Colossians 2: Remember Who You Are in Christ

Introduction

“One of the greatest battles you and I fight, if we follow Jesus, is not the battle against the devil, or against our circumstances, or even against temptation. It is the battle for our identity.” Malcolm Duncan, senior pastor of Kensington Temple in London, continues his “Living Well” series in front of the church’s young adults.

For three weeks now, he has been working through Colossians 2:8-15. This time, he stops at verses 11 to 13: the circumcision of the heart, being buried and raised with Christ, the forgiveness of all our trespasses. When you forget who you are, what Christ has done, or the position you have in him, “everything is at risk.”

The message comes down to three simple points. It is followed by a long time of questions in which the pastor speaks about effort, the old voices of the past, conviction and condemnation, with rare candor about his own story.

Outline of the Message

1. The Battle for Your Identity

• Paul writes to the church at Colossae because false teachers want to convince believers that Jesus is not enough: they would need more rituals, more rules, more spiritual experiences.
• This current is linked to Gnosticism, from a Greek word meaning “knowledge”: believers are criticized for not knowing enough about angels, about Judaism, or about a secret knowledge.
• Paul’s answer is simple, and it holds true for London as it does for the rest of the world: you need nothing else, you have everything fully in Christ (Colossians 2:10).
• The expression “in Christ” appears more than 150 times in the New Testament, in various forms. The preacher cites a few examples: Romans 8:1, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Ephesians 1:3, Ephesians 2:10, Galatians 3:26. On Ephesians 2:10, he emphasizes the Greek word translated “workmanship”: we are God’s original work of art.
• “The Christian life is not first what we do for him. It begins with what he has done for us.” Living well begins when you remember who you are in Jesus.

2. In Christ, You Have a New Identity

• Verse 11: “in whom you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made by hands.” Under the old covenant, the circumcision of boys on the eighth day marked their belonging to the covenant people. It was an outward sign.
• Paul goes beyond the physical sign to speak of a spiritual reality, which concerns the heart of women as well as men, and no longer only boys: God has performed a deeper circumcision, not on the body but on the heart. When you came to Jesus, he cut away the old life and broke the dominion of sin.
• So you are not defined by your failures, your addictions, your wounds, your scars, your successes, your career, your reputation, your nationality, or even your sex. “You are what God says you are in Christ.”
• Paul does not ask believers to become what they are not; he reminds them of what they already are. “Living well does not begin by trying harder. It begins by remembering better.” Following Jesus is not a self-improvement program, it is a transformation of identity.
• The enemy says: “Remember what you were.” God answers: “Remember who you are.” Malcolm Duncan confesses that if he let his old identity dominate, he would never get into a pulpit: “I still don’t have great confidence in my abilities, but I have very great confidence in God’s abilities.”

3. In Christ, You Have a New Life

• Verse 12: “having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him.” We did not raise ourselves: everything happens in Christ and everything comes to us from him.
• When Jesus died, your old self was judged. When he was buried, your old life was buried with him. When he was raised, a new life became possible in you. Following Jesus is not a modification of behavior, it is resurrection life.
• Baptism is the picture of it (Romans 6:4): you go down into the water as into a grave, and you cannot get up on your own, you have to be pulled out of the water. That is why water baptism is “a command, not an option.” And it is experienced once, because you die once and you are born again once.
• Many believers spend their lives trying to overcome sin in their own strength. Paul does not say “try harder,” he says: remember your union with Jesus and the victory already given. “You are not fighting for victory, you are fighting from victory.”
• Paul says it of himself in Galatians 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” The Christian life seems possible in our own strength, but every effort made in that direction takes us away from the life Christ obtained for us: you cannot draw from both sources at once.
• Asked afterward about those who have drifted away from God, the pastor maintains that you are born again only once, relying on John 3. He acknowledges that some Christians think otherwise. For him, you can lose your joy, your peace, your way, but not eternal life, “because it was never mine to begin with.”

4. In Christ, You Have a New Standing Before God

• Verse 13: “You were dead through your trespasses [...]. He made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses.” Paul does not say you were sick in your sin, he says you were dead. And a dead person can neither repair nor save himself.
• Look at who acts throughout the passage: God circumcised, God raised, God made alive, God forgave. “The gospel is fundamentally God’s work, not yours, not mine.”
• He forgave all our trespasses: “not some, not most, not almost all, all,” past, present, and future, by Jesus’ single act on the cross.
• Outside of Christ: condemnation, death, separation, insecurity. In Christ: forgiveness, life, reconciliation, acceptance, and therefore security. You do not have to earn God’s approval: you have already received it.
• This changes how he prays (“I don’t pray to be accepted, I pray because I’m grateful to be accepted”), how he worships (not a performance but a celebration), and how he handles his mistakes, because his standing before God does not rest on perfection.
• In a culture in an identity crisis, your worth does not come from looking inside yourself, but from looking up, rooted in Jesus. When the enemy reminds you of your past, when fear says you are not up to it, when your mistakes want to define you, when tomorrow looks uncertain: remember who you are.

5. The Effort of Surrender

• First question: is there a place for human effort? “Yes, but not to give us our identity.” Effort means taking hold of the identity Christ has already given, and it is not easy, because we naturally lean toward what we know and toward the worth we draw from what we do.
• It is the effort of surrender, supported by practices: confession, prayer, Bible reading, the Church. “I don’t wake up in Ealing on a Sunday morning and find myself on this platform by blinking three times.” You have to shower, get dressed, get organized, and put yourself where you can meet God.
• The danger begins when you draw your worth or your purpose from effort: “Because I did this, I deserve.” That is what theologians call righteousness by works.
• How do you keep this priority? First, let the truth in through reading the Bible and preaching, “not just through dreams and visions.” Next, surround yourself with people who help keep the essential at the center, when fatigue, laziness, or a wound push you to drop out: that is fellowship. Finally, keep your eyes on Jesus and stay close to him.
• On prayer, he notes that the disciples did not ask “how to pray,” but “Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1), after hearing him speak to the Father. He warns that some prayers are “dangerous,” because God may answer by taking you through what will teach you to trust him.

6. Silencing the Old Voices

• How does he live out these three truths himself? Because of his childhood, certain voices fight him every day. One person kept telling him he was stupid, that he was a failure, that he would never amount to anything. That person died decades ago, “but their voice is not dead.”
• Every day, he proclaims Scripture over his life, puts his hand on his heart, and calls his soul to turn to God: “Wake up, my glory! [...] I will wake up the dawn” (Psalm 57:8). He has memorized passages to retrain his way of thinking, after 40 years of Christian life.
• He guards his heart (Proverbs 4:23), his thoughts, and his mouth. He refuses to agree with the negative words spoken over him: he rejects them and replaces them with what God says. That is what repentance is: turning away from the stories that are too small that you tell yourself about yourself.
• When you struggle to believe what you know is true, especially when you are hurting, you have to choose the center from which you live: your emotions or your convictions. The more you feed your emotions, the more you follow them. Choosing your convictions takes work, but it frees you from the deception of your feelings.
• He tells the story of a Russian circus bear, freed from its cage by activists and released into the forest. A few days later, it was found in a clearing, with no cage and no one around, walking six meters one way and then six meters the other. It was free, but living within the confinement of its own thinking. The Holy Spirit must set us free, and then discipleship helps us walk in that freedom.

7. Conviction, Condemnation, and the Truths That Hold

• When someone uses the Word to attack your position in Christ, do not let that voice dominate, and seek help if that person is close to you or in authority. “Condemnation never comes from the Lord.”
• Condemnation leaves you trapped, with no way out. Conviction confronts your sin but shows you God’s mercy and the way out. The first verse he learned, on the evening of his conversion, from a small illustrated Bible given by his sister, was 1 Corinthians 10:13: with temptation, God also prepares the way out.
• One caution: check your own spirit. You can mistake for an attack a right word that touches a point in our character that we do not want to change, and so resist the conviction of the Holy Spirit.
• That very morning, a few minutes before the first service, he learned of the death of a friend, the third in ten days. He did not feel like preaching, but chose to do it: “Two things can be true at the same time. I can be sad that my friends have died and believe that God is good.” It is not denying his emotions, it is putting them back in their place.
• To never forget your identity in hardship: friends who sit with you like Job’s friends, without giving you a hundred things to fix, and a few verses of life. His: Psalm 23, Galatians 5:1, Romans 8:39. And two unshakable truths: “God is good, and his love endures forever.”

Key Takeaways

• The believer’s greatest battle is the battle for identity: in Christ, you already have everything fully.
• Living well does not begin by trying harder, but by remembering better what Christ has done in you.
• You are not fighting for victory, you are fighting from the victory Jesus has already given you.
• God has forgiven all your trespasses: your standing before him rests on Christ, not on your perfection.
• Condemnation shuts you in, the Holy Spirit’s conviction opens a way out.

Personal Application

1. What old label (failure, wound, success, reputation) are you still letting define who you are?
2. In what area are you trying to overcome sin in your own strength, instead of living from your victory in Christ?
3. Which voice from the past do you need to “turn down” each day, and with which word from God do you want to replace it?
4. When you are hurting, do you live from your emotions or from your convictions?
5. What are your verses of life, the ones that hold when everything shakes?

Verses Cited

• Colossians 2:8-15
• Romans 8:1
• 2 Corinthians 5:17
• Ephesians 1:3
• Ephesians 2:10
• Galatians 3:26
• Romans 6:4
• Galatians 2:20
• John 3:3-7
• Luke 11:1
• Psalm 57:8
• Proverbs 4:23
• 1 Corinthians 10:13
• Psalm 23
• Galatians 5:1
• Romans 8:39

Frequently Asked Questions

What does it mean to be “in Christ” according to Colossians 2?

For Malcolm Duncan, the phrase appears more than 150 times in the New Testament because the Christian life begins with what Jesus has done for us. In Christ, you receive a new identity (verse 11), a new life (verse 12), and a new standing before God (verse 13).

Is there a place for effort in the Christian life?

Yes, answers Malcolm Duncan, but not to obtain your identity. Effort means taking hold of the identity Christ has already given you: it is the effort of surrender, fed by confession, prayer, reading the Bible, and the Church. When you draw your worth from your efforts, you slide toward a righteousness based on works.

How can you tell the difference between the Holy Spirit’s conviction and condemnation?

Condemnation never comes from God: it leaves you trapped, with no way out, and points to your failures without speaking of grace. The Holy Spirit’s conviction also confronts your sin, but it shows you a way out, as 1 Corinthians 10:13 promises. Malcolm Duncan also invites us to examine our own heart, so as not to reject a true word.