Following Jesus is simple; it’s just really hard. Paul wrote his letter to the Colossians to prove that you don’t need anything other than what Jesus has already earned for you and freely given to you. False teachers had come to Colossae to convince the Christians that Jesus wasn’t enough. The false teachers were telling the Colossian Christians that they needed to do certain things, uphold certain standards and traditions, keep certain rules in addition to Jesus if they wanted to experience the freedom they were longing for.
Paul pointed out what Jesus had already done for them. Paul taught: Don’t buy a false version of what you already possess. You already have the real thing!
Jesus offers freedom instead of slavery. Adding something to Jesus leads to less, not more. Legalism is the idea that you become acceptable through your doing; that you gain approval or acceptance by keeping the rules, maintaining the standards, upholding the values. Legalism is a form of self-righteousness, an attempt on our part to make ourselves right before God. It leads to slavery not freedom. In reality, legalism provides us with a way to avoid acknowledging our deficiencies and our inabilities. It offers us a way to avoid Jesus and keep control of our lives. But control is an illusion.
Legalism is a ‘Jesus + Something Else’ approach to life. Self-righteousness comes from a legalist spirit. It concludes that what we like best pleases God most. Legalism feeds our pride. But eventually we will realize that legalism (i.e. performance) = slavery. The Gospel is the only thing that can crush our legalistic tendencies and set us free because the Gospel focuses not on what we must do, but on what Jesus has already done!
Real freedom is living for something because we already have favour (the Gospel) instead of living for something in order to gain favour (that’s slavery, our sinful nature).
Jesus offers fullness instead of emptiness. We all have a God-shaped void in our lives that only God is big enough to fill. A finite thing cannot fill an infinite void; a temporary thing cannot fill an eternal void. Jesus alone possesses the eternal resources we need to satisfy our eternal yearnings because Jesus is eternal. We don’t need to spend our lives trying to earn the approval and acceptance of those around us because Jesus has already earned God’s approval and acceptance for us.
The only thing that can fill the longing of any heart (in Christians and non-Christians alike) is Jesus. He is the only one who can satisfy our emptiness and our eternal longings and cravings.
Jesus offers an eternal identity instead of an earthly one. With new life, we have a new identity; it’s “in Christ.” Our identity is no longer connected to our ability. It’s about what we can give and how we can serve. What our world needs to see from Christ-followers is that “in Christ” our identity is secure, which frees us to give everything we have because “in Christ” we have everything we need. We’re free people.
Jesus didn’t come to make bad people good or good people better. Jesus came to make dead people alive! What will capture the attention of our world for Jesus is a group of humble, desperate, Spirit-filled people who acknowledge their sin and who point to their Saviour as the only one who can offer them freedom instead of enslavement, fullness instead of emptiness, and an eternal identity instead of an earthly one.
JESUS + NOTHING = EVERYTHING! and Everything – Jesus = Nothing