Rooted in Christ Meaning
Sometimes I hear people say something like, “I need to be more rooted in Christ,” or I even sometimes hear another pastor preaching a sermon and declaring, “You need to root yourself in Christ.”
The idea of course I that Jesus needs to be the center, and we are supposed to try and let our roots grow down deep into Him as the center of our lives. And we do that by the way we order our lives and through the things we are doing in the Christian life.
In other words, the focus is on what we should be doing to be more deeply rooted in Christ.
This is a misunderstanding of Colossians 2:6-7. There the apostle Paul is not telling you to root yourself in Christ but rather that you already are rooted in Christ if you are a believer and to therefore be open to what He is going to work out through you now.
Let’s look at Colossians 2:6-7 a bit more closely.
JUST AS YOU RECEIVED
The first thing Paul says in Colossians 2:6 is this:
6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him (Colossians 2:6)
Let me ask you a question. How did you receive Christ?
Through faith, right?
You didn’t get Jesus to come and dwell in you because you followed a bunch of religious steps, obeyed a bunch of rules, or performed in any certain way.
You received Him by faith. He was gifted to you by grace alone through faith alone in Him alone.
So, Paul says in the same way you received Jesus (by faith), now continue to live your lives through faith (dependence) upon Him.
In other words, not only does salvation come through God’s grace (and our receiving), but the way we live the Christian life is also through God’s grace (receiving from Christ as our Life).
Next, in Colossians 2:7, Paul begins to give four participles which describe more about what is looks like to live the Christian life by grace (through receiving), and the first one is rooted in Christ.
ROOTED IN CHRIST
6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, 7 rooted and built up in him, (Colossians 2:6-7)
This is where people begin to get it wrong. They see Paul saying to live the Christian life by being rooted in Christ and assume it’s something we are supposed to be doing. That’s not what he’s saying.
In the original Greek, “rooted” is written in the perfect tense and passive voice. The perfect tense means that something happens at a point in time and has ongoing results. The passive voice means that this happened to you passively. It wasn’t your doing. Something from outside of you caused it.
In other words, if Paul is saying that at a point in time in the past (at the moment you received God’s grace by faith), God rooted you in Christ.
You didn’t do it yourself. He did it.
You don’t need to be rooted. You’ve already been rooted in Christ.
He is also saying that there is an ongoing work that He will continue to do through that rootedness that’s already been established.
So, how do you live the Christian life?
You continue to receive from the rootedness you already have in Christ, and He will continue to build you up.
BUILT UP
That’s what Paul even said in the next participle in v.7:
6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, 7 rooted and built up in him, (Col. 2:6-7)
As you continue to receive from your rootedness in Christ, He will build you up.
This is written in the present tense but still in the passive voice. Building you up is something Jesus is doing in this present time, but again, He is the one doing it through you. You don’t need to do the work of trying to build yourself up.
STRENGTHENED IN THE FAITH
As Paul goes on in Colossians 2, the third participle that he uses to describe what it looks like to live the Christian life by faith is, “strengthened in the faith.”
6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, 7 rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, (Col. 2:6-7)
Once again, let’s look at how Paul writes this in the original Greek. “Strengthened in the faith” is written in the present tense and passive voice, just like “built up in Him” was written.
In other words, Jesus will do the ongoing strengthening in your life. How? Through the rootedness in Christ that already happened in the past and has ongoing results.
You already are rooted in Christ, and out of that rootedness, Jesus will continue to build you up and also strengthen you.
Do you see that the Christian life is all about grace?
You are saved by His grace, and you live the Christian life by grace. We receive, and Jesus builds us up and strengthens us through the rootedness that He established. It’s all grace!
This leads us to the last thing Paul says in verse 7.
OVERFLOWING WITH THANKFULNESS
6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, 7 rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. (Col. 2:6-7)
This is the one time that Paul changes the voice from passive to active. This means that we will perform this action.
What is our response to having been rooted in Christ and therefore continuing to be built up and strengthened by Him through that union? We are to actively give thanks!
To be thankful means we focus on all that we have in Christ and what he is continuing to do in our lives rather than focusing on what we lack and complaining about what we feel like we don’t have.
ROOTED IN CHRIST MEANING
In conclusion, when we talk about being rooted in Christ as Christians, this is not something you need to get busy actively trying to do.
The moment you put your faith in Jesus for salvation, God roots you in Christ. It’s a spiritual union where Scripture talks about oneness (1 Cor. 6:17). You are so deeply rooted in Christ that you are one with Him.
Therefore, the apostle Paul says to continue living your life the same way you received Christ at the moment of salvation. You received Him by grace alone through faith alone in Him alone, so you continue to live by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
You receive from the rootedness He established for you, and He will build you up and strengthen you throughout your Christian walk with Him.
And as He does, your job is to give thanks for all you have received and are continuing to receive from Him.
This is the rooted in Christ meaning. What grace upon grace we have from God.
