Tag / Complete in Christ

by In Light Of The Cross

10: Complete in Christ-Sabbath School Lesson Teaching Plan

Prepared by William Earnhardt for Sabbath School Class, March 7, 2026.

Central Theme: This week, we will see that while we are complete in Christ, the weekly 7th-day Sabbath remains a weekly reminder that our perfection is found in our faith in Christ, not in our works.

Read in Class: Colossians 2:1-7. Ask the class to identify the main idea of this passage.

Study: What is Paul’s purpose in writing this epistle?

Apply: What has been your experience with the need for “order” in your own spiritual life?

Share: Your friend says that Paul says in 2 Corinthians 13:5 to examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith. How can we tell if we are continuing in the faith? What do you tell your friend? Hint: See James 2:14-26 and Revelation 14:12.

Read in Class: Colossians 2:11-15. Ask the class to identify the main idea of this passage.

Study: What issues does Paul seem to be combating here?

Apply: How do you know that it was our sin and not the commandments that were nailed to the cross, and that while the ceremonial law was done away with, the Ten Commandments remain? See Romans 7:7 and 1 Corinthians 7:19.

Share: Your friend asks what the handwriting or ordinances were that were against us? What do you tell your friend? Hint: See Deuteronomy 31:24-26.

Read in Class: Colossians 2:16-19. Ask the class to identify the main idea of this topic.

Study: What Jewish-Christian practices are highlighted here by Paul? Is Paul speaking about the ceremonial Sabbaths or the weekly 7th-day Sabbath? How do we know?

Apply: Although the seventh-day Sabbath is not at issue here, how might you apply Paul’s counsel about not passing judgment on others?

Share: Your friend asks you why we don’t keep the feast days anymore. What do you tell your friend?

Read in Class: Colossians 2:20-23. Ask the class to identify the main idea of this passage.

Study: How do you understand Paul’s admonitions in light of the other elements discussed in this chapter? How does verse 22 help us understand that the Sabbath and Ten Commandments were not done away with? See also Matthew 15:3,9.

Apply: How can we make sure we understand that our only foundation for salvation is from what Jesus has done for us, outside of us, in place of us–regardless of whatever He does in us?

Share: Your friend asks you to summarize Colossians 2:1-23. What do you tell your friend?

Mission: Can you think of someone who says they think Sabbath keepers are trying to be saved by their works instead of their faith in Jesus? How can you share with them this week that your faith is in Christ alone?

by In Light Of The Cross

Perfect and Complete in Christ

One hot July afternoon at an Oklahoma Camp meeting, I visited a friend in her tent. Just outside sat my friend’s 13-year-old daughter with a friend she had just met. This was her friend’s first camp meeting. He had come with his grandfather, who just become a Christian. He did not know what to think about all the meetings and asked my friend’s daughter, “What do you think about Jesus? What is He really all about?” My ears perked up, as I was quite interested in how she would answer.

I will never forget what she said.

“Before my mom and I met Jesus, we argued and yelled at each other all the time, and I could not stand my home, but now that we met Jesus we don’t yell anymore, and I love my home now.”

Interesting. She introduced her new friend to Jesus as a literal friend Who had literally changed her life, and not as some pretend theory.

I heard a radio preacher once say, “in order to be able to call Jesus your Savior He has to actually save you from something.” He was right. Many people speak of faith almost like it is pretending. Some use a very Biblical term, “perfect in Christ,” but then they add, “but it is only by faith.” And yes it is only by faith, but by saying “only by faith,” they seem to make it sound like faith is only pretending. When we read in Hebrews 11:30 about the walls of Jericho falling by faith, we take that to mean that the walls of Jericho literally fell and did not just pretend to fall. So when we read in Colossians 1:28, “that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus,” should we not take that “perfect in Christ” to be literal also and not just pretense?

Read how Ellen White describes the term “perfect in Christ” In the Great Controversy, page 623.

… we should seek to become perfect in Christ. Not even by a thought could our Saviour be brought to yield to the power of temptation. Satan finds in human hearts some point where he can gain a foothold; some sinful desire is cherished, by means of which his temptations assert their power. But Christ declared of Himself: “The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me.” John 14:30. Satan could find nothing in the Son of God that would enable him to gain the victory. He had kept His Father’s commandments, and there was no sin in Him that Satan could use to his advantage. This is the condition in which those must be found who shall stand in the time of trouble. It is in this life that we are to separate sin from us, through faith in the atoning blood of Christ.

If faith literally made the walls of Jericho fall, then we have to believe that faith will also make a literal and practical change in the way we live our lives.

On that hot summer afternoon, so many years ago, my friend’s daughter gave an example of how her faith literally changed her life, thus showing faith is not just make-believe, but instead makes things practical and literal. I am totally powerless to tear down the strongholds Satan has set up in my life, but the same faith that made the walls of Jericho come crumbling down will also make those strongholds in my life to come down as well.

You may study this week’s Sabbath School lesson here