Grace - John Gaston on Life in Christ

The following post comes to us from my good friend, John Gaston.

Enjoy!

Freedom from Rules and New Life in Christ


And now, just as you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord, you must continue to follow him.  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. Colossians 2:6-7 (NLT)


Some people could look at this and see a command, but it's so far from that!  The New Living Translation's headline speaks perfectly, "Freedom from Rules and New Life in Christ"

How did we accept Jesus Christ as our lord?  What did that look like?  What do we have to do when we accept something?

We don't have to do anything to accept someone's gracious gift to us, but just to be willing to receive.  That's it.  There's no prerequisite.  We accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord by His grace because He gave us the desire for Him in the first place.  He drew us to Himself.
 
We accepted Him by falling into the grace which was already laid out before us; we fell into the Holy Spirit's prompting.  Falling into something takes no works, no sweat, no striving--you just let yourself go.  (Picture falling back onto a fluffy memory foam bed.  Not much effort on your part, right?)

Paul goes on to say, "you must continue to follow him", but this must be understood in the context of the previous statement. Just as you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord, you must continue to follow Him.  So, just as we accepted Christ by falling into the Holy Spirit's prompting and just as we received the salvation He already paid for us, by saying a simple "yes", we were made a new creation (See Ephesians 1:13:  "...having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise" and John 5:24:  "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.").  The command, "you must continue to follow him", refers to your need to follow the Holy Spirit as you did when you were saved.  You continue in intimacy with Him, not as a command, but because it's what you were born for (or should we say, reborn).  He's the only one Who will satisfy you and your every need and want.  You were designed for intimacy with Jesus.  You were never designed to live by rules or commands.

Paul then says, "Let your roots grow down into Him and let your lives be built on him."  Here, the Holy Spirit showed me something specific:  the scripture verse used the word "let" twice.  When we let something happen, is there work on our part?  Naw!  It's passive; it's a restful state.  God shows us that we are naturally drawn to grow down into Him and our lives are naturally drawn to be built on Him.  He's the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  The only way we don't let our roots grow down into Him is by consciously choosing not to set our hearts on Christ in us and His love for us, but this is now actually unnatural for us to not do, for although we are still in this world, we are now not of it--we died and have been reborn.

When we live as new creations, our roots naturally grow down into Him.  We let them grow and we let our lives be built, but it's not in our own power that our roots grow down into Him and that our lives are built on Him.  It's His power working in us and us letting His power in us do the work, instead of us trying to work.  When we are not trying to follow a "command" in our own strength, the power of Christ's Spirit works.

After Paul states, "Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built upon Him", he says, "Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught."  Faith, being a gift, grows through Him.  It's awesome, but this passage reveals a deeper reality.  The phrase "in the truth you were taught" refers to the truth you are taught by God Himself, through the Holy Spirit given to us by Jesus.  Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life."  Podcasts, books, and videos are all amazing--I love all of them, but our true source is God Himself.  Yes, we have fathers, apostles, prophets, teachers, evangelists, and pastors--all are important, but we are taught by God Himself.

Jesus is revealing all truth to us through His Holy Spirit in us!  Relax, receive, and let Him be your source, your life, and your teacher.

Grace=Peace