October 2, 2022
Morning Service

In our study last week Paul revealed to us that we are “complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.”  Complete is defined as being made perfect and whole.  When we accept Jesus as our Savior, He makes us complete, perfect, and whole.  How does He do that for us?  All of us have our faults, sins, and skeletons in the closet; how can He perfect the imperfect?  To answer that we first have to understand the workings of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus explained it very well to Nicodemus in John chapter 3.

Joh 3:3-8 Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."  (4)  Nicodemus said to Him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?"  (5)  Jesus answered, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.  (6)  That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.  (7)  Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.'  (8)  The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit."

            Our perfection begins with being “born again.”  We are born of the water through baptism and born of the Spirit through faith and a promise.  God gives us a chance to start over again with a clean slate.  When Peter preached the first message on the day of Pentecost, many who heard him asked; “What shall we do?”  “How can we overcome our imperfection?”

 

Act 2:38-39 Then Peter said to them, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  (39)  For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call."

            By faith we believe that by hearing the gospel message, receiving it unto ourselves, repenting (feeling sorry for all we have done and wanting to change), and following up with being baptized we “shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”  It is through this process that we are “born again” spiritually in the eyes of God putting on the righteousness of Jesus which makes us complete, perfect, and whole.  The key again is the moving of the Spirit.  Remember Jesus just told us the Spirit is like the wind we can’t see it but you “hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes.”  The things of the flesh are tangible, we can hold them in our hands, feel them, smell, and even taste them; but the things of the Spirit are unseen and have to be accepted by faith.  That is where Paul takes us today in his Colossian letter as he explains to us how it is that our “Spiritual” rebirth occurred.

 

Col 2:11-12 In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, (12) buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.

            Here again Paul refers to the difference between the physical and spiritual world.  The act of circumcision which began with Abraham was a physical, visible action that cut away part of our flesh to symbolize one being chosen by God.  Paul tells us as Jesus followers that we are not physically circumcised with the cutting of our flesh, but are spiritually circumcised by cutting away our sins.  Remember the moving of the Spirit is like the wind, we can’t see it but we know it is there.  This is accomplished when we are “buried with Him in baptism.”  Our spiritual rebirth occurs as we die in the waters of baptism and are “resurrected” out of that death to our “new life” in Christ.  Paul explains this and even goes a step farther in his Roman letter.

 

 Rom 6:1-6 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?  (2)  Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?  (3)  Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?  (4)  Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.  (5)  For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, (6) knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin

            Do you see how all of this begins to tie into together weaving a beautiful tapestry resulting in our being made complete.  Our baptism spiritually represents the death of the person we used to be; that “old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with;” meaning sin has been removed making us perfect in God’s eyes.  We arise from the water (our death) and are resurrected (born again) spiritually with Jesus.  Let’s go back to Colossians and Paul will explain it more:

 

Col 2:13-15 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, (14) having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.  (15)  Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.

            Spiritually our being made complete comes through our death and resurrection at baptism.  The debt we owed for our sin has been paid in full on the cross.  God did not simply “overlook” our sins, but Jesus paid for them which “disarms” the powers of this world to claim us.  We are no longer slaves of sin, but are set free being made complete through Jesus.  We arise from the waters of baptism a “new” person and this is the beginning of our journey.  God now looks at us differently; we are complete, perfect and whole in His sight lacking nothing.  This occurred not because of what we did, but because of what Jesus did for us.  He completes us and allow us to take off our “old sinful self” and put on His robe of righteousness.  Paul explained it like this to the Galatians:

 

Gal 3:27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

            Our acceptance of Jesus as our Savior allows God to view us in a whole new way; when He sees us, He sees Jesus.  We have put on Christ and that signifies that we not only are we accepted by God, but we are adopted into His family.   That “old man” of sin we used to be has died and we are now made “new” in Christ.  Our old nature that was evil, disobedient, rebellious and even ignored God is now changed.  We have been given a new nature, through receiving the Spirit, in which we now love, seek, and even desire God on a very intimate level.  We have died to our old self and now live a new life dedicated to following Jesus our Redeemer.  Let me close with this scripture Paul shared with the Corinthian church in his second letter.

 

 2Co 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

            We are made complete in Christ; He has perfected us through His sacrifice upon the cross.  The old sinful person we once were has been replaced with a new one, a changed one, a transformed one.  We can’t truly accept the invitation to follow Jesus and receive the forgiveness of our sins and be the same person; it changes us.  Are you changed?  Are you continuing to be changed?  To become all that God designed us to be takes time and it truly is a journey.  Spiritually we are complete, but in our daily walk we now desire to also be perfect.  Paul uses the rest of the Colossian letter now to give us the mindset we need to walk this new life that we have been blessed with. 

 

Heavenly Father thank You for this plan of salvation that makes a way for our sins to be forgiven and gives us a chance to start over.  Grant to each of us a knowledge and the understanding needed to follow You with a pure heart, a clear conscience, and a sincere faith.