Col 1:20-29
20 And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.
21 And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
22 In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:
23 If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;
24 Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church:
25 Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God;
26 Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:
27 To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; WHICH IS CHRIST IN YOU, the hope of glory:
28 Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:
29 Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.
As Paul begins writing to the church at Colossi, he begins by his usual type of greetings. He thanks God for them and tells them that he prays for them. After telling of the blessings that he prays for, he begins talking about Jesus Christ and the salvation that He brings. In this dialogue about salvation through Jesus blood, we get some informative words about the deity of Jesus Christ.
Col 1:14-19
14 In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:
15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
19 For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;
V. 21 & 22. After speaking of the glory of this Saviour, he then talks about the relationship that can now exist between Jesus and you.
21 And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
22 In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:
There are three things that the death of Jesus Christ and your reconciliation should do:
1. Make us holy.
2. Make us unblameable.
3. Make us unreprovable.
Now, only one out of the three of these things is understandable in our modern vocabulary… and that is the term holy. It is understandable although it is often argued throughout the churches about its definition. Now I believe every church would agree that Jesus Christ was holy as he lived upon this earth. But this passage says that the reconciliation was done to make you holy.
1. Holiness - hagios
NT:40 hagios (hag'-ee-os); from hagos… meaning to be sacred, pure, morally blameless, or consecrated:
KJV - (most) holy (one, thing), saint.
There is a neutered version of this Greek word that is used when it doesn't refer to a person, and that is the word hagion (hag-ee-on). That word refers to a sacred thing, the holiest of all, or the sanctuary. There can be a thing that can be once non-holy and then consecrated for the temple and made holy by its consecration. But then it is never flipped flopped back and forth from the temple to a common use and then back again to the holy use.
In Daniel chapter 5, when the King Belshazzar was making a great feast and was drinking wine, he ordered that the gold and silver vessels taken from the temple of Jerusalem to be brought so they could drink from these cups. As they drank their wines from the holy vessels of the Lord and defiled them, there appeared fingers of a man's hand that wrote on the wall.
Dan 5:5-6
5 In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaister of the wall of the king's palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote.
6 Then the king's countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another.
For those that say we can continue our acts of sin day after day and still be holy, does not know what the Bible says about holiness. Holiness is not just a piece of clothing that clothing that you put on, but the very intent of the clothing, of the thought that you have, the actions that you do. You can have a look of holiness, but fail the very litmus test internally. The outside may fit in with a written standard, but the inside may be full of lust and corruption. Holiness starts in the heart.
2 Cor 7:1
1 Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
2. Unblameable – amomos, (am'-o-mos)
NT:299 amomos (am'-o-mos); from NT:1 (as a negative particle) and NT:3470; unblemished (literally or figuratively):
KJV - without blame (blemish, fault, spot), faultless, unblameable.
NT:3470
NT:3470 momos (mo'-mos); perhaps from NT:3201; a flaw or blot, i.e. (figuratively) disgraceful person:
KJV - blemish.
Eph 1:4- …we should be holy and without blame …
Eph 5:27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
Phil 2:15
15 That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;
1 Thess 3:13
13 To the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.
Heb 9:14 when referring to the "blood of Christ" …offered himself without spot to God.
1 Peter 1:19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:
Jude 24 Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,
Rev 14:5 Referring to the 144,000 … And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God.
Used ten times in NT but only translated nine times. The Greek word is used in Rev. 18:13 about the things traded by Babylon, but the translators never translated it into English. So even there it is referring to the finest of the fine goods, not tarnished, damaged goods.
3. Unreprovable - anegkletos (an-eng'-klay-tos)
NT:410 anegkletos (an-eng'-klay-tos); from NT:1 (as a negative particle) and a derivative of NT:1458; unaccused, i.e. (by implication) irreproachable:
KJV - blameless.
NT:1458 egkaleo (eng-kal-eh'-o); from NT:1722 and NT:2564; to call in (as a debt or demand), i.e. bring to account (charge, criminate, etc.):
KJV - accuse, call in question, implead, lay to the charge.
This word is used five times in the NT, and in all except Colossians, the word is translated as blameless. Not able to be accused, and in this case, accused of a sin.
So, we were all once alienated (or separated from God because of our sin), we were enemies in our minds by wicked works, but now we have been reconciled through His death in order to present you holy, without fault, and unable to be even charged with a sin.
Col 1:23-29
23 If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;
24 Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church:
25 Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God;
26 Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:
27 To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; WHICH IS CHRIST IN YOU, the hope of glory:
28 Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:
29 Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.
You want to know how you can be holy, unblameable, and unreproveable. Because Christ can be in you. The One that overcame sin, can now live in you. But did you catch the most incriminating phrase of the passage. The riches of God's glory was a mystery that was hid from ages and from generations. What was hid? That the Saviour that was prophesied of in the OT could be in you in the NT. So Paul is saying that in order to fulfill the Word of God, verse 25, he had to make known the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations (verse 26). Yes, it was talked about in the OT.
Ezek 11:19-20
19 And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh:
20 That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.
Ezek 36:25-27
25 Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.
26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.
Joel 2:28-29
28 And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:
29 And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.
Isa 28:10-12
10 For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:
11 For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people.
12 To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.
So it was shrouded in mystery about how God was going to put this new heart and His spirit within you. Even when Jesus spoke of this, it was still a mystery to those that had studied the OT.
John 3:1-6
1 There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:
2 The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.
3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?
5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
The fulfillment of the mystery came in Acts chapter 2.
Acts 2:1-4
1 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
3 And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.
4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Acts 2:16
16 But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel;
This is what the prophets talked about being fulfilled. This is the mystery being made evident and brought out into the open. Even someone like Nicodemus could now see and understand how a man could be born again. And since this is fulfilling the Word of God, we have got to preach this mystery that had been hidden and bring it to the light.
But the incriminating part of verse 26, the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: is that many churches of today is trying to hide this mystery again. They teach that the outpouring of the Holy Ghost is not for us today. The say that the evidence of the outpouring of the Holy Ghost that was in the NT, that of speaking in other tongues, is of the devil. They say to just accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Saviour and everything you need in salvation has just happened, but without experiencing the same experience that they did in the book of Acts. When Peter preached to the Gentiles at Cornelius' house, the Holy Ghost was poured out.
Acts 10:45-47
45 And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost.
46 For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God. Then answered Peter,
47 Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?
When questioned by those back at Jerusalem, Peter could only answer this…
Acts 11:15
15 And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning. …Acts 11:17 …what was I, that I could withstand God?
Is your experience the same as them at the beginning? Do you realize that the in order to fulfill the Word of God, we have to make known the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations (verse 26). That is what Paul said in Col. 1:26. Is the mystery hidden from you because of false doctrine of today?
2 Cor 4:3-4
3 But if our gospel be hid , it is hid to them that are lost:
4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
Col 1:27-28
27 To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; WHICH IS CHRIST IN YOU, the hope of glory:
28 Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:
1. holy.
2. unblameable. without fault
3. unreprovable. unable to be even charged with a sin.
