Freedom is Yours

Colossians 2:6-15

6 And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. 7 Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.

8 Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ. 9 For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. 10 So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.

11 When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature. 12 For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead.

13 You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. 14 He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. 15 In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.

Notice here in verse 6 that our decision to follow Christ by accepting the work He did for us on the cross is not the end, but the beginning. We are encouraged to continue to follow Him. Verse 7 expounds on that and it tells us that we need to not just follow Him, but we are to let our roots grow into Him. Plants don't grow deep roots if they are moved around alot. They can't develop a good root structure if they are and then they are succeptible to winds and storms. When we have deep roots in Christ we will grow strong in faith and our lives will overflow with thankfulness for what He did for us. Praise God!

Verse 8 is a reminder of what trap we can fall into if we are fully grounded on Christ and Christ alone. If you don't have deep roots in the way of truth through Christ you are then not going to be strong in your faith and can easily be persuaded by the teaching of man through the devil. Christ lived in a human body so we could have an example of how to live on this planet without sin and do what we do by following the Holy Spirit. In our union with Christ we are made complete and fall under His leadership and authority through the Holy Spirit.

I am so thankful that I went through spiritual circumcision when I accepted Christ and that my sinful nature does not control me to the extent it did before. It does rise up and I do battle it on a daily basis. Notice that we were buried with Christ through baptism and it is our faith that allows to be raised to new life. It's not a physical procedure nor is it something we can do by how we act or what we say. It is all by faith.

Verse 13 assures us that when we go through the circumcision of the spirit that all of our sins are forgiven. Verse 14 also goes on to say that our record of our sins in canceled when Jesus was nailed on the cross. PRAISE GOD FOREVER!

The devil and his angels have no power over us spiritually because of the actions of Jesus. They were publicly shamed by His victory over them on the cross. What they thought was their biggest victory was actually their largest defeat. The devil is the loser of losers. He always will be. We are the victorious through Christ and His actions for us. That is what I call true freedom!

Numbers 6:24-26 (AMP)

The Lord bless you and watch, guard, and keep you; The Lord make His face to shine upon and enlighten you and be gracious (kind, merciful, and giving favor) to you; The Lord lift up His [approving] countenance upon you and give you peace (tranquility of heart and life continually).

Published by Erik L. Vakula
Daily Bread From the Word
Copyright © 2009 Erik Vakula, All Rights Reserved