When Christ is All

Colossians 3:1–5, 11

“Christ…is our life” (Colossians 3:4). Now, Jesus doesn’t just give life; He is our life. “For to me to live is Christ” (Philippians 1:21), is what Paul said, in another place. He is our life; He doesn’t just point to life. He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6)

A. We Have Been Crucified with Christ

“For ye are dead” (Colossians 3:3). Did you know you’re looking at a dead man? I’ve been crucified; so have you. I died with Christ; His death had my name on it.

B. We Have Been Raised with Christ

“If ye then be risen with Christ…” (Colossians 3:1). We are dead with Him; His death had our name on it. And, we are risen with Him.

C. We Live with Christ

And, because we were crucified with Him, and have risen with Him, we live with Him.

“When Christ, who is our life…” (Colossians 3:4). We have the resurrection life of the Lord Jesus Christ.

D. Our Life is Hidden in Christ

“For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3). Now, in order for the devil to get to me—I’m in Jesus, and Jesus is in God—and he’s got to go through God the Father and God the Son to get to me. That’s where I’m hidden. He is my life. What’s he saying here? “I died with Him. I was raised with Him. I live with Him. And, I’m hidden in Him.”

“In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3). Where’s that hidden? In Jesus. All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Jesus, and I’m hidden in Jesus. There’s nothing worth knowing that’s outside of Jesus. There is no wisdom that this world has to offer that can compare with the only true wisdom that is in Jesus Christ. Now, He is all, and in all.

I. Three Things That Will Happen When Christ is All in All to You

There are three major verbs, and I want you to see them. Look, in verse 1: “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above…”—underscore the verb seek.

And then, look in verse 2: “Set your affection on things above” (Colossians 3:1–2). Underscore the verb set. And then, look in verse 5: “Mortify therefore your members” (Colossians 3:5). Underscore the verb mortify.

Now, those are three things that will happen when Christ is all, when Christ is everything, when Christ is your life: the verbs seek, set, and mortify—or, we can say, if you want it alliterated, “slay”: seek, set, and slay.

A. Jesus Captivates My Ambition

“If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God” (Colossians 3:1).

Now, what you seek is what your ambition is. Your ambition is to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness (Matthew 6:33). The devil doesn’t care what on earth you may seek, as long as you do not seek those things which are above.

1. Some Things which are Below that You Might be Prone to Seek

a. The Reasonings of the World

“Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world,”—the word rudiment, there, means, “the ABCs, the basic elements of the world”—“and not after Christ” (Colossians 2:8). And, actually, the word here, spoil—it literally means, “to carry you off as a captive.” When people would take a country, they would say they “spoiled” the country. That is, they would carry away the goods of that country, and they spoiled it. So, he’s saying, “Don’t let somebody carry you away as captives.” Now, the cults are good at this. The cults—they don’t want converts as much as they want captives. What they will do is kidnap true converts. They will come to Baptists who really are not well grounded, and they will try to carry them off captive. And, they do this “through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ” (Colossians 2:8). And so, beware of the reasonings of this world.

b. The Rituals of the World

verses 13 through 17

He’s talking to people who’ve been in the Jewish religion. And, they had this certain ritual. They had things that they had done— religious rituals. They had certain drink offerings and certain meal offerings, and they had certain days that they kept. What he’s talking about here, primarily, is Jewish diets and Jewish days. And, there were some people who said, “Now that you’re saved, that’s fine, but you’ve got to keep these days, and you’ve got to keep these diets.” And, Paul says, “Don’t let anybody judge you of those things. For example, don’t let anybody judge you concerning the Sabbath day.” Sunday is not the Sabbath; Sunday is the Lord’s Day. Saturday is the Sabbath. Sunday is not the Christian Sabbath; Sunday is the Lord’s Day. It’s an absolutely different kind of day. Now, we have people today who want us to keep the Sabbath. If you think you’re keeping the Sabbath, you’d better be careful, because you can’t even start a fire on the Sabbath. And, when you cranked your automobile, you started a fire in the engine. You ought to be stoned. I’m telling you, we don’t keep the Sabbath, in that sense. There are people who would like to judge you, and put you under some ritualistic diet and some ritualistic days, but those things were taken out of the way; they were nailed to the cross. And, he tells us they are but shadows of things to come.

“They are shadows of things to come” (Colossians 2:17). They are not the substance; they are the shadow. And, people who try to keep these rituals are chasing shadows. Have you ever seen the ridiculous thing of a dog that chases the shadow of a bird on the ground, and the bird is up there in the sky? Now, that’s when people are substituting rituals for reality. They are seeking things which are below, not things which are above—shadows, and not substance; the blueprint, and not the building.

c. The Religions of the World

“Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels…”—and, by the way, they had a cult named Gnosticism in Colossae, where they were worshipping angels—“Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God” (Colossians 2:18 19).

What he’s saying is, “Don’t go following after some angelic being or some highfalutin religious philosophy. You hold on to Jesus, which is the Head.” I’ve been preaching long enough to be amazed at two things: number one, that people will not believe the truth; and, number two, what men and women will believe. Satan is not against religion, as long as it’s the religion of this world. And, you can seek—you can seek—the reasonings of this world: vain philosophy. You can seek the rituals of this world: days and diets. You can seek the religions of this world, and worship things other than Almighty God.

d. The Regulations of the World

“Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances,”—the word ordinances means, “laws”—“(touch not; taste not; handle not; which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men?”—now, he’s not saying that you ought not to taste, or touch, or handle things which God has forbidden, but what he is saying is that, when you have the traditions of men, men will take the Bible, and they will add to it. They will, like the Pharisees, bind on people burdens heavy to be borne. And then, he says—“which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship…”—that’s a very interesting phrase; underscore it—“will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body: not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh” (Colossians 2:20–23). Now, I admit that this is hard-to-understand English; it’s convoluted. But, what he is saying is this: Is, “You’re not going to be any more like Jesus with a list of do’s and don’ts. They’re not going to make you one speck like Jesus. It may look good; it may have a show of wisdom and humility. But, if you let all of the air out of it, it is will worship and not God worship. You think up certain things you’re going to do; and then, you do them, and you say, ‘What a good boy am I!’” And, Paul says, “It has no effect against the flesh. All it will do is just simply increase your pride, and it gives the wrong indication to your neighbor that Christianity is just a list of do’s and don’ts.” Many of us have the idea that, if there are just certain things that we don’t do and certain things that we do, then we’re spiritual. I mean, we say… Especially with the don’ts—you know, “Don’t tell lies; don’t tell dirty jokes, don’t cheat, etc.” And, we try to go for about two weeks not doing the dirty dozen, you know, and we think that’s going to make us spiritual.

There are several figures for the Christian life. For example, the Christian life is like a building program. We call that, in church language, edification. An edifice is a building. Can you imagine a contractor who’s supposed to build a building, and all he does is go around telling his workman, “Don’t saw crooked, and don’t bend nails”? He’s not going to have a building that way.

Or, it’s also called a growing process: “Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18). Can you imagine somebody telling you how to raise a newborn baby and saying, “Just don’t give it arsenic”? No. A thousand don’ts will not make you one wit more like the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, Christianity is not a legal relationship; it is a love relationship. And, I’m not saying there are certain things you ought not to do, but the difference is whether it is will worship or God worship. Now, you can read your Bible out of will worship. Do you ever get the idea that you’ve got to read so many chapters a day, and that’s going to make you a great Christian? Not necessarily. You know, a chapter a day keeps the devil away? No. Now, you can read your Bible and not love God. I don’t believe you can truly love God and not read your Bible. It’s why you do it, not what you do. You’ve seen that bumper sticker that says, “Tithe if you love Jesus; anybody can blow their horn.” Well, I like that, but I want to tell you something: You can tithe and still not love Jesus, but I’m not sure that you can truly love Jesus without obeying Him in stewardship. Now, what I’m trying to say is this: that none of these things—the reasonings of the world, and the rituals of the world, and the religions of the world—none of these things can make you like Jesus. We need to understand that Christ is all and in all. You are to seek Him like the needle on the compass seeks the North Pole. You are to seek Him like a sunflower seeks the sun.

B. Jesus Dominates My Attention

Not only does Jesus captivate my ambition; but, number two, Jesus dominates my attention.

“Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth” (Colossians 3:2). Well, the way to seek Him is to set your affections, and the word affection literally means, “attention.” That is, what you seek you have to set your mind to, because the Bible says, “As a man thinketh, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7). Now, we’ve often heard that some people are so heavenly-minded, they’re no earthly good, but the direct reverse may be true. This verse is not telling us not to be heavenly-minded; it is telling us to be heavenly-minded.

C. Jesus Regulates My Actions

The first verb is seek. The second verb is set. The third verb is slay.

Jesus, who captivates my ambitions, Jesus, who dominates my attention, is the Jesus who is to regulate my actions.

(Colossians 3:5–11). This verb mortify means, “to put to death forcefully and immediately.” Why would you put something to death? Well, because you hate it. As a Christian, you have to learn to hate. You could not have love without hate, anymore than you could have high without low, or hot without cold, or in without out. If you love justice, you hate crime. If you love health, you hate disease. If you love purity, you hate pornography. If you love flowers, you hate weeds. Did you know that God is a God who hates?

“These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: a proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,”—by the way, that means God hates abortion—“an heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren” (Proverbs 6:16–19). That’s God’s hate parade right there.

“Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way” (Psalm 119:104).

“I hate and abhor lying…”—Psalm 119, verse 163—“but thy law do I love” (Psalm 119:163). Psalm 119, verse 113: “I hate vain thoughts: but thy law do I love” (Psalm 119:113). Now, we’re to hate narcotics, liquor, communism, atheism, pornography, and any sin in our own lives. It needs to be put to death. Why? Because, “Christ is all, and in all” (Colossians 3:11).