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Christ, My All In All

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Christ, My All In All  Empty Christ, My All In All

Post by Rohn Sat Jun 22, 2013 8:45 pm

CHRIST, MY ALL IN ALL
Colossians 3:1-14
Text -   (Colossians 3:4) When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.  (KJV)
(Colossians 3:11) …..Christ is all, and in all.  (KJV)
 
I.  Holiness of heart and life.
In this third chapter of Colossians Paul is describing holiness of heart and life.  As we read this chapter we find that he names  some outward sins and acts which we know if we do these things we aren’t Christians (vs. 5-8]. He doesn’t stop there but he tells us, (Colossians 3:12) Put on therefore, as God's elect, holy and beloved, a heart of compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, longsuffering;  (ASV).
Put on Christ. 
(Colossians 3:3) For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.  (KJV)
There is far more to having Christ than abstaining from sin and going to church.  While these are commendable the Lord had far more for us than this. 
He is writing to the elect of God, holy and beloved (v. 12). 
He tells them (Colossians 3:14) And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.  (KJV)
It means something to be the elect (best God has) Holy and beloved (pure and chosen).  It also means something to put on charity (love).  It is more than showing a little affection.  It is having divine love implanted within us.  “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear,”  then he says, “But Christ is all in all.”
 
II.  Notice who can say, “Christ is my life.”  “He is my all in all.”
Paul doesn’t say that Christ is all in all to all men.  There are many people in the world today to whom Christ is nothing.  He doesn’t mean anything to  them.  It’s sad but true.  How many people do we know who never speak the name of Jesus Christ except to curse.  He isn’t in their life.  They live for so many other things except Christ.  They live so far away from Him.
Then there are others to whom Christ is something, but not much.  They do recognize Christ.  They admit the truth of the Christian religion.  Some even say prayers on occasion.  But yet they do little if anything about the way they are living or the condition of their real self.  They go from day to day and never think of the Lord and what He has done for them or what He wants to be to them.  They may go to church and be reverent and attentive but that is about as far as it goes.  They don’t know what anyone is talking about when they express their salvation as Christ their life or as Christ being their all in all.
How can we describe life?  We know when it is there and we know when it is gone.  The doctor puts a stethoscope on the breast of a person and he can tell you when live is there and he can tell you when live is gone.  But what is life.  It is more than a heartbeat.  It has to do with the brain and the spinal cord and the blood.   The Bible tells us that live is in the blood.  They can put a machine on a person and keep the heart pumping and the blood flowing for days after all hope is gone for recovery.  The brain has stopped responding and the reflexes are gone but the heart is still pumping blood.  But where is that, that we call life?
Somewhere along the line it has gone, death has taken over. 
Life has to do with movement and thought and power of choice.  Where the Christian is concerned their movement and thought and choices are governed by Christ being their all in all, their very life.  Spurgeon said, “If you could cut into the center of the renewed heart you would find sure footprints of Divine life, for you would find love to Jesus. No, you would find Christ Himself there!”
Life is hidden.  We can’t see life but we know it is there.  Christ our live is hidden in us but we can tell when He is there.  I don’t need to be told that a person walking down the street is alive.  Boys playing ball out in the field are alive.  I can see it.  It shows in the action.  And so it is with us if Christ is in us.  It shows in our actions. 
We are dependent on life.  We have plans that depend on life.  We do all we can to preserve it and protect it.  Christ is our life.  We depend on Christ, and if this is true we are as interested in preserving and protecting our salvation – which is Christ in us, Christ our all in all – as we are our life.  What does it take to keep you in the place where you know without a shadow of a doubt  that you have real salvation?  That you have Christ within? 
Praying – living close to God - praising God and having real love in your heart?  These are the things that make the life of the Christian real.
What is meant by “Christ is all, and in all”?  Christ is our all in all.
First, Christ is all to us as He stands before God.  He stands before God on my behalf.  There is no other way of approach to God but by Jesus Christ.  In the day in which we live surely we need to be able to get to God.  There are so many things that  enter in and would defeat us but for the approach to God.  Being able to call on God in Jesus Name and have the help there that we need means everything.  Whether it is for forgiveness in times of failure or whether it is for patience and endurance in times of trial, I have an approach to God.    Christ is all in all.
Then He is all in all when I need Him to stand between my soul and the enemy of my soul.  In temptation or the time when the enemy would bring defeat to my soul, if I am living where Christ is my life, then He is my all in all against the enemy of my soul. 
Think of Job.  We all know about the trial of Job.  We know what the enemy did to him.  Yet because he could say from his heart, “Though he slay me yet will I serve Him” – God stood between Job and the enemy and Satan could only go so far.  You may wonder why God let Satan go as far with Job as He did.  I believe it was because He knew just how much Job could stand.
He has promised never to let us be tempted above that which we are able to stand and it was the same with Job. 
When our heart is clear and our purpose is true Christ stands between us and the enemy of our soul.  If I try to reason with the devil I am most likely to be defeated, but when I trust in the Lord and call upon His name the enemy is defeated by Him on my behalf.
One man said, “ The Lord fights my battles with the world, I just obey Him.”
Someone else said, “No wave can sink the man who clings to the life preserver: he shall swim to glory on it.”
He is also my all in all in my weaknesses and deficiencies. 
(2 Corinthians 12:10) Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.  (KJV)
There are times when I have to make choices that are beyond me.  There are times when I have to do things that I have never done before.  There are times when I know I have to but feel I can’t. 
Christ is my all in all then.  In our weakness, He is our strength.
 
III.  What is required of us to be able to say, “Christ is our life – He is our all in all.”
One thing is that we have submitted ourselves to Him and put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness and longsuffering.  The outward display of Christlikeness in the Christian is the evidence of Christ in our lives.
Spurgeon said, “If Christ is all, and yet I being a Christian am not like Christ, my Christianity is a transparent sham, I am nothing but a base pretender.”
If Christ is our all in all, we must be loyal to Him above all.  It doesn’t matter where or when, if He is my life I do my part in putting forth loyalty to Him first.
Loyalty in any case means that I take a stand to protect and do what I feel is right and best for the cause regardless of where others stand.  If Christ is my life and my all in all then I am loyal to Him above all else and regardless to anyone else.  This isn’t always easy.  There are times when men I look up to take a course I feel isn’t what I should do or stand for.  Loyalty to Christ comes before loyalty to men.  I look up to Him, I trust Him, I’m true to Him. 
One man said that the American flag never meant so much to him until he was overseas having just came through a hard, rugged battle and as he came into a town he saw an American flag waving.  Away from home and family and friends he said he just stood there and looked and wept unashamed.  There was his love, his hope, his trust, the symbol of his country.
Sometimes it takes the battle and the being alone to make us appreciate the Lord, but loyalty to Him fills the heart with joy and satisfaction when He reveals Himself to us.
 
IV.  (Colossians 3:4) When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.  (KJV)
Just as life is hidden in us so is Christ.  We see evidence of life.  We see evidence of Christ when He is our life and all in all.  We may say may say of someone that we saw signs of life. Movement, breath, expressions.
The same is true with Christ as our life.
“When Christ  who is our life shall appear.”  I don’t believe that there is a book or letter written by Paul that doesn’t in some way point to the return of the Lord.  And if He is our life we look for His return.  Just as  the man saw the American flag and wept there, he looked for a day when he would return to his own country.
(Colossians 3:4) When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.  (KJV)
It has been describe as being in the chrysalis state such as a caterpillar which turns into a butterfly.
It starts with an egg on a milkweed – turns into a green worm – grows and one day is found hanging on the stem or leaf making a cocoon.  But after several days the cocoon takes on a dark color and one day you find that it has burst forth into a lovely butterfly.  “Ye shall also appear with Him in glory.”
The sad part is that to a great many people this isn’t true.  They will die and never rise like Christ.  Christ isn’t their life or their all in all.
If we are to appear with Him in glory He has to be our life here.  What is Christ to you today? 
There are people in the world today to whom He is nothing,  there are those to whom He is something but not very much. 
But there are some to whom He is their life, their all in all.
Which group do you fit in?
Rohn
Rohn

Posts : 1353
Join date : 2011-12-31
Age : 66
Location : Eastern OH

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