Scripture Reading: Col. 2:6, 7, 19; 1:28; 13, Eph. 4:15-16
Because we have been grafted into Christ, we have entered into Him. Our entrance into Christ is related to life and to the growth of life. We do not enter into Christ in the same way that we walk into a room. Walking into a room has nothing to do with either life or growth. However, entering into Christ involves the process of growth. In Romans 6:5 Paul says that “we have grown together with Him in the likeness of His death.” Now we are growing with Christ in the likeness of His resurrection.
In the foregoing message we pointed out that it is in baptism that we grow together with Christ in the likeness of His death. Baptism is not a lifeless ritual; it is an experience that is very much related to life and growth. Whenever we baptize believers, we should help them realize that in baptism they will grow together with Christ, because they have been grafted into the crucified and resurrected Christ. Christ’s crucifixion provided an opening in Him for us to be grafted into Him, and His resurrection ushers us into the process of growth. Now that we have been grafted into Christ, we should grow in Him day by day.
In 1 Corinthians 3 Paul also speaks of growth. In verse 9 he points out that the believers are God’s farm. In verse 6 he says, “I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the growth” (Gk.). This implies that the saints are plants in God’s farm. In the church, God’s farm, we are plants growing.
The concept of growing like plants is also found in Romans 11, where Paul uses the illustration of grafting a branch from a wild olive tree into a cultivated olive tree. In the eyes of God, we all are plants, or trees. In Romans 6:5 Paul uses a particular Greek word to indicate growth. It is very difficult to find an English equivalent for this word, which means to grow by being planted or grafted. Both planting and grafting are for growth. A tree is planted in the soil so that it may grow. Likewise, the purpose of grafting is growth. Recently, a brother pointed out a marvelous definition of this Greek word found in Commentary on Romans by Frederick Louis Godet. According to Godet (p. 243), the word denotes “the organic union in virtue of which one being shares the life, growth, and phases of existence belonging to another.” Through the organic union of two plants, accomplished by grafting, the one plant partakes of the life and characteristics of the other plant. What a wonderful way of growth! Applying this definition to our spiritual experience, we may say that we have been grafted into the “tree” of the all-inclusive, life-giving, processed Triune God, who is the all-inclusive Spirit. Having become one with Him through grafting, we now partake of the life and characteristics of this all-inclusive One, and in this way we grow.
In the book of Colossians there are implications that believers are to grow like plants rooted in the soil. In order to understand the Bible, we need to understand both the direct meaning of the words and also the implications. Sometimes the revelation expressed through the implications of a verse is deeper than that conveyed in the direct statements. This is true of Colossians 2:6 and 7. Verse 7 speaks of our “having been rooted” in Christ. This implies that, in God’s eyes, we are plants. Those who have been baptized into Christ are plants rooted in Christ.
The phrase “having been rooted and being built up in Him” is related to those who are walking in the preceding verse. We are to walk in Christ, having been rooted and being built up in Him. This means that we are to walk by having been rooted in Christ. If we have not been rooted in Him, we cannot walk in Him. As living plants, we are walking plants. We walk by being rooted in Christ. What wonderful, mysterious plants Christians are! We are plants who both walk and grow.
Some may think that it is not logical to say, on the one hand, that we can be rooted and, on the other hand, that we walk. How can one who has been rooted in Christ also walk in Him? The answer is that the land in which we are rooted is a living land. Since we have been rooted in a living, moving land, we live and move in Him. Hence, it is not actually that we do the walking, but it is the land which moves. Praise the Lord that we are rooted in Christ who is the living land! Because the land moves, we can move also. According to the implication of these verses, it is proper to speak in this way.
We should not think that we are the ones walking in the land. If we try to walk, we shall stumble and fall. Then we may be defeated by Satan and led astray. We should regard ourselves as plants rooted in Christ as our living land. As those who have been rooted in Him, we walk as He moves. This is to walk in Him.
Colossians 2:6 says to walk in Him. This adverbial phrase modifies the word walk. It indicates that we cannot walk in Christ unless we have been rooted in Him. Thus, we walk in the living land in which we have been rooted.
As we consider 2:6 and 7, we see that to grow in Christ is to walk in Him. We have pointed out that “having been rooted and being built up in Him” is related to the word walk. This phrase gives us the meaning of walking in Christ. Because we have been rooted in the moving Christ, we walk in Him.
The fact that walking in Christ is a matter of growing is indicated by the word rooted. Plants are rooted in the soil for the purpose of growth. If a tree is to grow, it must be properly rooted. Without roots, a tree will die, for it has no way to absorb moisture from the soil. A tree is able to grow, however, when it absorbs moisture through its roots.
Although the rooting is for the growing, 2:6 does not speak of growing, but of walking in Christ. However, the implied significance of these terms is that genuine growth consists of our walking in Christ. We do not grow by walking in ourselves; we grow by walking in Christ. We have seen that if we would walk in Him, we must first be rooted in Him as the living land. Then we walk as He moves and acts. Such a walk is genuine growth.
My burden in this message is to help the saints see what the genuine growth in life is. Growth is not a matter of becoming refined instead of crude. To grow in life is to grow with the growth of God. It is to grow with the increase of God. True growth is the increase of God, the addition of God. In Himself, God does not need to grow. He is eternal, perfect, and complete. However, there is the need for God to grow in us. How much of the Triune God do you have within you? Do you not need more of the increase, the addition, of God within you? We all need the increase of God. We need to grow with the growth of God; that is, we need God to increase, to grow, in us. I repeat, in Himself God cannot grow and does not need to grow, but it is necessary for God to grow in us.
In order to have genuine growth, we must first be rooted in Christ, our good land. This implies that Christ is our soil, our earth. Otherwise, how could we be rooted in Him? We are plants rooted in Christ as the soil. Therefore, Christ, the processed, all-inclusive Triune God, is our land. Praise the Lord that we have been planted! Having been planted into Christ, we are now rooted in the living Christ who is our good land.
From 1:12 we see that Christ is the portion of the saints. As we have previously pointed out, the Greek word rendered portion actually means a lot, a tract of land. Christ as our portion is our lot. This means that He is the good land to the saints. After the children of Israel entered into the land of Canaan and took possession of it, they all received their portion, their allotment, of the land. Today our lot is Christ. This lot, this portion, is the soil in which we are rooted.
Christ is the fertile soil in which we, the plants, are growing. This soil is living and moving. Because we have been rooted into Christ as such a living soil, we move when He moves, for we walk in Him. Thus, our walking is not actually ours; it is His. Such a walking in Christ as the good land is also our growing. To grow is to walk in this way. Therefore, when we walk in Christ, we grow in Him.
As a tree grows, it absorbs water and nourishing elements from the soil in which it is rooted. A tree grows by absorbing the riches from the soil. As these riches are absorbed by the tree, they become the increase of the tree. The tree grows with the increase of the riches from the soil. In like manner, we are living plants rooted in Christ as our soil. Christ is moving, and because we are in Him, we walk as He moves. However, those Christians who have no heart to seek the Lord do not walk when Christ moves. They do not cooperate with Him in His moving. But as those who love the Lord and pursue Him, we should always cooperate with Him and say “Amen” whenever He moves. We should be very active and aggressive in Him. Through this experience of walking in Christ we absorb the riches of Christ.
Our walking in Christ is the cooperation we render to Him in His activity. By cooperating with Him in this way, we spontaneously absorb His riches into our being. What we absorb of Christ into us — the element of the riches of Himself as the soil — becomes the increase of God within us. Our land is Christ, and Christ is the embodiment of the Triune God. Therefore, the land is the Triune God. This means that when we absorb the riches of the soil, we absorb the riches of the Triune God. Actually, we absorb the Triune God Himself. Through this absorption, we take more of God into us. This increase of God within us is what we mean by the growth of God.
We are living plants rooted into the Triune God. Now our roots are absorbing the riches of the Triune God into us. As a result, God is added into our being. This addition of the riches of the soil within us is our growth.
About three years ago, we planted some trees around our house. In these three years, the trees have grown very much. This growth has been the increase of the riches of the soil. By the roots of the trees, the riches from the soil have been brought into the trees and absorbed by them. The trees are continually absorbing the riches of the soil. In this way these riches become the very element for the increase of the trees. In this way the trees grow. This is a picture, an illustration, of the genuine growth in spiritual life. It also shows us the way to grow.
We praise the Lord that after years of wandering without a goal, so many of us are now rooted in Christ. It is a blessing to be rooted in Christ in the church life. Once we have been rooted in the church, we are not easily uprooted. We cannot even uproot ourselves. Some who tried to give up the church life because something had made them unhappy found that their efforts were not successful. They had been rooted, and they could not be uprooted. Instead of trying to uproot ourselves, we should be subdued by the Lord and allow Him to live in us.
When we realize that we have been rooted in Him, we shall automatically walk in Him. According to 2:6 and 7, the rooting must precede the walking. Having been rooted in Christ, we now walk in Him. We simply remain in Christ, and He does the walking. Thus, His walking becomes our walking.
Spiritual things cannot fully be explained. Only through experience can they be apprehended adequately. From our experience we realize that when Christ moves, we walk in Him. Then the roots embedded in the soil absorb the riches of the Triune God into our being. Through the addition of God in us, we then grow with the growth of God.
In 2:19 we have the words “holding the Head.” What does it mean to hold Christ as the Head? For the Body to hold the Head means that the Body does not allow itself to be separated from the Head. If we truly hold Christ as the Head, we shall not be separated from Him by anything. When we live by our culture instead of by Christ, we separate ourselves from Christ as the Head and are defrauded of our prize, which is the enjoyment of Christ.
Those Christians in Colosse who were embracing Gnosticism and living by it were being severed from the Head. They were being defrauded, deprived, of the enjoyment of Christ. However, if we are rooted in Christ and walk as He moves, we shall spontaneously absorb the riches of Christ into our being and grow with the growth of God. This growth is by holding Christ as the Head.
Colossians 2:19 speaks of the supply and of the Body being knit together. When the Body is supplied and knit together by holding the Head, the Body grows with the growth of God. The phrase “out from whom” in this verse is important. It indicates that the Body grows out from the Head, for all the supply comes from the Head. In one sense, Christ is the Head; in another sense, He is the soil. As we absorb the riches of the soil, we hold the Head. Likewise, to receive the supply from the Head is to absorb the riches from the soil.
In order to have proper growth as Christians, we need to realize that God has placed us, as living plants, into Christ. Now we should say, “Lord, I want to remain in You and walk whenever You move.” By walking in Christ, we absorb the riches of the soil into our being. Then, through the increase of these riches within us, we grow. Absorbing the riches of the soil is equal to holding Christ as the Head. We grow with the increase from the soil; we also grow as the Body with the supply out from the Head.
In the Epistle to the Colossians, Paul tells us to beware of philosophy, tradition, and the elements of the world. This means that we should beware of culture in every form: racial culture, national culture, and self-made and self-imposed culture. We should not allow culture to become a substitute for Christ. Although there is no need for us to deliberately try to drop our culture, we should stop appreciating it. In the past we treasured our culture, lovingly embracing it. But if we see that culture can be a substitute for Christ, we shall no longer treasure it or appreciate it so highly. Instead, we see that we are living plants rooted in Christ. Since we are rooted in Him, we should not allow anything to replace Him. We should simply walk in Him as the living land and grow by absorbing the riches of the soil into us. In this way the riches from the soil, who is also the Head, will be ministered into us. As a result, all the Body will grow with the growth of the Triune God. Automatically, our culture will be replaced by Christ.
Continually we should simply walk in Christ, not appreciating our culture and not treasuring it. The more we walk in Christ, the more we shall absorb the riches of the soil, the rich supply of the Head. Then, holding the Head, we shall experience the genuine and proper growth in Christ.
