Who Has God Made Us To Be?

There are two groups of people in the universe. There are people whose identity, who they are, is apart from Christ, and there are people who, by God's grace, through faith, are united with Christ or who live by faith in Christ. For those who are united by faith to Christ, we learned that they are a people who have been rescued by Christ, who have received reconciliation with God, and who have purposes in life now revealed because of Christ. Our lives are now about his glory and everything that we do, every activity we could do, every thought that we could ever have, every word that we could ever say; everything is now marked for us who live by faith in the Son of God and are citizens of his kingdom.

We live for his glory in all that we do. We move on from this big two-bucket category of who people are, either apart from Christ or united by faith in Christ, to consider more about who Christ is. You can read more about Who Christ Is in our post from last week.

Great Encouragement and Hope

In Colossians 2:9-14, we see right away something of this grand and glorious picture of who we are. This passage speaks to who we really are.

“For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. 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, 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. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.”

This verse speaks in an authoritative way, coming from God himself, about who we are for those of us who have faith in the Son of God. This small section describes who we used to be, but also who we are. From God's own perspective, from truth's own perspective, who you truly are if your faith is in Christ is written in almost every clause of every sentence in this passage. In Christ, all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form. Christ is the deity. He is the deity in bodily form. Everything that is deity, everything that is true God of true God, very God, very God, it lives in Him. He is God in the flesh. All that is God is fully in Christ. There is no way for you to divide, separate, or partition Christ away from, apart from, or separate unto the deity. Christ is God in the flesh.

You and I, we in Christ, we have been brought to fullness. We have been filled in Christ. We now have life in Christ. We have purpose in Christ for his delight. This is what our lives are about now. We've been brought to fullness. Everything apart from our lives in Christ- our lives prior to Christ- that was, well, like a cup with nothing in it. It was empty. But now we've been brought to fullness. Christ lives in this bodily form. He lives, and so his living is a guarantee of our risen new lives as well.

Christ is the head over every power and every authority. Any authority that exists, any power that exists, it is all dependent on Christ. Just as we heard last week about Christ's introductory letter and resume. That Christ was there in the beginning. He created all things, for all things were created by him and all things are sustained in him. Every power and every authority that is, it has its power, and it has its authority because Christ allows it to be. Even if it is hostile to Christ, it is still dependent on Christ's sustaining power to be. Every power and authority. He, Christ, is the head over every power and authority, and this is tremendously encouraging again to you and me. Because who you and I are, no one else gets to name us. As Paul writes in the letter to the Romans, there is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. You see, Jesus is the ultimate head. He is the ultimate one who can name who we are, and so we ought to be very concerned with what he names us to be. Whatever he names us to be, that's who we actually are. Not what other powers and authorities may name or claim us to be.

Verse 11 says, In him, that's Christ again, in Christ, you. You and I are both right here in Colossians 2: 11. In him, you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Christ is working, God the Spirit is working, and here is God the Father who is working. Here is the triune God who has worked in you to surgically remove from you, to cut off from you something, to remove from you something dead. This thing now brings you life. Your whole self used to be ruled by the flesh, but now it's put off. When you were circumcised by Christ, when you had this surgery by Christ, who you used to be was put off, says verse 11b. 

Your whole self, you used to be ruled by the flesh. That means in everything that you did, you thought, you spoke, in every way that you were a person, you were a person ruled by your flesh. You didn't have a revealed purpose of God's glory. You didn't know God's glory. You didn't know God's purpose in making you. Instead, you were ruled by your own flesh. That's who we are apart from Christ. But that whole old self that's ruled by the flesh, that was all put off. This putting off occurred when you were circumcised by Christ, when you were surgically operated on by Christ's spiritual surgical procedure. You are no longer who you used to be. Though you might carry guilt with you, though you might carry old names with you, that is not who you are. The King of kings has said who you are, and so that's who you are. Christ has done this surgery on you, and so now you're no longer ruled by your flesh in your thoughts, and in your actions, and in your words. You're no longer ruled by the desires of your flesh.

In verse 12, the connection comes even closer, speaking of how close we are in Christ. Having been buried with him in baptism, in which now you also were raised with him. You have been raised with him through your faith in the working of God. God who raised him from the dead. If your faith is in Christ, then you, in your baptism, you've been buried with Christ. Just as he truly went into the tomb, your old self that was ruled by the flesh, your old self that was ruled by the evil desires of yourself and your heart, died that day. Now you have a new life because you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead, and so Christ now lives. 

We look back to verse 9 that speaks of how in Christ all the deity lives in bodily form and how this resurrection of Christ is the guarantee of our resurrection. In some ways, our resurrection has already happened; we’ve already been raised because we have been raised to eternal new spiritual life even now. We have not yet been raised to eternal new physical life, but for those of us who have faith in Christ, you were also raised. Not will be. You were. You are actually living resurrection lives right now. For all you who have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. God made you alive with Christ such that the one who lives forevermore, he is who your life is now hidden in.

Just as he lives, you live. Verse 13 wraps up saying, He forgave us all our sins. Jesus said, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. He's the ultimate one who will judge. He is the ultimate judge himself. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness. In our pre-op state, we were in debt. That's what sin is. It's a debt. God, in Christ, forgave us all our sins, and he canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness.

This is who we were. God has made us to be a forgiven people. He has made us to be people who once were in debt and now are inheritors. We were those who had charges against us, and now he has given us his charge, Christ Jesus, as our king. We were those who were condemned, and by his grace, we are instead commuted. Christ has taken it all away. He nailed it to the cross. He nailed our indebtedness. He nailed our sins. He netted our charges that we earned in the sinful, rebellious, wicked desires of our flesh. He surgically took them out from us, nailed them to the cross, and now that old self has been removed. God in Christ has made us who we are.

We are now made new. We are a free people. We are a people who have received a great surgery, making us new. We are a people who are now good news people. God has made us to be like the living one. God has brought us to fullness. We now know our purpose, and so we live. We live for the first time.

Do We Worship A Dead or A Living God?

Heidelberg Catechism-The Next Generation