What is Essential in a Christian Life? | Theocast Clips

The law, just like it can't give life, it can only kill, the law cannot change us. It can only guide us in our sanctification. So where does the power come from? In studying Colossians and reading the entire letter to try to preach the first sermon from Colossians 1, 1 -14 a few weeks ago, I was struck by this as I studied myself and then as I started to read other people's takes on Colossians.

I found comfort in the fact that Calvin was seeing things that I was struck by. So I'm just going to articulate it this way. What is it that the Apostle Paul sets out to do in the letter to the Colossians?

There's some stuff going on in the church. There's some weird teaching going on. There's some aberrant practice going on. You've got a number of different things being taught. You've got asceticism, this lifestyle of radical deprivation as a way of godliness.

You've got people advocating the observance of the Old Testament law as a way of godliness and a way of entering into this higher spiritual plane. You've got a number of different things going on. Obviously, there's concerns about the person of Jesus Christ, his humanity, his deity in particular, and what it is that he accomplished.

All these things are going on. So the Apostle is going to give these saints the one thing that he knows will protect them from false teaching and aberrant practice. What is that? It's a clear vision of the person and work of Christ.

That's very clear. The portion there in Colossians 1 that's so beautiful that we all remember that's about Christ and his work going into Colossians 2. It's about Christ and his work. Why does Paul hammer that?

Because he knows that's what these people need in order to protect them and drive them and sustain them and nourish them. So he gives them Christ. He uses a lot of beautiful language, not only about Christ and his power and what he did, but even makes it very clear.

It's like verse 28 of chapter 1, whom we proclaim. Then we exhort and we admonish. I think in that context, he's warning and he's exhorting and he's admonishing. Don't look to other things. Look to Christ.

Then he does pivot to how the saints are to live in the last couple of chapters. It's clearly driven by an appropriate understanding of Christ, who he is, and what he did. In other words, it's driven by the gospel.

The Christian life is driven by the gospel. So when you hear what we're talking about, this is what you should think. The gospel drives my Christian life. Union with Christ is the Christian life. That is the source.

Christ, for us, is the source of the power that would actually transform and change our lives. I'll just briefly say this, John, and I'll turn it back over to you. When we talk about the law and we talk about the gospel when it comes to sanctification, it's important that we understand the following.

The law, just like it can't give life, it can only kill. The law cannot change us. It can only guide us in our sanctification. So where does the power come from? The power comes from Christ in union with him, but in particular, in our daily ongoing experience, weekly ongoing experience, the power for sanctification comes through the preaching of Christ, the administration of the sacraments, the ordinary means of grace in the context of the gathered church, and life in the fellowship of the saints.

That's where the power comes from. It's from Christ by his Spirit working in us, and he uses these means that he's given us to continue to give us what we need. It's so liberating and so helpful to think in these terms that God is going to provide the power, and now what I'm going to do is live life in a local church where these things are being practiced, where these ordinary means are being administered.

We're going to keep trusting Christ. We're going to look to his word. His law is going to guide us, but he is going to change us. We can take heart knowing that God has said he's going to do it. He's going to do it, and now I can just live today in freedom, not to be lazy, not to be licentious, but I can live in freedom today to do good things that God has told me in his word to do.

I can trust the Lord that I am not ultimately at the wheel making certain that my sanctification becomes a reality, but he's going to do this in me as I live in freedom.

Under righteousness. That's so good. It's a total different if then. If Christ came, if Christ lived, if Christ died, and Christ rose again, and if Christ sits at the right hand of the Father, then I am safe, and then I have every reason to love my neighbor as Christ has loved me.

I can do this in freedom and confidence. That's right.