Presenting Every Man Perfect, Part 2
Colossians 1:28–29
© Mike Riccardi
Introduction
Well, it’s a joy to return to our series in the Book of Colossians. So, please, turn with me in your Bibles, once more, to Colossians chapter one. We find ourselves in the middle of the final two verses of Colossians chapter one—verses 28 and 29. These two verses are brief, but they are especially significant, inasmuch as they encapsulate the Apostle Paul’s philosophy of Christian ministry.
At the end of verse 23, Paul mentions that he “was made a minister” of this glorious Gospel of reconciliation accomplished by the cross of Christ. And starting in verse 24, and continuing really all the way down to chapter 2 verse 5, he turns to discuss the ministry the Lord has called him to—the stewardship that God has bestowed upon him. And though we are not apostles like Paul was, we all have been called to Christian ministry—to the ministry of the apostolic Gospel that Paul proclaimed. Peter calls us “a royal priesthood”—a kingdom of priests—who minister the blessings of God’s salvation by serving our brethren in the body of Christ, and by proclaiming the Gospel to the lost who need the Savior. In other words, what it means to be faithful to Jesus, what it means to be a member of your local church, is to be called into ministry to one another, and to the unbelieving world around you.
And therefore, your philosophy of ministry—your understanding of what ministry is and how it is to be accomplished—ought to be the same as Paul’s philosophy of ministry. We want to carry out the ministry of the Apostolic Gospelaccording to Apostolic prescriptions. And we found last week that Paul’s philosophy of ministry centers on discipleship. I’ve submitted to you that in these two verses, we find five elements of Christian discipleship that equip us, as Christ’s Church, to faithfully carry out our Lord’s Great Commission to make disciples of all the nations. Let me read that text, once again, to begin our time. Colossians chapter 1, verses 28 and 29. Paul writes, “We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.”
And of the five elements of Christian discipleship that we find in this text, we saw two of them last week. I called them the scheme and the substance of discipleship.
Review I: The Scheme of Discipleship (v. 28c–29a)
We find the scheme of discipleship at the end of verse 28 into the first part of verse 29. Paul says, “We proclaim Him, … so that we may present every man complete in Christ. For this purpose also I labor….” The purpose of every Christian’s ministry to their brothers and sisters in the body of Christ is to see each believer grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ—to make progress in holiness, to be sanctified into the image of Jesus.
Jesus said, in Matthew 10:25, that “It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher.” That is what discipleship is. It’s the process by which the people of Jesus become like Jesus, their teacher. Our part in that process is, number one, to press after Christlikeness in our own lives, and, number two, then to come alongside one another and help one another become more like Jesus. Discipleship is fellow Christians helping one another to follow Jesus more faithfully.
Christians who are captivated by Christ’s Great Commission to make disciples are not content with getting people to profess faith in Jesus and then live lukewarm spiritual lives. They’re not satisfied with a big church full of people who remain ignorant of the Scriptures and sound doctrine, who remain spiritually weak and uncommitted to their fellow-members. Discipleship means we don’t just care about getting people through the door of Christianity, so that they eke into heaven by the skin of their teeth. It means we care about spiritual maturity, and we long, with Paul, to present every believer complete in Christ.
Review II: The Substance of Discipleship (v. 28a)
Then, having seen the scheme, we examined the substance of discipleship. How do we work toward presenting every Christian complete in Christ? Paul answers at the beginning of verse 28: “We proclaim Him.” The very sum and substance of Christian discipleship is the proclamation of Christ to one another, because when Christ is proclaimed, His glory is displayed, and the display of His glory to the eyes of a believer’s heart transforms us into the image of that very glory.
And so the heart and soul of all the ministry that takes place in a local church must be, “We proclaim Him!” Whether preaching or counseling, fellowship or practical service—this is the substance of discipleship. “Brother, tell me what you’ve seen of Christ in the text this week. Let me tell you how I’ve tasted His sufficiency as He so mercifully answered my prayers. Tell me of my Savior, and let’s celebrate Him together!” When we do that, we see Him. And when we see Him, we become what we behold. When we proclaim Him to one another, we hold up the beauty of His glory for faithful eyes to feast on. And Scripture says that is how the body of Christ is built up and brought to maturity.
Review: Admonishing and Teaching
But what does it mean to proclaim Christ to one another? Paul breaks it down into two main functions. He says, “We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom…” The substance of discipleship—the proclamation of Christ—is carried out through the ministry of admonition and the ministry of teaching.
And this refers to how the Lord commands His people to give, receive, and even invite correction from one another—because, friends, we do not come into the Christian life perfected in every sense. Positionally, Christ’s perfect life of obedience is imputed to our account, and so we are as righteous in God’s sight as we’ll ever be. But practically, we are still sinners who battle with remaining sin in our flesh, and so we are always fighting to live as we have been re-created to be—always laboring to bring our practice into conformity with our position. And so we need each other to help us see the sin that we too easily excuse in ourselves, so that we can put it to death, and be made fit to be in the presence of our Holy God. A key feature of genuine Christian discipleship is the ministry of admonition.
And we also considered how the ministry of teaching is indispensable to discipleship. We found that we are to teach one another, first, to know the truth. We need to gird up the loins of our minds and devote ourselves to the careful study of the Scriptures, and thereby arrive at sound doctrine. We need to love the Lord our God with all our minds, so that our minds will not be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. We need to recognize, as John MacArthur has said, that careful thinking is the distinctive mark of the Christian faith, and thus we must be learners of Christ our Teacher.
We must also teach one another, second, to love the truth that we know. We cannot be content with a merely notional knowledge that doesn’t affect our hearts. We can’t be satisfied with only seeing God’s glory; we must rejoice in Him, and delight in Him! We cannot merely analyze and assess; we must admire and adore. More than mere students, we must be worshipers.
And third, we must teach one another to practice the truth—to teach each other to obey all that Christ commanded, so that our lives are driven and shaped by the truth we know and love. And to do that, we need to live life alongside one another, so that our brothers and sisters can follow our example, and so that we can follow theirs. We need to observefaithfulness in the lives of saints more mature than us, and we need to model faithfulness to saints less mature than us. This is the substance of discipleship. “We proclaim Him, admonishing and teaching.”
III. The Scope of Discipleship (v. 28)
Well that brings us, this evening, to the third element of discipleship that we glean from our text. In addition to the scheme of discipleship, and the substance of discipleship, we have, number three, the scope of discipleship. To whom in the local church does the responsibility of discipleship extend? Which members of the body of Christ are within the purview of discipleship? Look again at verse 28. “We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ.” No one is excepted. The scope of discipleship is universal with respect to Christ’s church. If you’re a Christian, you are a disciple. And therefore, you are responsible to ensure that you are being discipled, and your spiritual leaders are going to be held accountable by Christ for how they have discipled you.
Some people in the church hear of the responsibilities that are implied in discipleship—of proclaiming Christ, of giving, receiving, and inviting admonition, of being taught to know, love, and practice the truth—and they think, “Well yeah, I mean, that’s for those really committed Christians—the really spiritual ones who read their Bibles and pray every day, who speak up in Bible study, and maybe who hold some sort of office in the church. But I’m just a regular, normal guy. I mean, yeah, I’m a Christian. But that’s like a whole different level!” No: nothing could be further from the truth. We are to admonish every man, we are to teach every man, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. The repetition is emphatic. You can’t escape the intended stress: every man, every man, every man. And, of course, “every man” doesn’t just mean every male. It means every believing man, woman, or child—every member of the local church.
Now, I think we tend to hear that emphasis and feel burdened by the responsibility it entails, as if Paul is saying, “No one can escape the scope of my discipleship ministry! You can’t hide!” But that’s not his intent at all. Considering the historical context in which Paul wrote Colossians, he intended this “every-man, every-man, every-man” emphasis to be a declaration not primarily of responsibility, but of privilege. What do I mean?
Well, remember that the “pagan mysticism” aspect of the false teaching that was assaulting the Colossians and Laodiceans was an early form of Gnosticism. And remember that the Gnostics believed that there was a special spiritual wisdom or secret knowledge that was only revealed to an elite few. Through some ecstatic religious experience, these “chosen ones” were initiated into the mysteries, while the rest remained dependent upon the initiated to instruct them in true knowledge. And these false teachers were claiming that’s how things worked in the church. “You’re the uninitiated! Listen to us! We have the secret knowledge!”
So, against that background, Paul says he admonishes every believer, and teaches every believer, so that he might present every believer complete in Christ. It’s a repudiation of such baseless elitism. “We bring ‘all wisdom’ within the reach of every believer, so that each one—singular—might stand in the presence of God in a state of complete spiritual maturity (cf. Bruce, 87). One commentator says, “There are no heights in Christian attainment which are not within the reach of all, by the power of heavenly grace” (ibid.). So far from a burdensome duty, this universal scope of discipleship in the local church is the highest of privileges. No Christian may be excluded from the benefits of shepherding care. Each one has access to the sweet and glorious path of fellowship with Christ in holiness.
But, with great privilege comes great responsibility. Just as you are made beneficiaries of discipleship, you are also to be benefactors in discipleship. You’re not excluded from the blessings of being discipled, but you’re also responsible to be a blessing by discipling others. You receive admonition, and you give admonition. You are taught, and you teach others. The delightful duty of seeking to present every man perfect in Christ does not belong just to the pastors, or the elders, or the shepherds. It belongs to every member, in some way or another.
In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul speaks of spiritual gifts and says, 1 Corinthians 12:7: “To each one”—that is, to each individual believer in the church—“is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” The Spirit gives a variety of spiritual gifts to each member of the church for the common good. And as each one uses his gifts, the church as a whole is blessed. Later in the same chapter, verse 18, he says, “But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. If they were all one member, where would the body be? But now there are many members, but one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you’; or again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.’” You see, God gives each member in the local church a certain function that that member can perform especially well. And without that member doing its part, Paul asks: “Where would the body be?” What would happen? It’s unthinkable. The eye can’t say it doesn’t need the hand. The head can’t say it doesn’t need the feet. This means: we need each other, friends. We are interdependent. We need to benefit from each member’s unique spiritual gifts. And so each one of you must be devoted to serving one another, so that each one might be presented perfect in Christ.
And turn with me to Ephesians 4. There, Paul exhorts the believers to live consistently with their identity in Christ that he’s outlined in the first three chapters. He’s urging them to match their high calling with high conduct. And he teaches that that holy conduct will happen as each member exercises the spiritual gifts God gives them. We see the gifts in verse 11: “He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers…” And what for what purpose does He give these spiritual gifts? Verse 12: “…for the equipping of the saints for the work of [ministry].” Note that: the pastors and teachers don’t just do all the ministry while the rest of the saints watch. The pastors and teachers equip the saints for the work of the ministry.
To what end? “…to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ,”—now listen to this, verse 16—“from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growthof the body for the building up of itself in love.”
What a text! How is the body going to grow and be built up? How are we going to attain to the unity of the faith, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ? When each individual part of the body is working properly, unto the common good of the whole—when each individual member employs the spiritual gifts God has given them, unto the growth of their fellow believers. You see, friends: sanctification is a community project. The scope of discipleship extends to each member of Christ’s church.
And so you have to ask yourself, “Am I investing in the body? Am I being a good steward of the gifts God has given me by employing them to bless and edify my brothers and sisters in this local body of believers that Jesus has sovereignly placed me in? Am I committed to the ministry of discipleship in and through my local church? Have I completed the membership process? Am I plugged into a fellowship group? Am I participating meaningfully in a home Bible study, cultivating biblical friendships and genuine fellowship with the brethren there? Are we sharing meals together? Are we opening our homes to one another? Are we confronting sin in one another?” And if not, what are you going to do about it? The responsibility of discipleship falls to every man—to each one.
The scheme of discipleship is to present every believer complete in Christ. The substance of discipleship is to proclaim Christ by admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom. And the scope of discipleship extends to each individual Christian—each member of the body. There are no exceptions. You are either in the discipleship process—both being discipled and discipling others, or you are disobedient.
IV. The Strain of Discipleship
Well that brings us to the fourth element of discipleship that we find in this text. And that is, number four, the strainof discipleship. Discipleship takes work! And we see that in two key words in verse 29. Paul says, “For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.”
Labor and striving. The word “labor” is translated from the Greek word kopiao—from the noun kopos, which means “a blow” or “a beating.” So kopiao signified working to the point of weariness and exhaustion, as if one had been repeatedly beaten. We say that even in English: we work hard, and then we stand up straight, wipe our brow, exhale and say, “I’m beat!” That’s this word. One commentator says, “It was the proper word for physical tiredness induced by work, exertion, or heat. … It denoted severe labor. The emphasis is on the great effort expended by one who labors unceasingly for the congregation’s welfare” (O’Brien, 90).
And Paul often referred to his ministry this way. In 1 Corinthians 15:10, he says the grace of God toward Him didn’t prove vain, “but,” he says, “I labored even more than all of them.” In Galatians 4:11, when he laments the church’s tolerance of false teaching, he says, “I fear…that perhaps I have labored over you in vain.” Paul’s ministry was labor!
And then, turn with me to Philippians chapter 2. Paul is calling the Philippians to remain steadfast in their pursuit of holiness even in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. He exhorts them, verse 16, to “hold fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor labor [kopiao] in vain. But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all.” And I think this beautifully illustrates the concepts of the strain of discipleship and self-sacrifice in ministry by putting the word labor alongside the word picture of the drink offering.
Paul compares all of his ministerial labors on behalf of the Philippians to the labors of an Old Covenant priest who is offering a holy sacrifice to God. The Philippians themselves are Paul’s sacrificial offering to God, and he earnestly desires to present every man perfect in Christ. Well, under the Old Testament Law, after the sacrifice had been offered, the drink offering was poured out on the sacrifice to complete it—to seal it, as it were. As Paul waits in prison to find out whether or not Nero will sentence him to death, he says that if indeed his sacrificial ministry will end in martyrdom, he will rejoice, because his death in the service of Christ, and for the Philippians’ progress in holiness, will be like the drink offering that completes the sacrificial offering of the Philippians to God. He’ll rejoice, because his martyrdom would be a fitting climax to all of his labors for the holiness of the people the Lord had entrusted to him to serve.
It’s as if he says, “My dear Philippians, if the Lord has decreed that my life be poured out as the drink offering that seals and sanctifies the offering of your Christlikeness, so that you become an acceptable sacrifice unto God, I’m not made sorrowful by my death. I rejoice! My life could not be better spent than in the cause of your holiness, which abounds to the glory of God! If my blood must be spilled for God to get what He is worthy of in your lives, then—in the language of 2 Corinthians 12:15—‘I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls.’ What greater privilege can there be to lay down my life to ensure that the Lord receive the pure Bride He deserves?” This is the strain of discipleship.
But of course, Paul was not only willing to die once for his ministry of discipleship. He was willing to die daily for the health and growth of the church. He says in 1 Corinthians 15:31, “I affirm, brethren, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.” Or Romans 8:36: “For your sakes we are being put to death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” Or 2 Corinthians 4:11: “For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake.” I’m sure there were mornings when Paul asked himself if it was all worth it. But if he was ever tempted to give up, he remembered that the joy to be had in fellowship with Christ as a sharer of His sufferings was so satisfying, that he joyfully took up his cross daily, died to himself daily, and followed after His Master.
And Grace Church, this is the kind of joy-fueled self-denial that must characterize your life. You need to wake up every morning and bring your mind into subjection to the Word of God, and make a conscious decision by God’s grace that you are going to die to yourself for the sake of following after Jesus and serving His people—that you are going to lay yourself on the altar, and, by the mercies of God, present your body and your mind and your time and your energy as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. Your lives are to be a living martyrdom—a continual crucifixion of your own comforts and preferences—so that the laying down of your lives is not necessarily physically dying for one another, but living for one another. This itself is Jesus’ call to discipleship. Luke 9:23: “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” If you’re going to be a disciple, you must be actively engaged in the strain of making disciples.”
But Paul doesn’t only labor. He also strives. “For this purpose also I labor, striving.” And “striving” translates the verb agonizomai, from which we get the word agony, and agonize. It means “to fight,” “to struggle,” and “to engage in a physical conflict in which weapons were used.” It’s the word used in John 18:36, where Jesus says if His kingdom were of this world His servants would be fighting. That’s military conflict. The word can also carry athletic connotations. It’s used that way in 1 Corinthians 9:25, where Paul says, “Everyone who competes in the games”—that whole phrase translates the word agonizomai—“Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things.” One commentator said the word has the implication “of giving oneself in the utmost effort, with all the self-discipline required to achieve this goal” (Dunn, 126).
And that imagery of the athletic contest in 1 Corinthians 9:25 sparks an interesting point. Again, Paul says, “Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.” The wreath refers to that crown of laurels that was placed on the victor’s head as he stood on the platform to receive his prize. Well, the Apostles take that image of the wreath and use it as a metaphor for the believer’s final reward in the day of Christ Jesus. In 2 Timothy 4:8, Paul calls it the crown of righteousness. In James 1:12, James calls it the crown of life. In 1 Peter 5:4, Peter calls it the unfading crown of glory. This is our heavenly reward.
But in two passages, Paul calls the believers—over whom he had labored and agonized—Paul calls them his crown. Philippians 4:1: “My beloved brethren whom I long to see, my joy and crown.” And 1 Thessalonians 2:19–20: “For who is our hope or joy or crown of exultation? Is it not even you, in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming? For you are our glory and joy!” Paul is saying that his great reward—the crown of laurels on his head, the proof of his victory in this athletic contest that is the strain of discipleship, the very ground of his glory and joy in the presence of Christ at His coming—is the spiritual maturity of the believers he’s invested his life in! They themselves, having been presented complete in Christ, will be his crown!
This is precisely what he said in Philippians 2:16 that we looked at a moment ago: he wants them to stand out as stars shining in the night sky, “so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory”—to rejoice—“because I did not run in vain nor labor in vain.” Do you hear it? “If you continue in the path of obedience, so that Christ is formed in you to the extent that you shine as lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, when the Lord Jesus comes, I will not be found as one who ran but was not crowned—as one who has nothing to show for all my endeavors but sore muscles! Oh, if you brothers and sisters continue to be monuments of the power of the Gospel to sanctify those who trust in Jesus, then on the last day I’ll wear the victor’s crown as a minister who was used by God to realize the great end of all ministry: to present men and women perfect in Christ” (Martin).
And friends, we need to have this very same view of one another: that our fellow believers are our joy and our crown of exultation on the day of Christ. Sure, we are not each other’s pastors; but we are all called to the ministry of discipleship! We are all called to be laboring diligently to aid in the sanctification of the people of God in this place. Think of it this way: the Lord Jesus Christ—the sovereign Lord of all providence—has providentially given you to your fellow-members of Grace Church—and He has given the members of Grace Church to you—so that we might encourage one another, and sharpen one another, and stir one another up to greater likeness to Christ—to greater hatred of sin, to greater love for righteousness. He has given us to one another to get into each other’s kitchen, to ask the hard questions, to give of our time and energy, to be devoted to one another in prayer, to model for one another how to put off sin and put on righteousness, and ten thousand other things in the Christian life.
Alexander MacLaren, the 19th-century Scottish pastor, said: “the crown of victory laid on the locks of a faithful teacher is the character of those whom he has taught.” And I would broaden that out to apply it to all of us: the crown of victory laid on the locks of a faithful believer is the character of those brothers and sisters whom the Lord brought into his life, whom he poured himself into, and whom he labored to see mature in holiness. Look around at one another: that’s your crown. What kind of crown do you want? Now is the time to begin investing in that crown. Make your crown glorious—beautiful in holiness.
Are you investing your lives in the lives of your fellow believers, so that in the day of Christ you will have a number of brothers and sisters who will be your joy and crown of exultation? If not, then before you leave church this evening—with the thought of that glorious day of Christ in the horizon of your mind—determine what you’re going to do to change that. What in your life will you sacrifice in order to invest in your crown? How can you more faithfully give yourself to spending and being spent for the souls of the members of this church? At the bare minimum, that means getting involved in a Bible study, so that you can surround yourself with these kinds of relationships in that small-group setting. It’s making time in your schedule to meet with that brother or sister in your life for personal discipleship. It’s opening your home and forging real relationships in a life-on-life context.
Friends, whatever you do, don’t forfeit your crown of exultation. Give yourself to the strain of discipleship.
V. The Strength of Discipleship
You say, “But Mike, where am I going to find the strength for that? I mean, laboring unto exhaustion! Laying my life down in a living martyrdom! Dying daily! Agonizing in sacrificial service to the church! I know myself. I know the sluggishness and the backwardness of my own heart. Where am I going to get the motivation—the fuel—for this kind of sacrificial lifestyle?” The answer comes in the fifth element of discipleship that we find in this text. We’ve seen the scheme, the substance, the scope, the strain, and now we come, number five, to the strength of discipleship. Look with me again at verse 29: “For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.” The strength of discipleship is the almighty power of God’s grace at work within you.
This truth totally dominated all of Paul’s thinking and all of Paul’s practice! this reality of intense, disciplined human effort, energized by omnipotent divine power. Galatians 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” “I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me.” 1 Corinthians 15:10: “I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.” I labored, and yet in real sense it wasn’t ultimately me. It was the grace of God working in me. And 1 Peter 4:11: “Whoever serves, as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.” We serve, we toil, we labor, we strain—by the strength which God supplies.
And Paul is absolutely emphatic, here. Note the triple emphasis on God’s strength at work in him. “Striving according to (1) His power, which (2) mightily (3) works within me.” Those are three occurrences of two Greek words: dunamis—from we get words like dynamic, or dynamism—and energeo, from which we get the word energy. This is the dynamic energy of Almighty God that is at work in our souls to strengthen us for the work He’s called us to.
In Colossians 1:11, Paul tells the Colossians how he prays for them. He prays that they would be “strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience.” He prays the same thing in Ephesians 3:14–16. I pray the Father “would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man.” And he closes in verses 20 and 21 with that wonderful benediction: “Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever.” His power is at work within us!
But what’s most striking is how often these two words—dunamis and energeia—appear with reference to the resurrection of Christ. In Colossians 2:12, Paul likens our conversion to a spiritual resurrection and says, “You were raised up with [Christ] through faith in the energeia of God”—the energizing power of God—“who raised Him from the dead.” In Philippians 3:21, Paul speaks of our glorification as that event when Christ “will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.” And it is by virtue of His resurrection that He has ascended to heaven and has been seated at the right hand of the Father. It’s resurrection power that subjects all things to Himself, and that will glorify us.
And in addition to our conversion and our glorification, that resurrection power is at work in us everywhere in between, in sanctification. Paul’s prayer in Ephesians chapter 1 makes this clear. Starting in verse 18, he prays, “that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.”
What does this mean? Friends, it means that the power that raised Jesus from the dead and seated Him at the right hand of the Father is that very same energizing power that is mightily at work within us, supplying us the strength we need to serve the church in discipleship. We have resurrection power fueling us, so that even when the flesh is weak, Almighty God makes our spirit willing. Even though the outer man is decaying, resurrection power renews our inner man day by day.
Conclusion
And so, yes, we lay upon one another’s shoulders the heavy responsibility of the strain of discipleship. We must labor, we must strive, we must agonize. But we don’t lay that imperative upon your shoulders without putting the solid foundation of the indicative of God’s strength under your feet and into your heart. The work that this text calls all of us to do is grounded in the great provision of God’s grace to us—grace we receive first at our conversion and salvation, and then, grace day after day after day, as resurrection power works within us to sanctify us; to cause us to live a resurrected life; to strengthen us to do what we think we can’t do.
And in one sense, we can’t do it. You can’t live as sacrificially as the text calls you to—at least, not in your own strength. But there has been strength supplied to you through the Gospel of the grace of God, and it’s working in you even now. Oh, if only you would give yourself to it! If only you would come and drink deeply of that sweet fountain of grace in all the channels through which that grace flows to you! The reading of Scripture, fellowship with the Lord in prayer, fellowship with the saints in the church, communion with Christ on the path of obedience. You’d see in the Word: “This is the responsibility that my dear Lord has laid before me.” And then you’d resolve: “Now, I come to these means of grace so that I might feast on the strength that He supplies, which empowers me to perform what He has required!” You see, God’s grace grants what His law requires. And therefore, where we are deficient, we trust in and rely upon His sufficiency. When we are weak, then we are strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
But there’s a catch. You have to be in Christ! You have to be a recipient of Gospel grace. Some of you will hear the strain that’s required of every one of you, but you lack the strength that God supplies, because you’ve not trusted in Christ alone with your whole heart. You still reserve pockets of your life over which you wish to be Lord. You may give Him Sundays, but lordship over your entire life? “Let’s not get too extreme.”
And therefore, friend, you have no divine strength working within you. You still lay spiritually dead in the grave of your sins. You’ve not been raised with resurrection power. And so the call to take part in the strain of discipleship in the local church feels impossibly burdensome to you. But I call you this evening to come to Christ. This all-sufficient Savior has lived the perfect life of obedience that you were commanded to live but failed to live. And He has died in the place of sinners, receiving in His own person the full exercise of the righteous wrath of His Father, which you deserve to consume you for eternity in hell because of your sins. And He has risen again in victory over sin and death, so that everyone may know that salvation and forgiveness and righteousness are free for the taking—if only they are received by the empty hand of faith alone.
Dear sinner, turn from your sin. Renounce your claim to lordship over your own life! and bow the knee to Jesus. Don’t trust in your works. Trust in His works to avail with you before the bar of God’s justice. And if you do that, not only will you be forgiven, but you will experience this resurrection power mightily at work within you. And you will be strengthened to labor and strive in obedience to what God has called you to.
And for those of us who have trusted in Christ, it falls to us now to go on trusting Him, and to follow Him as obedient disciples—to trust the promise of this divine power, and to obey the command to labor and strive as we proclaiming Christ. Brothers and sisters—fellow disciples of the Lord Jesus—let us live as disciples. Let us be disciple-making disciples, because, I assure you, there is no other kind of genuine disciple of Christ.
Preach Jesus to one another. Admonish one another. Receive admonition, humbly and wisely. Know the truth, love the truth, and practice the truth. And teach others to do the same. And not just some, but every Christian the Lord has given you in your local church. Labor and agonize over it. Give yourself to one another. Be absorbed in these things, because the sovereign power of the Triune God is mightily at work within you.