FBC Morning Light – July 12, 2022

The Difference Between Receiving Christ and Walking in Him

Well, a good Tuesday morning to you. I hope you're doing well on this second day of the week, 12th day of July already, approaching the middle of the month, and time just marches on. So let me ask you this.

How's your walk? How's your walk? I'm not talking, of course, about whether or not you get outside and go for a walk at least five days a week, a couple of miles at a time. I'm not talking about that.

I'm talking about your relationship with Christ and your Christian way of life. I've met some people through my years in the ministry who seem to have the notion that they were Christians and they were satisfied and content in their form or brand of Christianity because they had at one time received Jesus.

I think I've shared before on this broadcast that many years ago, while on visitation, I ran into a woman who hadn't been to church in years and years and years. Not since she was a teenager, maybe a young teen, and now was in her 30s, had two or three kids of her own, hadn't been to church all that time.

I was visiting in that neighborhood, talking with her. She said she was a Christian. I said, how do you know? She said because she received Jesus. She got saved while on a bus, on a bus route in a church in northern Indiana.

I think I shared something about that last week. But has not been to church since, and has no real interest in the church, and living with a guy, and all this kind of stuff, a total un-Christian lifestyle.

Walking in Christ by Faith, Rooted and Built Up

What today's passage in Colossians 2 tells us is that that is not enough. It is not enough to simply receive Jesus. There is an after effect of receiving Jesus when you've truly received him. Paul puts it this way in Colossians 2, verses 6 and 7.

He says, as you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him. As you have received him, so walk in him. If you've genuinely been converted, you received Jesus Christ by faith, and therefore you need to continue walking in Christ, walking with Christ in faith.

As you receive Jesus Christ the Lord, so walk in him. And then he explains what that looks like. It first of all means being rooted and built up in him, being rooted in him. Your whole life now, if you've received Jesus, is rooted in Christ.

How you live, how you think, what you decide, why you decide it, what your goals are, what your plans are, it's all rooted in Christ. You go back to the fact that I'm a Christian now, I'm a follower of Jesus, and as a follower of Jesus, that has an effect on what I do and why I do it, has an effect on the decisions that I make, it has an effect on my relationship with my spouse, my children, my parents, as the case may be, it has an impact on my relationship to the local church that I'm a part of, and that I am a part of a local church.

I'm rooted in him, my whole life is rooted in him. And he goes on with that though, he says, rooted in him and built up in him, built up in him. That's talking about using the imagery of a building. Receiving Jesus as your Savior, it's kind of like laying the foundation of life.

And then from that point on, you're adding bricks to the building, and you are building up a life in Christ Jesus. You're learning more and more of him. Peter tells us at the end of 2 Peter, grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In Ephesians chapter 4, when Paul is talking about the different gifts that God has given to the church, including evangelists and prophets and pastor-teachers, he says their purpose, their function, is to edify the saints, to build up the saints for the work of the ministry till we all come into a full-orbed building, a full-grown building.

So, there is no idea in Scripture of there being a one-time receiving of Jesus Christ and then going off and living any old way you want to live, and it doesn't matter.

No.

If you've truly received Jesus, you're going to be rooted in him, your whole life is going to be rooted in him, you're going to be built up in him, you're going to grow in grace and knowledge of Christ.

Being Established in the Faith and Abounding with Thanksgiving

Paul continues, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith. So you don't get up one morning and question some aspect of the faith, like, well, maybe God isn't really close to me. Maybe God really isn't a personal God.

Maybe it doesn't really matter whether or not Jesus rose from the dead. Is it really important whether or not Jesus was God and man? Does God still care for me? Does he really care for me? You can go on and on with all kinds of doubts, but the person who has received Jesus Christ is going to so grow in him that he will be established in the faith.

He will be firm in the faith. There may be a bunch of things that he doesn't know right now and doesn't understand, doesn't comprehend, but when it comes to the basic rudimentary principles and truths of the faith, these are foundational.

These are established, and he has established his life upon them. Rooted, built up in him, established in the faith, and then he says you're going to be abounding in that faith with thanksgiving. Abounding with thanksgiving.

Aware of the fact that God is constantly at work in your life, and seeing those ways in which God is at work, and seeing how God provides, and seeing the evidences of God's care and his love and so forth, it just leads you to be thankful.

Seeing what God has done in saving you and bringing you to faith in Jesus Christ and so on and so forth. All of this leads to an abounding with thanksgiving. How are you walking? How's your walk? As you've received Christ, Jesus the Lord, so walk in him.

Our Father and our God, help us to walk well, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, have a good rest of your Tuesday. May God bless you in it.