Unfathomable Riches in Christ - Freed from the Law - Part VI

We are on the topic of freed from the law. We're calling it part six. So, uh, and this, this, according to the schedule, I don't see a reason to extend it further, uh, is the last in the freed from the law series, but it's a key one for us to cover. Uh, this one goes to, um, uh, Colossians chapter two. Uh, we, we quote in the beginning, uh, most of the chapter here. to draw out the main principle and make sure we get the context.

The key part that we have here in Colossians 2.8-23 is what we've bolded in verse 14. So it says, Having cancelled out the certificate of debt, consisting of decrees against us which was hostile to us, he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Okay, so that's kind of at the root, but really the whole passage is relevant here because it gives us a perspective.

What does he mean by that? And what's his warning and what is his caution? And we actually put that in plurals. What are his warnings and cautions on that topic? So let's kind of walk our way through it here, Colossians 2, 8-23, and so the first part, verse 8, see to it that no one takes you captive, and the Greek there is sulu gogeo, which may not mean a lot to you, except that it means to capture by pirates or thugs. So it's a very colorful word. If you've ever heard of somebody, heaven's sake, I hope you haven't been in such a situation. to be captured by pirates or thugs was fairly common in New Testament times, especially if someone was in a vulnerable position. You could rob someone who was in a vulnerable position and take what they had, but another option was to capture them and turn around and put them on the slave market.

So that's what he's warning against here. So being captured by pirates or thugs. So he talks about those who use the techniques he's about to describe to capture people and do bad things with them. You lose your freedom. So that's this colorful and rather intense word So if you were to ask, let's take a poll. How many of you would like to be captured by pirates and thugs and sold off into a slave market?

Believe it or not, that happens today. It does happen today in two different respects. One is in the Islamic world, slavery is still OK. So that's part one. And part two, then we have an illegal slave trade that even extends into the United States and the Western Hemisphere and basically is global. So we do have that, but it was common in the Roman Empire. So pirates looking about capturing someone by sea, and then thugs, someone by land. It would be a typical thing.

And then through what? What does he say is the issue here? Through philosophy and empty deception. According to the tradition of man, according to the elementary principles of the world, which he actually repeats that down in verse 20, elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. Okay, so what's the issue with philosophy and empty deception? What's the deal with that? Philosophy is what? Pardon? Man's viewpoint? Yes, it is man's viewpoint and it may seem logical.

It may seem, well, everybody accepts this and assumes it. And that's one thing that's kind of fascinating is to look at what does everybody assume? And within our culture, assuming certain things, everybody assuming certain things, without checking it out, that's a problem in our culture. Yes?

Philosophy is a logical reasoning system, according to man's thinking. Yes, so here's a really good question. If I ask you, why do you use logic? So what am I doing? I'm asking you to justify the use of logic using logic. Logic. It's essentially logic is by itself from a human standpoint is circular reasoning. It says well of course we use logic.

Well why? So what logic is assumed to be applicable, true, useful, verifiable, but in the end everything we do as human beings starts with something that can't be verified. Stan? Well wasn't philosophy before the scientific reasoning came into being, philosophy was the method of passing on information. Yeah, so let's think about that. This is jumping at something on a big scale.

So here are the Greeks. They had various systems of philosophy. One of them that the Apostle Paul ran into in Athens was the Stoic philosophers. which contrary to our modern mythology does not mean that they're free of emotion. But the Stoic philosophers, and then another was the Epicurean philosophers. And again, we've got a modern mythology that that's the pursuit of pleasure. It was rather the avoidance of pain. Not so much the pursuit of pleasure as the avoidance of pain.

In any of these things, we start from a human set of presuppositions which cannot be verified. And we begin carrying things on using human philosophy, starting with presuppositions that can't be verified. We are beings that are made. to be given a set of presuppositions and then to work from them. We are not beings that can verify presuppositions. We just can't.

Even science, as you mentioned, was essentially a Christian invention, and by the way, the modern science has been developed by Christians, and the Greeks didn't get there. They lacked Christian presuppositions to arrive at modern science. They didn't get there. It was the Christians in Western Europe that arrived at modern science, and not otherwise. And then empty deception. What's that all about? Empty deception. not based on truth. Yeah, so let's look at it. Let's think about the word deception. What's that about? Lies. Yeah, something that is made to appear for what it is not.

And sometimes we'll do that and it's entertaining. You know, years ago my son Ed and I went to see a magician, right? And David Copperfield, I mean, by the way, it's Jewish, right? So anyway, so we went to see David Koch. Phenomenal display of illusion. But what is it? It was entertaining deception.

It was amazing to have him be on stage, doing things, people around him, all that. All of a sudden, poof, he disappears. And then in a fraction of a second, he's at the back of the stage. saying hi, and then runs to the front and continues the magic performance. Great illusion. Very entertaining. I've seen videos of him making the Statue of Liberty disappear. Making a drilling rig out in the ocean just disappear in front of an audience. Great illusion. That's entertaining deception. What's the difference with an empty deception? Julie, for somebody else's gain. Yeah, so it's one, somebody else gets something out of the deception, one. Was that a cover-up?

Well, it reminds me of watching a lot of religious programs, Charismatic on TV, where you have all the healing and the Holy Spirit, all this other stuff that's entertaining, but it's not based in truth. It's gobbledygook. Can God heal? Yes, but essentially a lot of us, this is a big show, and a psychological phenomenon.

One of them, Peter Popov, was found that his wife was feeding him, via electronics, was feeding him information about different people that came in. He would listen to people who were talking about things coming in and report it to him. And he would say, somebody here has this physical condition. And the person would jump up.

So it was empty deception. And so essentially what happens is it's deception that masquerades as truth, but it is not. Yes? Empty seems to connotate something that's meaningless to me. Yeah, so here's, in the end, you've been fooled. How many of you like to be fooled?

No. And so if it's entertaining, we say that's okay, right? It's great to see David Copperfield make the Statue of Liberty disappear. He said it's entertaining. And we know he didn't really make it disappear. If he had, that would be probably a crime, right? But he didn't really make it disappear. He only made it appear to disappear. But what you have here is people actually thinking there's something to what's being presented, and in fact, there's not. Empty deception. And it's bad, I fooled you stuff. Ha ha.

According to the tradition of man, according to the elementary principles of the world, so this is human tradition, and then the elementary principles of the world, this word elementary, the reason they translate it that way is the word basically has kind of the idea of the ABCs. The world's kind of ABC, you know, kindergarten, first grade level stuff. It's not really all that sophisticated. It's very basic, and he uses that again down in verse 20, same thing.

Okay, so then, rather than according to Christ, the word according to we can substitute just for the sake of understanding, consistent with. Consistent with. For, and then this starts, and then what you notice, for is the beginning of some statements that are logical. For in him, so one of the things we've done in here is to go through here and underline things that are identification truths, including dead in.

For in him, All the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority, and in Him you also were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, and the removal of the body of flesh by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.

So a few things there, you know, Stan? It's interesting that he says dwells in bodily form, but later he said body of flesh. So is he not saying that Christ was in body of flesh and just in the form of man? Let's step through it, one bit at a time. So in this context, the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form. One of the things that we see in scripture is Christ is fully God, and fully man. And that's what this expression here indicates. All the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form. So he's fully man and fully God.

And his physical appearance was not simply an apparition. That was, by the way, an early heretical teaching. where they start deviating from this, where Christ wasn't really in the physical body, because physical bodies are bad. No, that's not correct. He indeed was, and this is one of the things that makes it clear. One of the things the Antichrist denies. Yes, yes, it is exactly that. By the way, why would the Antichrist want to deny the fullness of deity in bodily form?

And the payment wouldn't be valid. So, this in fact is one of the things we'll be looking at in the weeks ahead. Is this, what's the basis for us saying that Christ actually came in human form and the payment for our sins has basis now because he actually came in human bodily form and that Christ as our substitute was not simply symbolic. But what was wrong with the lambs that the Jews sacrificed?

It wasn't a man. It was not a human being. It needed to be a human being. So in other words, Satan would be saying it's an empty deception. Yeah, so Satan's going to do something to warp the biblical picture. And one of those, Ariadne, he didn't really come in the flesh. Empty deception. Yeah, empty deception.

And so various ways to warp the biblical picture, and any of them will do. And in him, and then, so we see the first one, in him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form, so that's all about Christ. And then the rest of them, in him you've been made complete. So now it begins to directly express the impact upon you. In your position, in Christ, is there anything deficient? Is there something missing? In Christ, you've been made complete. There is nothing missing in our position. There's nothing messed up.

So actually, he could have said, made complete, like Him. Yeah, in Him, like Him. And he even gives more detail. In him you have also been circumcised with a circumcision made without hands. Now, here's a couple of things to look at. Circumcision was in the Law of Moses. Right? Was in the Law of Moses. That was one of the 613 laws. And, between, listen, pick this.

Between circumcision and the Ten Commandments, which was higher priority? Circumcision was higher priority than the Ten Commandments. For two reasons, and you bring up an important example. One, sequentially circumcision came before because circumcision came under Abraham. The rest of the law of Moses came with Moses and later, right? But circumcision came before Abraham. So in time sequence, circumcision was ahead. Secondly, if you needed to be circumcised on the eighth day, did they say, now it's Sabbath, we're going to put it off, we're going to do it early. Did they do that? No. Circumcision took priority over the Sabbath.

So that's why I say circumcision was even more important than the Ten Commandments. But it was more of an identity of a nation of people than anything else. Yes. So here is circumcision, which is a huge thing within the law, even more important than the ten.

But, did circumcision have any applicability to us in the body of Christ? In terms of the physical circumcision, no. But what did circumcision picture? Death of Christ. Okay, so let's look at this. Let's ask another thing. Circumcision was done to whom?

Babies. Babies, Jewish males at eight days, right? And regardless of the Sabbath, Jewish males at eight days. But here, in him you also were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands. So what circumcision is this? Is this in the body? Here's one other thing. Christian women are circumcised. Spiritually speaking. Because that was another thing. The physical circumcision was done only to the males. Spiritual circumcision is done to all male and female. What's a circumcision of the heart?

Right. And here's one other thing. Here is a figure of speech that starts in the Old Testament, goes in the New. I put it on the back side in the slides here. It's a figure of speech. There are things that are done with hands. So when God does something in the physical realm, He creates, that's done with hands. When God does something in the Bible, He does in the spiritual realm, the figure of speech is God does it without hands. And so that's the difference. Does God have hands? I think so. Okay, but does he have physical hands?

No. So Christ does, but God in these expressions, and it's even used before Christ was even born, God didn't do so with hands, but the Jewish figure of speech was, with hands, God does something in the physical realm. Without hands, God does something in the spiritual realm. So this circumcision, unlike the Jewish circumcision, which had to be done by a human being, spiritual circumcision is done by whom? God. God did it. And it's done without regard to male or female. It is done for all those who believe who are in the body of Christ.

I don't know if this has a bearing on it, but in the work of creation, he spoke and it was so. In the creation of man, he took the earth which he had already spoken into existence and made man. I'm not sure, is that work of his hands making man? Yes, doing something in the physical realm is with hands.

And that's what this summarizes. We won't take the time to go into it, but you're certainly welcome to peruse it. It's something we have covered previously at numerous times, including, I think we last covered it in our Hebrews study, because that's one of the places where the term is used. But it's consistent.

The Old Testament, New Testament, if God does something in the physical realm, it's with ants. If God does something in the spiritual realm, it's without ants. That's a consistent Old Testament into the new figure of speech. using the Bible. Going back to the front page, the circumcision of Christ is done, that is, without hands. It's God's accomplishment. So there's a difference.

The law asks for us to do something, and the circumcision done under the law was done by a human being. The circumcision of Christian believers, the change in heart is done by God Himself. And does that happen with someone who doesn't believe? What do you mean by change of heart? So let's look at this. In the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, And so what is that describing? He goes on, having been buried with him in baptism, by which we are also raised up with him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead. What is the change of heart that is positional, that takes place when we believe?

OK, back to the original thing I said then, the deity dwells in bodily form, he doesn't say flesh, because Christ didn't have a sin nature and it wasn't flesh sarts, whereas down here he says in man the body of the flesh, and he's talking about the flesh with a sin nature. So there is definitely a difference in the human form and in the flesh, right? Yes, and so the removal of the body of the flesh, this is the removal of the foreskin, only using that as a figure of speech dealing in the spiritual realm.

For us as Christians, as Christian believers, what has been changed? Well, if we're in Christ, we don't have the same name. Well, we do have the same name. So let's think about this. Everything that we've been studying in this class so far, has been changed. Because what are we studying? We're studying our position, including freed from the law.

So the circumcision was done under the law, under the law of Moses, and it was a physical thing done by man. But as Christian believers, all the changes that have to do with the changes God made when we believed, or changes made without hands. And this is the circumcision of the heart. Yes? I think it's interesting that the Jews considered circumcision as basically salvation for them. Yes. And God, if you are not circumcised by God, then you're not saved. So it's very similar. Yes, except for the one thing is the Jews looked upon it as salvation wasn't. Right.

And so they had some erroneous understanding, but what Paul is describing here is not error. It is in fact the case, so we're spending the whole year basically looking at the answer to the question that Roy had, you know, what does this circumcision of the heart mean? What does this change of heart mean? Well, we're looking at it all year. Everything we've been talking about, and Paul even puts it together with all your identification with Christ, and everything that goes with it is all part of your circumcision.

So what Jim's actually saying is that Jews felt they were identified with Abraham, and Paul here is trying to say that we are identified with Christ. So Abraham is an insignificant figure from the past where Christ is now our future. So here's the deal. Here the Jews thought it made a promise to Abraham, right? Was every descendant of Abraham a child of promise?

Now, example, Ishmael. It's not in the lineage. He doesn't count. So it's got to be through Isaac, and it's got to be through Jacob. Those are the ones who count. And he had many other children, too. Yeah, he had others, aside from having Isaac and then also having Ishmael, other children. So, but the specific lineage was the one God was talking about. There were also, however, in Genesis 12, 1 through 3, promises made affecting us. And they were all physical, not spiritual. Yeah. Well, okay, so he made physical promises, right? So all right, so let's get back to this here before we get too lost.

So having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead. So when we talk about our five identification truths, we've been identified with Christ in his death, or sometimes it's represented as his crucifixion. And by the way, if you're crucified in the Roman Empire, what does that mean? You're dead. And the Roman soldiers are going to make sure that that's what happens. So, died with him, buried with him, raised with him, ascended and seated.

The particular point here is the burial and then resurrection. And when we talk about all these things, We're not talking about a physical death, we're talking about a spiritual death. Yes, notice for Christ it was a physical death, was it not? We, having been identified with him, do you remember going through that? Do you remember being identified with Christ? I mean, it was really tough sitting there in the grave all that time, right? And, you know, it was really great to open up the stone and get out of that.

So you and I don't remember it. Why? We weren't there physically. We weren't there physically. It was a spiritual event. And without God revealing it, we wouldn't have the foggiest notion that this was true. I don't wake up in the morning and, man, I remember what that was like. Well, rough time. I'm sure glad for the resurrection. We don't remember any of it.

It is all, and here's the point in verse 12, through faith. By faith in what is revealed. It's the only way we know this. It's the only way. And then in verse 13, when you were dead in, so there's the message that is comparable to Ephesians 2, verses 1-3, dead in. So this is an identification truth, but it's a bad one.

Dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh. you're spiritually uncircumcised, God hasn't done anything yet. He made you alive together with him, so here's together with him, what does he do? He made you alive, goes back to the resurrection. Together with him, having forgiven all of our transgressions.

How many of them? Can I do anything that's too bad, that's really, really nasty, awful, and that doesn't get covered? Here's the thief on the cross, and he knew he was a nasty dude, but he believed. Christ is seen in paradise today. But here, we in the body of Christ, and then in verse 14, this is the part that we have in bold here, having cancelled out the certificate of debt, consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us, and he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

So, this word for certificate of debt is a chirographon, a hand-written debt note, I-O-U. I wrote it in my own hand. Paul did exactly that in the book of Philemon. little tiny book. He says, whatever Onesimus owes you, charge it to my account. I owe you. It was a chirographon, a handwritten debt note. Paul did it himself, promising to take on and to pay for anything that was owed So is this actually a certificate of sin, debt?

Yeah, so let's look at it. Here is a certificate of debt. So what is it? Sins are looked upon, and the Bible in various places does this, looked upon as a debt owed to God. As a debt owed to God. And this verse right here continues that theme. Consisting of decrees against us which was hostile to us and he has taken it out of the way having nailed it to the cross.

And this is very consistent with here's Jesus on the cross and when he's all done what does he say? It's finished. The Greek word meaning it's all paid. It's all paid. And so that's why he says, having nailed it to the cross. It's all paid, here's the debt note. There it is, nailed to the cross. Christ paid it all. I would sing the song, Jesus paid it all. So he paid the price, the whole thing. And then there's the other part of this.

Do you go to a dead person and start choking them and beating them and shaking them and say pay up? So not only is the debt completely paid, but we having died with him, died in relationship to any obligation. So this is one reason why trying to hold on to some portion of the law is a problem. Because you're, among other issues, denying that this thing was really all paid. Jesus says it's all paid, was it? No. Consisting of decrees against us The whole law, every little bit, it was nailed to the cross, paid off. We have various copies of debt notes from New Testament times and around that era. What they would typically do is go through and just cross it out. It's paid. It's gone. When it's all paid, it's done.

I don't know how to say this exactly, but in other words, Christ died for the sins of the whole world, but the ones that are truly forgiven are the ones that the debt was nailed to the cross. So if you believe in Christ through faith, then your sins are forgiven, whereas for the unbeliever, the sins are still there. That's right. So what happens is that the payment has been made for every single person on the planet for all time.

Were the sins of Hitler paid for? Yes. The sins of Atullah the Hun paid for? Yes. Sins of Adam paid for? Yes. Every last one. Go on into everybody following the Antichrist in the tribulation period. Paid for? Yes. All paid for? Every single one? In that sense, everybody on the planet is savable. Everybody on the planet is savable, because the sins have all been paid for. There is nothing that I can do or not do that somehow scoots around that. The debt has been totally and completely paid, but it is only applied to those who believe. only applied to those who believe.

One of the examples that we give is, you know, owing some huge amount of money, and I typically picked out four trillion dollars with this last week's valuation of a billion dollars for Apple, that might be a little shy, but anyway, yeah, Apple this last week popped into net, you know, value of a trillion dollars. So, If that's the case, then maybe I need to up it. But I used to use $4 trillion as the amount owed by all of us. And so it's as if we're all in this big prison cell, held in prison for the sake of this debt.

There's no way we're going to pay. And somebody walks into the room and says, hey, there's money in the account for all of you. Here's a check. All you've got to do is go to the exit door, sign the thing, turn it in, and you're free. And one person goes, oh, you're kidding me, and throws it down the floor. Another person says, what a bunch of garbage, just takes it and tears it up and throws it away. And somebody else goes, you know, I think I'll wait until I'm older and stick it in the pocket. And somebody else says, yeah!

And they take it and they go to the door and they counterfeit it and walk free. So, the debt is paid for, for everybody. Every single one, no exceptions. In every single point. Things I did, things I didn't do. Every single point, for everybody, all paid for. But only those who countersigned it and turned in at the door are forgiven.

So what we see here, when he had disarmed the rulers and authorities, he made a public display of them, had him triumph over them through him. Who are disarming the rulers and authorities? That's He. But who are the rulers and authorities? Satan and all his angels and followers. And so do they cease to exist?

No. But they've been disarmed in terms of having power over us. So then, I'm sorry, what? Do you mean that we no longer are under his power of death? Okay, so let's, we actually don't have time to pursue that as fully as I might like, but let's make an attempt.

In Ephesians 2, 1 through 3, who is Satan? Who's he called? The prince of the power of the air, right? The god of this world, okay? So, he has power over those who are unbelievers, who are dead in their trespasses and sins. Does he have power over you? No. This is where, you know, I mentioned earlier, the charismatic realm, they give Satan too much credit. He doesn't have power over me, and in fact, I can't, you know, bind him, and I don't need to. And when it's time to actually bind him, how many angels will it take? One. A book of Revelation has a strong angel. Is it a strong angel that binds Satan? No. It's just an angel. Nameless.

So he's really not a problem. He's been disarmed. That's not a big deal. So for us in the body of Christ, Satan is not in the line of rule and authority over us. And we don't need to bind him, and we don't need to attribute everything to him. We don't need to really worry about him.

Is there a place to stand against him? Yeah, the time could and will come. But we're not to be preoccupied with him. We're to be occupied with Christ. But one thing that we don't emphasize is that he is hurling darts at us. Yes. And the shield of faith. Yes. And the truth is what will touch them. So here is the big picture on Satan.

If we say he's just a burnt ember and he's nothing to worry about at all, we've made a mistake, haven't we? If, on the other hand, we walk around trembling and feeling like we've got to go and win a battle over him that's already been won, that's a mistake too. And so it's a matter of what does the scripture actually say, and abide by that. Under or overestimating him, either of those is a mistake.

Let's look at verses 16 to the end there. And one of the things I want us to take note of, he says, therefore, so here's logic again, right? Therefore, no one, how many? No one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day. Is that Jewish? Can be. These are essentially things that could be under Judaism, right? Because what did... The Jews had food laws. Things you're supposed to eat and drink.

How about festivals? They had seven mosaic instituted festivals starting with Passover. New Moon or a Sabbath day? So they had the lunar calendar and everything was run by the lunar calendar. And then a Sabbath day. What's the deal? So what's the problem with the Sabbath? So here's the Sabbath day. And the Sabbath day you regard under what? The Law of Moses. This is one of the ten, right?

So you have different groups now. You have Seventh-day Adventists, who, oh boy, that Sabbath law is really big. Believe it or not, we also have related to them, in terms of historical background, in Boulder, the Seventh-day Baptists. They're related historically to the Seventh-day Adventists. And so they meet on guess what day? They have a Sabbath meeting day, not Sunday morning. So here's Baptists that go for Seventh-day. And they're not the only ones. There are other Seventh-day groups on top of that.

But this is to let no one act as your judge with regards to all these things, including the Sabbath. Things which are a mere shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. Then he goes on again, let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of angels.

If I were a believer eternally saved, having all the things true of my position in Christ that we've been looking at and will look at for now to the rest of the year. If I have all those things, and then I say, but I'm going to go and do this monastery thing, where I promise not to talk for the rest of my life, or sign over all my earthly goods, or quit myself. or whatever other thing like that, does that mean I'm going to lose my salvation? Does that mean all the things that I have in my position in Christ, I lose those? Do I lose things in my position? No. What happens? What happens to the believer that goes and follows this? So it says, keep defrauding you of your prize. So there is a loss of rewards for putting oneself under this asceticism, as it's called, and worship of angels.

By the way, which one of the apostles made a mistake twice by beginning to worship angels. Pardon? John. John, in the end of the Book of Revelation, twice he began to worship angels by mistake. He was kind of out of calibration, began worshiping angels twice. Did he lose his salvation? But pursuing that here is a loss of prize. taking his stand on visions he has seen.

Oh, well, God's revealed various things in the Bible and to me. Yes? Just an observation, the angels rebuked him for doing that. Yes, the angels turned around and said, oh no, and corrected him quickly. And by the way, he didn't cover it up. He wrote that down too. He wrote down when he started off in the wrong direction, and the angels corrected him. Both of those. Both times.

Inflated without cause by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with the growth which is from God. So how does he answer this legalism question? He's saying, not just legalism, whether it's from the Law of Moses or some other concocted thing, but what does he say is the answer here? The body of Christ. This is holding fast to the head, so it focuses on Christ. from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God. Is that individual personal growth, or is this church body growth? This is church body growth here. The Bible talks about both. Spiritual growth that is personal, individual, as well as church body growth.

So instead of this legalism, which whole churches can get caught up in, instead of some bogus revelations, the church body ought to be looking to Christ and growing together. So that's really the alternative, isn't it? Here's what God intends, and then here are the different ways that people try to take you captive. as a spiritual pirate or thug. Taking people captive by coming up with some kind of legalism and some special revelation. Amazing.

And so what you get here, right now, you're complete in Christ, right? All the things that were said in verse 9 through 12, about being in Him, those are all true, aren't they? Those are all true, every single one. And it's based on that with the therefore, right?

Yeah. That we have these results. Yeah. Therefore, logically, here's the outcome. So this is spiritual logic based on what we understand. Here's the outcome. So we don't get sucked into legalism, we don't get sucked into extra-biblical revelations, because everything that's been revealed to us and about us is complete. And the focus is on spiritual growth of the church body. He basically says, don't let this or that distract you, because what's going to be missing if you do, is growth of the Church of God. Well, is that true, or is it the prize that's missing? Well, there's that as well. I think both. Do you? Yeah. If you look at it. God's going to complete His growth. Yeah. He'll take care of it, but we may or may not participate in that, right?

So, there are people that are all captivated by trying to keep the Sabbath, there are people that are all captivated by, oh, we don't eat this, and don't eat that, and don't touch this, and are all real distracted by this or that extra revelation, and they are detracting from the church body growth, they are also stepping aside from the prize, the reward that is out there for us who are in the body of Christ. And by the way, what's that reward? Is that I get to wear a, you know, I'm a Christian growth, you know, brownie button? And who's going to give the rewards, by the way?

Christ himself, personally. The head. Christ personally. So this is one thing that focuses on Christ. The reward is from Christ. The growth is in Christ. It's all focused on Him. We've run out of time, so let's pray. Lord, thank you for what you have shown us here. We thank you. Boy, what a wonderful set of truths has been laid out here. There is nothing missing or incomplete in what you have accomplished. Every single debt has been done in and paid for. There's no continuing penance for us to have to deal with anymore. There is no punishment that is for us to complete.

So we thank you as we look at these truths and as we continue our study throughout the rest of this year, assuming you allow it to be As we continue our study, we just thank you for all the marvelous and wonderful eternal truths that you've laid out for us, because you love us and care for us so very much. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.