I used to build model cars. Funny how when I finished some of my cars would have three wheels instead of four. When I started all the pieces would be there and some how, as if by mystical powers they would disappear. Oh what frustration.
Some people make comments that there is something
missing in their Christian lives. Oh how frustrating to go through Christianity feeling like something is missing. In fact, many of us feel guilty because we have to admit (even to ourselves) that something is missing. But is it?
The final answer
is found in Colossians 2:8-10
8 Beware
lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the
tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according
to Christ. 9 For
in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; 10 and
you are
complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.
You are complete in Christ. We have been talking about
people who feel there is something missing in their lives, and here is the
bible telling us we are complete in Christ. If a thing is complete, then
nothing is missing. My need is to work
out the completeness that he already has worked into my life.
How can I experience this sense of
Completeness? historical background
I. Picture of Christian Completeness (Romans 5:1-5)
1. Description of
Completeness (Condition of Faith and Consequences of Faith) (1)
Condition of faith
– Justified by faith
Consequences of
Faith – We have peace
If I am complete in Christ, then I am complete in sorrow,
in tragedy, in bereavement, in any situation.
2. Demonstration
of Completeness (2-3)
All they possessed was by faith – Three things are stated
here:
A. “We stand”
– {picture of the Roman Solider in his armor standing strong and firm in the
face of a foe}
B. “We rejoice”
– they had the capacity for joy. {Storm raging at sea – waves tossed…but not too far below the surface
there is peace even with a storm above}
C. “We glory”
(3) – TRIBULATION (picture word in the NT: tribulum was a Roman agricultural
tool for threshing wheat… This is what tribulation is – blow after blow, all
falling on the one life.)
T.S. This is
the quality of life of the early Christians. How
does your life measure up with theirs? Do you have that rare peace? Do you
stand like a tree? Is there real joy? Can you find glory in tribulation?
(Let’s go on and dig a little deeper – find out the
secret of their success)
II. Living out our Completeness (Romans 5:8-10)
1. The Past Tense
(8)
The forgiveness of my sins because Christ died for me – 1
Peter 3:18 For Christ
also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to
God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit,
This is the finished work of Christ. There are some poor
people who believe that is all they can be sure of. They speak of their hope
that they will be in heaven. Look at v
9.
2. The Future
Tense (9)
(This was my
understanding and reality for many years…I got saved and I set out to live for
Jesus! My past tense and future tense were covered. So I set out to work out my
present tense…many of us are here now – we are sincere, we try our best to live for
Jesus. When we fail, we feel guilty and work harder to fulfill our hopes.
But, we can never really for Jesus. In fact, the Bible never commands or
expects its. We end up by accepting a defeated Christian life as normal. Cause
this is all we see around us.
3. The Present
tense (10)
“By His life” – in a sense this is the other half of
God’s salvation.
a. We are saved
through the death of Christ – this is the finished work of Christ
b. We are saved by
the life of Christ – this is the unfinished, unfolding work of Christ.
God’s salvation is present tense, daily delivered from
sin’s dominion, from the pressure of daily life, from fear, from worry, and
anxiety, from guilt and failure.
2 Corinthians 13:5 Examine
yourselves [as to] whether you are in
the faith. Test yourselves. Do you
not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?--unless indeed you are
disqualified. (reprobates) (disqualified/reprobates means fakes,
outcast, rejects)
I do not have to live for Jesus. He who indwells me
wants to live in me, and for me, and through me! (This is your
great area failure. You may be seeking so sincerely to live for Him when, all
the time He is seeking to take over in your life and live for you.)
Philippians 1:21 For
to me, to live [is] Christ, and to die [is] gain
Philippians 4:13 I
can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
This is how we are complete in Christ.
By the saving death of Christ, he is the sin –
bearer!
Through the Saving Life of Christ, he is the burden
– bearer!
Realize in a
new way that the missing experience in your life is failure to become involved
with the glorious truth: you are complete in Him. – You only
experience completeness when you take a complete Christ.
Coming to the cross is wonderful, precious, and
essential. But this is not all God has for us. We need to come to Christ, day
by day and hour by hour. If I only take half of what God offers then I only
enjoy half a salvation.
God
has much more, so much more for us through a personal relationship with the
risen indwelling Christ. Does this make sense to you? …Mind blown? Would you
like to know that risen Christ in your daily life?
Prayer of
Realization
Father, I thank you for your greatness, your majesty, and
your glory. I thank you for your wonderful mind blowing plan of salvation and
for your Word that teaches it to me.
I thank you for the two-fold offer of the Lord Jesus as
my savor. I thank you for his death on the cross whereby I received forgiveness
of sins and a home in heaven. I also thank you for His risen life. Although I
cannot begin to understand how, I thank you that the Lord Jesus indwells me
through His Spirit.
Lord Jesus, I thank you for all your promises: that you
will never leave me nor forsake me that you are with me always. Help me now to
accept this in a new and vital way.
May I realize that you are still my savior that I do not
have to live for you or struggle on my own to cope with all the pressures of
life.
Lord Jesus, here and now I yield to you the daily running
of my life. Be pleased to take over and live your life through me. May I go on
to know true peace, to stand like a tree, to have true joy, to find the glory
of your presence in all my sorrow and tribulation – to experience completeness
in Christ.
All this I ask, expecting nothing but your blessings,
because I ask it in your name and for your glory.
Amen
