19 March • Tuesday of the Fifth Week in Lent
Colossians 2:6-12
6 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
8 See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. 9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. 11 In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.
Meditation
In this short passage, “in him” appears seven times. The whole emphasis of the Biblical Christian living rests on this one basic truth. It started with verse 6, “as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him”. Life thereafter is all about “being in him”.
However, it is hard to remain in him, both in our thinking and living. Why is it so hard?
Dane Ortlund states it succinctly: “There is an entire psychological substructure that, due to the Fall, is a near- constant emission of relational leveraging, fear-stuffing, nervousness, score-keeping, neurotic controlling, anxiety-festering silliness that is not something I say or even think so much as something I breathe”.
That’s what we have to contend with day in and day out. The innate tendency is constant selfishness. We are “curved in on ourselves”. Everything in us and in life militates against our “being in him”.
Yet regardless of the external turbulence and inner defiance, Paul reminds us that we are unshakeably rooted in him. No matter what the inside turmoil is, or the outside circumstances are, we remain grounded in him. This is our primary identity as a new person, as one united to Christ. We also have this staggering truth in verses 9-10 “For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, you have been filled in him”. We are never lacking in resources to live out the reality of our identity.
So the day to day walking in him is the process of aligning who I am in Christ. Richard Hays argues that the essence of the New Testament ethic is “Be who you now are.”
The imagery of walking can be totally unspectacular and undramatic. Yet, it is this step by step, daily discipline of living out in practice who I am that brings steady and substantial transformation.
Prayer
“Lord, thank You for this miraculous gift of our new identity in Christ. Please awaken us to greater appreciation and appropriation of who we really are in Christ, amidst all the internal and external pressures to contradict this reality.”
Action
We can begin each day praying meditatively this simple prayer, “Lord Jesus, You are in me and I am in You”. Throughout the day we can continue breathing this prayer.
Rev Dr Keith Lai
Emeritus Senior Pastor
Covenant Presbyterian Church
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