Grace / Jesus and bad religion
Jesus Is Enough
You don't need a religious group's extra requirements to finish what Jesus started. He has the power and the authority to save you.
There's a kind of religious pitch that always leaves you a little short.
You believe in Jesus? Good. But have you had this experience? Do you follow these rules? Have you learned our system? Are you doing all the things the serious Christians do?
You can spend years trying to catch up. Every time you think you've finally figured it out, somebody has another requirement. Eventually, even the good news sounds like the beginning of a sales pitch.
Paul's answer to that in Colossians is to explain who Jesus is. He wants people to understand why they can trust Him completely. Once you see what you have in Christ, the person selling you the missing piece doesn't have much to sell.
Jesus shows us God
calls Jesus the image of the invisible God. In 2:9, Paul says all the fullness of deity lives in Him bodily.
That's a big claim. Jesus is fully God and fully human. When we're trying to understand what God is like, we have Jesus to look at. The God we can't see has made Himself known to us in a person who lived among us.
If the God you grew up with couldn't wait to catch you doing wrong, Jesus gives you a different picture. He came to save people. He gave Himself for us. He made peace through His blood on the cross.
He knew what was wrong with us when He did it. Paul doesn't say God was mistaken about the people He loved. He says we were alienated from Him, hostile in our thinking, doing evil things. Then he says God reconciled us through Christ's death ().
God knew the whole situation, and He acted anyway to bring us to Himself.
He has the power to do what He promises
Paul says everything was created through Jesus and for Him. He lists things in heaven and on earth, things visible and invisible, rulers and authorities. Then he says all things hold together in Him ().
There's no bigger authority someone can appeal to. There's no spiritual power above Him that you need to satisfy after He's welcomed you. Everything that exists owes its existence to Him.
And this is the person who gave Himself to reconcile you to God.
That's why I don't think "Jesus is enough" should be a phrase we repeat without thinking about it. Paul spends time telling us just how much Jesus can do. If the power that keeps the universe running is the same power holding you up before God, do you need anything else? That's not a rhetorical question. The answer's no. When somebody tells you that you just need one more extra thing, you can tell them to talk to the hand.
He has the authority to forgive you, and He has the power to give you life.
Your place with God doesn't depend on persuading a reluctant Savior or helping a weak one finish the job. The Savior who wants you is the one who made you.
He made peace with God for you
Reconciliation means a relationship has changed. People who were enemies become friends. People who were estranged are brought together.
Paul says Jesus made peace through the blood of His cross (). A few verses later, he applies that directly to the people reading his letter: God has reconciled you through Christ's death, to present you holy and blameless before Him.
That's where this whole account of Jesus is going. The one with all that power and authority has used it to make you welcome in God's presence.
The cross tells you how serious He is about it. Jesus gave His life for you. His resurrection tells you that death hasn't defeated Him. You're trusting a living Savior who has already dealt with the sin that stood between you and God.
You don't have to get yourself right before you come to Him. Making you right with God is what He does.
You haven't been given a partial Jesus
In , Paul puts two claims together: the fullness of God lives in Christ, and you have been filled in Him.
The people being pressured by religious bullies needed to hear that. Someone was telling them they were missing something essential. Paul wanted them to understand that they already had Christ, and Christ wasn't short of anything.
When I preached this, I said it'd be like me knocking on the door of the richest man in the world to offer him a money-making opportunity. I don't have anything he needs. Nobody does. And nobody who comes knocking telling you you're missing something has anything to offer you that you don't already have in Christ, in massive, infinite abundance.
There isn't an ordinary version of salvation for regular people and a better version for the religious experts. If you belong to Jesus, you belong to the one in whom God's fullness lives.
That doesn't mean you've learned everything. I certainly haven't. There are things to understand, habits to change, and good things to grow into. Other Christians can teach us a great deal. But someone helping me understand what Christ has given me is doing a very different thing from someone telling me Christ hasn't given me enough.
None of us gets to make our own special contribution a condition of God's acceptance. We didn't die for you. Jesus did.
Your life comes from Christ
Paul calls Jesus the head of the body, the church. Later he describes the whole body being nourished, held together, and growing from Him (; 2:19).
That's a relationship of ongoing care. He gives His people life, and He continues to nourish them. He hasn't forgiven you and then left you to find somebody else who can supply the rest.
If you've been told you can't trust Jesus without trusting one particular leader, institution, or religious system absolutely, Colossians gives you a reason to reconsider that claim. Your life comes from Christ. Those people answer to Him too.
You may have a great deal left to sort out about church. You can sort it out as someone who's welcome with God. Jesus has the power and the authority to save you, and He's already shown you that He wants to.
— tobe