Colossians 2:6-15

Colossians 2:6-15 (New Living Translation)
Freedom from Rules and New Life in Christ
6 And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. 7 Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness. 8 Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ. 9 For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. 10 So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority. 11 When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature. 12 For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead. 13 You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. 14 He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. 15 In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.
Devotion (Mikey Skoglund)
This passage speaks of the wonderful freedom we experience in Christ. I love the words at the beginning of this passage, “Let your roots grow down into Him and let your lives be built on Him.” I must let Christ be the foundation of this life I’m living, and the roots I have in Him will draw forth nourishment for my faith to grow strong in the truth I’ve been taught, and then my heart will overflow with thankfulness for what my Lord has done for me. What a way of life! A life full of God’s abundance and faithfulness. In verse 8 it speaks of not getting caught up in all of the empty philosophies that are circulating this world. And there are a lot of them that try and explain away God’s existence or explain how we are all gods ourselves. But these are of this world and not of Christ. If we follow Christ’s philosophies, then we are filling our hearts and minds with the fullness of God, which is in Christ. I mean, if you think about it, if Christ is ruler over all other authorities anyways, why would we settle for something less when we have immediate access to the source, which is Jesus. And finally the best news of all is in the final verses, where Christ has cut away our sinful nature, taken it upon Himself, and whe n He was crucified and buried, our sins were buried along with Him, and when He was raised from the dead, our spirits have been made new, or “have been raised to new life, because we have trusted in the mighty power of God who has raised Christ from the dead.”

Prayer
Lord please help me to continue to trust in Your mighty power for my life. I know that through Your grace and power, Christ died for my sins but You raised Him from the dead so that I may have new life in Him. Thank You for all that You have given me. I give my life to follow Yours. Thank You for Your love.
Amen.