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It Is Written

Sabbath School 1st Quarter 2026: Uniting Heaven & Earth: Christ in Philippians and Colossians

Eric Flickinger

Clinton Wahlen

01 Persecuted but Not Forsaken

06 Confidence Only in Christ

02 Reasons for Thanksgiving and Prayer

03 Life and Death

04 Unity Through Humility

05 Shining as Lights in the Night

07 A Heavenly Citizenship

08 The Preeminence of Christ

09 Reconciliation and Hope

10 Complete in Christ

11 Living With Christ

12 Living with Each Other

13 Standing in All the Will of God

Welcome to Sabbath School brought to you by It Is Written.

We are looking this quarter at how God wants to unite heaven and earth, specifically studying this week out of the book of Colossians.

And we're looking at Colossians chapter 2.

Our theme for lesson number 10 is Complete in Christ.

Father, we're grateful to be here today to learn more about You and Your plan for us.

We ask that You will bless us abundantly as we dive into Your Word, as we seek for lessons that we can learn, encouragement that we can find from the pages of scripture.

We're glad that you are with us, but we are also glad to have with us once again the author of this quarter's Sabbath school lesson.

He is an associate director of the Biblical Research Institute.

So this week, lesson number 10, Complete in Christ.

We're kind of in the heart of the book of Colossians.

Now there are really only 4 chapters in the book and we're going to spend much of our time today in chapter 2.

But as we're looking at the book of Colossians, talking about it, what really is the grand theme of the book of Colossians?

Why did Paul write this letter and what is its significance to us?

Well he, right at the beginning of chapter 2, I think he brings this out.

For I want you to know what a great conflict I have for you and those in Laodicea.

Colossia and Laodicea were quite close geographically in terms of cities of Asia minor.

And for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, as we mentioned before, Paul had not visited Colossae.

He wasn't involved in raising this church up.

It was 1 of his coworkers, probably converted, while Paul was in Ephesus that did so.

And then he, I think, brings out the theme, the purpose, that their hearts, that is those who are reading this, their hearts may be encouraged, be knit together in love and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." So that's a mouthful, I know.

But what Paul is really saying is, he wants us to be encouraged, strengthened, united, and understanding this mystery and the treasures of wisdom and knowledge that we find through Christ.

So he gives us this book of Colossians to help us to understand those things, that hopefully those things will help to ground us in the faith and to strengthen us for what is to come, whether that is the members of the church in Colossia or whether it's us living here today in the times that we live in, we need that grounding and we need that encouragement.

Yes, and we talked earlier about the different deceptions that people have or misunderstandings of the Bible.

And of course, many of them have to do with Jesus Christ himself.

That's why already in chapter 1, verses 15 to 18, Paul at length tells us who he is as creator, as our redeemer.

And so that we have no doubt he is equal with God, the very image of God, the manifestation of God to us as human beings.

And the 1 who has this beautiful picture in the book is uniting heaven and earth.

And in chapter 2, we will see that he meets some additional misunderstandings, wrong ideas, and that these are very important to correct.

So let's move a little bit further down in chapter 2.

In verse 6 Paul says, As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving." What does it mean to be rooted in Christ and why is that so important?

Well, you know, the image of being rooted, you're not going to be moved unless you're pulled out of the ground, roots and all.

So it means that we are immovable from our faith in Christ.

And I like what it says here in verse 6, as you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him.

We receive Jesus and the same way we receive Jesus, we walk, we live our Christian life in union with Him.

It's not difficult when we walk with Jesus day by day.

Now if we only see Him occasionally, once a month or once a year, then it might be challenging for us to walk with him and be rooted and grounded in him.

But if we walk with him day by day, if he's our constant companion, our counselor, our guide, we don't have to worry.

And this is the beautiful picture of the Christian life.

John the Baptist also uses a similar image in Matthew chapter 3, talking about bringing forth good fruits to repentance.

Isaiah 61 verse 3 talks about us being trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.

I like that imagery, the planting of the Lord, that we are rooted because Jesus and the Lord has planted us.

He has rooted and grounded us in our faith, in our understanding, in our life with Him.

And so those roots, the intention of those roots is that they would go deep, that they would be rooted, grounded in, if we want to use the analogy of a tree, deep in the earth.

You know, for us, it's going to be in God's Word, that our faith is going to be anchored in that.

Just as a tree is not going to flourish if every week you pluck it up and plant it somewhere else in some other medium, some other soil, some other location, it's not going to sink those roots in deep.

And if we're 1 day basing our faith on the Bible and another day on some other popular philosophy or teaching or worldview or something, we're not going to have those roots.

But if we remain here, those roots can and will grow deep.

It's just like it says in the first Psalm, he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water who brings forth his fruit in its season.

His leaf also shall not wither and whatever he does shall prosper.

It's his desire for us that we would prosper, that we would not grow weary or wither as a tree without water.

The water, you know, Jesus spoke about him as himself as a source of living water.

And it's the Holy Spirit that waters our Christian life and our Christian growth.

And so we need the Holy Spirit's presence and guidance day by day as we read the Word of God, He teaches us.

So we're spending time reading the Word of God here week by week, and we anticipate that as people are at home, they're reading the Word in between times that they watch these episodes.

Colossians has a few verses in it that sometimes can be misinterpreted, misunderstood, misconstrued.

And if we were to just base our faith on these few verses and take them out of context, they could skew everything else in the Bible.

But I want to read them kind of in context, give you an opportunity to expound upon them as well.

I want to start by just reading verse number 14, because again, this is 1 of those that's sometimes taken out of context and made to mean something that it doesn't.

Paul says, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us, and has taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross.

Now, some will look at that verse and they'll say, the law, the 10 commandments, the moral law has been nailed to the cross.

We don't need to keep the 10 commandments anymore.

We're not under the law, we're under grace.

And of course, that's pulling from Paul's writings as well, but maybe not in its entire context either.

Help us to understand this verse so that we know what it's talking about and what it's not talking about.

Well, Eric, I'll refer to this book again.

I think it's very helpful in this particular case.

It talks about the handwriting beginning on page 93.

It says this verse has 2 main interpretations, depending upon how the Greek word kyrographon, or handwriting, is interpreted.

The first view has the idea that it's like an IOU, a certificate of debt.

But this actually doesn't fit the larger context as we will see.

And it doesn't necessarily have to do with a specific kind of debt, like the debt of our sins that people say we're nailed to the cross.

So you kind of have to, it's a leap of logic to try to say, okay, his sins were laid on, our sins were laid on him.

And so he was nailed to the cross and therefore by extension, our sins that were laid on him were nailed to the cross, but there's no certificate of debt there.

It doesn't really make sense when you start to think about it carefully.

So the second view, it says, page 93, applies it to the ceremonial law based on the following phrases, the handwriting of requirements.

The Greek word of requirements is dogma sin that was against us, which was contrary to us.

Unlike the moral law of 10 Commandments, which was engraved on stone by the finger of God, the ceremonial law was written by Moses and placed beside the ark." That's what the word kairografon or handwriting means.

Moses wrote out by hand the ceremonial law and he was instructed to place it beside the ark in the most holy place of the earthly sanctuary.

Then it goes on to say, Paul uses the same word on now page 94.

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Series

Sabbath School 1st Quarter 2026: Uniting Heaven & Earth: Christ in Philippians and Colossians

10 Complete in Christ

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Talking Points 1st Quarter 2026: Uniting Heaven and Earth: Christ in Philippians and Colossians

10 Complete in Christ

32m

Sabbath School 1st Quarter 2026: Uniting Heaven & Earth: Christ in Philippians and Colossians

07 A Heavenly Citizenship

28m

Talking Points 1st Quarter 2026: Uniting Heaven and Earth: Christ in Philippians and Colossians

06 Confidence Only in Christ

30m

Sound Doctrine