In 2:7 Paul speaks of having been rooted in Christ. Like plants, we are living organisms. As such, we have been rooted in Christ, our soil, our earth, that we may absorb all His riches as nourishment. These riches become the element and substance with which we grow and are built up. To be rooted is for the growth in life. This rooting has been completed already. To be built up is for the building of the Body of Christ. This is still going on. Both these matters are in Christ.
Paul realized the importance of being rooted in Christ. He knew that it was a serious matter to be transplanted from Christ and to be rooted in something else, such as heathen philosophy or Jewish ordinances. He wanted the Colossians to see that philosophy was not the soil in which they had been rooted. They had been rooted in Christ. He is our unique soil. Regrettably, many Christians have not been rooted in Christ adequately. Yet if we have been rooted in Him adequately, nothing will be able to distract us from Him.
In order to be rooted in Christ, we must first be planted into Him. In a number of places, the Bible speaks of planting. In the song of Moses we read these words: “You will bring them in and plant them in the mountain of Your inheritance, / The place, O Jehovah, which You have made for Your dwelling” (Exo. 15:17). Psalm 92:13 says, “Planted in the house of Jehovah, / They will flourish in the courts of our God.” In Jeremiah 2:21 the Lord says of His people, “I had planted you as a choice vine, / Wholly a faithful seed,” and in 32:41, “I will plant them in this land in faithfulness with all My heart and with all My soul.” In Matthew 15:13 the Lord Jesus said, “Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted shall be rooted up.” According to John 15, the Lord Jesus regarded Himself as a vine and the Father as the husbandman, the One who planted the vine and cares for it. In 1 Corinthians 3:9 Paul says that we, the believers, are God’s cultivated land. In Colossians 2:7 we see that we have been rooted in Christ. Christ is the land, the soil, and God has planted us into Him.
In 1 Corinthians 3:6 Paul says that he planted, Apollos watered, and God causes the growth. This also indicates that the believers are plants and that Christ is the soil. Now we need to ask in what part of our being this planting has taken place. Certainly it is neither in the mind nor in the physical body; rather, it is in our spirit. The experience of being planted into Christ and rooted in Him takes place in our spirit (1 Cor. 6:17). When a plant is rooted in the soil, it becomes one with the soil. First, the plant gets into the soil; then the nourishment in the soil comes into the plant. In this way, the plant and the soil become one in life. The nourishing element in the soil corresponds to the life in the plant, and something within the plant corresponds to the element in the soil. We may say that there is a fellowship between the plant and the soil. In this fellowship those factors in the plant and in the soil which correspond to each other become one in life. Thus, the plant and the soil become one unit in life.
In our spirit we have the experience of being planted into Christ, for here we are joined to Him and become one spirit with Him. The Lord, who is the soil in which we are rooted, is the Spirit. If He were not the Spirit, there would be no way for us to be planted into Him. Furthermore, if we had only a body and a soul but no spirit, it would not be possible for us to be planted into the Lord as the life-giving Spirit. However, because the Lord is the Spirit and because we have a spirit, there is a correspondence between us and Him. When we were regenerated, Christ as the life-giving Spirit became one with our spirit. As John 3:6 clearly indicates, regeneration takes place in the spirit. When we were regenerated, we were rooted in Christ as the soil. This is the reason Paul uses the perfect tense in Colossians 2:7. We were planted and rooted in Christ when we were regenerated in our spirit.
Only when we remain in the spirit are we actually rooted in Christ and thus able to walk in Him. We have been planted into Christ. But when we turn to our spirit, we have the experience of being rooted in Him. Having been rooted in Christ, we are able to walk in Him. In this way we experience Christ as the good land with the rich soil that affords us the nourishing life element. The more we are rooted in this soil, the more we absorb the nourishment of Christ into our being. This is not the objective Christ in doctrine; it is the subjective Christ in our experience.
We need to continually exercise our spirit. This is the reason that toward the end of the book of Colossians, Paul charges us to persevere in prayer (4:2). However, if, instead of exercising our spirit, we exercise our mind, emotion, and will, Satan will keep us from enjoying the all-inclusive Spirit in our spirit. Satan, the subtle, evil one, uses the environment to keep us out of the spirit. Thus, we need to exercise our spirit continually by calling on the name of the Lord in order to become more deeply rooted in the all-inclusive Spirit. Then we will absorb the riches of Christ, grow in Christ, and spontaneously be built up in Christ. As a result, we will walk in Him. This is the practical experience of Christ that we all need.
Having been rooted in Christ, the rich, fertile soil, we should go on to absorb His riches. As a tree absorbs nourishing elements from the soil through its roots, we also should absorb the riches of Christ into us. A tree’s growth depends upon the nourishment it absorbs from the soil through its roots. Since we have been rooted in Christ, we should remain in Him in a practical way. In our experience we need to stay rooted in Christ.
We need to take time to enjoy the Lord as the all-inclusive land so that all the elements of Christ as the rich soil may be absorbed into us in order for us to be made full in Him in our experience (2:10a; 4:2). If we contact the Lord and spend time in the Word with much prayer, we will become deeply rooted in Christ. The only way to become deeply rooted in Christ as the soil is to contact Him and daily absorb the water in the Word. The more we contact the soil and absorb the water, the more we will grow. First we grow downward, then upward. After we have grown downward for a period of time, we will automatically cease to walk in things other than Christ. Instead, because we have been deeply rooted in Christ, we will live, walk, act, and have our being in Christ.
In the morning many saints spend time with the Lord. However, even though they spend a certain amount of time with Him, they may not absorb much of His riches. The reason for this is that they are too rushed. If we are to absorb the riches of Christ into us as our nourishment, we should not be rushed. Every morning we need to take an adequate amount of time to absorb the Lord. We should not be lazy or indolent in this matter. When we take time to enjoy the Lord, the elements of the rich soil are absorbed into us.
We should spend time with the Lord not only in the morning but also throughout the day. We should absorb the Lord all day long; we should be like trees continually absorbing the riches of the soil. This means that we must learn to practice the continual enjoyment of Christ. We should let every physical thing be a reminder of Christ, for all these things are shadows of which Christ is the body (2:16-17). The clothing we put on each day should remind us of Christ. We should put Him on in our spirit and by our spirit. Drinking a glass of water should remind us to drink Christ by the exercise of our spirit. To follow this practice is to be rooted in Christ and to absorb His riches.
In order to absorb the riches of Christ as the soil, we need to have tender, new roots. We should not let ourselves become old but be fresh and renewed day by day. We need to pray to the Lord, “Lord, I want my consecration to be fresh, and I want to open to You anew. I want my roots to be tender so that I may absorb Your riches. Lord, don’t let my roots get old.” If our roots are tender and new to absorb the riches of Christ, we will grow automatically with the riches that we assimilate. This is to enjoy Christ and to subjectively experience Him daily and hourly. We need to forget our situation, our condition, failures, and weaknesses and simply take time to absorb the Lord. As we take time to absorb Him, we grow with the growth of God in us for the building up of the Body of Christ (Matt. 14:22-23; 6:6; Col. 2:7a, 19b; cf. Luke 8:13).