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Welcome to Daily Drive Time Devotions in day two of our look through Colossians
chapter two. I'd like to begin today by reading the verses we're going to be
focusing on, verses eight to ten, Colossians two, eight to ten, "See to it that
no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends
on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ,
for in Christ all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form, and you have
been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority. "
Paul talked yesterday about the fact that we're rooted and built up in him, but
he was concerned.

He's concerned for you and I, that somehow the deceptive philosophies of this
world will draw us away from the simplicity of our faith being rooted and built
up in him. So in verse eight he talks about false teachers, and these false
teachers, through their hollow and deceptive philosophies, what they were
saying, what they were basically saying is Jesus is not enough, Jesus is not
sufficient. You need Jesus plus something else, plus this philosophy, plus this
way of doing things, plus this rule, plus this tradition.

You need Jesus plus something else because Jesus alone is not enough. And Paul
says they're trying to take you captive. That word he uses there for "take you
captive" is the word for being carried off into another country into slavery.

False teaching enslaves people. God's truth frees people, but false teaching
enslaves people. So how does Paul respond to this, this false teaching?

We're going to focus a little more tomorrow and the next day on exactly what
this false teaching was and some more detailed answers to this. But his first
response is the greatest and the most awesome response. His first response is to
focus on Jesus Christ.

What's the answer to false teaching? The truth. Who is the truth?

Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. Paul says they're saying that Jesus
is not enough. In verse nine, "In Christ all the fullness of the deity lives in
bodily form.

" And that's not enough. All of God living in a human being coming to this earth
telling you the truth, that's not enough. If that's not enough, what more that
any human being could add could possibly be enough.

That's what he's saying here. In Christ all the fullness of God lives in a man.
Jesus is fully God and Jesus is fully man.

And before we go on and begin to talk a little bit more about this false
teaching in Colossians tomorrow, I'd like to take the rest of the time today to
focus on that truth. Jesus is fully God and Jesus is fully man. Because to
understand that truth is to understand the truth about who Jesus is.

And to understand the truth about who Jesus is helps you to deal with false
teaching in your life. You'll recognize it every time when you see the truth
about who Jesus is. Jesus is fully God and fully man.

Now what does that mean? One of the early councils of the church, the Council of
Chalcedon, a group called together in 451 AD to deal with the false teachings in
that day of the nature of Jesus, they made a famous affirmation of this truth
that Jesus is fully God and fully man. Here's what they said, "Jesus exists in
two natures which exist without confusion, without change, without division,
without separation, the difference of the natures having been in no wise taken
away by reason of the union, but rather the properties of each being preserved
and both concurring into one person.

" Most of us when we hear that we think, "What? " You want to rewind this and
listen to it maybe 10, 20, 100 times to get the meaning of that. What in the
world does that all mean?

Well, it means that Jesus is 100% God and 100% man. Jesus is that 100% of the
time. Now that's not good math, but it's excellent theology.

The idea that Jesus was sometimes God and sometimes man while he walked this
earth, first he put on his God suit and then he put on his man suit and
sometimes he was 50/50, no, that's not it at all. As Jesus walked this earth, as
he became man, he was 100% God. He is 100% God and 100% man.

Jesus was not God indwelling a man. He was not a man who became God. He was not
God appearing to be a man.

He combined in one personality these two natures. He was fully God and he was
fully man. Now I know it's hard for us to wrap our minds around that.

That's bigger than our minds can sometimes even comprehend, but that's okay.
He's God. I'm willing to accept the fact that there's some things about God that
are bigger than my human logic.

He is God. Because of that, Jesus' perfect humanity wrapped around undiminished
deity. What does it mean for Jesus to be God and man?

Let me put it this way and talk about it for a few moments. It means that Jesus
limited himself, but he did not lessen himself. Jesus limited himself, but he
didn't lessen himself.

Jesus limited himself. I remember one time after doing a Bible study about Jesus
praying, a fourth grade boy came up to me and asked, "Now, you talked about
Jesus being God on this earth, but he prayed. Isn't that like Jesus was talking
to himself since he's God?

" That guy was a thinker because Jesus is God. This truth of the incarnation is
that Jesus, when he came to earth, decided to limit himself in certain ways. For
instance, he decided to talk to the Father, to communicate with the Father
through prayer.

How did Jesus limit himself when he came to this earth? Well, he took the form
of a man. Philippians 2 is the famous passage on that, and you can see it in the
Christmas story.

He limited himself to a baby, and then to a growing boy, and then to a man. That
meant he limited himself to his presence being in one place at one time. Now,
God wasn't limited to that, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

This can get confusing, I know, as we talk about the Trinity and Jesus being on
earth, but we're not saying that God was limited to one place at one time, but
Jesus, the second person of the Godhead, decided to do that for a time. He even
decided to take a position in which the Father was greater. He says that in John
14.

That does not mean that God was greater than God. That just means that Jesus
decided to submit himself as a son to the Father while he was on this earth. He
even limited his understanding in some ways.

Matthew 24 talks about that. He still understood many things we do not
understand. He could see into people's hearts, but he limited himself in ways.

Jesus didn't become any less God by deciding to limit himself. As Jesus walked
this earth, he still possessed the attributes, all the attributes of God. God's
omniscience, his omnipresence, his omnipotence, the fact that God is
all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful.

He still had all of those qualities every moment that he walked this earth. In
fact, there are times when we even see that, his ability as God to know
everything. For instance, over in Mark 2.

8, the Bible says immediately Jesus knew in his spirit what they were thinking
in their hearts. Well, only God could know that. Jesus had all of those
attributes all the time as he walked this earth, and he could have exercised any
of those attributes at any time, but he decided not to.

He decided to limit himself. Now, I know the idea of Jesus being limited and yet
also being God is difficult to understand. It's one of those times, again, when
it's good to recognize that God is much greater than we are.

There's one word that best for me describes this decision that Jesus made to
limit himself, and that word is love. Have you ever limited yourself because of
love? You probably have.

If you're a parent, you certainly have. You'd love to be driving a convertible,
but you're in a minivan. You limited yourself.

You'd love to be at a nice restaurant for dinner, but you're at McDonald's. You
limited yourself. So in some very small way, you can understand Jesus' decision
to limit himself when he came to this earth to meet our needs, to love us.

He limited himself, but he did not lessen himself. He was still fully God as he
walked this earth. The decision to be born as a man, to walk this earth, to die
on a cross, was made by him as a part of the Trinity, and while on this earth,
he limited himself by choice.

He could have, for instance, turned the stones to bread when Satan tempted him.
He could have called 10,000 angels to save him from the cross. Matthew 26 tells
us that, but he chose not to, and in that choice, he did not lessen himself.

He made the choice that only God could make. Now the truth of the matter is, as
we talk about who Jesus really is, he is fully God walking this earth. That
gives us the truth that you and I need to stand for the truth in daily life.

As we end this time of talking about Jesus today, I want to take a few minutes
in prayer to praise him for who he is. It's in the spirit of talking to Jesus,
would you just say to him, "Jesus, thank you. I don't thank you enough for who
you are.

Thank you that you are God, and thank you that as God you chose to come to this
earth, limit yourself to that human body. Limit yourself to one place at one
time, for a time. " Jesus, I can't understand what that meant.

I can't even know how difficult that decision must have been, and yet you made
it because of love. And so, Jesus, I thank you, and I pray that I could see the
truth in light of who you are. When confusing thoughts come, when false
teachings head my way, help me to evaluate them all on the basis of who you are,
God, who came to this earth to tell me that you love me.

Thank you, Jesus, for who you are. In your name I pray. Amen.

Tomorrow, we're going to talk together about the daily experience of our new
life in Christ as we continue our study in Colossians 2.