The Absolute Sufficiency of the Lord Jesus Christ
This is a transcript. It may contain small inaccuracies.
Christ is all. The absolute sufficiency and supremacy of Jesus Christ, who is Lord over all. Christ is all. Three little words, but how sweet they are to the believer's ear. Three little words, but in those words, life and eternity. Three little words that present to us the absolute sufficiency of Jesus Christ in the entire work of man's salvation and the sanctification of sinners like us.
J.C. Ryle, the Bishop of Liverpool, said these three words are the essence and substance of Christianity. If our hearts can go along with them, it is well with our souls. If not, we may be sure we have yet much to learn. And I pray today that if you can't say Christ is all, you would come and learn of Him today.
Paul's central theme in the book of Colossians here is the person and the work of Christ and the relationship He sustains to His people, the church. To the Apostle Paul, Christ was worth everything. Paul could say, Christ is all. Christ is all and in all. Christ is all to me. He lived and He labored that in all things, Christ would have the preeminence—first place in everything.
In fact, if you look back to chapter one in the verse 16, he says, "For in Him all things were created, both in the heavens and in earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.” Christ is all.
And Paul labored to see everyone; every man, every woman, complete in Christ. You look at verse 25 of the first chapter and he says, “I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God given to me for you, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God." And what is that word, Paul? It is Christ. Christ is all.
Verse 28, "Him we proclaim, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ." Paul was one who was entrusted with the word of truth, the gospel of salvation, and his mission was to preach the word, to proclaim Christ so that all would know Him and understand the grace of God that is found in Christ, and knowing Christ then would grow in maturity to a full knowledge of Christ.
And for this he prays in chapter 1, you have that wonderful prayer, verse 9 to 12 there, how he prays for them night and day that they would be full, filled with the full knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding so that you may walk worthy of the Lord to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and multiplying in the knowledge of God. He labored to see every man complete in Christ.
Paul's main concern is the stability of their faith and their growth in Christian grace. As you look to chapter 2, the verse 19, he says he wants them to hold fast to the head as members of the body “being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments,”— being joined to Christ. And then he says that they would “grow with a growth that is from God,”— that they would be filled with the fullness of God and that they would grow with a growth that is from God, that they would increase in grace.
And he says in verse 5, "Though I am absent in body, nevertheless I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the stability of your faith. Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, being firmly rooted and built up in Him and having been established in your faith— just as you were instructed— and abounding therein with thanksgiving.”
As you have received Christ Jesus and you have known the fullness of His grace, so grow up in Him to maturity. As you have received Christ Jesus, so walk in Him. You received Him, believer, as your Lord, as your Christ, as your Savior. And what the apostle is saying is, walk in the light of that truth. The person of Christ, His Lordship—His Lordship over all who have trusted in Him—must govern all you believe and all you do.
You're to be firmly rooted in Him, built up in Him, established in the faith and bearing fruit to the glory of God. And that's why he says in our chapter, chapter 3, verse 17, it doesn't matter what you do. Whatever you do, whatever you say in word or in deed, whatever your action, you do all as a believer in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. That's your goal as a child of God.
Christ is all. Christ is all and in all to the believer. Christ must be all as the principal object of your life, your chief good. And you're living, believer, today, you're living. How do you live? You're living by His grace. And why do you live? You're living for His glory—by His grace for His glory. Christ must be all as the principal object of your life.
As Spurgeon said, your great aim must be to glorify Christ here on earth in the hope and expectation of enjoying Him forever above. We're called to walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing. And since Paul says, Christ is the Lord of my life, and we'll see that more next week as we look at the opening verses—the risen life in Christ, being raised with Christ. Since that is true, as a believer, I will seek to make His service my priority. His life must direct and govern my life if He is Christ over all.
And I want you to think today about a Christian's priority. Christian, why do you do what you do? What is your priority in life? If you were to ask the Apostle Paul, “Paul, what are you living for? Why do you exist? What's your reason for being? Paul, why do you do the things you do?” This would be his reply. He would say, “I serve my Lord Christ by His grace and for His glory. Christ is all and in all.”
And verse 17 would really be his purpose statement. Whatever I do, whatever I say, wherever I go, wherever I am, I'm doing everything. I do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. It's all about Him. It's for Him. It's to Him. It's through Him.
I live—whatever I do or say—I live by the grace of God, and I live for the glory of God. I'm living for the glory of God, my Savior. I make it my ambition, as we read in 2 Corinthians 5:9, in everything, in everything to please Him—to please Him. And young people, we were thinking about it at our retreat this year, the theme being living for Christ, for to me—for to me to live is Christ. Christ is my all. He is my everything, and that means fruitful labor for me in the service of Christ I will live.
In Acts 20, verse 24, Paul said, "I do not make my life of any account nor dear to myself, so that I might finish my course and the ministry which I have received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God." Paul, what are you living for? I'm living to testify of the gospel of the grace of God that is found in Christ Jesus. What's your aim? To preach Christ. And friend, today I would ask you at the outset of this message, what is it you're living for? What do you treasure above anything else in this world? Are you simply living for worldly treasure, laying up for yourself treasures on earth, or are you laying up for yourself treasure in heaven? What are you living for as a professing Christian? What is the object of your life, the fundamental principle governing your life? What orients your life as the governing principle? Is your life all about the service of your Lord and Master Jesus Christ? Is it to live? Is Christ so that whatever you say or do, you do all in His name and for His glory? Is that your aim?
The believer's purpose is to fulfill the ministry of the gospel of God to the glory of God. To proclaim from the hilltop, Christ is all. Christ is all in all to me.
And the apostle here in this chapter really sets down what that means, what it means doctrinally and what it means practically. Really, in chapter one and two, he's setting down the doctrine, what it means doctrinally. If you say Christ is all, what does that mean doctrinally? Well, read chapters one and two this week. If you want to understand what it means practically in your day-to-day life, read chapter three and four this week.
But what does it mean that Christ is all doctrinally and practically? Well, first doctrinally, Christ is all in the entire work of man's salvation. There is no salvation apart from Christ. There is no Christianity apart from Christ. John Stott said, “remove Christ from Christianity and you disembowel it.” There's no life in it. Christ is Christianity. And Jesus Christ alone can present a sinner complete before God the Father. He is the one who possesses the fullness of deity. He's the God-man and He alone has done for us what we cannot do for ourselves as sinners by nature. He has done for us what God requires of His holy law. He has done for us what no one else can. He put away our sin by the shedding of His own blood. And we are saved by His grace and for His glory.
In Matthew 28, verse 18, as we read the words of the Great Commission, Scripture establishes this fact that to Jesus all authority and all power has been given. He is the supreme one over all. And He alone has the power and the authority to accomplish the purposes of God with regard to our salvation. And that is necessary because in and of ourselves we are so inadequate. We're sinners by nature. We're undone. We're unrighteous. How can we come before a holy God? We can't. We need a mediator. We need one who will plead our case. We need one who will be our advocate with the Father. We need one who will stand on our behalf.
Our sufficiency, we would say as Christians, our sufficiency, our adequacy is before God, is of God. It's not of ourselves. In fact, Paul says that in 2 Corinthians 3, verse 5: "Not that we are adequate”— or sufficient— “in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our sufficiency” – comes from where? It— “comes from God." Our sufficiency, it's from God.
How can we as sinners know peace with God and deliverance from sin's condemnation? In what sense is Christ everything to the one who trusts in Him? Well, if you were to look back to chapter 1, you would see that He is the one who rescues us from our sin by His grace. He is the one who redeems us by His grace. Verse 12: "Giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us.”— How are we going to be fit? How are we going to be qualified? How are we going to be adequate to come before the presence of this holy God? There is One who has qualified us— “to share in the inheritance of the saints in light, who rescued us from the authority of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom, we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."
Christ has redeemed us by His grace, and to redeem simply means to release us from the penalty we were condemned. And He has released us from that condemnation by the payment of a ransom price. Christ shed His precious blood on the cross to purchase our salvation. And so He provides that full release from the slavery of sin, and we'll see something more of that next week as well. And He has delivered us. He has freed us from the penalty of sin that we deserve.
But how can we as sinners come near to a holy and a righteous God? How can we approach this God? He not only rescues us, He redeems us by His grace, but He reconciles us to God by His grace. Verse 19 of chapter 1: "In Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, because He has made peace through the blood of His cross—through Him—whether things on the earth or things in heaven. And though you were formerly alienated and enemies in mind and in evil deeds, but now He reconciled you in the body of His flesh through His death, in order to present you before Him holy, blameless, beyond reproach.”— complete in Christ.
He redeems us. He reconciles us by His grace. Those who were once alienated from God, far from God, can now draw near with confidence. If you can say Christ is all, you can come before the throne of God into the holy of holies with confidence, with boldness, without fear of condemnation, because Christ has reconciled you in His body, the body of His flesh through death, so that you can say, He is my peace. I have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ, because I'm justified.
Romans 5:1. “And being justified, I have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ.” How can we come to God? It's through Christ. Christ must be all. It's by Him and through Him. He's the one and only mediator.
1 Timothy 2:5-6. “There is one God, and there's one mediator, one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all. The witness for this proper time.” We have access to God, to the Father in heaven through Him, because He has reconciled us to God by His grace.
Listen again to the words of J.C. Ryle. “He”—Christ,— “He left the glory that He had known from all eternity with the Father, and He came into the world to provide a salvation. He took our nature upon Him. He was born as a man. As a man He did the will of God perfectly, which we had left undone. As a man, He suffered on the cross the wrath of God for the curse of a broken law. He opened up a fountain for all sin and uncleanness. He died for our sins. He rose again for our justification. He ascended to God's right hand, and there sat down, waiting till His enemies should be made His footstool. And there He sits now, seated in the heavens, offering salvation to all who will come to Him, interceding for all who believe in Him, and managing by God's appointment all that concerns the salvation of souls.”
You think today of the work of Christ on your behalf, sinner, believer in Christ. Christ is all. You can't come to the Father but through Him. He is the way, the truth, and the life. No man can come to the Father but through Him, and He alone is qualified for this task. He does all that is necessary. He is, by God's appointment, looking after all that concerns the salvation of our souls. He's the chosen servant of Yahweh. He has qualified us for our inheritance by His grace and will present us beyond reproach, holy and blameless in His sight, because He made atonement for our sin.
It is Christ who died. It is Christ who died for all our sins. Christ is all to the believer. It is Christ who died. It is Christ who rose from the dead, and it is Christ alone who can convey the fullness of God's grace. In fact, one author said, there's no grace of God for any man outside of Christ. There's no mercy outside of Christ. There's no love outside of Christ. God has concentrated everything of His fullness and His grace in the person of Christ and imparts His saving health solely through the merits of Christ.
He's the one and only mediator between God and men. He's the only mediator. And so we come through Him. That's a shocking message today. It really speaks to the exclusive nature of the gospel, especially in a day and age when people say, oh, there's many ways to God. No, not according to the apostle. There's one way. One way, God said to get to heaven, Jesus is the only way. There's only one way to God, and today you will hear there's many gods, and there's many ways to God, but Paul disagreed.
And sadly, for this reason, the gospel message is hated. It is despised. It is rejected by men. And yet, Scripture clearly lays down there's no other savior. There's no other mediator. There is one God and there's one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, and Christ alone conveys the fullness of God to men. And that's a message that is rejected today and hated by proud and sinful men.
And yet, we say there's one who died in your place, one who finished the work, one who stands as an advocate for you before the Father. There's no other saviour. There's no other way of approach to God. You can't draw near on your own. You need this mediator. There's no other name. We read Acts 4:12: "...Given among men whereby which we must be saved." There's no other saviour, and there's no other worthy substitute. Nothing else will suffice.
Christ is all. He is everything or He's nothing at all. Nothing else will suffice. Whatever else you're making a priority in your life, whatever else you're depending on as your ultimate joy and satisfaction, your treasure, it will not eternally satisfy. Your good works will not suffice. Not your best works—what are they? The prophet says they're but filthy rags in the sight of a holy God. Not your tainted morality, not your prayers to the saints, not your works of righteousness, nothing of your own merit, not your good deeds, not even your church attendance, not your charitable giving. Christ must be all. Nothing will suffice.
If you are to be rescued from your sin, redeemed from sin's dominion and the slavery of sin, reconciled to God, it will be on the grounds of the finished work of Christ alone. It's His all-sufficient merit. It's His blood atonement for sin. And I ask you today, is the work of Christ on your behalf enough? Is it enough or is it not? What can we add to it? Absolutely nothing. Did He not say, “it is finished?”—It's finished, it's done, the work is done.—Is His word not true? Is His grace not sufficient? Is Christ not all you need? If you are to be saved at all, it's by faith alone in the finished work of Christ alone.
And in this, Christ must be Lord. The principal object and Lord of your life. God over all. Friend, today, if you can say Christ is all, if you have Christ, if you're trusting in Christ for this life and the life to come, then you have all you need. You have everything you need for this life and the life to come. In fact, Peter tells us that in 2 Peter 1:3–4. He says, "seeing that His divine power has granted to us”— as believers— “everything pertaining to life and godliness,”— and it comes— “through the full knowledge of Him who has called us by His own glory and excellence.”
It's by His grace we live for His glory. And as the theologian John Owen said, “There is no grace that is not in Christ. And every grace is in Him in the highest degree. He is full of grace and truth. In Him dwells all the fullness of God.” And we are made full, or we are made complete, Paul says, in Him—it's in Christ. Complete in Christ. Nothing else will suffice.
Do you long to be made whole today? Do you long for peace of mind and heart? Do you long for a clean conscience? Do you desire to know your sins are forgiven? Do you want to be ready to meet God? You must be able to say, Christ is all. Do you believe Jesus Christ has done all that is necessary for your salvation, and the work is finished? If so, you can say Christ is all. Christ is all in all to me.
But if not, friend, today outside of Christ, you can go to Him. You can make direct application to Him. You can cry out to God right now where you are in your seat, in your heart. Cry out for mercy. God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Be my all in all.
You say to me, well, you don't know me. You don't know the wicked life I've lived. You don't know what I've done. You don't know the horrible things that I've done. My life is so messy. My life is so complicated. You don't know anything about me. You don't know how I've been living. How can I come to God? Take Him at His word. He says, "Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." Come. His arms are wide open. And you can make direct application to Him today.
And Jesus says, come. This man receives sinners. And in fact, we read in Hebrews 7:25 that "He is able also to save to the uttermost all who come unto God by Him.” Completely. It's done. Do you believe that today? That He can forgive your sins completely? Because He has shed His blood for you? You can come just as you are.
In fact, that's what we are encouraged to see here in verse 11. It doesn't matter who you are, where you're from, what you've done, what's your background, what's your status. Male, female, young, old, rich, poor, educated, uneducated. Religious Pharisee, hypocrite. Religious but lost. Wicked barbarian. If you've done the most atrocious things, you can find forgiveness and cleansing in Christ because Christ is all in all.
You can come to Him. Jesus said, "Whosoever will may come. And he who comes to Me, I will in no wise cast out." So come, come today. Believe His word. Receive His forgiveness.
But you say, well, I don't really have strong enough faith. Friend, it's not how much faith you have that saves you. It's the object of your faith. Who do you trust? Are you trusting in yourself? Are you trusting in your own works? Are you trusting in the things of time? Temporal things, fleeting things? Are you trusting in the God of your salvation? It's the one, the object of your trust. He is mighty to save.
Your faith is the instrument that lays hold of Christ. And He has all authority and power in heaven and earth. Who can forgive sins but God alone? All power is given to Him. Jesus saves. Him we proclaim, admonishing and teaching every man that we may present every man complete in Christ.
If Christ makes you complete in yourself, then you are enjoying life. It's faith in Christ alone that saves. And if you've received Christ, He's all you need. You have everything you ever need for this life and the life to come. The little proverb goes like this: If you have nothing but Christ, you have everything. If you have everything but Christ, you have nothing. You're lost. You're undone. You have nothing of eternal value or worth. But if Christ makes you complete in Himself, you need nothing else.
But if you're trusting in anything else in this world, holding up anything else in this world as your satisfaction, as your joy, as what you're living for, it will fall far short when compared to knowing Christ, the all-surpassing excellence Paul talks about in Philippians 3, of knowing Christ Jesus the Lord, being found in Him, not having my own righteousness but a righteousness which is of God, which He has provided for me in Christ. That's what I need.
The old hymn writer had it right: I need no other argument. I need no other plea. It's enough—it's enough. Jesus died and He died for me. Sinner, He died for you. It's enough. It's finished.
But without Christ, you're lost. You're undone. It's to be without God. It's to be without hope in this world. It's to remain under condemnation, far from God, and bondage to sin, enslaved, destitute, naked, blind to the truth, a wretched, miserable sinner who will give an account for his sin one day. And in fact, life without Christ is incomplete.
You know, people talk about going off to find themselves. There's something missing. My life is not fulfilling. It's not complete. How can I know that fullness? Here's the answer: God says it's in Christ. God has set eternity in your heart. And nothing else in this world will satisfy the longings of your never-dying soul but the eternal God, Jesus Christ.
And to you, Jesus says, come, come to Me for cleansing. Come to Me for pardon. Come to Me. Repent and believe and be clothed with the garments of salvation. Put on Jesus Christ.
Do you believe Christ is enough? That He's done enough when it comes to the entire work of your salvation? That He's rescued, redeemed, and reconciled you to God by His grace? That Christ is all? But the gospel must have an impact upon your heart and your life, how you live.
If Christ is all, what will that mean practically? It will mean Christ is all in the work of your sanctification. And just as you are saved by grace, so you are sanctified by His grace. It's His work in you. And if Christ is all, it will mean something practically.
Look again at verse six of chapter two. He says, "Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him." There's a life lived. There's a habit developed. There's a pattern that unfolds. A life that is rooted and planted in Christ, established in Him, instructed by Him, and now seeks to live for Him.
If Christ is all, and that's your profession today, then walk in the light of that truth. Then give yourself to His service. Paul says in verse 24, or chapter, he says, I serve the Lord Christ. You serve the Lord Christ with your life. This is your ministry. Serve the Lord Christ. You've received Him, now walk in Him.
We read of adorning the doctrine of God, your Savior. In Titus two, if you look over at Titus two, in the verse 10, he says, "...demonstrating all good faith so that they will adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in everything. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, and instructing us that, denying ungodliness and worldly desires, we should live sensibly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from all lawlessness, and purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good works." That's our calling. Adorn the doctrine of God, your Savior.
One said, sound evangelical doctrine is useless if it's not accompanied by a holy life. That's your sanctification, and you need grace to live for God in this fallen world. Christ is the mainspring, both of doctrinal and practical Christianity, Ryle said. It's that right knowledge of Christ that's essential to our right knowledge of sanctification as well as justification.
You see, the gospel's not only head religion, it's heart religion. It's not just a matter of knowing facts, knowing things about Christ. Knowing Christ is all, but that truth captivates the heart, and it moves you to action in the service of your Lord. One commentator said, the truth of the gospel captures the minds of believers, but it goes beyond the merely intellectual. In capturing the minds, the gospel has changed our hearts. Love that. In capturing our minds, the gospel has changed our hearts.
We believe with the heart. In other words, there's something doctrinal here. There's something theological here, he says. What we truly believe with our mind moves our will. Paul was warning the Colossian believers, he was warning them against what Bishop Handley Moule said, is an unapplied orthodoxy. An unapplied orthodoxy, meaning it's not enough to have your heads full of biblical knowledge, to know facts about the Bible, about Jesus, about salvation. It's not enough to recite scripture proofs and doctrinal positions. It's not enough to learn the answers to certain theological questions.
We need more than just theory if we're gonna live for Christ. In the truth of the gospel, the truth of the gospel must get into our souls so that we walk in the light of the truth. "As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him." What is he saying there? The gospel has an impact upon the way you live from day to day in your relation to God, in your relation to the church, in relation to your family, in relation to one another.
And you see it worked out here in Colossians chapter three. In all those areas of life, it's not just here on church — Sunday. It's not at Wednesday prayer meeting. It's every day in everything. Christ is all in all.
There's something not only doctrinal, but there's something practical about this message. Practical Christianity obeys the truth. Practical Christianity grows in grace. Practical Christianity seeks the glory of God in all that He does in every area of life. There's this putting off and putting on, putting on the garments of Christ, putting off the former self. We'll see that.
My life is hidden with Christ in God. It's so wrapped up with Christ in God. Is that what your life is all about? You're just wrapped up in the person of Christ? He's everything? He's my everything? He is my all? You must be able to say Christ is my all. Christ is all that. That's a life-changing, life-transforming truth that calls us to walk worthy of our calling, to worship Him with all that we have, longing to know Him, to be taught of God, walking in obedience to His truth.
There is not an unapplied orthodoxy, but an applied orthodoxy, applied truth. If this is the case, that's what Paul is saying here. Christ is all. If that's the case, then verse 17 should be true. Whatever you do, whatever you say, you're doing it all in His name for His glory, giving thanks to the Father through Him. It's all about Him. My life is hidden with Christ in God. It's just wrapped up in Him.
Martin Luther, the reformer, said the Christian life, it turns on being able to use possessive pronouns. You hear all about pronouns today, but think about possessive pronouns. To be able to say the Lord is my God. He's my Lord, and He's my God. “Take from me the word my,” — Luther said,— “and you take from me God.”
Christ is my all. He is my life. He is my head. He is my hope of glory. He is my master. He is the one I serve. I serve the Lord, my Lord, the Christ. He's my rock. He's my salvation. He's my all.
“But”— to me, Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1:30,— “by his doing,”— “by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who has became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification from God, redemption from God, so that, just as it is written, 'Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.'" This ought to be our boast today, believer. Christ is all. He's done all. He's my wisdom, my righteousness, my sanctification, my redemption, all I need for this life and the life to come, and Him we proclaim, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom so that we may present every man complete in Christ—saying Christ is all.
Friend outside of Christ today, I would encourage you, I would exhort you, plead with you, look to Christ and be saved. Make that direct application to Him. He alone can save. It's not looking at bread that feeds the hungry man. It's partaking of the bread. It's not looking at the lifeboat that saves the shipwrecked sailor. You've gotta get into the lifeboat. You've gotta receive Him, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not knowing about Him and knowing facts. It's partaking of Him. Christ is a great God and Savior.
And Christian, let us learn to rest in Him, to look to Him for all the grace that we need. There's a fullness in Christ that completes us. He's our peace, He's our rest, He's our life, He's our comfort in affliction, He's our hope of glory. Let Christ be all, let that rejoice your soul today. Let Him be the focus of your life, the object of your faith. And the more we look to Christ, the more He will strengthen our faith. The more our life is hidden in Christ, dwelling in Christ, that life will begin to show more of His grace and will grow and increase with a growth and an increase which is from God
.
Let me end with the words of Spurgeon. He said, “if Jesus Christ is our surety, friends, we are safe from the demands of the law. If Christ is our substitute, we shall not suffer the penalty due to sin. For God will never punish the same sin twice. If I have nothing but Christ, I do not want anything else. For Christ is all. If Christ is your all, you will not want anything to help you either in living or in dying.” Christ is all.
Let's pray.
J.C. Ryle, the Bishop of Liverpool, said these three words are the essence and substance of Christianity. If our hearts can go along with them, it is well with our souls. If not, we may be sure we have yet much to learn. And I pray today that if you can't say Christ is all, you would come and learn of Him today.
Paul's central theme in the book of Colossians here is the person and the work of Christ and the relationship He sustains to His people, the church. To the Apostle Paul, Christ was worth everything. Paul could say, Christ is all. Christ is all and in all. Christ is all to me. He lived and He labored that in all things, Christ would have the preeminence—first place in everything.
In fact, if you look back to chapter one in the verse 16, he says, "For in Him all things were created, both in the heavens and in earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.” Christ is all.
And Paul labored to see everyone; every man, every woman, complete in Christ. You look at verse 25 of the first chapter and he says, “I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God given to me for you, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God." And what is that word, Paul? It is Christ. Christ is all.
Verse 28, "Him we proclaim, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ." Paul was one who was entrusted with the word of truth, the gospel of salvation, and his mission was to preach the word, to proclaim Christ so that all would know Him and understand the grace of God that is found in Christ, and knowing Christ then would grow in maturity to a full knowledge of Christ.
And for this he prays in chapter 1, you have that wonderful prayer, verse 9 to 12 there, how he prays for them night and day that they would be full, filled with the full knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding so that you may walk worthy of the Lord to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and multiplying in the knowledge of God. He labored to see every man complete in Christ.
Paul's main concern is the stability of their faith and their growth in Christian grace. As you look to chapter 2, the verse 19, he says he wants them to hold fast to the head as members of the body “being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments,”— being joined to Christ. And then he says that they would “grow with a growth that is from God,”— that they would be filled with the fullness of God and that they would grow with a growth that is from God, that they would increase in grace.
And he says in verse 5, "Though I am absent in body, nevertheless I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the stability of your faith. Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, being firmly rooted and built up in Him and having been established in your faith— just as you were instructed— and abounding therein with thanksgiving.”
As you have received Christ Jesus and you have known the fullness of His grace, so grow up in Him to maturity. As you have received Christ Jesus, so walk in Him. You received Him, believer, as your Lord, as your Christ, as your Savior. And what the apostle is saying is, walk in the light of that truth. The person of Christ, His Lordship—His Lordship over all who have trusted in Him—must govern all you believe and all you do.
You're to be firmly rooted in Him, built up in Him, established in the faith and bearing fruit to the glory of God. And that's why he says in our chapter, chapter 3, verse 17, it doesn't matter what you do. Whatever you do, whatever you say in word or in deed, whatever your action, you do all as a believer in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. That's your goal as a child of God.
Christ is all. Christ is all and in all to the believer. Christ must be all as the principal object of your life, your chief good. And you're living, believer, today, you're living. How do you live? You're living by His grace. And why do you live? You're living for His glory—by His grace for His glory. Christ must be all as the principal object of your life.
As Spurgeon said, your great aim must be to glorify Christ here on earth in the hope and expectation of enjoying Him forever above. We're called to walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing. And since Paul says, Christ is the Lord of my life, and we'll see that more next week as we look at the opening verses—the risen life in Christ, being raised with Christ. Since that is true, as a believer, I will seek to make His service my priority. His life must direct and govern my life if He is Christ over all.
And I want you to think today about a Christian's priority. Christian, why do you do what you do? What is your priority in life? If you were to ask the Apostle Paul, “Paul, what are you living for? Why do you exist? What's your reason for being? Paul, why do you do the things you do?” This would be his reply. He would say, “I serve my Lord Christ by His grace and for His glory. Christ is all and in all.”
And verse 17 would really be his purpose statement. Whatever I do, whatever I say, wherever I go, wherever I am, I'm doing everything. I do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. It's all about Him. It's for Him. It's to Him. It's through Him.
I live—whatever I do or say—I live by the grace of God, and I live for the glory of God. I'm living for the glory of God, my Savior. I make it my ambition, as we read in 2 Corinthians 5:9, in everything, in everything to please Him—to please Him. And young people, we were thinking about it at our retreat this year, the theme being living for Christ, for to me—for to me to live is Christ. Christ is my all. He is my everything, and that means fruitful labor for me in the service of Christ I will live.
In Acts 20, verse 24, Paul said, "I do not make my life of any account nor dear to myself, so that I might finish my course and the ministry which I have received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God." Paul, what are you living for? I'm living to testify of the gospel of the grace of God that is found in Christ Jesus. What's your aim? To preach Christ. And friend, today I would ask you at the outset of this message, what is it you're living for? What do you treasure above anything else in this world? Are you simply living for worldly treasure, laying up for yourself treasures on earth, or are you laying up for yourself treasure in heaven? What are you living for as a professing Christian? What is the object of your life, the fundamental principle governing your life? What orients your life as the governing principle? Is your life all about the service of your Lord and Master Jesus Christ? Is it to live? Is Christ so that whatever you say or do, you do all in His name and for His glory? Is that your aim?
The believer's purpose is to fulfill the ministry of the gospel of God to the glory of God. To proclaim from the hilltop, Christ is all. Christ is all in all to me.
And the apostle here in this chapter really sets down what that means, what it means doctrinally and what it means practically. Really, in chapter one and two, he's setting down the doctrine, what it means doctrinally. If you say Christ is all, what does that mean doctrinally? Well, read chapters one and two this week. If you want to understand what it means practically in your day-to-day life, read chapter three and four this week.
But what does it mean that Christ is all doctrinally and practically? Well, first doctrinally, Christ is all in the entire work of man's salvation. There is no salvation apart from Christ. There is no Christianity apart from Christ. John Stott said, “remove Christ from Christianity and you disembowel it.” There's no life in it. Christ is Christianity. And Jesus Christ alone can present a sinner complete before God the Father. He is the one who possesses the fullness of deity. He's the God-man and He alone has done for us what we cannot do for ourselves as sinners by nature. He has done for us what God requires of His holy law. He has done for us what no one else can. He put away our sin by the shedding of His own blood. And we are saved by His grace and for His glory.
In Matthew 28, verse 18, as we read the words of the Great Commission, Scripture establishes this fact that to Jesus all authority and all power has been given. He is the supreme one over all. And He alone has the power and the authority to accomplish the purposes of God with regard to our salvation. And that is necessary because in and of ourselves we are so inadequate. We're sinners by nature. We're undone. We're unrighteous. How can we come before a holy God? We can't. We need a mediator. We need one who will plead our case. We need one who will be our advocate with the Father. We need one who will stand on our behalf.
Our sufficiency, we would say as Christians, our sufficiency, our adequacy is before God, is of God. It's not of ourselves. In fact, Paul says that in 2 Corinthians 3, verse 5: "Not that we are adequate”— or sufficient— “in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our sufficiency” – comes from where? It— “comes from God." Our sufficiency, it's from God.
How can we as sinners know peace with God and deliverance from sin's condemnation? In what sense is Christ everything to the one who trusts in Him? Well, if you were to look back to chapter 1, you would see that He is the one who rescues us from our sin by His grace. He is the one who redeems us by His grace. Verse 12: "Giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us.”— How are we going to be fit? How are we going to be qualified? How are we going to be adequate to come before the presence of this holy God? There is One who has qualified us— “to share in the inheritance of the saints in light, who rescued us from the authority of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom, we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."
Christ has redeemed us by His grace, and to redeem simply means to release us from the penalty we were condemned. And He has released us from that condemnation by the payment of a ransom price. Christ shed His precious blood on the cross to purchase our salvation. And so He provides that full release from the slavery of sin, and we'll see something more of that next week as well. And He has delivered us. He has freed us from the penalty of sin that we deserve.
But how can we as sinners come near to a holy and a righteous God? How can we approach this God? He not only rescues us, He redeems us by His grace, but He reconciles us to God by His grace. Verse 19 of chapter 1: "In Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, because He has made peace through the blood of His cross—through Him—whether things on the earth or things in heaven. And though you were formerly alienated and enemies in mind and in evil deeds, but now He reconciled you in the body of His flesh through His death, in order to present you before Him holy, blameless, beyond reproach.”— complete in Christ.
He redeems us. He reconciles us by His grace. Those who were once alienated from God, far from God, can now draw near with confidence. If you can say Christ is all, you can come before the throne of God into the holy of holies with confidence, with boldness, without fear of condemnation, because Christ has reconciled you in His body, the body of His flesh through death, so that you can say, He is my peace. I have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ, because I'm justified.
Romans 5:1. “And being justified, I have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ.” How can we come to God? It's through Christ. Christ must be all. It's by Him and through Him. He's the one and only mediator.
1 Timothy 2:5-6. “There is one God, and there's one mediator, one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all. The witness for this proper time.” We have access to God, to the Father in heaven through Him, because He has reconciled us to God by His grace.
Listen again to the words of J.C. Ryle. “He”—Christ,— “He left the glory that He had known from all eternity with the Father, and He came into the world to provide a salvation. He took our nature upon Him. He was born as a man. As a man He did the will of God perfectly, which we had left undone. As a man, He suffered on the cross the wrath of God for the curse of a broken law. He opened up a fountain for all sin and uncleanness. He died for our sins. He rose again for our justification. He ascended to God's right hand, and there sat down, waiting till His enemies should be made His footstool. And there He sits now, seated in the heavens, offering salvation to all who will come to Him, interceding for all who believe in Him, and managing by God's appointment all that concerns the salvation of souls.”
You think today of the work of Christ on your behalf, sinner, believer in Christ. Christ is all. You can't come to the Father but through Him. He is the way, the truth, and the life. No man can come to the Father but through Him, and He alone is qualified for this task. He does all that is necessary. He is, by God's appointment, looking after all that concerns the salvation of our souls. He's the chosen servant of Yahweh. He has qualified us for our inheritance by His grace and will present us beyond reproach, holy and blameless in His sight, because He made atonement for our sin.
It is Christ who died. It is Christ who died for all our sins. Christ is all to the believer. It is Christ who died. It is Christ who rose from the dead, and it is Christ alone who can convey the fullness of God's grace. In fact, one author said, there's no grace of God for any man outside of Christ. There's no mercy outside of Christ. There's no love outside of Christ. God has concentrated everything of His fullness and His grace in the person of Christ and imparts His saving health solely through the merits of Christ.
He's the one and only mediator between God and men. He's the only mediator. And so we come through Him. That's a shocking message today. It really speaks to the exclusive nature of the gospel, especially in a day and age when people say, oh, there's many ways to God. No, not according to the apostle. There's one way. One way, God said to get to heaven, Jesus is the only way. There's only one way to God, and today you will hear there's many gods, and there's many ways to God, but Paul disagreed.
And sadly, for this reason, the gospel message is hated. It is despised. It is rejected by men. And yet, Scripture clearly lays down there's no other savior. There's no other mediator. There is one God and there's one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, and Christ alone conveys the fullness of God to men. And that's a message that is rejected today and hated by proud and sinful men.
And yet, we say there's one who died in your place, one who finished the work, one who stands as an advocate for you before the Father. There's no other saviour. There's no other way of approach to God. You can't draw near on your own. You need this mediator. There's no other name. We read Acts 4:12: "...Given among men whereby which we must be saved." There's no other saviour, and there's no other worthy substitute. Nothing else will suffice.
Christ is all. He is everything or He's nothing at all. Nothing else will suffice. Whatever else you're making a priority in your life, whatever else you're depending on as your ultimate joy and satisfaction, your treasure, it will not eternally satisfy. Your good works will not suffice. Not your best works—what are they? The prophet says they're but filthy rags in the sight of a holy God. Not your tainted morality, not your prayers to the saints, not your works of righteousness, nothing of your own merit, not your good deeds, not even your church attendance, not your charitable giving. Christ must be all. Nothing will suffice.
If you are to be rescued from your sin, redeemed from sin's dominion and the slavery of sin, reconciled to God, it will be on the grounds of the finished work of Christ alone. It's His all-sufficient merit. It's His blood atonement for sin. And I ask you today, is the work of Christ on your behalf enough? Is it enough or is it not? What can we add to it? Absolutely nothing. Did He not say, “it is finished?”—It's finished, it's done, the work is done.—Is His word not true? Is His grace not sufficient? Is Christ not all you need? If you are to be saved at all, it's by faith alone in the finished work of Christ alone.
And in this, Christ must be Lord. The principal object and Lord of your life. God over all. Friend, today, if you can say Christ is all, if you have Christ, if you're trusting in Christ for this life and the life to come, then you have all you need. You have everything you need for this life and the life to come. In fact, Peter tells us that in 2 Peter 1:3–4. He says, "seeing that His divine power has granted to us”— as believers— “everything pertaining to life and godliness,”— and it comes— “through the full knowledge of Him who has called us by His own glory and excellence.”
It's by His grace we live for His glory. And as the theologian John Owen said, “There is no grace that is not in Christ. And every grace is in Him in the highest degree. He is full of grace and truth. In Him dwells all the fullness of God.” And we are made full, or we are made complete, Paul says, in Him—it's in Christ. Complete in Christ. Nothing else will suffice.
Do you long to be made whole today? Do you long for peace of mind and heart? Do you long for a clean conscience? Do you desire to know your sins are forgiven? Do you want to be ready to meet God? You must be able to say, Christ is all. Do you believe Jesus Christ has done all that is necessary for your salvation, and the work is finished? If so, you can say Christ is all. Christ is all in all to me.
But if not, friend, today outside of Christ, you can go to Him. You can make direct application to Him. You can cry out to God right now where you are in your seat, in your heart. Cry out for mercy. God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Be my all in all.
You say to me, well, you don't know me. You don't know the wicked life I've lived. You don't know what I've done. You don't know the horrible things that I've done. My life is so messy. My life is so complicated. You don't know anything about me. You don't know how I've been living. How can I come to God? Take Him at His word. He says, "Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." Come. His arms are wide open. And you can make direct application to Him today.
And Jesus says, come. This man receives sinners. And in fact, we read in Hebrews 7:25 that "He is able also to save to the uttermost all who come unto God by Him.” Completely. It's done. Do you believe that today? That He can forgive your sins completely? Because He has shed His blood for you? You can come just as you are.
In fact, that's what we are encouraged to see here in verse 11. It doesn't matter who you are, where you're from, what you've done, what's your background, what's your status. Male, female, young, old, rich, poor, educated, uneducated. Religious Pharisee, hypocrite. Religious but lost. Wicked barbarian. If you've done the most atrocious things, you can find forgiveness and cleansing in Christ because Christ is all in all.
You can come to Him. Jesus said, "Whosoever will may come. And he who comes to Me, I will in no wise cast out." So come, come today. Believe His word. Receive His forgiveness.
But you say, well, I don't really have strong enough faith. Friend, it's not how much faith you have that saves you. It's the object of your faith. Who do you trust? Are you trusting in yourself? Are you trusting in your own works? Are you trusting in the things of time? Temporal things, fleeting things? Are you trusting in the God of your salvation? It's the one, the object of your trust. He is mighty to save.
Your faith is the instrument that lays hold of Christ. And He has all authority and power in heaven and earth. Who can forgive sins but God alone? All power is given to Him. Jesus saves. Him we proclaim, admonishing and teaching every man that we may present every man complete in Christ.
If Christ makes you complete in yourself, then you are enjoying life. It's faith in Christ alone that saves. And if you've received Christ, He's all you need. You have everything you ever need for this life and the life to come. The little proverb goes like this: If you have nothing but Christ, you have everything. If you have everything but Christ, you have nothing. You're lost. You're undone. You have nothing of eternal value or worth. But if Christ makes you complete in Himself, you need nothing else.
But if you're trusting in anything else in this world, holding up anything else in this world as your satisfaction, as your joy, as what you're living for, it will fall far short when compared to knowing Christ, the all-surpassing excellence Paul talks about in Philippians 3, of knowing Christ Jesus the Lord, being found in Him, not having my own righteousness but a righteousness which is of God, which He has provided for me in Christ. That's what I need.
The old hymn writer had it right: I need no other argument. I need no other plea. It's enough—it's enough. Jesus died and He died for me. Sinner, He died for you. It's enough. It's finished.
But without Christ, you're lost. You're undone. It's to be without God. It's to be without hope in this world. It's to remain under condemnation, far from God, and bondage to sin, enslaved, destitute, naked, blind to the truth, a wretched, miserable sinner who will give an account for his sin one day. And in fact, life without Christ is incomplete.
You know, people talk about going off to find themselves. There's something missing. My life is not fulfilling. It's not complete. How can I know that fullness? Here's the answer: God says it's in Christ. God has set eternity in your heart. And nothing else in this world will satisfy the longings of your never-dying soul but the eternal God, Jesus Christ.
And to you, Jesus says, come, come to Me for cleansing. Come to Me for pardon. Come to Me. Repent and believe and be clothed with the garments of salvation. Put on Jesus Christ.
Do you believe Christ is enough? That He's done enough when it comes to the entire work of your salvation? That He's rescued, redeemed, and reconciled you to God by His grace? That Christ is all? But the gospel must have an impact upon your heart and your life, how you live.
If Christ is all, what will that mean practically? It will mean Christ is all in the work of your sanctification. And just as you are saved by grace, so you are sanctified by His grace. It's His work in you. And if Christ is all, it will mean something practically.
Look again at verse six of chapter two. He says, "Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him." There's a life lived. There's a habit developed. There's a pattern that unfolds. A life that is rooted and planted in Christ, established in Him, instructed by Him, and now seeks to live for Him.
If Christ is all, and that's your profession today, then walk in the light of that truth. Then give yourself to His service. Paul says in verse 24, or chapter, he says, I serve the Lord Christ. You serve the Lord Christ with your life. This is your ministry. Serve the Lord Christ. You've received Him, now walk in Him.
We read of adorning the doctrine of God, your Savior. In Titus two, if you look over at Titus two, in the verse 10, he says, "...demonstrating all good faith so that they will adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in everything. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, and instructing us that, denying ungodliness and worldly desires, we should live sensibly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from all lawlessness, and purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good works." That's our calling. Adorn the doctrine of God, your Savior.
One said, sound evangelical doctrine is useless if it's not accompanied by a holy life. That's your sanctification, and you need grace to live for God in this fallen world. Christ is the mainspring, both of doctrinal and practical Christianity, Ryle said. It's that right knowledge of Christ that's essential to our right knowledge of sanctification as well as justification.
You see, the gospel's not only head religion, it's heart religion. It's not just a matter of knowing facts, knowing things about Christ. Knowing Christ is all, but that truth captivates the heart, and it moves you to action in the service of your Lord. One commentator said, the truth of the gospel captures the minds of believers, but it goes beyond the merely intellectual. In capturing the minds, the gospel has changed our hearts. Love that. In capturing our minds, the gospel has changed our hearts.
We believe with the heart. In other words, there's something doctrinal here. There's something theological here, he says. What we truly believe with our mind moves our will. Paul was warning the Colossian believers, he was warning them against what Bishop Handley Moule said, is an unapplied orthodoxy. An unapplied orthodoxy, meaning it's not enough to have your heads full of biblical knowledge, to know facts about the Bible, about Jesus, about salvation. It's not enough to recite scripture proofs and doctrinal positions. It's not enough to learn the answers to certain theological questions.
We need more than just theory if we're gonna live for Christ. In the truth of the gospel, the truth of the gospel must get into our souls so that we walk in the light of the truth. "As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him." What is he saying there? The gospel has an impact upon the way you live from day to day in your relation to God, in your relation to the church, in relation to your family, in relation to one another.
And you see it worked out here in Colossians chapter three. In all those areas of life, it's not just here on church — Sunday. It's not at Wednesday prayer meeting. It's every day in everything. Christ is all in all.
There's something not only doctrinal, but there's something practical about this message. Practical Christianity obeys the truth. Practical Christianity grows in grace. Practical Christianity seeks the glory of God in all that He does in every area of life. There's this putting off and putting on, putting on the garments of Christ, putting off the former self. We'll see that.
My life is hidden with Christ in God. It's so wrapped up with Christ in God. Is that what your life is all about? You're just wrapped up in the person of Christ? He's everything? He's my everything? He is my all? You must be able to say Christ is my all. Christ is all that. That's a life-changing, life-transforming truth that calls us to walk worthy of our calling, to worship Him with all that we have, longing to know Him, to be taught of God, walking in obedience to His truth.
There is not an unapplied orthodoxy, but an applied orthodoxy, applied truth. If this is the case, that's what Paul is saying here. Christ is all. If that's the case, then verse 17 should be true. Whatever you do, whatever you say, you're doing it all in His name for His glory, giving thanks to the Father through Him. It's all about Him. My life is hidden with Christ in God. It's just wrapped up in Him.
Martin Luther, the reformer, said the Christian life, it turns on being able to use possessive pronouns. You hear all about pronouns today, but think about possessive pronouns. To be able to say the Lord is my God. He's my Lord, and He's my God. “Take from me the word my,” — Luther said,— “and you take from me God.”
Christ is my all. He is my life. He is my head. He is my hope of glory. He is my master. He is the one I serve. I serve the Lord, my Lord, the Christ. He's my rock. He's my salvation. He's my all.
“But”— to me, Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1:30,— “by his doing,”— “by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who has became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification from God, redemption from God, so that, just as it is written, 'Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.'" This ought to be our boast today, believer. Christ is all. He's done all. He's my wisdom, my righteousness, my sanctification, my redemption, all I need for this life and the life to come, and Him we proclaim, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom so that we may present every man complete in Christ—saying Christ is all.
Friend outside of Christ today, I would encourage you, I would exhort you, plead with you, look to Christ and be saved. Make that direct application to Him. He alone can save. It's not looking at bread that feeds the hungry man. It's partaking of the bread. It's not looking at the lifeboat that saves the shipwrecked sailor. You've gotta get into the lifeboat. You've gotta receive Him, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not knowing about Him and knowing facts. It's partaking of Him. Christ is a great God and Savior.
And Christian, let us learn to rest in Him, to look to Him for all the grace that we need. There's a fullness in Christ that completes us. He's our peace, He's our rest, He's our life, He's our comfort in affliction, He's our hope of glory. Let Christ be all, let that rejoice your soul today. Let Him be the focus of your life, the object of your faith. And the more we look to Christ, the more He will strengthen our faith. The more our life is hidden in Christ, dwelling in Christ, that life will begin to show more of His grace and will grow and increase with a growth and an increase which is from God
.
Let me end with the words of Spurgeon. He said, “if Jesus Christ is our surety, friends, we are safe from the demands of the law. If Christ is our substitute, we shall not suffer the penalty due to sin. For God will never punish the same sin twice. If I have nothing but Christ, I do not want anything else. For Christ is all. If Christ is your all, you will not want anything to help you either in living or in dying.” Christ is all.
Let's pray.
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