Moments to Ponder

Episode 155: Unshakable: Deep Roots, Strong Faith (Col. 2:6-15)

• Betsy Marvin • Season 16 • Episode 155

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Drawing on the imagery of trees and their root systems, we explore how our spiritual roots in Christ determine our strength, stability, and fruitfulness in every season of life.

• Like trees that bear fruit in their season, our spiritual lives depend on unseen roots that draw strength from Christ
• Paul warns against distractions and human logic that pull us away from the fullness found only in Christ
• Our completeness comes from Christ alone—no person or achievement can truly complete us
• Through baptism and faith, we are united with Christ in his death and resurrection, becoming new creations
• Christ's apparent defeat on the cross was actually his triumph over all powers of darkness
• Our identity is not defined by our accomplishments or failures, but by the One who lives within us
• Growing deep spiritual roots requires continual absorption of God's truth and devotion to him

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Speaker 1:

Hi friends, I'm Betsy and I want to welcome you to Moments to Ponder. This is a podcast designed to give you a few moments in God's Word and take away something to ponder. It's my prayer that you will find encouragement and insight along the way. This is Episode 155. Way, this is episode 155.

Speaker 1:

There's something about trees that draws me. As someone that lives in Michigan, I enjoy each season as it comes, whether it's the bare branches of winter, the budding of spring, the fullness of summer or the amazing colors of fall. I find beauty in every season. I recently visited with some friends who have peach, apple, cherry and pear trees in their yard. It was so cool. Each one was different, yet the same as they begin to bear fruit in their season. One tree was heavy with pears, another had sweet little apples started and with all that was above ground for the trees, I knew that what was holding them in place were its roots. Down under the ground, unseen in the dark. The roots are growing and giving life to the tree and thus the fruit.

Speaker 1:

As we begin our passage today, paul draws on a connection between roots and being connected to Christ. We begin today in Colossians 2, verse 6. In the same way. You received Jesus, our Lord and Messiah, by faith. Continue your journey of faith, progressing further into your union with him. Your spiritual roots go deeply into his life as you are continually infused with strength, encouraged in every way, for you are established in the faith you have absorbed and enriched by your devotion to him. To continue Paul's metaphor, imagine your life is a faith tree. The trunk and branches are the outward view of your faith and the fruit you bear is your gift to those around you. Yet your tree has to have roots right and just as the roots of a tree bring in nutrients, absorbing what is needed and providing the strength to stand, we have roots that are absorbing nutrients from the soil around us, the soil of Jesus, and in order to stand strong, our roots need to be in him, absorbing what we need through his word, drawing our strength through him. And the deeper our roots, the stronger our tree of faith. Verse 8.

Speaker 1:

Beware, beware that no one distracts you or intimidates you in their attempt to lead you away from Christ's fullness by pretending, pretending to be full of wisdom when they're filled with endless arguments of human logic, for they operate with humanistic and clouded judgments based on the mindset of this world system and not the anointed truths of the anointed one, for he is the complete fullness of deity living in human form, for they operate with humanistic and clouded judgments based on the mindset of this world system. Paul calls this a distraction, one that is intimidating those who are following Jesus. They're being faced with all these arguments that aren't actually of Jesus, but they're distracting them. Our world hasn't changed much on this, has it? We continue to hear clouded judgment and humanistic opinions. We know that there are many people who pretend to be full of wisdom as they endlessly argue with human logic.

Speaker 1:

Human logic, we like things to make sense, don't we? We like to figure them out. Yet in our humanness there are some things that just won't be logical. They will require faith. Remember, paul is writing to a church that is dealing with Gnostics, and those Gnostics believe that knowledge is power, saying that Jesus wasn't God because he came in human form, and human form is evil. Their logic could not connect God with humanity. So Paul says it as plain as he can Jesus is the complete fullness of God in human form. This is the mystery of the gospel. This is what requires faith. The word became flesh and dwelt among us so that he could, in turn, save the lives of those he loves us.

Speaker 1:

Let's go back to verse 9 and continue, for Jesus is the complete fullness of deity living in human form, and our own completeness is now found in him. We are completely filled with God as Christ's fullness overflows within us. He is the head of every kingdom and authority in the universe. In the old Tom Cruise movie, jerry Maguire, he tells the lead female character you complete me. This line, as romantic as it sounds, has led to some false expectations in relationships. No other human can complete you. You were made to find your fullness in Jesus. Verse 10 reminds us our own completeness is now found in him. We are completely filled with God as Christ's fullness overflows within us.

Speaker 1:

In a study by Priscilla Schreier, she uses an illustration that has helped me understand this completeness in a new way. She uses three circles. Think of the target bullseye sign. The outer circle represents our body. The circle within, that is our soul, which is our mind and emotions. And the most inner circle is our spirit. Every person is created with these three elements as a part of them body, mind, spirit. When we put our faith in Christ, the Holy Spirit comes into our human spirit and begins his work in us to bring forth transformation. As we transform, his spirit filling us, it seeps outward into our soul, the renewing of our mind, and finally seeps into our behaviors, making his fullness complete in us. Okay, so keep that in mind as we continue into verse 11.

Speaker 1:

Through our union with him, we have experienced circumcision of heart. All of the guilt and power of sin has been cut away and is now extinct because of what Christ, the Anointed One, has accomplished for us, for we've been buried with him into his death. Our baptism into death also means we were raised with him when we believed in God's resurrection power, the power that raised him from death's realm. This realm of death describes our former state, for we were held in sin's grasp, but now we've been resurrected out of that realm of death, never to return, for we are forever alive and forgiven of all our sins. He canceled out every legal violation we had on our record and the old arrest warrant that stood to indict us. He erased it all Our sins, our stained soul. He deleted it all and they cannot be retrieved. Everything we once were in Adam has been placed onto his cross and nailed permanently there as a public display of cancellation.

Speaker 1:

In Corinthians, paul uses the words new creation for this amazing truth. In Christ we are a new creation. The old is gone, the new has come. It's the spirit coming into our spirit and making us new. But we are human and maybe, like me, you find yourself sometimes slipping back into the idea that you just have to do more. I can find myself slipping into earning mode, trying to achieve righteousness, thinking that I have to be more of something in order to be accepted by God, seeking approval, trying to be enough or not too much. Those are thoughts that are clouded. They're clouded judgments based on the mindset of the world. We have a world that says earn it, prove it and then Instagram it, Just like the Gnostics from Paul's time who wanted knowledge or proof, logic to be the end-all. We know that this is a distraction from what God desperately desires for us. It's why we need strong roots, deep in truth. That we draw our strength from A tree just is A pine tree doesn't try to be an oak, right. A tree grows, shares its shade and its fruit. Yes, it reflects the seasons, the wind, the cold, the growing, but it's always drawing from its roots, and the deeper the roots again, the stronger the tree, verse 13.

Speaker 1:

Then Jesus made a public spectacle of all the powers and principalities of darkness, stripping away from them every weapon and all their spiritual authority and power to accuse us. And by the power of the cross, jesus led them around as prisoners in a procession of triumph. He was not their prisoner, they were his. There's some deep historical significance in these few verses. The Romans crucified Jesus in Jerusalem because they didn't think it was worth taking him to Rome. He wasn't leading an army, there wasn't a serious threat of revolt here. So they mark him as a fake king. From the sign and stripping him naked and the public execution, these are all normal things for an enemy of Rome to experience. But Paul is seeing the spiritual war here. Paul is saying that Jesus made a public spectacle of his enemy.

Speaker 1:

God stripped the power and principalities of darkness, he took away their weapons and their authority to accuse us of anything, and he celebrates this triumph over the powers that well, that thought it was the other way around, that Jesus wasn't worth dealing with. This is the paradox of faith. Jesus's weakness overcame human strength. God's seeming mistake oh, my son is being killed. Oh, my son is being killed actually overcomes human wisdom. Both of those things were actually exactly the plan that God had, and it was done so that you and I can walk in forgiven freedom.

Speaker 1:

This is what we have to sink our roots into who we are in Christ. Remember that we're not righteous because of anything we have done. I am righteous and you are righteous because God has placed that in us. When we placed our faith and trust in him, he infiltrated our soil, our spirit and made us new. So take in this truth you are not defined by your job, family, relationship, status, friends, your home, your accomplishments or even your failures. None of those define you and, because of that, none of them will complete you.

Speaker 1:

You are defined by the one that lives within you, by the one that lives within you, completed by his spirit, dear one, may your roots grow deep into the one that loves you, drawing strength from his love for you. Breathe in the freedom of knowing that you are fully complete in the one who made you. Take in the wonder of his love for you, allow it to seep into your soul. You are loved just as you are. Complete, forgiven, known. May you continue your journey of faith progressing farther into your union with him. Journey of faith, progressing farther into your union with him. May your spiritual roots grow deeply into his life as you are continually infused with strength and encouraged in every way, for you are established in the faith you have absorbed and you're enriched by your devotion to him. Thanks be to God, amen. Friends, this marks the end of part one. If you're following in the companion guide, it's time to download part two, as we continue our time with Colossians. Thanks for joining me.