought up the children well. We’re a good family, we’ve done our duty, always put in a good day’s work…! But the text says: CHRIST is all.
I see, says the human mind, now surely there is something that I can do. Look what Paul says about these human things at the very end of chapter 2 (vs.23): “These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting rigor of devotion and self-abasement and severity to the body, but they are of no value in checking the indulgence of the flesh.” Those human efforts? Useless! Irrelevant! Why? CHRIST IS ALL. Literally it says in the text: Christ is ALL THINGS.
But there is another thing in this congregation which is way out of keeping with the Christian way of life: there is tension, rivalry, friction, ys.11: there are Greek people in the church, but also some Jews, some are circumcised, others are not; there are slaves, plenty of slaves, and also free people, maybe landowners; and even some who came from beyond the black stump: barbarians, Scythians, – says Paul: it means absolutely nothing WHO YOU ARE, WHERE YOU’RE FROM, WHAT YOU’RE DOING; CHRIST IS EVERYTHING!
When it comes to salvation, Jesus is ALL. My experience, my upbringing, my studies, my way of life, my standing in the community, my skill, my devotion, my intelligence, my faithfulness, the many years I’ve served the church, ALL THAT, when it comes to salvation, is precisely worth NOTHING. Nothing at all.
Have you ever read, boys and girls, about Martin Luther? If you’ve never heard of him, ask Mum and Dad. But Luther did all kinds of things to be right with God, he denied himself many things: no blankets on his bed in the cold of winter, scrubbing the stone floor of the monastery till his knees were bleeding, going for times without food, without sleep, but it got him nowhere. He didn’t find peace with God. Of course not. For CHRIST IS ALL!
You want to be saved? Christ! Anything more? No!
Christ is all!
Only three words. But it’s the gospel. Is it your joy? Is it?
But we’d like to extend the meaning of these words even more, and put the stress on another word, not: CHRIST is all, but Christ is ALL.
As regards salvation, the beginning, the middle, the end: Christ is ALL! What a colossal mistake when we would limit Christ to the time we first believed, full stop. Christ, the One Who OPENED the door, Who SET us on our way, and what then? Leave us? Is it after that, up to us? Oh no, not just the beginning, but every inch of the way, right up to glory and heaven! Every day of 1978: Christ is ALL.
Romans 8:32: “He Who did not spare His Own Son, but gave Him up for us all, will He not also give us ALL THINGS with Him?” Every day of 1978. And, for that matter, a LIFE-LONG outworking of what God has worked in. Christ is ALL.
Congregation, let us bring that into REAL LIFE, your world, my world, the world of people, kids, cars, food, T.V. work.
Example? Are you impatient?
Remember, we’re trying to apply that principle now of ‘Christ is ALL’ in situations where the rubber meets the road.
Am I impatient? Yes, I think I am. And it bothers me too. How is it going? Not all that much improvement.
Now what does the text say? Christ is ALL.
Now if words mean anything: if Christ is ALL (and He is!) then He also must be perfectly PATIENT, otherwise He isn’t ALL! Christ is perfectly patient. Says God to all His children: It’s YOURS too! Right! Christ and all His benefits, His living and His dying, YOURS, by FAITH!
Do you mean to say that God looks upon me AS IF I have the perfect patience of Christ, as if I have never sinned when it comes to losing my patience? – Spot on, that’s what I mean, or rather that’s what the Bible teaches.
Lord, I am impatient, but You consider me as if I possess the perfect patience of Christ? Lord, will You then please MAKE REAL in my life what is mine in PRINCIPLE. For Christ is all!
What a glorious principle, congregation! What a powerful motivation for living the Christian life. It’s the ONLY motive. But what an EFFECTIVE one!
Again an example: Have you got a real problem LOVING this or that person? You’ve tried, and you’ve tried again, and it’s not too successful.
The Bible says: Christ is ALL.
That also means Christ is perfectly LOVING, and BY FAITH it’s yours, says God. Seeing us, considering us, accepting us, as if we have perfectly loved; claim it then, keep on claiming it throughout your life, CHRIST IS ALL.
Another example: Are you tempted? Could you think right now of a situation of temptation? Money, sex, greed, laziness, anger, worldliness, dishonesty.
The Bible says to us then: “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”
Why is that? Why this confidence? Because I am Christ’s, because I am a child of God, I am the VICTOR in Christ, the devil is the loser! Christ is ALL, Not just for the first steps on the way of salvation, but very much for the ongoing of it. Right on into glory!
But congregation, young people, how vitally important to see this glorious truth in the PROPER BIBLICAL PERSPECTIVE! For even here the devil can play such cruel games with us. Let us be very much alert here, and not develop the wrong kind of mentality.
What I mean to say is this, and an example is maybe the best way to get it across: someone is anxious, tense, unhappy, depressed. And you say: ‘Now look, there’s no need for that, you just go to Jesus. And it will be alright!’ Now that approach is just not good enough, not good enough.
If that is all we say: You just go to Jesus and it will be alright, – well, along the very same lines there are people who say: I do transcendental meditation and I am alright. I follow the teaching of this guru and I am really alright. I’m now on these new tablets, and man, I feel alright.. I went to see this psychiatrist a few times, and I’m on top of the world again.
May God forbid that we use CHRIST that way, or try to. There is such a vast difference between these other approaches and this, here in Scripture. With these other approaches, you BEGIN with the problem, and you then aim to reach improvement, you work TOWARDS victory.
But in the Christian life it’s just the other way round: WE BEGIN with the victory, we do not have to win the fight, the battle HAS BEEN WON. Christ is all.
Oh, may the Spirit of God prod us on, every day, to live out of that victory, more than conquerors; all things are yours, Paul writes to the Corinthians, all things are yours, and you are Christ’s and Christ is God’s.
Our text says one more thing. CHRIST IS IN ALL!
Christ is all, praise God, and also
Sure, that was just one of the weaknesses in that early church: the JEW Christian probably saying: Yes, I know the Greek Christians are there, but it seems that Christ is more in US than in THEM, and what would the free man have thought of the slave, and the cultured Roman Christians of the barbarian believer?
In that congregation: some UP HERE, some DOWN THERE, some IN THE MIDDLE.
No! In CHRIST: all on the SAME level!
Of course, for Christ is IN ALL, through His SPIRIT, that is true of every Christian.
Paul wrote to the Romans: “Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does
not belong to Him.” (Rom.8:9).
To the Corinthians: “Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?” (2Cor.13:5).
To the Ephesians: “…That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.” (Eph.3:17).
To the Colossians: “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Col.1:27).
If indeed the full implications of the gospel of Christ are brought to bear, cultural barriers go: Christ is in all. Racial barriers disappear, social barriers no longer exist, barriers go, for Christ breaks down these walls, when people truly understand and live these Christian truths: I in Christ, and Christ in me. No, no, better still: WE in Christ, and Christ in US.
Have you ever said, or even thought: I don’t think much of that other person -and I mean then: within the setting of the church! Who of us would dare to say: NOT ME, I never think or talk like that.
When we say: I can’t really get along with him, with her, then the Scripture says: Christ is IN ALL, Christ is IN HIM, IN HER, in ALL believers. We couldn’t come up with a better rationale, a more powerful motivation for having a glorious world, a beautiful country, a fine society, a peaceful church, a splendid homelife.
Most of all, we’ll have to apply it on THAT level: the CHURCH, the HOME. Christ IS IN ALL. Yes, yes, that may be so, I realize that the Bible says it, but I just cannot see very much of that IN HIM, IN HER. But THAT’S not the question we ought to ask: can I see much of the Christ in the other person? No, the question is: Can the other person see much of the Christ in ME? Or, are we willing to put it even like this: Can CHRIST see much of Himself in ME?
AMEN.