Thoughts from Colossians 1 from Tchividjian

I am in the process of reading Jesus + Nothing = Everything by Tullian Tchividjian.  Chapter 6 was a great reminder of the great news of the gospel for you and me.  Tchividjian shares how Colossians 1 rocked his world as he went through a difficult situation in his church.  I have listed the verses he refers to below.
11 May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
As you read these words, I would encourage you ask yourself the following questions:
  •   Do you feel worthy?
  •  Are you worried about how sin disqualifies you?
  •  Are you part of the family of God?
  •  Do you feel shame or the need to prove yourself to God & others?
Tchividjian points out several past-tense words in the passage above.  You are qualified, delivered, and transferred.  So, in Christ, you are already qualified so you don't need to feel shame or unworthiness.  You do not need to try and prove you are qualified to God or others because Christ has already qualified you.

In Christ, you are delivered from the domain of darkness.  You don't have to believe the lie that Satan says "just keep sinning because that is who you are.  You are unworthy, full of shame, and need to isolate from others because no one would love you if they knew what you did or think or are."  Christ's death on the cross has delivered you from Satan's kingdom to God's.

In Christ, you are transferred into His kingdom so you are already part of the family. "In Christ, you're in! . . .But God was assuring me that my identity, worth, and value had nothing to do with my strength or ability to win. It has nothing to do with me at all. It had everything to do with the finished work of Jesus for me. . ."you now are, and forever will be, safe and sound in Jesus. . ."

I encourage you to read Colossians 1 on a regular basis as a reminder about who you are in Christ.

Let me close with a few great quotes from this chapter:
"Because of Christ's finished work, Christians already possess the approval, the love, the security, the freedom, the meaning, the purpose, the protection, the new beginning, the cleansing, the forgiveness, the righteousness, and the rescue we intensely long for and, in fact, look for in a thousand things smaller than Jesus every day--things transient, things incapable of delivering the goods."
"The gospel represents both the nature of Christian growth and the basis for it."

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