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: “Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in” (Exo. 15:17). Psalm 92:13 says, ”Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God.” In Jeremiah 2:21 the Lord says of His people, “Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed,” and in 32:41, “I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole 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 farm (Gk.). He also declares, “I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the growth” (1 Cor. 3:6, Gk.). Now in Colossians 2:7 we see that we have been rooted into Christ. Christ is the land, the soil, and God has planted us into Him.
According to the Scriptures, Christ is the unique tree into which we have been grafted and also the land, the soil, into which we have been planted. We have been both grafted into Christ and planted into Him. Hence, the good land with the soil is equal to the tree. This is another indication that Christ is everything to us. Since Christ is both the tree and the good land, we can say that we have been grafted into Christ and also that we have been planted into Him. According to John 15, God the Father is the Planter, the Husbandman, whose Son, Christ, is the universal vine. This Christ is also the good land with the soil. We have been grafted into Christ as the vine and planted into Him as the soil. Colossians 2:11 speaks of circumcision, a type of cutting. This is related to being grafted into Christ. As we have pointed out, 2:7 speaks of having been rooted in Christ. This is related to being planted into Him. In this message our concern is not with the aspect of grafting, but with the aspect of planting.
As those who have been planted into Christ, we have been rooted in Him. Just as the tiny root hairs absorb the riches from the soil, so we absorb the rich nourishment of Christ. We are trees, and Christ is the soil into which we have been planted and in which we are rooted. Now we are absorbing His riches into us, and we grow by the nourishment we receive from these riches.
In 1 Corinthians 3:6 Paul says that he planted, Apollos watered, and God gave the growth. This 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. First Corinthians 6:17 says, “He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.” 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. Praise Him that He is the Spirit and that we have been created with a spirit! If we had only a body and a soul but had 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 2:7. We were planted and rooted in Christ when we were regenerated in spirit.
According to 2:6 and 7, we must be rooted in Christ before we can walk in Him. In order to walk in Christ, we must absorb the rich nourishment from the Spirit who dwells in our spirit. However, if we remain in the soul—in our mind, emotion, or will—we shall not receive nourishment or supply. We need to turn to the spirit, to the very place where we have been regenerated and planted into the divine Spirit.
The transaction that took place between the divine Spirit and our spirit at the time of regeneration remains forever. We may say that our spirit has married the divine Spirit and thus the two spirits have entered into an eternal union. With this marriage there can be no separation, no divorce. Although the natural mind may not like this marriage, our spirit appreciates it. Whenever we face difficulties in our daily living, we should not remain in the natural mind, but turn to the spirit. However, we often prefer to remain in the mind, emotion, or will. If we stay in the soul instead of turning to the spirit, we shall not be able to walk in Christ. To walk in Him we must be rooted in Him in a practical way in our experience. 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 into 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.