Colossians 1:15-23
October 10, 2012
Oak Park Baptist Church – Wed Bible Study Series
Colossians Bible Study
The Centrality of Christ
Up to this point of the letter to the Colossian church Paul has been very encouraging to the believers. He gives them personal encouragement after he greets them and then he gives them spiritual encouragement through a direct prayer for God to work in their midst.
But now it is time for Paul to begin to get to the meat of the matter as to why he is writing this letter. Paul had heard that there were some issues going on within the church regarding the teaching of the church and he is sending this letter to instruct them on what was proper to teach and what we was NOT…
In v.15-23 Paul lays out one of the most wonderful recorded descriptions of Jesus… and in NO uncertain terms Paul lets the believers in Colossae know that anything being taught outside of Christ is wrong!
Let’s look at these verses and then we will begin to break them down
Colossians 1:15-23 [HCSB] –
15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16For everything was created by Him, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. 17He is before all things, and by Him all things hold together. 18He is also the head of the body, the church;
He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He might come to have first place in everything. 19For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him, 20and through Him to reconcile everything to Himself by making peace through the blood of His cross—whether things on earth or things in heaven. 21Once you were alienated and hostile in your minds because of your evil actions. 22But now He has reconciled you by His physical body through His death, to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before Him—23if indeed you remain grounded and steadfast in the faith and are not shifted away from the hope of the gospel that you heard. This gospel has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and I, Paul, have become a servant of it.
15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
He in this verse is a reference to Jesus. In fact all throughout these next several verses the masculine pronouns used by Paul are direct references to Jesus!
I want us to take notice of what Paul says here… He says, “He IS…”Paul is using the present tense for the verb… it is NOT the past tense verb ‘was’ or the indecisive rendering of ‘might or could be’ but Paul speaks with confidence here and proclaims without hesitation “He IS…”
The implications for this proclamation are that Christ is risen! That Christ IS God and what Paul has preached to them was NOT about a great man who came and died and they were trying to carry on for Him… BUT that Christ is God and yes He came and died, but He is now risen and at the right hand of the Father in heaven interceding on our behalf… ‘He IS…’
“He is the image of the invisible God…” In Acts 17 Paul preached a sermon to the philosophers in Athens where he had seen all their idols and had noticed an idol dedicated to the unknown God… Paul told them that God could be known and that Jesus was how…
Here Paul reinforces that sermon and teaching by sharing that Jesus was the physical representation of the God of Heaven and Creation… God wrapped in flesh!
This statement coincides with what John tells us in John 1 where John says: “…in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the word WAS God…and the Word dwelt among us!”
God wrapped Himself in flesh to come to earth…The angel announcing the birth of Jesus spoke of Immanuel – God with us! Jesus was the physical manifestation of God in the world with us… this is what Paul is saying here in this verse!
The phrase that Paul uses at the end of this verse is a confusing phrase that many have twisted to suit their own theology… it states, “…the first born over all creation…”
All Paul is stating here is simply a position of authority… in the Jewish tradition AND in the traditions of the 1st century, the 1st born had ALL the rights and would inherit all of what the Father had… this was Jesus’ position in the Godhead… He is the Son!
But to clarify his statement on Jesus in v15 we find Paul using a different angle in v16…[read v16]
16For everything was created by Him, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him.
The first statement here distinguishes Jesus’ power within the Godhead. Jesus was not JUST a human shell, but that Jesus was the Creator… Paul proclaims Jesus’ creation power in that ALL things were created by Him!
All things include heaven and earth, things we can see and the things we cannot see. Things we cannot see can mean the universe and the things so far away AND it also means the MICROuniverse and all the microscopic things that we cannot see, but they are there!
ALL things have been created by Christ and it doesn’t matter how powerful or important they may be in this world, they are subject to Jesus because HE created them…
17He is before all things, and by Him all things hold together.
Here Paul continues his description of Jesus and how Jesus IS… Jesus IS before ALL things, in other words He was here before ANYTHING was created… He was here BEFORE the beginning…
But not only was Jesus before all things we see Paul adding here that in Jesus all things hold together… In other words, Jesus created us, created the world and because of Him all things are put together and held together… without Jesus the world falls apart!
Does this not ring true with our world today? More and more God and Jesus are being eliminated from the public sector and more and more people are NOT seeking Jesus but rather relying on humanism for their answers…
Look at the state of the world today… can we say that it is getting better as Jesus is being systematically eliminated? The truth is that the world is falling apart the more Jesus is removed…so what Paul says here is true!
18He is also the head of the body, the church;
He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He might come to have first place in everything.
The head of the body… the BODY Paul is referring to is the body of Christ or the church… meaning that the church cannot survive without Jesus! Just as a body cannot survive without a head… the church needs Jesus!
Jesus IS the beginning of the world and the beginning of the church… Without Jesus the church does NOT exist!
The phrase ‘firstborn from the dead’ is Paul describing Jesus’ position of authority once again. This means that Jesus is supreme over all who rise from the dead… which on the Day of the Lord all will be risen and judged and Jesus will be that judge! Jesus is supreme!
19For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him,
Many of Jesus’ critics denied Jesus because they would say that God was not pleased with His claims and/or teachings. Their claim was that Jesus was actually blaspheming god and that God would not allow such a thing…and so they could not support Him.
This was their argument, although it is evident that power was the issue here. Jesus’ popularity and teaching about God’s love circumvented the priestly power and position and this threatened the religious leadership of Jesus’ day…
However, we have record of God publically announcing His support for Jesus and the ministry of Jesus. Once after he was baptized and the other time after he was transfigured… On both occasions God speaks to those present about how He is pleased with Jesus…
Here Paul reinforces the fact that Jesus did not come to usurp God but came FROM God to portray God to a broken world... God was pleased that Jesus was His image here in this world… His physical representation…
The word used here for ‘pleased’ is the Greek word U-doke-eh-oh which is a word the infers and implies an overall satisfaction with… a definite approval of… a preference to… It means to be pleased with, to take pleasure in…
Think about it this way… When you see your children doing the right things and being obedient, it PLEASES you and you are PLEASED to be their parent!
Now, while we never lose our love for our children, there may come a time when we are NOT pleased with their actions or decisions… but here we find that in Jesus God was ALWAYS pleased with Him and His obedience… God was pleased that Jesus was His physical representative here in this world…
But God was not only pleased with Jesus… Jesus had a purpose in His actions and in His obedience to the plan of the Father and that was to reconcile the lost to God! Paul addresses that very subject in this next verse…
20and through Him to reconcile everything to Himself by making peace through the blood of His cross—whether things on earth or things in heaven.
Paul emphasizes that through HIM (speaking of Jesus) reconciliation to God was possible! This is a direct reference to the work of Christ on the Cross of Calvary as Paul says in this verse, “…making peace thru the blood of His cross…”
The work of Christ on the cross brings reconciliation… the blood of Christ, as horrific as it was to happen, is the saving grace for believers! It is because of Christ’s shed blood that we can be reconciled to God. It is because of the blood of Christ on the Cross that we can have peace with God…
This reconciliation is something that is eternal and it covers this life and the afterlife… look what Paul tells us at the end of v20… he says, “…whether things on earth or things in heaven…” this was Paul’s way of telling us that the reconciliation of Christ was God’s permanent solution to the separation that sin caused!
When one is reconciled in and thru Christ… they are reconciled to God and there is NO other thing or person needed. Christ and Christ alone brings reconciliation! It is NOT Christ plus something else, as was being taught in the church at Colossae at this time… Christ was sufficient for ALL reconciliation to God!
Then after Paul sets forth this teaching about the exclusive and unique salvation we find in only Christ Jesus… he then paints a picture of these believers BEFORE they met Christ! [read v21-22 here]
21Once you were alienated and hostile in your minds because of your evil actions. 22But now He has reconciled you by His physical body through His death, to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before Him—
There is a saying… every sinner has a future and every saint has a past! This means that all sinners can have a future of eternal life IN Christ… there are NO sinners who will be turned away if they are willing to submit and surrender to Christ.
But on the other hand, every saint has a past tells us that we have ALL come from out of sin… there are none of us who has lived a perfect life worthy of God’s attention and salvation. But that all of us have come out of sin into salvation!
Here Paul refreshes the memories of these believers by telling them that there was once a time in their hearts and minds that they were enemies of God and hostile toward the things of God…
When we are outside of the Grace of God and have not accepted Christ as our Savior… we are hostile toward God whether we know it or not… our life is not focused on serving Him, but on ourselves! Here Paul reminds these believers that they themselves had a past in sin and God had delivered them…
He does this to draw a picture for these believers so that they would understand that we must all be vigilant and intentional about serving God at all times…because we were TOO once outside the grace of God!
Then Paul uses a ‘but then’ statement to clarify his point. You were ONCE sinful and outside of God’s grace BUT THEN Jesus happened! Jesus came and reconciled YOU as a sinner to Him and has given you eternal life IN Him!
Paul implies here that this was DONE… this was ACCOMPLISHED through a physical act by Jesus. That physical act was Christ on the Cross… it brought reconciliation to those who could NOT be reconciled! Christ did this for YOU!
Christ did this so that you could stand before the righteous judge on that final day… stand before Him blameless and holy… FULLY justified in the eyes of God! Being reconciled by the blood of Christ brings about a total salvation of the soul… there is NOTHING else needed for salvation is the implication here from Paul.
23if indeed you remain grounded and steadfast in the faith and are not shifted away from the hope of the gospel that you heard. This gospel has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and I, Paul, have become a servant of it.
In v21-22 Paul addressed the past nature of the Colossian believers but here in v23 we find Paul addressing the present and the future of these believers.
In this statement from Paul we find Paul implying a Christian responsibility that comes with salvation! It is sort of like the phrase Stan Lee the creator of the Spiderman character said… The Spiderman character had his uncle tell him one time, ‘with great power comes great responsibility’
Well what Paul is saying here is that with this great salvation and this wonderful reconciliation from the very heart of God…comes an expected responsibility on behalf of the believer! You are expected to ACT and BE the new creature you have become!
In looking at this passage many could translate this to mean that if they did NOT continue in their obedience that their salvation would be stripped away, but this is not the case…
The translation could also easily be stated, “…assuming that you continue…” in other words if your conversion was a true conversion then you will persevere to the end…
Paul was stressing here that if they had been REAL in their conversion… if they had truly surrendered their hearts to the Gospel he had preached then God was going to keep them to the end…
But there is another exegetical problem with this verse… we see Paul saying, “…this gospel has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven…”
The Greek is actually slightly different than the translation… the implication in the Greek is that the gospel is the same gospel that he had been proclaiming during all of his missionary journeys.
In other words, this gospel does not change… the gospel you heard from me at first is still the same and it is the same gospel I have preached everywhere I have gone…
This proclamation by Paul was in direct conflict with what was being introduced into the Colossian fellowship. They were being told that there was a higher and more spiritual message than what Paul had given to them… and that it was SPECIAL knowledge given to them by angels…Paul is telling them… the gospel is the gospel and it does NOT change!
Finally Paul ends this particular section by stressing his direct tie to this gospel… here he says, “…and I Paul have become a servant of it [the Gospel]…”
This was Paul’s way of telling the believers in Colossae that this gospel he preached was NOT his gospel but the gospel of God…the Gospel of Christ! In other words, Paul was a servant to the gospel and not the other way around!
Paul taught that it was his privilege and honor to be a servant of God in the spreading of the gospel. He considered this to be the highest possible calling on his life… in fact he makes this comparison on many occasions in his letters where he counts all things before Christ as lost, but all things IN Christ as gain…
In this section we have found that Paul has placed Jesus Christ and His redemptive work accomplished on the Cross of Calvary at the very CENTER of the Christian debate!
Paul’s implication here is that if Christ is NOT the center of your service… you are NOT serving Christ and thus the truth is not in you! All Christians must have Christ at the center of their life and belief… to bring in any other doctrine or belief reduces what Christ has done and elevates humanity above Jesus.
Which Paul tells us is NOT possible because of what Christ has accomplished in Creation and His redemptive work on the Cross of Calvary!
So for us today this passage serves as notice to us that Christ must be central in our walk with God. There is NO relationship with God without Christ… we are alienated from God without the work of Christ on the Cross of Calvary.
What this means for us today is simply this… “Focus on Christ and your walk will be worthy and your vision will be right…” PRAY!
