Get Clear on Jesus, part 1
When You Are Clear on Jesus, Nothing Else Can Fool You
There is a website maintained by the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing called uscurrency.gov. On it, you can find high-definition images of every denomination of American currency, front and back, with detailed breakdowns of every hidden security feature embedded in each note. The philosophy behind the site is straightforward and worth paying attention to: the more familiar you are with the real thing, the less likely you are to accept a counterfeit.
What is striking about that approach is what the website does not include. There are no galleries of fake bills. There are no comparison charts showing you what a bad forgery looks like next to a good one. The entire strategy rests on a single conviction — deep familiarity with the genuine article is the most reliable protection against deception.
That same principle applies with remarkable precision to the Christian life.
A World Full of Counterfeits
We live in a time when spiritual fads cycle through culture with alarming speed. Wellness trends dressed in spiritual language. Online teachers promising transformation if you will only adopt their method, their morning routine, their supplement, their mindfulness practice, or their prayer formula. Some of these voices are sincere but misguided. Others are outright fraudulent, more interested in your attention and your money than in your genuine flourishing.
The tragedy is not simply that these things are false. The tragedy is that people who already possess something infinitely valuable keep reaching out for substitutes. They hold real treasure in their hands and trade it for a crisp-looking counterfeit.
The letter Paul wrote to the Christians in Colossae addresses this exact problem. The church there was young and full of genuine faith. But surrounding them was a culture saturated with competing spiritual claims. Persuasive teachers had risen up insisting that faith in Jesus was a good starting point but not sufficient on its own. You needed more. You needed additional practices, additional observances, additional allegiances to spiritual forces operating behind the scenes of daily life.
Paul's response is not to catalog every error those teachers made. Instead, he does something far more powerful. He directs their full attention to Jesus.
Because Jesus Is God, You Need No One Else
The first truth Paul presses into the hearts of his readers is this: Jesus is not a representative of God or a messenger from God or even the greatest teacher about God. He is God. Colossians 2:9 describes how the entire fullness of God's nature dwells bodily in Christ. Every attribute, every power, every perfection that belongs to God is fully present in Jesus.
This is a staggering claim, especially coming from a man like Paul, who was raised in a tradition of fierce and uncompromising monotheism. The ancient confession of Israel was that there is one God and one God alone. And yet Paul, formed in that tradition, looks at Jesus and declares that this is what God looks like in human flesh.
If that is true, the question answers itself. What teacher, what spiritual force, what philosophy, what practice could possibly add to what you already have in him? He is the head over every ruler and authority. There is nothing above him, nothing beside him, nothing that operates outside his sovereign reach. To go looking for additional spiritual resources beyond Jesus is like standing in the presence of the sun and lighting a candle to get more light.
Because Jesus Is Alive, You Need Nothing Else
The second truth Paul holds up is equally stunning. It is not only who Jesus is but what he has accomplished through his death and resurrection that makes every substitute unnecessary.
Paul uses a series of layered images to describe what the cross and the empty tomb have produced in the life of every believer.
He begins with circumcision. In the Old Testament, physical circumcision was the sign of God's covenant with his people, a mark that set them apart as belonging to him. But the deeper intention behind that sign was always a transformed heart, a heart fully consecrated to God. Deuteronomy 30:6 describes how God himself would one day circumcise the hearts of his people so that they would love him completely. Paul says that has happened. Through the death of Christ, the power of the sinful nature has been broken. What the physical sign pointed toward has become a spiritual reality.
He moves then to baptism, which serves as the visible symbol of an invisible transformation. Going under the water pictures burial with Christ. Coming up out of the water pictures resurrection to a new kind of life. The old self, with its record of failure and rebellion, has been buried. What rises is something genuinely new.
Then he turns to forgiveness. Every wrong thought, every careless word, every act of rebellion against God — all of it was recorded. Paul describes it as a certificate of debt, a legal document listing everything owed. That document was nailed to the cross. Jesus absorbed the full weight of what was written there. The debt was not simply overlooked or deferred. It was paid in full, at enormous cost, by the one who owed nothing himself.
Finally, Paul describes the triumph. Every spiritual power that stood opposed to human flourishing and to the purposes of God was publicly defeated and disgraced through the cross and resurrection. Jesus did not merely survive his enemies. He made a spectacle of them.
The Only Question That Remains
When you hold all of that together, one question emerges. If your sinful nature has been broken, your life transformed, your past forgiven, your debt cancelled, and every hostile power defeated, what exactly are you still looking for?
The answer, of course, is nothing. And that is precisely the point.
Clarity about Jesus is not just theologically satisfying. It is practically protective. When you know who he is and what he has done, the counterfeit teachers and the spiritual fads lose their appeal. You can recognize them for what they are because you know what the real thing looks like.
The invitation is ancient and simple. Jesus himself extended it to anyone who is weary and carrying a heavy load, promising rest to all who come to him. Not a technique. Not a routine. Not a formula.
Him.
That is enough. That has always been enough.
There is a website maintained by the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing called uscurrency.gov. On it, you can find high-definition images of every denomination of American currency, front and back, with detailed breakdowns of every hidden security feature embedded in each note. The philosophy behind the site is straightforward and worth paying attention to: the more familiar you are with the real thing, the less likely you are to accept a counterfeit.
What is striking about that approach is what the website does not include. There are no galleries of fake bills. There are no comparison charts showing you what a bad forgery looks like next to a good one. The entire strategy rests on a single conviction — deep familiarity with the genuine article is the most reliable protection against deception.
That same principle applies with remarkable precision to the Christian life.
A World Full of Counterfeits
We live in a time when spiritual fads cycle through culture with alarming speed. Wellness trends dressed in spiritual language. Online teachers promising transformation if you will only adopt their method, their morning routine, their supplement, their mindfulness practice, or their prayer formula. Some of these voices are sincere but misguided. Others are outright fraudulent, more interested in your attention and your money than in your genuine flourishing.
The tragedy is not simply that these things are false. The tragedy is that people who already possess something infinitely valuable keep reaching out for substitutes. They hold real treasure in their hands and trade it for a crisp-looking counterfeit.
The letter Paul wrote to the Christians in Colossae addresses this exact problem. The church there was young and full of genuine faith. But surrounding them was a culture saturated with competing spiritual claims. Persuasive teachers had risen up insisting that faith in Jesus was a good starting point but not sufficient on its own. You needed more. You needed additional practices, additional observances, additional allegiances to spiritual forces operating behind the scenes of daily life.
Paul's response is not to catalog every error those teachers made. Instead, he does something far more powerful. He directs their full attention to Jesus.
Because Jesus Is God, You Need No One Else
The first truth Paul presses into the hearts of his readers is this: Jesus is not a representative of God or a messenger from God or even the greatest teacher about God. He is God. Colossians 2:9 describes how the entire fullness of God's nature dwells bodily in Christ. Every attribute, every power, every perfection that belongs to God is fully present in Jesus.
This is a staggering claim, especially coming from a man like Paul, who was raised in a tradition of fierce and uncompromising monotheism. The ancient confession of Israel was that there is one God and one God alone. And yet Paul, formed in that tradition, looks at Jesus and declares that this is what God looks like in human flesh.
If that is true, the question answers itself. What teacher, what spiritual force, what philosophy, what practice could possibly add to what you already have in him? He is the head over every ruler and authority. There is nothing above him, nothing beside him, nothing that operates outside his sovereign reach. To go looking for additional spiritual resources beyond Jesus is like standing in the presence of the sun and lighting a candle to get more light.
Because Jesus Is Alive, You Need Nothing Else
The second truth Paul holds up is equally stunning. It is not only who Jesus is but what he has accomplished through his death and resurrection that makes every substitute unnecessary.
Paul uses a series of layered images to describe what the cross and the empty tomb have produced in the life of every believer.
He begins with circumcision. In the Old Testament, physical circumcision was the sign of God's covenant with his people, a mark that set them apart as belonging to him. But the deeper intention behind that sign was always a transformed heart, a heart fully consecrated to God. Deuteronomy 30:6 describes how God himself would one day circumcise the hearts of his people so that they would love him completely. Paul says that has happened. Through the death of Christ, the power of the sinful nature has been broken. What the physical sign pointed toward has become a spiritual reality.
He moves then to baptism, which serves as the visible symbol of an invisible transformation. Going under the water pictures burial with Christ. Coming up out of the water pictures resurrection to a new kind of life. The old self, with its record of failure and rebellion, has been buried. What rises is something genuinely new.
Then he turns to forgiveness. Every wrong thought, every careless word, every act of rebellion against God — all of it was recorded. Paul describes it as a certificate of debt, a legal document listing everything owed. That document was nailed to the cross. Jesus absorbed the full weight of what was written there. The debt was not simply overlooked or deferred. It was paid in full, at enormous cost, by the one who owed nothing himself.
Finally, Paul describes the triumph. Every spiritual power that stood opposed to human flourishing and to the purposes of God was publicly defeated and disgraced through the cross and resurrection. Jesus did not merely survive his enemies. He made a spectacle of them.
The Only Question That Remains
When you hold all of that together, one question emerges. If your sinful nature has been broken, your life transformed, your past forgiven, your debt cancelled, and every hostile power defeated, what exactly are you still looking for?
The answer, of course, is nothing. And that is precisely the point.
Clarity about Jesus is not just theologically satisfying. It is practically protective. When you know who he is and what he has done, the counterfeit teachers and the spiritual fads lose their appeal. You can recognize them for what they are because you know what the real thing looks like.
The invitation is ancient and simple. Jesus himself extended it to anyone who is weary and carrying a heavy load, promising rest to all who come to him. Not a technique. Not a routine. Not a formula.
Him.
That is enough. That has always been enough.
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