Colossians 02 Round Two: The Secret to Freedom

Freedom can feel like a finish line you never reach, especially when faith turns into a quiet checklist of rules you hope will finally make you acceptable. Colossians 2 cuts through that pressure with a sharper message: Jesus is not a stepping stone to God, he is God revealed, and life with him starts from being made complete, not from trying to become worthy. We walk through Paul’s warning to a church being pulled off course by false teachers, and we slow down on the line that changes everything: in Christ are hidden treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and the fullness of God lives in him. We also talk about why “high-sounding” spiritual talk can still be empty, and how legalism sneaks in through condemnation over food, holy days, self-denial, or spiritual experiences. Paul’s point isn’t that holiness doesn’t matter; it’s that rules cannot heal desire. Behavior control may look wise, but it can’t conquer the heart. That’s why the gospel anchors us in the cross where our record of charges is canceled, and it reframes baptism as a powerful symbol of dying and rising with Christ. The most practical takeaway is what we call the secret to freedom: we don’t obey so God will love us, we obey because God loves us. That shift changes how we face addiction, pornography, gossip, substance abuse, and every shame cycle that tries to define us. If you’re ready to stop fighting for acceptance and start walking in freedom one day at a time, listen now, then subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find the message.

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The More We Dig. The More We Find.

Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Transcript

Welcome And What To Expect

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Welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast. Every day, we take one chapter of the Bible, dig deeper, and discover that the more we dig, the more we find. You can find out more at the BibleBreakdown.com. Now let's grow in God's Word together. Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, Pastor Brandon. Today, Colossians chapter two. And if I were to give this one a title, it would be The Secret to Freedom. Yes, man, The Secret to Freedom. And I don't know if you've already noticed, I love the book of Colossians. And Paul, man, he is just throwing fire, man, as the Holy Spirit has inspired him to write this. Can't

How Paul Confronts False Teaching

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wait to get into this. But before we do that, as always, if you like what we're doing here, make sure you like, share, subscribe to YouTube channel. Make sure you leave us a five-star review on the podcast. And then as always, we all gather at the Bible Breakdown Discussion on Facebook, where they do an amazing job. And I can't wait to see what they do with this chapter because, man, the more we dig, the more we find. And I want to see in the comments on YouTube and the comments on the discussion, what is it that you're taking away from these chapters? There is no way I'm even covering a little bit of all this stuff, but it's amazing what all God's Word has in it. And that is definitely the case with today. So if you have your Bibles, you want to open up, as always, reading out the New Living Translation, chapter two of Colossians, I'm going to remind you from yesterday that there was this wonderful guy named Epaphoros who is traveled to Rome. He's met with the Apostle Paul. He's telling about what's going on in Ephesus and the situation going on with Philemon. And then in Colossae, there are all of these false teachers who are trying to go in and tell everybody, man, that Jesus guy, he was awesome, but he was just a man. He wasn't really God. And so Paul's like, somebody hand me a pen. And he writes to them this wonderful explanation about who Jesus is. And that is, Jesus was not just a man. And we talked about yesterday that the wonderful author C.S. Lewis said that Jesus is one of three things. He can only be one of three things. He is a liar, he is a lunatic, crazy person, or he is Lord. He didn't really leave us any other option and he didn't intend to. You got to figure it out. And what Paul is saying is he is Lord. And now he's going to double down on that. And he's saying, once you understand that, as he said in chapter one, Jesus is the visible representation of the invisible God. Once you know that, then he says we can build onto that foundation. And he says this. And so if you're ready, he's going to end with at the end of the chapter talking about the secret to freedom that I can't wait to share with you. But let's start with verse one of chapter two. And it says this I want you to know how much I have agonized for you and for the church at Laodicea and for many other believers who have never met me personally. Now, pause. Remember, Paul did not start the church of Colossae. Epaphras most likely did. Remember, he went to Ephesus. He had his life changed with the gospel. And then he travels back to his hometown, this small town called Colossae. And most historians and theologians think this is just a small house church that he is, that Paul is writing to because of Epaphras. And he's

Rooted In Christ Not Arguments

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telling them what's going on. He said, Even though I've not met you, I love you. Verse two, I want them to be encouraged and knit together by strong ties of love, talking about the church. I want them to have complete confidence that they understand God's mysterious plan, which is in Christ Himself. In him lie all the hidden treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I am telling you this so that no one will deceive you with well-crafted arguments. For though I am far away from you, my heart is with you, and I rejoice that you are living as you should, and that your faith in Christ is strong. Now remember, he is saying this because he has heard that these false teachers have come and tried to deceive them. And so now we have verse six. And now, just as you have accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your groots, let your, let your roots, not groots, that's this, that's that's a that's a movie, 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. So other words, he's saying, You want to be thankful? Let your roots grow down strong into the Lord. And the more you know Jesus, the more thankful you become. Don't let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ. For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. So you are also to you are also complete through your union with Christ, who is head over every ruler and authority. When you came to Christ, you were, quote, circumcised, but not by any physical procedure. Praise the Lord. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision, the cutting away of your sinful nature. You were buried with Christ when you were baptized,

Baptism And New Life Explained

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and with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God who raised Christ from the dead. Now pause. Once again, remember that's what baptism is. Baptism itself is not salvation. Baptism is the outward representation of the salvation that's happened on the inside. That's what Paul just said. It is a representation of how we go down to the water, we are symbolizing that we were buried with Christ. We come up out of the water, we're raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God that raised Christ from the dead. Verse 13. Then God made you alive with Christ, and he forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities, and he shamed them by publicly or shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.

Why Rules Cannot Change Desire

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So don't let anyone condemn you for what you eat or for what you drink, or for not celebrating certain holy days or new moon ceremonies or Sabbaths, for these rules are only shadows of the reality yet to come. And Christ Himself is that reality. Don't let anyone condemn you by insisting on pious self-denial for the worship of angels, saying that they have had visions about these things. Their sinful minds have made them proud, and they are not connected to Christ, the head of the body, for he holds the whole body together with its joints and ligaments, and it grows as God nourishes it. Now, here it is. So why do you keep following the rules of this world, such as don't handle, don't taste, don't touch? Such rules are mere human teachings about things that deteriorate as we use them. These rules may seem wise because they require such strong devotion, pious denial, and severe bodily discipline, but they provide no help in conquering a person's evil desires. Now, that may cause some, like the $5 word would be consternation because you go, no, wait a minute. The Bible is full of things where God says, don't do this, don't do this, don't do this. But at the same time, God's word just says, don't let anybody tell you to don't handle, don't taste, and don't touch. What

Freedom Flows From Being Loved

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is this talking about? Here's what it's talking about. If you read the context of what happens before, and spoiler alert, in chapter three, Paul's about to go through a whole list of stuff to not do. But here's the thing: we don't do those things to get to God. That's that's the trick of the whole thing. That's the reason why in the book of James it talks about how faith without works is dead. So faith without living it out is dead. But it starts with faith. Jesus said this. He said, If you love me, you'll obey my commands. Do you know when I was younger, I used to think that Jesus was being passive aggressive. You ever had someone be passive aggressive with you? It's so annoying. And says, Well, if you love me, you'll obey my commands. That's what I thought Jesus was saying. And then one day, as I read it in the context, Jesus was saying, Hey man, if you'll love me, you'll obey what I command. He said the other way around. If you focus on loving me, you'll realize that what I command you to do, it's not burdensome. It sets you free. And so what God's word is saying here, the apostle Paul is saying is, man, don't listen to these false teachers that are saying if you want to get to God, you've got to not handle, you've got to not taste, you've got to not touch, you've got to celebrate moon ceremonies and Sabbaths, and you've got to eat certain things and drink certain things. Only then can you get to God. Paul is saying you've got it backwards, that actually it's because you have gotten to God. And he says in verse 20, he says, when you died with Christ, other words, you accepted what Christ did for your salvation. Remember, he said that baptism is the symbol of dying with Christ and being raised to new life? When that happens, when you were saved, you have been set free from the spiritual powers of this world. Do you know what happens when, let's say a drunk, someone who just completely struggles with alcohol, when a drunk stops drinking alcohol, you know what happens? They stop drinking alcohol, but they're not set free. You know what happens when someone turns their life over to Christ and then they trust Christ to help them walk toward freedom? You know what they get? They get freedom from that alcohol and they walk free. Both stop, one experiences freedom. And that's like that with so many other things we could talk about. And so what Paul is saying is the secret to freedom is to realize that when we come to Christ, we already have it. And so then we begin to walk out that freedom because of our salvation, not in order to receive our salvation. You know, I experienced this in my own life when I was when I was younger in my life, I was dealing with a sin issue in my mind. I was deal dealing with a sin issue, and I thought that if I would just deal with this, I would conquer this sin issue, then God would receive me, then God would love me. And I struggled and I struggled and I struggled to get free from the sin issue in my life. And then one day, I heard a guy, he was up preaching and he said that we don't get saved so that we can get free. We get free because we've

A Challenge To Repent Without Shame

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been saved. And he said, What that means is that when you give your life to Christ, God gives you the power to start walking in that freedom. Now we may have to take all these other steps, but but it begins with salvation. And it clicked in my head. The secret to freedom is that I don't do it myself. But that freedom comes from Jesus. And so what I started to do is I said, God, I'm thankful that if I never get free from this sin issue, it will not cause me to love you or for you to love me any less. But because you love me, I can walk in freedom. And do you know what changed everything for me? I started walking in freedom from that moment forward. It got a little bit easier and a little bit easier, a little bit easier. I was able then, because I was loved by God, I realized that in him I was already significant, already accepted, and already secure. Then I was able to go to my brothers in faith and I was able to say, Hey, can y'all help me with this? Because now my identity wasn't defined by what they thought of me. My identity was defined by what Christ already thought about me. And so I began to realize that I don't don't handle, don't taste, don't touch, so that God will love me, but I do don't handle, don't taste, and don't touch because God loves me. And it makes all the difference in the world. And so, as we finish our time together, let me challenge you with this. I don't know what might be going on in your life. Let's say you have a significant battle you're fighting, an addiction to something. Isn't it true that most of the addictions that we have is something that we use to self-medicate a broken place in our life? What would it look like if you stopped trying to stop doing those things so that God would love you? What if you no longer ever even thought another thing that if I would just stop doing XYZ, God would love me? Stop thinking of those things with shame and with fear and with guilt. But instead, what if you turned it over to the Lord and you repented? Jesus, I repent. That means to turn around and go a different direction. I repent of my pornography, of my gossip, of my sexual addiction in some way, of my substance abuse, of my of my uh my fear, I I I I what whatever it might be. I I repent of that sin. I've missed the mark of your holiness. And because you love me, I receive that forgiveness. And because you love me, I choose today to start walking in freedom. And I realize that if this becomes the journey of my life, if this becomes the great battle of my life, you're never gonna give up on me, you're never gonna stop loving me, and you're never gonna stop walking me toward freedom. What if you started looking at it like that? Can I tell you it would set you free? It wouldn't set you free from the need to stop sinning, it would set you free from the fear of God's judgment. And you'd be amazed at what that will do. Then you're gonna be able to start making better choices. You're gonna be able to bring other people into your life to help you because now your identity is defined by who Christ says you are, and not by what other people think of you. Try it. See what happens. Watch God set you free one day

Prayer And Final Scripture

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at a time. Let's pray. God, thank you so much for today. Thank you that you are Lord of all. You're Lord of all of us, you're Lord of everything in our life. Lord, I pray if there's any sin in our life, any addiction, any any place that does not meet up to your holiness. We repent of it right now. We bring it to your throne and we lay it down. Forgive us, Lord. Wash away our sins. We don't want to be independent of you, we want to be completely submitted to your authority. But we celebrate the opportunity to repent because it's one thing removed between me and you. Now we can be closer than ever. We celebrate that and we live that joy right now. And as we turn that over to you, I pray you will set us free. And that's because of our love for you, you walk us toward freedom every day. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Well, God's word says this in Colossians 3, verse 1 and 2. It says, Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God's right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow. Colossians chapter three.