7/18/18
Tom Lowe
IIIA2a? A Stewardship to Proclaim the Mystery of God Now Revealed (Colossians 1:25-27)
• “Special Notes” and “Scripture” follow associated verses.
• NIV Bible is used throughout unless noted otherwise.
Colossians 1:25-27 (NIV)
(Text) 1:25-27: 25 I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness— 26 the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people. 27 To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Introduction
The above verses are notable for the light they shed on Paul’s conception of his calling as a minister; showing it to be a divine commission (1:25); a proclamation of the gospel— “to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (1:25-27).
COMMENTARY
(1:25) “I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness?”
“I have become its servant”
Paul says that he is not only a servant of Jesus Christ; he is also a servant of the Church, appointed and commissioned by the Lord. Paul’s ministry was “by the commission God gave me.” He looked upon his ministry and his office in the work of the Lord as a distinctive calling to take the Gospel to the Gentiles—and he found great joy in it. He refused to be confined within a narrow area of interest and service; he refused to bow to Judaism; his field was the world.
“by the commission God gave me to present to you”
The word commission, as used here, means “economy,” but a better translation is “stewardship,” and the best is “dispensation.” We talk of political economy, domestic economy, business economy. God deals with the world on the basis of different economies or stewardships or dispensations; but they have always been based on the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.
Before Jesus was born into this world, men brought a little lamb as a sacrifice, and they looked forward to the coming of Christ. They were not saved by that little lamb; but they brought the lamb in faith, and they were saved by the Christ who would someday die for them. That was the economy or the stewardship or the dispensation which God had appointed for the Jews in the Old Testament. We don’t bring a little lamb for a sacrifice today because it is now an historical fact that Christ has already come. All we have to do today is trust Him.
The apostle Paul did more than preach—he fulfilled the Gospel . . . He carried out the program of Almighty God. He held up to the world the healing balm of Gilead1. He proclaimed the Gospel without prejudice of race or creed. This Apostle to the Gentiles carried the Gospel to all who would listen, both in and beyond the boundaries of Judaea.
“the word of God in its fullness?”
To fulfill “the word of God” involved something that had been hidden in the Old Testament, and has now been revealed, that the Gospel must go to the Gentiles. Paul writes to the Gentile people in Colosse that they are a part of this new dispensation. The Gentiles are to be included in the Church.
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1. Balm of Gilead— The Bible uses the term “balm of Gilead” metaphorically as an example of something with healing or soothing powers.
(1:26) “the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people.”
“the mystery”
Paul’s special message regarding the Gentiles had to do with what he called “the mystery.” To us today a “mystery” is something eerie and perhaps frightening; but this was not the way the word was defined in Paul’s day. The false teachers used this word to describe the inner secrets of their religions. To us today, a mystery is a “sacred secret,” hidden in the past and now revealed by the Holy Spirit (see Ephesians 3:1-13). It is also said to be something that had not been revealed in the Old Testament but is now revealed. We learn in Ephesians that the mystery was not the fact that Gentiles would be saved—that was known in the Old Testament. The mystery, the new thing, was that God would now put Israel on the same basis as the Gentiles. All men are lost; all men have sinned; all men have come short of the glory of God. Now God is taking both Jews and Gentiles, men out of all races, and He is putting them into a new body which is called the Church. That was never revealed in the Old Testament, but it is now being revealed.
“that has been kept hidden for ages and generations,”
God called and ordained Paul, and gave to him by revelation the unveiling of the mystery that had been hidden “for ages and generations” since the beginning. This mystery was the great doctrine that salvation was to be proclaimed to all mankind, regardless of color or class, Jew or Gentile. Paul was to make this mystery fully known. This great hidden truth had been concealed until Paul’s day, “but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people.”
“but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people.”
God called the nation of Israel to be His people. He gave them His Law (including the priesthood and sacrifices), and He gave them a wonderful land. He promised them a King who would one day establish a glorious kingdom and fulfill the many promises made to Abraham and David. The Old Testament prophets wrote about a Messiah who would suffer, and a Messiah who would rein. They could not explain the seeming contradiction (see 1 Peter 1:9-12).
9for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
10Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, 11trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow. 12It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.
They did not understand that the Messiah first had to suffer before He could enter into Glory (Luke 24:13-27).
Jesus Christ came to earth, was rejected by His people, and was crucified. He arose again and returned to heaven. Did this mean that God’s promised kingdom for Israel was now abandoned? No, because God had initiated a new program—His mystery—that was not explained by the Old Testament prophets. The mystery is that today God is uniting Jews and Gentiles in the Church (Ephesians 2:11-22). When the Church is completed, then Jesus Christ will return and take His people to heaven (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). Then He will again deal with Israel as a nation and establish the promised kingdom (Acts 15:12-18).
Paul wasn’t the only one who understood this mystery. God is making it known to His saints in that day.
Jesus made known the coming of the Church, but to Paul was committed the revelation of the mystery. It is in the writings of Paul alone that we find the doctrine of the New Testament Church, the position of the Church, the walk of the believer, and the destiny of the entire body when it is complete.
(1:27) “To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
“To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery,”
In other words, Paul said, “You are the persons to whom “God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery.” It was God’s good pleasure to make known the glorious redemption in Christ’s blood. It was not a divine imperative; it was a divine pleasure to reveal to the Colossians that the Gentiles had been accepted by God through the death of the Lord Jesus. The saints did not discover the mystery for themselves through their own knowledge and wisdom. Christianity did not spring up because of their wisdom, understanding or good works: Christianity was made known by Almighty God. The mystery was unfolded to Paul by revelation. He did not enter the seminary and discover it in books of Theology, nor did he dig it out by himself. God revealed it to him; God unfolded before Paul what had been hidden from all men, from Adam up to the time of the Apostle Paul.
Imagine what this message meant to the Gentiles. They were no longer excluded from the Glory and riches of God’s grace! During the Old Testament dispensation, a Gentile had to become a Jewish proselyte, in order to share in the blessings of Israel. But in the new dispensation, Jews and Gentiles alike are saved by faith in Jesus Christ? “For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; for “WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.” (Romans 10:12-13). No wonder the Jewish false teachers opposed Paul. He dared to say there is no difference!”
“which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
We who have grown up in somewhat Christian surroundings have a tendency to take all of this for granted. But think of the excitement this message must have generated in a church composed of new believers who had no background in the church. Once they were outside the covenants of God, but now they were members of His family. Once they were living in spiritual ignorance and death, but now they were alive and sharing in the riches of God’s wisdom in Christ. Once they had no hope, but now they had a glorious hope because Christ now lived within! It would be good for us today to recapture some of that “first love” excitement.
“Christ in you . . . .” The mystery revealed is “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Do not confuse the statement “to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery,” with the revelation of the mystery, “Christ in you.” Christ was not just among the Gentiles, but Christ literally took up His abode in the Gentiles who believed on Him in saving faith. It was not just to know Christ, but to possess Christ in the heart by faith.
“The hope of glory.” The final glory of believers is yet to come, but it is as sure to come as God is God. Believers are strangers and pilgrims on earth. What true believers earnestly pray for and long for, and what they labor to possess, shall be revealed in glory far beyond our anticipation. In the final glory, because of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we will be delivered from all evil. We will possess all good . . . all the good that God can provide. What we have only partially enjoyed here, we will fully enjoy and possess in heaven—which is, “All things!” What has seemed glory in this life will be feeble compared to that which we will experience in heaven: “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all” (2 Corinthians 4:17).
We are “in Christ.” The moment you put your trust in Christ Jesus, the Holy Spirit baptizes you and puts you in the body of believers. You and I have been brought into something new, the Church, and the Church has a glorious prospect ahead of it.
The mystery is no longer a mystery! The truth has been communicated to the apostles—men ordained by God and commissioned by God—who were appointed to proclaim and make known the truth that the Gentiles could and would be fellow heirs with all saints. Paul knew that he was called to make this truth known—that is, as far as it is possible for mankind to understand the glorious truth of “Christ in you, the hope of Glory.”
