Paul in Col 1:27 tells us of a mystery, a rich and glorious one – Christ, the Anointed One, God Himself, was LIVING IN the Colossian believers. How can that be? They were ignorant of the Mosaic Covenant and all that people must do to be acceptable to God. They were Gentiles. They had no covenant with God. No Ten Commandments. No rites, rituals and observations from on high. So what did they DO to earn the right to have God Himself living IN them, making them complete in Him, and blessing them with every spiritual blessing?
The simple answer: THEY DID NOTHING. OBEYED NOTHING. They BELIEVED the Good News friends, that GOD had accomplished salvation, and offers it freely to everyone. Forgiveness of sins. Justification. Righteousness. Eternal life. Thanks to the BLOOD of the CROSS, people w/o a clue to the ways of the Living God found this Living God—LIVING IN THEM!
A few miles to the east of Colossae, the Galatians were in a pickle. Some law-abiding Jewish believers had come by to try to get them to obey all the Jewish Laws in order to be ‘proper’ ‘authentic’ Christians.
Paul corrected them in the book of Gal, especially chapt 3, vs 2-12. Here are some snippets: “This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? …does He who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? …
He reminds them, and us, that Abraham BELIEVED GOD, and God counted him RIGHTEOUS. And then he quotes from the Old Testament, saying that you can’t obey just some of the law, but you must obey ALL the rules or you put yourself under a curse! He hammers the point that the Righteous (that’s YOU because of the Blood) live by faith and focusing on keeping the rules is NOT of Faith.
If you have been trying to be a good-little-obedient-rule keeping Christian that God can be proud of, well, your thinking is mixed up.
We were made to live by the Spirit. DON’T GO BACK to observing rules, even perfect rules like the Ten Commandments. Don’t look back. Stay on this side of the CROSS — keep looking to Jesus, learn more about living by the Spirit. That’s how you Come Alive and Stay Alive in this nasty generation!
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