1) What is one of the greatest challenges to your faith? What is it that you need to be prepared to defend against?
2) What made Jesus a man? What made Him God? How could He be both?
3) What is an oxymoron? Give some examples?
One of the biggest challenges for the early church wasn’t persecution from the government, but instead it was false teachings from those that claimed to represent Christ. Paul desired the church to have complete understanding (2:2) so they wouldn’t be deceived (2:4). How do we keep from being deceived today? Know the truth. And we do this by spending time in the Word every day.
Colossians 2:9 is one of the clearest verses regarding Jesus’ nature. Here Paul affirms that Jesus was fully God and fully man. This is an absolutely critical teaching to know, understand and believe. As a man He stood in the gap between us and God. As God, His perfect sacrifice was acceptable. Allow Him to be fully man so He can totally connect with all that we go through. And allow Him to be fully God so He can do something about it.
Oxymorons, such as free rent, 100% chance and silent alarm, cause us to chuckle or at least smile a little as contradictory terms are paired together. But what about when the focus of an oxymoron is the work of God and we are the beneficiaries of the seeming contradiction? Consider the oxymoron found in 2:15 – triumph through the cross. The cross was a symbol of defeat, shame and pain. Yet Paul says it was through the cross that triumph came as our sins were forgiven (2:13) and the authorities were disarmed (2:15). Oxymorons often cause us to scratch our heads a little. This is certainly the case when we consider what God did on our behalf through Jesus.
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