Guard against man-centered philosophies and false religion by acknowledging the deity and supremacy of Christ
Colossians 2:9-10
9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.
How do you battle against false religion? Apparently, the first key is to have a proper grasp of the person of Jesus Christ. If you are going to properly grasp salvation, you had better first properly understand who is the Savior.
While it may seem like we have made this point a thousand times, we have to start where the Scripture starts. Verse 9 declares for you and me to understand that Jesus is God. That is what Paul means when he says that in Jesus is all the fullness of deity. Jesus Christ is fully God. Jesus is not a lower deity, a lesser emanation of the true God. No, Jesus is God in flesh. Jesus is not a creation of a greater deity, Jesus is God.
In Jesus, the fullness of deity dwells bodily. Jesus is God in a human body. Jesus is simultaneously perfectly God and totally man. He is not a pretend human. Jesus is not a man who gained deity at some point in his life experience. Jesus is God the Son, part of the trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit revealed in Scripture.
Everything in our faith rides on the truth of the fact that Jesus is God and not less. Were Jesus not God, Jesus could not have lived with absolute, God-satisfying perfection. Were Jesus not God, the price he paid for our sins when shedding his blood could never have been enough to pay for the sins of all who will trust in him. Were Jesus not God, his acceptance of worship would have been sinful and evil. Because Jesus is God, he is the head of all rulers and all authorities in the universe, be they spirits or people. Jesus is God, and thus he has all authority.
Jesus also fills his followers. That word for fills has to do with completeness. Jesus saves completely all who trust in him. Do you want to know that, if you trust Christ, you will be saved forever? Know then that Christ, God the Son, completely saves as only God can. When Christ Jesus saves, no one can unsave the saved, because no one in all the universe can defeat God the Son.
Man-made and worldly philosophies do not focus on Jesus as God. They try to deny or lessen Jesus’ deity. Such claims are soul-destroying. Whether someone claims Jesus to be just slightly less than the one true God, or whether they claim him to be a mere man who was a good teacher, all who miss that Jesus is truly God miss out on the truth of Christianity If you miss who Jesus is, you miss that he is the God who can fully, completely, totally rescue you from your sin and make you right with God forever. Guard against man-centered philosophies and false religion by acknowledging the deity and supremacy of Christ
Pastor Travis Peterson 