About Jesus

About Jesus - Steve Sweetman

www.stevesweetman.com

This Section - Chapter 1 and 2

Intro ch. 1:1-2 ch. 1:2-14 ch.1:15-25

Commentary On Paul’s Letter To The Colossians

Introduction

The following commentary is based in the NIV translation of the Bible. The section titles found in these pages are the same section titles that are found in the NIV Bible, which should make it easier for study purposes.

The city of Colosse was not as influential in Paul’s day as some other cities were. For example Ephesus. The church at Colosse appeared to consist of mostly Gentile Christians, although there were some Jewish Christians within their midst.

It appears that at the time of Paul’s writing this letter he had not yet been to Colosse. His contact with this church had been through a man named Epaphras. Some suggest that Epaphras was a convert from Ephesus.

Paul wrote and sent this letter to Colosse when he returned Onesimus, a Christian slave, back to Philemon, Onesimus’s original owner. Apparently Onesimus escaped to find his freedom, then became a Christian and discovered that his owner was a Christian as well. You can read the story in Paul’s letter to Philemon.

This letter was most likely written around 61 or 62 AD from Rome where Paul was a prisoner. He wrote his letters to the Philippians and to Philemon at or around the same time.

This particular letter is somewhat more philosophical in nature than most of his other letters. The reason for this is due to the reason why Paul seemed to have written the letter in the first place. As in most of Paul’s writings, he is writing to undo a wrong way of thinking, a heresy. The heresy here is called "Gnosticism". The basic thinking in this teaching is that God cannot come in contact with natural matter because it is very evil As a result He needs to be buffeted from, or kept back from matter. He does this by having a world of deity’s, or spiritual beings in which they can do His work for Him, and act as intermediates on His behalf. Christ is the primary super being, yet only one of hundreds or perhaps thousands. Therefore there is a whole spiritual world around us that are full of beings just like Jesus. Yes, Jesus is special in the sense He is the first of these deity’s, but He is not the only deity. This idea led to a very spiritual way of thinking and worshiping. It led to angel worship. It led to exclusivism for those who believed such things. They had special spiritual insight, far beyond the normal Christian because they were in touch with the vast spiritual world around them, full of special deity’s. This thinking puts Jesus on a much lower level of existence than He ought be put. Jesus is one of a kind. There is no one like Jesus. Paul will point this out very clearly. The Gnostic way of thinking is far from Scriptural.

Elements of Gnosticism appear in almost every generation of Christians. These so-called "super spiritual Christians", the ones always majoring on dreams, visions, appearances of angels, and the subjective, are still with us today. These people appear to be really spiritual, yet most of the time they lack a good understanding of God’s objective truth as found in Scripture. They prefer the inner workings of the spiritual world over the objective truth of Scripture. They often get led astray because all that they claim to be from God is from their own over active imagination.

Paul’s Greeting (ch. 1:1-2)

As in most of Paul’s writings he says who he is and what he does. "Paul and apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God". (ch. 1:1) Paul is an apostle, a "sent one". Who has sent him? Jesus Christ Himself, and not only Jesus, but it was also God’s will that Paul be an ambassador.

Paul was not alone. Timothy, who was like as a son in the Lord was with Paul. They were together, sharing in the work of the gospel.

Paul calls the brothers at Colosse, "holy and faithful". Acting as someone sent from God, Paul is able to say, "grace and peace to you from God.." (ch. 1:2) Paul was truly sent from God. If he were not, then he could not say "grace and peace from God" He is not just saying words here. He is extending God’s grace and peace to these people as they read this letter God has given Paul the authority to do this. Paul is acting in the place of God and in the place of Jesus since they cannot be there in person. With the help of the Holy Spirit of course, Paul is their representative. This is what apostleship is all about.

Thanksgiving And Prayer (ch. 1:3-14)

Paul opens this section by saying that he "always gives thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you". (ch.1:3) As I point out so many times in Paul’s writing, he uses this phrase, "God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ". There is only one God. The God that Christians serve is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is not the God of any other name under Heaven, no matter how important the person may be who has that name. To believe in the one true God of the universe, you must first believe who Jesus Christ the Lord is, because this God is His Father. Therefore, if you believe that Jesus is not God in a human form, then you don’t believe in the true God, because God is the Father of Jesus, the one and only God-man, as some put it.

Why does Paul give thanks to God for these people? Because he hears of their faith and love. He hears of their trust in Jesus and the love they have for each other as a result of this trust, or faith in Jesus. The words faith and love are two words Paul often uses together. Paul believes that true faith will express itself through love. (Gal. 5:6) Faith is productive. Faith is not stagnant. Faith is an action word. Faith produces good works of love. Our salvation is not based on any type of good work that we can do, but once we really believe, once we have true faith, true trust, we will begin to do good things. These good things do not keep us saved. Only what Jesus has already done for us can keep us saved. These good works will bring rewards some day for us in Heaven. So Paul is very happy with these people in Colosse because they have true faith. And how does Paul know this? He has heard the stories from others about the love they have for each other, a test of true faith.

Paul goes on to say that this faith and love "spring from the hope that is stored up for them in heaven…" (ch. 1:5) Paul is not suggesting here that their faith and love comes from something that they are hoping for, something in the future. Paul is saying that there is something already in Heaven for them. This is something that is real and tangible. He calls this something "hope". Jesus went to Heaven to prepare a place for us. (John 14:1-4) This place that Jesus has prepared for us is our hope. It is something great, something we can expect and look forward to in the future. It is what the church has called throughout the centuries, "the glorious hope of the saints". Once again, this hope is in Heaven for us now, but we won’t get it until the end of thus age when Jesus comes back for us.

Just as these Colossians heard and received the truth of the gospel, so the whole known world was hearing this gospel from the lips of Paul and others. People everywhere were believing the good news of Jesus, and it was producing good fruit in their lives. Many people "understood God’s grace in all its truth" (ch. 1:6) The gospel is based on truth. Jesus Himself is Truth as He said in John 14:6. This is the fundamental reason why I am a Christian. I have come to understand that Jesus and what He has to say is the fundamental truth of the universe. All other truth comes from this universal truth which is found in Jesus alone. If Jesus is true, and what He says is true, and what He has done for us is true, then I have no other logical choice to make, other than to accept this truth and give myself to it. If this is foundational in our thinking, we will not likely depart from the truth of the gospel. If we come to Jesus for any other reason, for any of the benefits He has to offer, then there is a chance we will not stick with Him through thick and thin. Sooner or later, when things get rough, we may leave Him. We will begin to doubt His reality since we based our choice to serve Him on what He should give us. Then when we don’t get what we think He should give us, we fall away in discouragement or anger. Yet being sure in the very beginning that Jesus is the ultimate truth of the universe will give us a good foundation for our faith. As I have said, I am a Christian because I believe that Jesus is indeed the ultimate truth of all things, past present and future. What He has to offer me in salvation is secondary. If He had offered me nothing, He would still be the ultimate truth. What He chooses to give me is His choice, not mine.

In verses 7 and 8 Paul tells us that Epaphras was the one who shared the gospel with these people. He also was the one who told Paul about their "love in the Spirit". Paul knows well that the Holy Spirit is vital in both the preaching and receiving of the gospel, as well as the working out our salvation.

As Paul often tells his readers, and as he does here in verse 9, he is praying for them. I wonder how many times Paul prayed each day, and for how long. I wonder just what it would be like to see Paul in prayer. He prays to God that He will fill them with "the knowledge of His will, through spiritual wisdom and understanding". Remember the teaching going around in Colosse concerning angel worship and the over emphasis on the spiritual. Paul is saying that one can find God’s will through spiritual means. Yet the will of God that people claim to know should be full of true understanding and wisdom. Paul puts emphasis on understanding and wisdom. Remember in Rom. 10:2 what Paul says the Jews having a lot of zeal, but it was not based on knowledge. It is not based on real understanding of the truth. Paul is not against zeal, or knowing God’s will. He is for true understanding of the truth of the gospel that is found in Scripture. Once again, we need to distinguish what is really God’s will and what is a figment of our imagination.

"And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord…" The Lord has called all of us to Himself. Once we have accepted this call, we need to live as people worthy of who we now are in Christ. Paul was praying for these people in this respect. When living life in this way, we will please God by our good works, and also grow in the knowledge of who God really is. As he continues to say, when we grow in this knowledge, we will grow in God’s power. When we have this power we will be able to endure what we need to endure. We will have patience and joy when needed. Paul’s life was a testimony of this. He needed to endure many things, and in the process of enduring, he had great joy. Only by the help of our Lord could he have such joy in the midst of such times of hardship.

In verse 12 Paul says that Jesus has "qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints". Usually the one receiving something should be the one who qualifies for that which he receives. But in this case, we have done nothing to be qualified. Jesus has done everything for us. So in this sense, He has qualified us to inherit everything that goes along with salvation.

An inheritance is given when someone dies. Well Jesus died. As a result of His death and subsequent resurrection, we can inherit salvation. Part of our inheritance can be obtained now, while the remainder has been set aside for a later date in the future.

In verse 13 Paul says that Jesus "has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness". The first century church saw the world around them as being dark, thus the term "kingdom of darkness". Look at what Peter says in Acts 2:40. He says, "save yourselves from this corrupt generation". Peter, Paul and the rest of the early church believed that there were only two kingdoms, the kingdom of darkness, and the Kingdom of Light, or the Kingdom of God. Jesus has rescued us from this dark kingdom as a fireman would rescue someone from a fire. The idea is to snatch someone out from this kingdom, that is to grab them and pull them out before it is too late. There is a sense of urgency here that is implied in the word rescue. I wonder if we have the same thinking concerning the world around us. That is, that it is a corrupt world and that people need to be snatched out of it before it is too late, before they get burned in eternal fire.

Paul says in verse 14 that we have redemption and the forgiveness of sins. Being forgiven of our sins is relatively easy to understand. The idea of "redemption" is that Jesus has paid the price that was necessary to bring us back into right relationship with God. The price that He paid was with his own life, with His shed blood on the cross. He did not pay the price to Satan as some may think. He paid the price to God Himself. Jesus may have rescued us from the kingdom and the power of the devil, but the price He paid was not to the devil. The price that He paid was paid in order to satisfy God’s perfect justice and resulting anger over our sin.

Jesus may have rescued us from the kingdom of darkness as Paul rightly says here, but in the long run, Jesus rescued us from God Himself. For if Jesus had not paid the price, had not redeemed us, we would all be eternally condemned because of the wrath of God. Therefore we can rightly say that we have been saved from God Himself.

The Supremacy Of Christ (ch. 1:15-24)

The content of these particular verses gets to the issue concerning Paul’s reason for writing this letter. The Gnostic problem, the worship of angels and the reducing of the essence of Christ to angelic status is what Paul confronts here.

"He (Jesus) is the image of the invisible God". (ch.1:14) This is simple to understand. God is invisible. He can’t be seen by man. So in His love and willingness to communicate with man, God became a man. That man is Jesus. Jesus was the one and only visible expression of who God is. The writer of the book of Hebrews says something similar in Heb. 1:3. He says that Jesus is "exact representation of His (God’s) being". In every minuet detail, Jesus is a mirror image of who God is.

The last half of verse 14 is a little tricky and has been misinterpreted by many over the years. It even could be seen as an argument on behalf of the Gnostics. It says that Jesus is the "firstborn over all creation". Does this mean that Jesus had a birth, that He is not co-eternal with God? If this is so then Jesus can’t be God, because He was created by God, and therefore is something less than God due to His created status . Orthodox Christian thinking says that Jesus is co-eternal with God. This means that Jesus, although appearing in a state of humanity on earth through birth of a woman, existed prior to His incarnation. The word incarnation means that God came to live in a human body. Jesus had no beginning, and He has no end. The way in which people who read this in Paul’s day understood this sentence was that Jesus pre-existed before all of creation. He was not born before all of creation, He simply had always existed.

Paul goes on to confirm what John has said in the first few verse of his gospel. John says that "…all things were made by Him (Jesus), and without Him was nothing made". (John 1:1-3) Paul also says that here. He says that all things were made "by Him and for Him". Jesus was there in the creation of all things. He played a key roll in creating all things. Paul makes sure you know what all things means. He says, "thing visible and things invisible". All rulers and authorities, both earthly and spiritual rulers were made by Jesus. Jesus made all of the angels including Satan himself. Nothing was made without Jesus, and all things were made for Him and His pleasure. Anyone of us who creates or makes anything makes it for his pleasure. We like making things. For the artist, painting a picture is enjoyable. To the photographer, taking a picture is pleasurable. For a song writer, writing and performing a song gives a sense of accomplishment. The same is true with Jesus. His creation was made for Him and His enjoyment.

Paul, in verse 17 says, that "He (Jesus) was before all things and in Him all things hold together". The writer of Hebrews, (maybe Paul) says the same in Heb. 1:3. He says, that Jesus "sustains all things by His powerful word". This can be understood as a simple physics lesson. The reason why the universe and all of the atomic structure of things are held together, and don’t fly out of control, is because Jesus holds it all together.

The basic element of life is the atom. It consists of protons that spin rapidly around an electron, similar to our solar system. Why do these protons stay in their orbit? Why does our earth and Mars and other planets stay in their orbit? Why don’t we have an atomic holocaust of protons exploding throughout the universe? Because Jesus holds all of these protons in place. He keeps each and every proton in its orbit. He does the same with each and every solar system in the universe. From the smallest of atoms, to the largest solar system that spin in their orbits, Jesus is there holding everything together. You didn’t know that the Bible taught eleventh grade physics, did you.

Paul goes on to say concerning the church that Jesus "is the head over the church. (ch.1:18) Christ is in control over all things, and that includes the church. He is our Head. I once heard a travelling speaker say that he was invited to be a guest speaker at a weekend conference. He had planned out what he was going to say but when he got up to the pulpit all of his prepared words left him. All that he could say is that "Jesus wants His church back". That was it. Some were upset with him because his message was so short, but after repeating himself in the next meeting, the Holy Spirit fell on those people to confirm what he was saying. Jesus is indeed head of His church, but in way too many instances we have taken charge. Jesus is head over the church. He wants to keep that position. If we take that away from Him, we cannot call ourselves a church.

Verse 19 says that God "was pleased to have all of His fullness dwell in Jesus". This means that all of who God is, in every last little detail could be found in Jesus. This shows us the Deity of Christ. Imagine what it must have been like to meet such a man.

Paul goes on to say in verse 20 that the reason why God came to earth in Jesus was to reconcile Himself to all things, whether things on earth or in Heaven. This is interesting. Jesus’ work on the cross not only made it possible for mankind to be reconciled to God, but for all things to be reconciled to God. Salvation is for mankind but it exceeds beyond us. Salvation is for that God created on this planet. Creation was subject to the curse when Adam and Eve initially sinned. As can be seen clearly in Romans 8, creation itself is waiting for the day when God’s plan of salvation is realized in its fullness. Creation is waiting with eager anticipation because it knows that it will be restored to God’s original purpose along with mankind.

All this is accomplished through the blood of Jesus that was shed on the cross, as Paul puts it in verse 20. The death of the only perfect life was the only way for God’s extreme anger and sense of justice to be satisfied. Only the death of Jesus could please God. Any other sacrifice made to fix our sin problem could not be good enough. God is a perfect God. Anything less than total perfection is unsuitable. Any human way to fix our sin problem would not do. God’s way only would do. God’s only perfect solution was to execute Jesus, His exact representation for the punishment of man’s sin. "This was a perfect sacrifice, perfect in every way, perfect in every aspect", as I once heard Derek Prince say. He is totally right. God is absolutely perfect. He does not do anything outside of perfection.

In verses 21 to 23 Paul gives us some of the results of our reconciliation with God that was based on the "death of Jesus’ physical body", as he puts it. We are now holy, without blame and free from any and all accusations. Can you believe this? Mankind, depraved and worthless as we are, can be holy, blameless and without any kind of accusation. This is now our position in which we stand before God, if we trust in who Jesus is and what He has done for us. Don’t get proud or boastful over this exalted position. We have done nothing to deserve it. It is all because of God’s mercy.

Paul closes this paragraph by saying that this is the "gospel that is being preached to every creature under Heaven", and that He has become a servant by choice to preach this gospel.

Paul’s Labour For The Church (ch. 1:24-2:5)

Paul begins this section by telling these people that he actually rejoiced in what he had suffered for them in sharing the gospel. Although Paul apparently had not met most of these people in person, others that were his acquaintances had. Paul’s sufferings had produced fruit in people that he had never met. Many times in history someone has led someone else to the Lord. That someone else then led another person to the Lord and that third person went on to be a great man of God. This was the case with Billy Graham. The same here. Paul led people to the Jesus, who in turn led many people from Colosse to salvation.

The next phrase is interesting and fairly hard to understand. It does give us an opportunity to sharpen our Biblical interpretation shills. The phrase says, "…I fill up in my flesh that which is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions". This phrase seems to say that "Christ’s afflictions" were lacking and therefore Paul had to be afflicted in order to make up for this lack. This does not sound right. Why does it not sound right? Because the rest of Scripture tells us what Jesus did on the cross, and all that He suffered was sufficient for all people, for all times. Jesus’ sufferings were complete. Nothing should be added to what Jesus has already done for us. This is quite clear in Scripture. So what does Paul mean here, when he says that he had to "fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s affliction". He can’t mean that Christ’s afflictions was not sufficient and therefore he had to finish the work, or improve on it.

In Philippians 3:7-10 Paul says that he has given up everything in order to know Christ, and to "share in the fellowship of His sufferings" (Phil. 3:10) Right from the beginning of his life as a Christian, Paul new he was going to suffer for Jesus. (Acts 9:16) He not only knew that he would suffer, he embraced the sufferings. I believe that Paul’s mentality towards suffering was that if Jesus could suffer and die for me, then I could do the same for Him. Therefore he rejoiced when he could suffer for his Lord. Is this masochistic? No. It is called love. Paul loved Jesus. If he had to suffer to promote the love of God, he would gladly suffer. Paul did suffer. He did share in the "fellowship of Christ’s sufferings". Like Jesus, Paul was killed for the sake of the gospel. This is what Paul must mean in this verse. The sufferings of Christ has been extended in His people. The sufferings of Christ did not end on the cross. The sufferings of Christ continue to be experienced by his people. This is what it means when Paul uses the words "lacking in regards to Christ’s afflictions". In 1 Tim. 3:12 Paul warns Timothy that "all who live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution". This clearly tells us how Paul views persecution and suffering. In 2 Cor. 2:5 Paul also tells his readers that the "suffering of Christ flow over to His people". Here too we can see that the sufferings of Jesus did not end on the cross. His sufferings spill over on us. I haven’t heard too many messages on this topic lately.

Why does Paul suffer? Verse 24 says, "for the sake of Christ’s body". Jesus laid down his life for His people, and Paul did the same. He laid down his life for the sake of the church.

God "commissioned " (ch.1:25) Paul to preach the gospel. Paul gladly obeyed the commission. He became a slave to the gospel, and as we noted before, a slave by choice. As a slave he proclaimed the "word of God in all of its fullness". Paul did not leave anything out. Paul knew nothing of being "politically correct". What he knew was the gospel. He did not add to it, nor did he take from it to make it easier to be heard and accepted.

Paul, in many of his letters mentions "the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations". (ch. 1:25) Paul says that this mystery is now made known, and that the mystery is that Christ, by His Spirit can now live in God’s people which would include the Gentiles, not merely the Jews. This is part and parcel of the gospel. The good news of Jesus is for all mankind, not just for a specific group of people. Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross isn’t limited to any one group.

In verse 29 Paul says, "I labour, struggling with all His energy.." The preaching of the gospel was not an easy task for Paul. He "laboured", and he "struggled". Yet he did not labour and struggle in his own energy, but with the energy that came from God Himself through the Holy Spirit. The Spirit’s enabling did not take away the struggle, or the work involved. He only gave Paul the ability to carry on the work in the midst of the struggle. Why did Paul labour so hard? So he could "present everyone perfect in Christ". (ch.1:28) What does this mean? It can only mean one thing. We cannot be perfect in ourselves. Jesus, by His work of grace, demonstrated by His life and death has made us perfect in God’s eyes right now. Therefore as people give themselves to Jesus and the gospel, they in one sense of the word become perfect. As Paul says earlier in this chapter, "we are holy, without blemish and without accusation". This is now the position in which we stand as Christians before God. We can only thank Him for it.

As we read into chapter 2 Paul repeats himself concerning his struggling for the sake of the gospel. He says that he is putting forth this great effort for those that he hasn’t even met yet, so they could be "encouraged in heart and united in love". Paul continues to say that his struggles hopefully help these people to "know the mystery of God, namely, Christ". In Christ "are hidden all of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge". All knowledge and true wisdom can be and is found in Jesus. As I said earlier, Jesus is the ultimate truth of the universe. All truth comes from Him, being the central place where truth can be found.

"I tell you this so that no one can deceive you with fine-sounding arguments", continues Paul in verse 4 of chapter 2. Remember the Gnostic problem that is presenting itself in Colosse. Paul is speaking to this problem. By saying what he has just said about Jesus, he is saying that there is no other source for real knowledge. There is one source. There is one special Deity. There are not a number of little gods in Heaven that can dispense knowledge and wisdom to us. Jesus is not one of many. He is one of a kind. No matter how fine the arguments may sound, the Gnostic teaching is wrong.

Paul closes this section by saying that even thought he is not with these people in the flesh, he is with them in spirit. We should not make this statement an overly spiritual statement and make more of it than what Paul intends. Paul does not have nay ability to be with these people in some mystical spiritual way. In one sense of the word, we are all united in the Spirit as Christians. That does not mean we are like ghosts and can see into another city’s church gathering and spy on them. Paul is simply saying that we are all united with Christ in and by His Spirit, and in his heart he feels as if he is with them, even though he is not.

Freedom From Human Regulations Through Life With Christ (ch. 2:6-23)

Paul encourages these people to continue to live as people who have "received Christ as Lord". To me this is quite interesting in relation to the fact that when I was a child I often heard that we receive Christ as Saviour, then at some other point in our lives, we then receive Him as Lord. Some called this second experience "Entire Sanctification". I personally do not believe in such a teaching. Paul says it plainly here. We receive Jesus as Lord from the very beginning. Because He is Lord, He can be our Saviour.

When we become Christians we are supposed to grow in our faith, "rooted and grounded in Him". (ch. 2:7) Our faith should grow. What does this mean? It simply means that our trust in Jesus should become stronger. Really, when we come to Jesus in the first place we should think in terms of trusting Jesus with our whole life, including our salvation. Too often we trust in Jesus for our salvation and then try to trust him for other things. This is not how it works. We trust Him for every aspect of our existence, which would include our salvation. As we get rooted and grounded in Him, this trust will deepen, or become more real and effective.

Paul continues to exhort these people to let no one take them "captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy". (ch. 2:8) Paul is eluding to the Gnostic problem here. We have our own deceptive man-made philosophy and ways of thinking that confront the church in our day, just as they did in Paul’s day. We need to be grounded in the objective truth of Scripture in order for us not to be deceived.

Verse 9 is extremely important to Christian theology. It says, "for in Christ all of the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form". This clearly states that Jesus is God. All of who God is exists in Jesus, in His human body. The Deity of Christ, meaning, Jesus is God, is essential in Christian thinking and doctrine. Paul hits the Gnostic problem with this fact. There is only one Deity, only one God man. The Gnostics are wrong.

The Gnostics are wrong as well when it comes to us, and who we are in Christ. We, by the Spirit of God have all of the fullness of God at our disposal. We do not need thousands of other little gods, or deities to help us and to communicate with us. We are complete in Jesus, who is God.

Paul says that Jesus is "head over every power and authority". (ch. 2:10) When Paul uses this term "power and authority", he is often referring to spiritual powers and authorities. Jesus is the head of all spiritual identities. He is not one of them. He is over them. Jesus, once again, is one of a kind, not one of many.

Paul cannot seem to write a letter without getting into the topic of circumcision. This letter to the Colossians is no exception. He stresses the point that when we become a Christian and receive God’s spirit, we are then circumcised, but this circumcision is one of the heart and not of the flesh.

Paul relates all of this to water baptism. He says that when we were baptized, we were buried, or we put off the old way of living. In fact, so I believe, when we repented at initial salvation, we actually buried the old life. Water baptism is an outward expression of what took place at our initial salvation. Repenting is turning our backs on our old way of living in order to follow Jesus and the direction that He wants us to go. That is why I say that the process of repenting is actually the process of putting away the old life, as Paul puts it here.

In verse 12 Paul says that "we have been raised with Him through faith". Just as we died in repentance, we are raised to a new life when we first believe, or have faith. When we repent, we die. When we believe we are resurrected into someone new, by the power of God and the Holy Spirit.

The content of verse 13 can be found in many of Paul’s other writings. He says, "when you were dead in your sins … God made you alive with Christ". This is one of the central truths of the book of Romans. We must notice here that God comes to us with salvation when we are dead in our sins. We are truly dead, when it comes to the things of God and righteousness. The wages of sin is death. (Rom. 6:23) God told Adam in the garden that if he ate of the tree, he would die. So God comes to us when we are dead. We cannot come to Him. We are totally depraved and unable in our own right to come to Him. He must call us by His Spirit, then with the Spirit’s enabling, He can help us respond. God does not expect us to come to him on our own. He does not expect us to change ourselves before we come to Him. Yet after coming to Him and receiving His Spirit, change will come. We, because of the presence of the Holy Spirit will be changed as we grow in our trust in Jesus. Yet the point to be made here in this verse is that God first comes to us. Then once coming to Him "He has made us alive in Christ".

Paul goes on to say that God has forgiven our sins. How has He done this? Verse 14 says, "having cancelled the written code, with its regulations, that were against us, … He took it away, nailing it to the tree". This point here is another point that Paul often makes in his letters. As he says in Rom. 10:4, "Christ is the end of the Law". The Law, or the code as stated here in Colossians, has been cancelled. It has been nailed to the cross with Jesus. It is clear from this Scripture that the Old Testament Law has no place in New Testament Christianity. The Law’s time is over. It has had its place, but that place is gone. Jesus has now replaced the Law with Himself. This Law has no significance in our lives. I might also add, as I do whenever this topic arises, that if God’s Holy Law has nothing to do with our salvation, so no man made law has anything to do with our salvation. That is, if God’s Law can’t save us, then any rule that we make up as Christians can’t save us either. If we make up a rule and say that in order to be saved, or in order to keep being saved, we must do this or that, then we are in the wrong. We are telling Jesus what He did on the cross is not good enough, and we need to add a little to it to improve on what He has done. What a horrible and blasphemous thought.

The next point that Paul makes is also very interesting. He says in verse 15, "having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross". Let’s take some time and look at what Paul is saying, and what happened to Jesus on the cross.

Jesus says something interesting in Luke 22:53. The context to this verse is when the soldiers come to arrest Jesus. Part of His response to this event is this, "…this is your hour – when darkness reigns". What is Jesus saying here? He is saying that His arrest and subsequent execution is the highlight of the power of darkness. It appears that this is Satan’s "hour of power". It appears that Satan has now won the victory over God’s plan of salvation for his people. Indeed, Jesus called this Satan’s hour. By calling this event Satan’s hour, Jesus is recognizing the fact that Satan and his host have come to Jesus, and surrounded Him for the battle of a lifetime.

Yet at the same time, according to Isa. 53:10, we know that "it was God’s will to crush Him". It was God’s will to kill Jesus? So what is happening here when the soldiers come to arrest Jesus. We have two sides at work here. We have Satan and his host, and we have God Himself, both having a hand in the arrest of Jesus. Satan thinks that he has finally got Jesus, and will win the war against Him. God knows better. He is allowing this to happen because this will bring salvation to the world.

Jesus not only bore our sin and sickness on the cross. He received a horrible outpouring of God’s anger against Him. And then beyond that, He was tormented by Satan and his host in a way that had never been seen. Jesus had both sides coming down on Him at once while on the cross. God was punishing Him. Satan was attacking Him. Jesus had no help. He did not call on the heavenly host of angels who had helped Him in His hour of temptation in the desert. He was alone. "Why have you forsaken me", He cries out to God His Father.

Do you see the picture of what was happening here. Yet by the power of the Spirit Jesus endured it all and triumphed over the situation by rising from the dead and then ascending into Heaven. With this victory Jesus "disarmed the devil" as Paul says here. The Greek word that is translated as "disarmed" is the word "apekduo". This word means "to put off from one’s self". Jesus pushed away the powers of darkness when He was on the cross. By pushing Satan and his host away, He won the war. That which was meant to bring evil to Jesus ended up bringing good by God to us. You see the devil was hoping that this would be the end of Jesus and God’s plan of salvation. But in reality, it turned out to be the beginning of the end for the devil, resulting in good things for mankind. Jesus indeed did win this battle with the devil. He has disarmed the devil in the sense that we now have the ability in Christ to not be effected by the devil. He has no authority over us. We have the Holy Spirit as a result of the cross and Jesus’ ascension into Heaven. We now have the victory over Satan.

Note that Paul says that Jesus "made a public spectacle" of Satan. The cross was a very public event. Yes, not everyone in the world actually saw what happened on the cross. Everyone in the world was not standing at the foot of the cross as Jesus died. But the whole unseen world, the spiritual world saw everything that happened. The cross, although being an earthly event, was seen by the spiritual world more than it was seen by the physical world. All the angels of the universe could see the battle between the devil and Jesus. They all saw that Jesus clearly won the battle. This was in all reality a "public event".

Something else that should be said here is this. We see the two worlds colliding at the cross. Who was in charge, the devil or God? We see from Isa. 53:10 that the death of Jesus was God’s will and that it pleased Him immensely. But on the other hand we see Satan’s role in it all. The bottom line is this. Even though Satan thought he had the upper hand and was the one in charge, he was actually a tool used by God to do God’s will. How ironic. How embarrassing and damaging it was to the devil’s image. God used the devil to accomplish His will. God used His enemy to accomplish what He wanted to do. Now this is indeed making a public spectacle of the cross. Can you begin to understand how the devil must have felt. Here he thought that he was in charge, he was the one initiating the death of Jesus, but all along he was being used by God. He must have been really mad. How infuriated he must have been.

Verse 16 is a short version of Romans 14. To understand what Paul is saying here you need to read and understand Romans 14. Paul says, "therefore don’t let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day". Eating meat, drinking wine, or the adherence to special days have nothing to do with salvation. So if you eat meat, or drink wine, or choose not to celebrate special days, don’t let anyone judge you on those issues. Such issues have no relevance to salvation which is by trusting Jesus only. In Romans 14 Paul says concerning those people who maintain their salvation by not drinking wine, or by not eating meat, or by observing certain days, that they are weak in faith. Why are they weak in faith? Because they can’t seem to trust Jesus alone for their salvation. They feel they have to also rely on things that they do. For this reason they are weak in faith. They trust in some of their own good works to maintain their salvation. Paul argues against this type of thinking.

Paul continues to say that "these things are shadows of things that were to come; the reality however, is found in Christ". (ch.2:17) All of these Old Testament issues, like not eating certain meat were prophetic. They spoke of a future time and place. They in fact spoke of Jesus. So why would we want to make a major issues out of things that prophesied about something that had already been fulfilled? Why would we not want to major on the fulfillment, meaning Jesus Himself. It does not make a lot of sense to do this, but this is what some were trying to do. They were trying to live in Old Testament times, when those times had passed away. They were living in the past, a past that no longer had any significance. We still have a similar tendency today. We want to work out our salvation, we want to stay saved by following rules and regulations. This should not be. Read and understand Galatians 3 and this will become very clear to you.

In verse 18 we read, "do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize", You see the Gnostics were a bit like the Judaizers that Paul confronted in Galatia. These Gnostics worshiped angels as Paul says here. They, like the Judaizers, lived by Old Testament Law. They performed their good works. They submitted themselves to these good works and appeared very humble in the sight of others for doing them. Paul calls this false humility. Paul is encouraging these Colossians not to get caught up in their way of thinking. If they did they were in danger of "being disqualified for the prize", meaning salvation in all of its fullness. If you could be disqualified, that would mean that you would loose your prize. That would mean that you would loose your salvation. Thus Paul clearly states that you can loose your salvation. The way, and it’s the only way, that you can loose your salvation is to replace trust in Jesus with trust in your own good works. Paul says the same in Gal. 5:4, but in stronger terms. He says that you will "alienate yourself from Christ and fall from grace" if you make such a replacement for your faith.

In the next couple of verses you get a glimpse of who these Gnostics were. Paul says, "such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions". Do you see what Paul is saying here? These Gnostics claim to get "special revelation from God and angels. They appear to be very spiritual because of their great insight. Paul calls these people unspiritual, their minds being puffed up with idle notions. This is quite a blast against them. Paul goes on to say that in fact these people "have lost connection with the Head", meaning Jesus. They claim great spiritual insight, but in fact they have lost the connection to get real spiritual insight. They have lost their connection with Jesus. By loosing this connection they have lost their place in the body "which grows by God causing it to grow". Also, if they have lost their connection with Jesus, they have been cut off from Him and are no longer His, or no longer Christians.

In the remaining couple of verses Paul speaks to the issue of obeying the Law, or any other law as far as that goes. He says that "we have died with Christ". If this is the case, why are some trying to live according to human tradition by observing certain rules for purposes of salvation? He says that they give the appearance of humility, wisdom and worship but it is all false. Just because someone afflicts their body and tries to keep it under control does not mean he is spiritual. Such afflictions "lack any value in restraining sensual indulgences". By this Paul means that God’s Law, or man’s law cannot stop us from indulging in sensual pleasures. God’s Law was never meant to stop us from sinning. It was meant to point out our sin, to tell us what we are doing is wrong. If God’s Law could not stop us from sinning, any man made law cannot stop us either. Only the power of the Holy Spirit along with the objective Word of God can stop us from sinning.

Home Page

Next Page

sdsweetman@sympatico.ca