#3~ Col.1: 19-29 ~Colossians Study~ 12-8-13
Colossians is one of the 4 prison epistle -- Ephesians -- Colossians -- Philippians -- and Philemon. -- Colosse was destroyed by an earth quake in ad 60-61, evidently just before, or possible shortly after this epistle was delivered too the Colossians.
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17And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
18And 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.
19For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;
20And, 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.
21And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled -- 22In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:
23If 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; 24Who 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:
25Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God; 26Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: 27To 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: 28Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus: 29Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.
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17And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
~Christ existed prior to all creation. He is the great "I am" -- The Jehovah of the Old Testament is the Jesus of the New Testament.
~~ Christ is a manifestation of God, the Sovereign Creator, and the Head of the church. The sum total of all the power and attributes are in Christ.
~ Through Christ all things hold together, are sustained, and united. -- Christ is the personal sustainer and preserver. -- He maintains harmony and order.
~All things are created by Him and are controlled by Him. Apart from Christ all things would disintegrate: ~~~ He holds the stars in their courses, He directs the planets in their orbits, and He controls the laws of the universe. We have a cosmos, not a chaos.
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18And 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.
~ He alone, controls, guides, and governs the church. -- The church is His body; He is its source and its life. --- He unites the members into one living body. ~~ The church is also a family, composed of people who share in His resurrection life, brothers and sisters in Christ~~~ He is not the first of a series, but the source.
~Christ is the source of all created, and the sovereign Head of all creation.
~ It is not enough for Christ just to be present, nor prominent; He must be pre-eminent {first] in all things to the Church.
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19For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;
~~The word dwell indicates permanent residence, not just a temporary visit.
In Christ there is divine perfection: not just a part, nor just almost all, but all divine nature in all its fullness.
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20And, 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.
~ Let's be sure and notice how this peace was made. --- We don't make our own peace with God, but Jesus made peace for us through His work on the cross. ~~~ The blood speaks of Christ's redemptive work and the sacrificial aspect of His death. ~~~ Christ is the chosen and sufficient agent in reconciliation; nothing else is needed.
~ "Reconcile" means to change completely.
>Rom 5: 6--10 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
7For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure [perhaps] for a good man some would even dare to die. 8But God commendeth his love toward us, [made known His love toward us] in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
10For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, [present tense] we shall be saved by his life.
The blood of the cross speaks to us of the real, physical death of Jesus Christ in our place, on our behalf, before God. --- That literal death in our place, and the literal judgment He bore on our behalf, is what saves us.
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21And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works,--
"Alienated" literally means "socially disoriented" --- Belonging to the race of Adam, we are born alienated from God. --- Then as individuals, we each choose to accept that alienation shone by our wicked works.
~~ you, that were sometime alienated --
~~~ This means that in Jesus we are no longer alienated. ~~~ The difference between a believer and a non-believer isn't simply forgiveness; there is a complete change of status.
--21-b -- yet now hath he reconciled --
~ God's answer to the problem of alienation is reconciliation, initiated by His work on the cross (reconciled in the body of His flesh through death).
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22 In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight --
["unreproveable" means "that which cannot be called to account"
To present you holy, blameless, and unreproveable in His sight: This is the result of God's work of reconciliation, taken together, these words, [blameless, and unreproveable] show that in Jesus we are pure and can not be justly accused of impurity.
~ In the work of reconciliation, God didn't just meet us halfway. God meets us all the way and invites us to accept it.
To have a desire to be saved means a desire to be made holy, blameless and unreproveable, not just a desire to escape the fires of hell on our own terms.
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* 23 If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled,
When we look at these words the first thing that comes to our mind is, "if we don't continue in the faith, does this mean that we can lose our salvation?]
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* I read behind several commentators before I finally found a satisfying answer.
Let me say right away, no this don't mean we can be lost again once we're saved, we're saved by grace through faith, faith in Jesus as our Lord and Savior, if He could lose one He could lose them all. --
* LISTEN closely as we read verses 21-23 once again;
21And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled -- 22In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:
* The COLON at the end of verse 22 explains it.
According to: "dictionary.com," COLON means; it is used to mark a major division in a sentence, to indicate that what follows is an elaboration, summation, implication, etc., of what precedes;]
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In other words, in order for the Colossians to be presented holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight -- they needed to continue in the faith --- In the doctrine of faith which they had received and embraced; and in the grace of faith, and the exercise of it which was implanted in them; and in the profession of faith which they had made: --- not that the virtue of Christ's blood, sufferings, and death, and reconciliation of their persons to God , depended upon their faith, and their abiding in it; --- but that faith and continuance in it were necessary means of "their presentation in unblemished holiness and righteousness;" -- in other words, if they did not abide in faith, or if the good work of grace that was wrought upon their souls, and is performed until the day of Christ, they could not be presented holy and blameless:
* Notice, not that they would be counted lost again, but they could not be counted without blemish and blameless: -- their saved but they still have personal blemishes. -- Nothing to do with the finished work of Christ.--
This is what the judgment seat of Christ is all about, if we as saved people were perfect after we're saved there would be no use for the judgment seat of Christ.
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23If 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; 24Who 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:
~Paul wrote this from a Roman jail, he was able to see that his sufferings worked something good for others, so he could say that his sufferings were for the Colossians and other Christians.
>Philippians 4:11 Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.
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The sufferings of Christ provided the gospel and salvation. -- The afflictions of Paul proclaimed the gospel.
The afflictions of Paul are identified with the afflictions of Christ but are on a different plane. -- Paul's afflictions could add nothing to the finished work of Christ-- the proclamation of the gospel transforms sinners into saints.
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25Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God;
26Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:
Paul was a servant of the body of Christ, the church, he didn't take this position on his own initiative, God put Paul into this position.
The mystery which has been hidden: In the Biblical sense, a mystery is not a riddle; it is a truth that can only be known by revelation. ~~ Now it can be known, because it now has been revealed to His saints.
~~ the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations~~
This reminds us that there are aspects to God's plan that were not revealed in the Old Testament.
---------- 27To 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:
The specific mystery Paul refers to here deals with the work of Jesus in His people, but especially the plan of the church, to make one body out of Jew and Gentile.
"The mystery is this: that God had made a way to grant the Gentiles the same privileges with the Jews, and make them his people who were not his people. This in what Paul means by the mystery.
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--- which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:
28Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:
29Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily. --- This is the crowning wonder to Paul that God had included the Gentiles in his redemptive grace."
