Christ First (Part 2)
Colossians 1:15–28 NKJV
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.
For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.
And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight—if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.
I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.
When I was writing up what is Part 1 of this sermon, I realized that I went into much detail about the person of Christ to the point that I could not take the additional time to explain the rest of the passage. As the topic of who Christ is very important to Paul, I did not feel at liberty to shorten the material. Instead, I decided to continue this sermon tonight. As we covered this morning, Paul goes into this explanation of the person of Christ to elaborate on Colossians 1:14 “in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.” I mentioned that there is a problem today that we want to oversimplify the Gospel. By elaborating on the person of Christ beginning in the 15th verse, the Holy Spirit working through Paul wants to let us know that this is simply not enough. It is a good start to learn that it is in Jesus that we have redemption by His blood, and the forgiveness of sins. But we need to know Who this Christ is as well as what He did for us. When we realize that in Christ all things in the universe were created by Him and for Him. He is not just the head of the Church but the head of the universe who holds it together. He is more than just our Savior but Lord as well. We learned that Christ is the origin of the Church who holds the Church together as her head.
We finished this morning with the statement that in everything He might have the preeminence. The many words Paul uses to describe Christ reinforce the idea that Christ is first in everything in heaven and earth. This is also true for the Church which is also His creation. It behooves us to remember this. It is His Church which is made for Him.
“For He pleased that all fullness should reside in Him.” This is being translated directly from he Greek text. The Authorized Version (King James) substitutes “the Father” for the word “He.” This substitution is true to the extent we learned this morning that “all things were created IN Him”, referring to Jesus. The Father and the Spirit, along with the Son created all things in Him, by Him and FOR Him. The united Triune God was pleased that their fullness would also be in Christ. We learned that Christ Jesus is the visible appearance of the invisible God. What we see of the fullness of the Godhead can only be seen by man through the veil of Christ’s flesh. Even when the veil is lifted at the Mount of Transfiguration it was not fully unveiled as no one can see the Godhead in its fullness and live. Peter, James, and John were overwhelmed as it was and fell into a deep sleep. Sleep is often used as an euphemism for “death.” This is the reaction of others who have had an exalted vision of God such as Isaiah. The Israelites could see a glimpse of the glory through the veil that Moses wore. But we are given a greater vision in that we see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
“And through Him to reconcile every thing into Him, making peace by the blood of His cross, whether they are things on earth of in heaven.” The Godhead was pleased that Christ would be the means of reconciliation. We should note here that the Greek uses the neuter “all things.” This means that the extend of the reconciliation is not limited to humanity or the Church. the entire universe was made subject to vanity by the sin of Adam and Eve. The entire creation is to be reconciled and by this come to peace with God. Understanding the use of the neuter in Greek leads to the proper interpretation of other Biblical passages. We read in John’s prologue “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. The first “his own” is neuter plural and the second is a masculine plural. It should read “He came unto His own “Creation” but His own people rejected Him. Also in John we read in chapter 21 where Jesus says to Peter: “Do you love me more than these.” This “these” is a neuter plural. Jesus is not asking whether Peter loved Jesus more than the other disciples did. Jesus tried to avoid dissension among the disciples who in the flesh were all too eager to be the “First” of the disciples. It correctly reads “all things.” Peter and the others decided to go fishing, an occupation that many had before Jesus called them to ministry. It was almost a statement of “let’s get back to normal like it used to be.” The disciples wanted to resume control over their own lives. So, Jesus is trying to tell Peter that He could not go back to business as usual. And to make sure there was no confusion, Jesus did not go back to the time when He called these disciples to be fishers of men. He changes metaphors to being a shepherd. He also said that Peter once could control His own life, including what he wore. But in the end, Peter would have to yield his bodily autonomy to the Romans who would strip him and lead him to a cross.
Colossians 1:20 is an extension of Colossians 1:14 with which we began the study but expands it. We were redeemed by Christ’s blood, but the entire creation is redeemed and reconciled also by the blood of His cross. Redemption is not all about us, although by God’s grace we are included.
“And you, once being estranged and at enmity of mind because of our evil works” — Paul now goes back to emphasize our former condition. Paul probably dealt with more Gentiles than Jews at Colossae. The Jews considered the Gentiles to be strangers to the special covenant they believed that Yahweh had made to their ancestors. The real truth is that all humanity, every human being, is estranged as Paul reminds us that “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” Paul in Romans clearly says this is true of all, whether Jew or Greek. Humanity wars against God in their mind which is proven by our works.
“But NOW we have been completely reconciled in the body of His flesh through death.” How marvelous that God would choose to reconcile those who are at enmity against Him! The former words in the text paint a bleak and hopeless future. Without His gracious intervention, we would continue our warfare against Him. To war against Him is death as He is the source of life and is self-existent. Every breath we take and every move we make is enabled by His grace. And, yes, He watches all. The world is worried today surveillance by one’s own government. The use of technology, such as AI is frightening. Every phone call is recorded, public sites have cameras, every financial transaction. There are no secrets. This is why the world has a song which I just quoted. People are at enmity against their own governments, and their governments are at enmity against them. Ancient Rome would have salivated at the tools available to the intelligence agencies. But there is one far greater that we should worry about. He knows all about us and will hold us to account. We might hope to escape notice from our governments by not giving reason for them to look for us in their databases. But there is no escape from the eyes of God.
This is why the “but now” is so important. The one who is the ultimate judge and has the power over where we spend eternity has provided a solution in the body of Christ’s flesh. Because He died, and if we are in Him, our transgressions and sins died in His death. Death ends all enmity in this world. Once we die, the Government no longer has power over us. Even if we stood under indictment in some human court, the charges are dropped upon our death. Even if they kill our bodies, their power ends. Paul later says in Colossians “For you died, and your life remains hidden in Christ in God.” This is a promise to us who believe. We no longer need fear the One who has the power both to kill and then cast into hell. Since Christ rose from the dead, we, too, in Him and only in Him, rise to life. Enmity is slain in the death of Christ so that we might have eternal life in Him.
“That He might present us holy, spotless, and blameless before Him” — We have learned in this extensive treatment of this passage Who it is who has redeemed us in His blood. We have learned the means that God used to redeem us. These details are important. Now we come to the next question: “Why did He redeem us?” This is a question of purpose. We have not been saved to continue in sin. It is not that God has changed His mind concerning right or wrong. The world does this all the time. What is right and moral becomes immoral, and things which are repugnant to God and to a sensible person becomes good. It is not that God allows sin to multiply so that He might show more grace. Neither should we continue to sin so that grace might about. Paul says “God forbid!” to such a thought. The purpose of His grace is that His church would be holy, spotless, and without blame in His presence. Indeed, one day, we will be exactly that. In the meanwhile we need to apply this truth to the conduct of our lives.
“If you remain grounded and steadfast in the faith and do not move away from the hope of the Gospel which you heard.” Sometimes we need to understand what small words mean, “If” is a small word, but understanding its meaning is vital to a correct understanding of the bigger words and phrases around it. When we use the English, “if”, it implies that there is a caveat or an exception to what is said. The word of the Gospel only offer hope to the believe so long as he does not depart from the faith. Many theologians understand “if” this way here. This would imply that we could lose the salvation to which we have attained. Others who believe “once saved, always saved” would recoil at such a thought. Could God’s grace be nullified by our actions. the idea here is that if salvation was in any way dependent upon our actions we would be certain to lose it. Eternal insecurity is indeed a troubling doctrine. So, what do we do here? After all, this extended doctrinal section which contains such lofty truth about Jesus Christ was meant for us to understand. So, even if we struggle greatly here, we must come to some sort of unity as the division of thought here causes one side to throw anathemas at the other and destroys the unity of the Church.
We do get a clue here if we examine the Greek here. Greek has two words for “if”. One is the word “ean” which is understood in the same way we understand “if”. This is not used here. Instead, we have the other word which can be translated “if” which is “ei.” This word can also be translated “since.” Context determines how to translate here. “Ei” is usually paired with a use of the verb which indicates a factual statement whereas “ean” is used with the form of a verb which describes something which is conditional. It might or might not be a factual reality. It is factual only if the condition expressed is true. Here, the fact of being a Christian is dependent on the action that we do not remove ourselves from the Gospel. If the condition is not met, we are of were never grounded and steadfast. But we have the verb of fact here and that in the present tense as well. This would give us the translation “Since you are remaining steadfast and grounded in the hope of the Gospel.”
It would seem, then, hard or even possible for a Christian to lose his salvation. The idea of apostacy or willing desertion from the faith cannot be ruled out. The Bible is full of examples of those who have deserted the faith, even though they were once enlightened and had received the Holy Spirit (See Hebrews 6). Peter telling us to make our calling and election sure would have no meaning if there wasn’t possible to do so. God does not make idle threats. But, here, Paul is addressing a group of Christians at Colossae which he had commended at the beginning of the epistle. He will later address a warning to not be spoiled by vain philosophies, so he is addressing a serious potential problem. But Paul is showing the positive side here. Their faith is built on a sure foundation. The Greek word “founded” here is in what is called the Perfect tense. In Greek, the Perfect tense is used to describe the present results of a past act. The emphasis is that because their faith is build on a sure foundation, they have assurance and confidence in their relationship.
I see again that I am going long again, so I am going to have to stop here tonight. We have already covered a lot of material, and I do not wish to weary you. As there is about to be a slight change in the text, it would seem good to stop here and pick up on Wednesday night with Paul’s description of his ministry.
