Colossians 1

CHAPTER 1THEME: Christ, the fullness of Godin Christ we are made full; Introduction; Paul’s prayer; person of Christ; objective work of Christ for sinners; subjective work of Christ for saints

Colossians 1:1

INTRODUCTIONThe four Prison Epistles of Paul, which include the Epistle to the Colossians, have been called the anatomy of the Church because their subjects cover all aspects of the Christian faith. In Colossians our attention is directed to the head of the body who is Christ. The body, the church, is secondary. Instead, Christ is the theme, and Christian living is centered in Him. Paul calls himself “an apostle of Jesus Christ,” and he always says it is “by the will of God.” Paul was in the will of God when he was an apostle. God made him an apostle. Are you in the will of God today? Are you serving Christ? Are you sure you are in the proper place? Are you sure you are doing the proper thing? I believe that every believer is called to function in the body of believers, but it is important to be functioning in the right way. There are too many people who are active, doing something that they are not supposed to be doing. Too often we try to imitate other people. We think, “I’ll get busy doing what brother so-and-so is doing.” We need to remember that our gifts are different, and we are each going to function a little differently. But we ought to be functioning. God made Paul an apostle. Did God put you where you are? When you know you are in the will of God, there is a deep satisfaction in life, by the way. “To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colosse.” He is not talking about two groups of people. The saints and the believing brethren are the same. Faithful brethren are believing brethren, and they are saints. We are not saints because of what we do. We are saints by our position. The Greek word for saints means “to be set apart for God.” Those who are set apart for God and the believing brethren are the same group of people. Notice that they are “in Christ” but they are “at Colosse.” The most important question is not, Where are you at? but Who are you in? That may not be good grammar, but it sure is good Bible. The saints are at Colosseit is important that we have an address down here. But we ought to have an address up yonder also: in Christ. “Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” We must know the grace of God in order to experience the peace of God. In the better manuscripts “and the Lord Jesus Christ” is not added. It says simply, “Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father.” It is important to remember that Paul is writing to counteract Gnosticism, which was the first heresy in the church. This was the Essene branch of Gnosticism. They relegated God to a place far removed from man and taught that one had to go through emanations to get to God. Have you ever noticed that all heathen religions and cults have some sort of an “open sesame” before you can get in to God? Paul makes it very clear here that grace and peace come directly “from God our Father.” We can come directly to Him through Christ.

Colossians 1:3

We can go directly to God. We do not need to go through any form of emanation at all. Anyone who is in Christ Jesus has access to God the Father. One of the benefits of being justified by faith is access to God through our Lord Jesus Christ. “Praying always for you.” You would find it very challenging to compile a list of the folk Paul said he was praying for, and add the Colossian believers to the list. He always prayed for them; they were on his prayer list.

Colossians 1:4

Here Paul links the trinity of graces for believers: (1) faithpast; (2) lovepresent; and (3) hopefuture. Paul is going to talk about the good points of these believers. They had faith toward God. Faith rests upon historical facts; it is based on the past. It was based on what they had heard before “in the word of truth of the gospel.” This refers to the content of the gospel, the great truths that pertain to the gospel of the grace of God. God has us shut up to a cross, and He asks us to believe Him. You haven’t really heard the gospel until you have heard something to believe. The gospel is not something for us to do. It tells what He did for you and for me over nineteen hundred years ago. “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom_10:17). Faith is not a leap in the dark. It rests upon historical facts; it is believing God. “And of the love which ye have to all the saints"faith is based upon the past, but love is for the present. It is nonsense today to boast of the fundamentalism of our doctrine and then to spend our time crucifying our brethren and attempting to find fault with them. There are too many “wonderful saints” looking down on their fellow believers who have not measured up to their high standard and who are not separated like they are separated. My friend, the world is not interested in that kind of approach. The world is looking to see whether Christians love each other or not. It is hypocrisy to consider oneself a Christian and then not to demonstrate love for the brethren. If we have disagreements with our brethren, we are to bear with them, we are to pray for them, and we are to love them. Remember that a Christian is a sinner saved by grace. None of us will ever be perfect in this life. A man came to me to criticize a certain Christian leaderand I don’t agree with everything that leader does eitherbut the Spirit of God is using that man in a mighty way. So I asked the man who was complaining, “Do you ever pray for him?” He answered, “No, I don’t.” I replied, “I think that you ought to pray for him. You may not agree with him on every point, but the Spirit of God is using him.” These Colossian believers had their good points. They were sound in the faith toward God. They were fundamental in their belief, and they also had love for the brethren. And Paul says that they had hope for the future"For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven.” In 1 Corinthians also Paul lists these three graces, but he lists them a little differently: “And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity” (1Co_13:13). He puts hope in second position and love is listed last. Why? Because love is the only thing that is going to abide. Love is for the present, it is true, but it is also going to make it into eternity. It is very important that we begin to exhibit love down here upon this earth, don’t you agree? That “hope which is laid up for you in heaven” is the blessed hope. We are to look for the coming of Christ; we are to love His appearing. “Whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth [content] of the gospel.” The gospel is a simple message which God simply asks you to believe. You are asked to believe on the basis of certain facts: Jesus Christ was virgin born. He performed miraces. He is the God-man. He died on a cross, was buried, and rose again. He ascended back into heaven.

He sent the Holy Spirit into the world on the Day of Pentecost to form the church. And He is sitting at God’s right hand today; His position there indicates that our redemption is complete. We are asked to enter into the rest which He offers to those who will come to Him. He has a present ministry of intercession for us. I think He has other ministries, too. And finally, He is going to return to this earth again.

These are all part of the glorious gospel. This is the “content” of the gospel, as Paul expresses it here.

Colossians 1:6

Paul says the gospel has come to the Colossians as it has come to “all the world.” Dr. Marvin R. Vincent, a great expositor of the Epistle to the Colossians, as well as other expositors, believes this is hyperbole. I’ll be honest with you, I also had difficulty accepting this statement. Is Paul trying to say that at this particular time when he was in prison in Rome the gospel had reached the world? That is what he says.

I have come to the position that I believe he meant what he said literally; it is not hyperbole. When I visited Asia Minor, I stood in Turkey at the city of Sardis and saw part of a Roman road that had been uncovered by excavation. That is the road that Paul traveled when he came down out of the Galatian country on the way to Ephesus. For three years he preached the gospel in Ephesus to people who were there from all over the Roman Empire. As a result, the gospel had gone ahead to Rome long before Paul was taken there as a prisoner. The word for “world” here is kosmos, and it simply means the Roman Empire of that day. The gospel at that time had penetrated into the farthest reaches of the Roman Empire. It may have even crossed over to Great Britain. Every part of the Roman world had heard the gospel. I tell you, my friend, those early apostles were on the move! I am reluctant to criticize anything they did. Paul says here that the gospel had gone into all the Roman world. “And bringeth forth fruit.” Wherever the gospel is preached it will bring forth fruit. Paul says that, and it is true. I must confess my faith was weak when we began our radio program. I determined to give out the Word of God, but I’ll be honest with you, I expected to fall on my face and see great failure. The biggest surprise of my life was that God blessed His Word. Was I surprised! I thought He would let me down, but He didn’t. He said He would bless His Word, and we can count on Him to do that.

It “bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth.” I am overwhelmed today by the letters and by the people I meet who say they were brought to Christ through our radio ministry. It started out so weakly. It was just a Mickey Mouse operation if there ever was one. But God blesses His Word. I don’t only believe that; I know it. I won’t even argue with anybody about that.

Some fellow comes to me and says, “Dr. McGee, I don’t believe the Bible is the Word of God.” And I say, “You don’t?” He says, “No. Aren’t you going to argue with me to persuade me?” I say, “Well, no.” And he asks, “Why not?” I have to say, “Because I know it is the Word of God. I don’t only believe it; I know it.” It would be just as if someone came to me and said, “Dr. McGee, I want to argue with you about whether you love your wife or not. I can give you several philosophical arguments that will show that you don’t love your wife.” Do you know, that fellow might out-argue me and whip me down intellectually. He might show me by logic and all types of argument that I don’t love my wife. Do you know what I would say? I’d say, “Brother, I don’t know about those arguments, but I want you to know one thing: I love my wife.” You see, that is something I know. I know I love her. I don’t need all those cogent, sophisticated, astute, esoteric arguments. There are some things we simply know. And we should not let what we don’t know upset what we do know. That is important for us to see. Paul says that the gospel will bring forth fruit. That is the wonderful confidence that we can have.

Colossians 1:7

Apparently Epaphras was the leader or the pastor of the church in Colosse. (Epaphras sounds like the name of a medicine to me, but nevertheless, that was the name of the fellow.) Paul calls him “our dear fellow-servant.” Have you noticed how graciously Paul could talk about other servants of God? Paul had something good to say about those who were preaching the Word of God. But when he found a rascal, he was just like our Lord in that he would really reprimand evil when he saw it. The Lord Jesus was so merciful to sinners. The woman taken in adultery should have been stoned to death, but notice how gracious our Lord was to her (see Joh_8:1-11). Then there was that arrogant Pharisee, Nicodemus, who came to the Lord Jesus and attempted to pay Him a compliment: “…Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God” (Joh_3:2). In effect, “We Pharisees know. And, brother, when we know something, that’s it!” The Lord Jesus so gently and so graciously pulled him down off his high horse. When the Lord got through with him, he was just plain, little old Nicky.

Little old Nicodemus was trying to be somebody, but he was nothing in the world but a religious robot going through rituals. The Lord Jesus brought him down to the place where he could humbly ask, “How can these things be?” Then the Lord Jesus led him to see the Cross. How gracious He was in dealing with folk like that!

Colossians 1:8

We will not find a great emphasis on the Holy Spirit in this epistle, but Paul does make it clear to the Colossian believers that they would not have been able to exhibit this love unless it were by the Holy Spirit. It was to the Galatians that Paul wrote that the fruit of the Spirit is love. In this epistle he will not dwell on that aspect. He is going to dwell on the person of Christ. As he does that, the Spirit of God will take the things of Christ and will show them unto us. That is the important work of the Holy Spirit.

Colossians 1:9

PAUL’S PRAYERIn this next section we have Paul’s prayer for the Colossians. This is one of the most wonderful prayers in Scripture. It is a prayer that I think touches all the bases, and it will be very helpful for us to notice what Paul prays for. It is very interesting that today we find people who are praying for these things. Paul makes it clear that we already have these things. Dr. H. A. Ironside speaks of the prayers that we hear people say which go something like this: “We pray Thee, forgive us our sins and wash us in the blood of Jesus.

Receive us into Thy kingdom. Give us of Thy Holy Spirit, and save us at last for Christ’s sake. Amen.” Did you know that God has already answered every one of those petitions? God has forgiven us all our trespasses. We are cleansed by the blood of Christ. He has already translated us out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the Son of His love.

He has sealed us with His Holy Spirit. “…if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his” (Rom_8:9). He has saved us eternally from the very moment we first believed the gospel. Therefore it would be more fitting to thank and praise Him for all these things than to be petitioning Him for what we already have. Instead of praying, “We ask this of Thee,” the prayer should be, “We thank Thee for all that You have already done.” Now we come to this wonderful prayer that Paul prayed. First he will make several petitions, and then he will thank the Lord for the things He has already done for us. The first thing for which Paul prayed was that they might be filled with knowledge. The Greek word is epignosis which means “a super knowledge.” The Gnostics, the heretics there in Colosse, boasted that they had a super knowledge. Paul says here, “I pray that you might be filled with knowledge, that you might have a super knowledge.” But Paul confines this knowledge to knowledge of the will of Godthis knowledge must be “in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.” Let me merely call attention to the fact that the word wisdom occurs six times in this short epistle.

Colossians 1:10

His second petition is that they might be pleasing to God. That means that these Christians will not be bowing down to men or attempting to please them. His third request is that they might be “fruitful in every good work.” The Christian is a fruit-bearing branch. Christ is the vine, and we should bring forth fruit. “Increasing in the knowledge of God.” A Christian should not be static but alive and growing in the Word of God. So their increase in the knoweldge of God is Paul’s fourth request.

Colossians 1:11

Here is his fifth request. Strength and power can come only from God; they are produced by the Holy Spirit. These believers are to be strengthened with all might “unto all patience and longsuffering.” And this patience and longsuffering is to be “with joyfulness.”

Colossians 1:12

Here is the beginning of the list of things for which Paul is thankful. All our prayers should be filled with thanksgiving. Paul is thankful that God by His grace has given us an inheritance with the saints in light. We ought to lay hold of that today. We should believe God and believe that His promise is true.

Colossians 1:13

Paul is thankful that we have been delivered from the kingdom of Satan. We were dead in trespasses and sins, going the way of the world. Now we have been translated into the kingdom of the Son of His love. This is the present aspect of the kingdom of God here on earth today. You can’t build the kingdom of God. The only way you can be a part of it is to open your heart and receive Christ as your Savior. That translates you into the kingdom of His dear Son.

Colossians 1:14

Not only have we been translated into His kingdom, but we also have forgiveness of sins in Him. This is always associated with the blood of Christ. God does not arbitrarily and sentimentally forgive sins. We have redemption through His blood"redemption" is apolutrosis which means “to set free an enslaved people.” He paid a price to deliver us out of slavery. Paul has given thanks for five wonderful truths. If we are trusting Christ, God has made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son. God has redeemed us through Christ and has forgiven us our sins through His blood. Yet there are a geat many Christian people today who pray for all five of these things. My believing friend, they are yours. Why don’t you thank Him for them?

Colossians 1:15

PERSON OF CHRISTWe spoke of the person of Jesus Christ in our study of the Song of Solomon. In Colossians we come in close on the subject and learn the theology of it. This is a very lofty, very exalted, and very grand section of this epistle. The subject here is the person of Jesus Christ. We cannot say too much about Him, and we will never in this life be able to comprehend Him in all of His wonder and in all of His glory. This section provides an answer to those who would deny the deity of Jesus Christ. To understand these verses is to realize how wonderful He really is. Paul is specifically attempting to answer one of the oldest heresies in the church, Gnosticism. Another of the first heresies was Arianism. Arius of Alexandria said that the Lord Jesus Christ was a creature, a created being. The Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325 answered this heresy saying, “The Son is very Man of very man, and very God of very God.” Later on in the history of the church, Socinus propagated the heresy that Jesus was not God and that mankind did not need a Savior from sin. He taught that we were not totally depraved. Today this is the basis of Unitarianism and some of the cults, including Jehovah’s Witnesses. There are given here nine marks of identification of Christ which make Him different from and superior to any other person who has ever lived.

1. He is the “image of the invisible God.” “Image” is eikon. How could He be the image of the invisible God? You cannot take a photograph or an image of that which is invisible. How could He be that? John makes this clear in the prologue to his gospel: “In the beginning was the Word.” That is a beginning that has no beginningChrist has no beginning. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (Joh_1:1). And then John says, “And the Word was made [born] flesh …” (Joh_1:14). If you want the Christmas story in John’s gospel, that is it: He was born flesh. This is the way that He became the image of the invisible God. How could He be that? Because He is God. If He were not God, He could not have been the image of the invisible God.
2. He is “the first born of every creature.” This reveals His relationship to the Father and His position in the Trinity. God is the everlasting Father; the Son is the everlasting Son. His position in the Trinity is that of Son. “Firstborn” indicates His priority before all creation. His headship of all creation does not mean that He was born first. We need to understand what the Scriptures mean by “Firstborn.” Nowhere does Scripture teach that Jesus Christ had His beginning at Bethlehem. We are told in the great prophecy of Mic_5:2 that He would be born in Bethlehem, but that He came forth from everlasting. Isa_9:6 tells us, “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given….” The child is born, but the Son is given. He came out of eternity and took upon Himself our humanity. Paul is dealing with one of the philosophies of that day, one of the mystery religions. It is called the demiurge, and it held that God created a creature just beneath Him; then that creature created a creature beneath him; then that creature created a creature beneath him. You can just keep on going down that ladder until finally you come to a creature that created this universe. These were emanations from God. Gnosticism taught that Jesus was one of these creatures, an emanation from God. Now Paul is answering that.

He says that Jesus Christ is the Firstborn of all creation, He is back of all creation. The Greek word is prototokos meaning “before all creation.” He was not born in creation. He is the One who came down over nineteen hundred years ago and became flesh. He existed before any creation: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made” (Joh_1:1-3).

God the Father is the everlasting Father. God the Son is the everlasting Son. There never was a time when Christ was begotten. There are several places in Scripture where the Lord Jesus is called the Firstborn. He is called the Firstborn of all creation; He is called the Firstborn from the dead; and He is called the only begotten. He is called the Firstborn from the dead later in this first chapter, verse Col_1:18. This is what the psalmist spoke of: “I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee” (Psa_2:7). Paul explained this idea further in that great sermon that he preached at Antioch of Pisidia in the Galatian country. Paul said there that the psalmist meant that Christ was begotten from the dead: “And we declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee” (Act_13:32-33). When Jesus Christ is called the Firstborn of all creation, it is not referring to His birth at Bethlehem. This is no Christmas verse. It means that He has top priority of position. It has nothing to do with His origin at all. The psalmist wrote, “Also I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth” (Psa_89:27). This makes it very clear that Christ as the eternal Son holds the position of top priority to all creation. In other words, He is the Creator. There is no demiurge, no series of creatures being created one after another. He Himself created all things. Let me mention some other verses of Scripture that speak of the person of Christ. In Heb_1:3 we read: “Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.” That doesn’t sound very much like He is a mere creature, does it? He is the Second Person of the Godhead. “And of the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire.” Now the Lord Jesus is not one of these creatures: “But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom” (Heb_1:7-8). So, my friend, what we are talking about here is not that the Lord Jesus was born a creature; we are talking about the fact that He is God. When He came into the world, a child was born but the Son was given, and He had come out of eternity. The angel’s announcement to Mary was “…that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God” (Luk_1:35). Why? Because that is who He is. He was the Son of God before He came into this world. “…Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Mat_16:16). Now we come to the next two great statements concerning the Lord Jesus:

Colossians 1:16

3. “By him were all things created.” If all things were created by Him, that clears up the question of His being a creature or the Creator. The statement that He is the Firstborn of all creation does not mean that He was created, but rather He is the One who did the creating. There are two kinds of creation, the “visible and invisible.” It is very interesting here to note that he mentions different gradations of rank in spiritual intelligences: thrones, dominions, principalities, powers. There are gradations in the angelic hosts. Other verses in Scripture tell us that there are seraphim and cherubim, and also the archangels. And then there are just the common, everyday, vegetable variety of angels. In Ephesians we note the fact that our enemy is a spiritual enemy. Satan has a spiritual host that rebelled with him. So there are different gradations of rank among our spiritual enemies, too.
4. It is wonderful to know that all things were created by Him. But there is another truth given to us here: All things were created “for him.” If you were to go out tonight and look up at the heavens, you would see a number of stars. Have you ever wondered why each star is in its own special position? Why is that star in that part of the heavens? It is in that part of the heavens because that is where Jesus wanted it. Not only did He create all things, but they were created for Him. One of the most wonderful truths in this connection is that we are told that we are heirs of God and joint-heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ. We have a big hunk of real estate coming to us someday. Maybe He will turn over a whole star to us. I don’t know; I have often wondered. I think we will be very busy in eternity. We will not be earthlings then, but we will be given a new body which is free from gravitation.

We will be living in a city called the New Jerusalem. We will be able to travel through God’s vast universe. I don’t know how much of that universe He is going to turn over to us. He made it all, created it out of nothing, and He is going to run it to suit Himself. This is His universe. If you have wondered why a certain tree has a certain kind of leaf, it is because that is the way He wanted it.

It was made by Him, and it was made for Him. We are going to enter into that someday: there is an inheritance prepared for us. I have never dwelt upon that very much because I feel that it is rather speculative. But I am sure that all of us wonder what it will be like when we are with Him in eternity. We do know it will be wonderful. You and I are living down here in tents. Paul calls these bodies of ours just thattents. He says, “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved …” (2Co_5:1). A tabernacle is a tent. This tent will go right back to the ground because the body is to be put into the ground at death. We will have moved out of our tent. He says, “…willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord” (2Co_5:8). When we are absent from these old bodies down here, we will be present with the Lord. We will be at home with Him. You may be living in a home that cost $500,000. I have news for you: you are actually living in a flabby, old, frail tentall of us are. But one of these days we will have our glorified bodies, and then we will receive our inheritance! You can have your $500,000 houseyou won’t be in it long, anyway. Our new body is for eternity, and we will be at home with Him forever. This is the prospect ahead for the child of God. I’m rather looking forward to it. “All things were created by him, and for him.”

Colossians 1:17

5. “He is before all things.” All fullness dwells in the preincarnate Christ, and all fullness dwells in the incarnate Christ. “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Col_2:9). We are made complete in Him. He was before all things. He is the preincarnate Christ.
6. “By him all things consist.” He holds everything together. He maintains creation. He directs it. “Consist” is sunistemi which means to hold together. He is the super glue of the universe. A few years ago in our lifetime, man did a very daring, and I think now, a very dastardly deed: he untied the atom. The Lord Jesus tied each one of those little fellows together when He created the atom. Man did what he called splitting the atom. Believe me, did he release power! Have you ever stopped to think of the tremendous power that there is in the atoms of this universe? If one bomb that we can hold in our hand can blow a whole area to smithereens, then how much power is tied up on this vast physical universe? Who is holding all that together? We are told that Christ not only created it but that He holds it together. I would say that holding it all together is a pretty big job. The Lord Jesus Christ is the One who is able to do that. We have this same truth repeated for us in Hebrews: “Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Heb_1:3). He’s a wonderful person, isn’t He? He’s a glorious person!

Colossians 1:18

7. “He is the head of the body, the church.” I believe this is the key to the Epistle to the Colossians, which is really a companion epistle to the Epistles to the Ephesians and the Philippians. In Ephesians we had the emphasis on the fact that the church is the body of Christ down here in the world. The emphasis was upon the body. In Colossians the emphasis is upon the head of the body, the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Ephesians we read, “And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church” (Eph_1:22). And finally, in Philippians we see the church with feet, walking through the worldwe see the experience of the church, the experience of the believer. These are companion epistles. “The firstborn from the dead.” Did you know that there is only one Man who has been raised in a glorified body today? He is the firstfruits of them that sleep. When a loved one who is in Christ dies and you put that body into the grave, you are just putting it into a motel. It is like putting it into a hotel for a few days, because there is a bright morning coming. The body is put to sleep, but the individual has gone to be with the Lord. When Christ comes to take His church out of this world, then that body is going to be raised on the basis of His resurrection.

It is sown in corruption, but it will be raised in incorruption (see 1Co_15:42). We shall be just as He is. “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is” (1Jn_3:2). 8. “That in all things he might have the preeminence.” You cannot think of anything more wonderful than this. The will of Christ must prevail throughout all of God’s creation. That is God’s intention. Even in spite of the rebellion of man down here on earth, God says, “Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion” (Psa_2:6). God is moving forward today undeviatingly, unhesitatingly, uncompromisingly toward one goal. That goal is to put Jesus on the throne of this world which today is in rebellion against God. That is the objective of God.

Colossians 1:19

9. “It pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell.” The fullness is the pleroma. That is one of the most important words in this epistle. Over in Philippians it was the kenosis. That is, it emphasized that Christ emptied Himselfe and became a servant; He emptied Himself of the glory that He had with the Father. He didn’t empty Himself of His deityHe was God when He came to this earth. The pleroma, the full fullness of God, dwells in Him. When He was down here on this earth, the pleroma was at home in Jesus. He was 100 percent Godnot 99.44 percent, but 100 percent. That little baby that was lying on the bosom of Mary over nineteen hundred years ago seemed so helpless, but He could have spoken this universe out of existence. He is Man of very man; He is God of very God. That is who He is. We can outline these verses from another perspective. I would like to do this for you in order to add to our understanding of this portion of Scripture.
10. Christ’s relationship to the Fatherverse Col_1:15
11. Christ’s relationship to creationverses Col_1:16-17
12. Christ’s relationship to the churchverses Col_1:18-19
13. Christ’s relationship to the crossverse Col_1:20

Colossians 1:20

OBJECTIVE WORK OF CHRIST FOR SINNERSWe are going to see here the things Christ has done for us. “Having made peace through the blood of his cross” means that by His paying the penalty on the cross for your sin and my sin, peace has been made between God and the sinner. God does not approach man today and say to him, “Look here, fellow, I’m against you. You have been rebelling against Me. You are a sinner, and I am forced to punish you for that.” No, God is saying something entirely different to the lost sinner today. He says to you and to me, “I have already borne the punishment, I have already paid the penalty for all your sin. I want you to know that you can come to Me. Peace has already been made in Christ Jesus, if you will just turn and come to Me.” This is what Paul meant when he wrote, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom_5:1). Peace has been made through the blood of His cross. Paul puts forgiveness of sin right along with the blood of the cross. God can forgive because the penalty has already been paid. Jesus paid that penalty through the blood of His cross; therefore a righteous God can forgive you. God is not a disagreeable neighbor who is waiting around the corner to pounce on the sinner and to find fault with him. God has His arms outstretched and is saying, “Come, and I will give you redemption rest.” “By him to reconcile all things unto himself.” Reconciliation is toward man; redemption is toward God. God is saying to all men today, “I am reconciled to you. Now will you be reconciled to Me?” That is the decision a man must make. Paul explains this very clearly in his letter to the Corinthians. “And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God” (2Co_5:18-20). A great many people have the idea that a man must do something to win God over to him. My friend, God is trying to win you overthe shoe is on the other foot. God is reconciled. He is asking man to be reconciled to Him. “Reconcile all things"some people take this statement and get the foolish notion that everybody is going to be saved. To understand this we need to pay a little attention to the grammar that is here. What are the “all things”? We will see that it is limited to all things that are to be reconciled, those which are appointed for reconciliation. Maybe it would help us if we look at Php_3:8 where Paul says, “Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord….” What are the “all things” here? Does Paul include everything in the whole world? No, it refers to all the things that Paul had to lose. In the verses just previous Paul had enumerated all the religious pluses which he had had in his life. It is all these things which Paul counted for loss. Paul couldn’t lose something that he didn’t have. “Whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.” You will notice that Paul limits the “all things” that are appointed to reconciliationhe doesn’t mention things under the earth. In Eph_1:22 it says, “And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church.” What are the “all things” that are going to be put under His feet? Well, in Philippians Paul wrote, “That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth” (Php_2:10). Notice that all things are going to acknowledge the lordship of Jesus Christall things in heaven, in earth, and under the earth. That doesn’t mean that they are all reconciled. Paul makes no mention of things under the earth being reconciled to God. My friend, don’t listen to the deception, the siren song, that all is going to work out well. Don’t think you can depend on God being nice and sweet and pleasant like a little old lady. Things in heaven and in earth are reconciled to God, but not the things under the earth. The things under the earth will have to bow to Him, but they are not reconciled to Him at all. This is the place and this is the life in which we need to be reconciled to God. “Things in heaven"not only must we be made ready for heaven, but heaven must be made ready to receive us. The Lord Jesus said, “…I go to prepare a place for you” (Joh_14:2). By the Incarnation God came down to man; by the blood of Jesus man is brought up to God. This blood also purifies things in heaven according to Heb_9:23-24. Heaven must also be reconciled.

Colossians 1:21

God did not wait until we promised to scrub our faces, put on our Sunday clothes, and go to Sunday school before He agreed to do this work of reconciliation. It was while you and I were in rebellion against Him, while we were doing wicked works, that He reconciled us to Himself. No man can say, “I’m lost because God has not made adequate provision for me.” A man is lost because he wants to be lost, because he is in rebellion against God. “That were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind.” This reminds us that there is a mental alienation from God as well as a moral alienation. A great many people think that men are lost because they have committed some terrible sin. The reason people are lost is that their minds are alienated from God. I think this explains the fierce antagonism toward God on the part of the so-called intellectuals of our day. There is an open hatred and hostility toward God. Some time ago I had the funeral of a certain movie star out here in California. The Hollywood crowd came to the funeral. One of the television newscasters commented on the funeral, and I appreciated what he had to say about it. He said, “Today Hollywood heard something that it had never heard before.” But I also saw something there at that funeral that I had never seen before. I had never seen so much hatred in the eyes of men and women as I saw when I attempted to present Jesus Christ and to explain how wonderful He is and how He wants to save people. There is an alienation in the mind and heart of man.

Colossians 1:22

“The body of his flesh"here is an explicit declaration that Christ sufferednot just in appearancebut He suffered in a real body. This directly countered one of the heresies of Gnosticism in Paul’s day. “To present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight.” Unblameable means “without blemish.” That was the requirement of the sacrificial animal in the Old Testament. You and I cannot present perfection to God, and God cannot accept anything short of perfection. That is the reason we cannot be saved by our works or by our character. We simply cannot meet the demands of a righteous God. But He is able to present us unblameable. Why? Because He took our place. “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2Co_5:21). Unreproveable means “unaccusable or unchargeable.” God is the One who justified us. If God declares us to be justified, who can bring any kind of a charge against us? He is the One who has cleared us of all guilt.

Colossians 1:23

This is not a conditional clause that is based on the future. The if that Paul uses here is the if of argument. It does not mean that something shall be if something else is true; rather it means that something was if something else is true. We would say, “Since ye continue in the faith grounded and settled.” Paul’s point is that we have been reconciledit is an accomplished fact. So if you are a child of God today, you will continue in the faith grounded and settled. You will not be moved away from the hope of the gospel which you have heard. “Whereof I Paul am made a minister.” Paul loved to look back and rest in his glorious privilege of being a minister of Jesus Christ. I consider that the greatest honor that can come to any person. I thank God every day for the privilege that He has given me of declaring His Wordthere is nothing quite like that.

Colossians 1:24

SUBJECTIVE WORK OF CHRIST FOR SAINTSLet me give you a free translation of this verse. “Now I, Paul, rejoice in the midst of my sufferings for you, and I am filling up in my flesh that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ for his body’s sake, which is the church.” Paul is saying here that it was necessary for him to fill up in suffering that which was lacking in the suffering of Christ. Isn’t that a startling statement? Someone will say, “Doesn’t that contradict what you have been teaching all along? You say Christ suffered for us and paid the penalty and there is nothing we can do for salvation.” That is very true, and this verse does not contradict that at all. Paul was suffering in his body for the sake of Christ’s body. The implication seems to be that there was something lacking in the sufferings of Christ. A second implication could be that it was necessary for Paul, and I think in turn for all believers, to make up that which is lacking. In other words, when Paul suffers for them, it completes the suffering of Christ. All of this is rather startling because we have just called attention to the fact that this epistle teaches the fullness of Christ. “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Col_2:9). Everything is centered in Him. He is to have the preeminence in all things. Yet here it would seem that there is still something to be done. Paul is writing this epistle from prison, and he says he has fulfilled all his sufferings. You may remember that the Lord Jesus revealed to Ananias the reason He had saved Paul and how He was going to use him. “But the Lord said unto him [Ananias], Go thy way: for he [Paul] is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel: For I will shew him how geat things he must suffer for my name’s sake” (Act_9:15-16). Now Paul writes from prison and says that he has fulfilled that. In our discussion of this verse I want to make one thing very, very clear. The sufferings of Paul were not redemptive. There was no merit in his suffering for others or even for himself as concerning redemption. Paul is very careful in his selection of words here. When Paul speaks of the redemption of Christ, he does not speak of suffering but of a cross, a death, and His blood. There are two kinds of suffering. There is ministerial suffering and there is mediatorial suffering. Christ’s suffering for us was mediatorial. Actually, we can consider the sufferings of Christ and divide them into two further classifications. There is a sharp distinction between them. We will do that to clarify this passage of Scripture.

1. There are the sufferings of Christ which He endured and in which we cannot share. He suffered as a man. He endured human suffering. He bore the suffering that is common to humanity when He was born in Bethlehem at His incarnation over nineteen hundred years ago. When He was born, did He cry like other little babies that come into the world? I have wondered about that, and I rather think that He did. He was clad in the garment of that frail flesh that you and I have. He could get hungry. He could become thirsty. He experienced loneliness. He suffered anguish and pain and sorrow. He could go to sleep in the boat because He was weary and tired. Those are human sufferings. We all have those. Paul wrote, “For every man shall bear his own burden” (Gal_6:5). There are certain burdens we must each bear alone. We are born alone. So was our Lord. We feel pain alone. There are certain problems in life that each of us must face, and we face them alone. There is a sorrow that comes that no one can share with us. We become sick, and no one can take our place. When my daughter was just a little girl I remember crossing the desert of Arizona coming back from the East. It was the hot summertime, and she had been sick. My wife took her temperature, and it was up to 104 degrees. We took her to the hospital in Phoenix. As she was lying there with that high temperature, I would have given anything in the world at that moment if I could have taken her place. I would gladly have taken that fever for her, but I couldn’t do it. We can’t share such things. There will come a time when you and I will go down through the valley of the shadow of death. Humanly speaking, we will each die alone. That is the reason it is so wonderful to be a Christian and to know that Jesus is with us at that time when no one else can go through death with us. Jesus Christ suffered human suffering. That is a suffering which cannot be shared. The second suffering which He could not share was His suffering as the Son of God. He is God, yet He identified Himself with mankind. No mortal has ever had to endure what He went through. He was made like unto His brethren, and He suffered; but He suffered as the Son of God. We see this suffering in Psalms 69. It tells us in verses Psa_69:11 and Psa_69:12 that He was the song of the drunkards in that little town of Nazareth. And He said that He made sackcloth His garment. Oh, what He suffered because He was the Son of God! He was arrested. The soldiers of the high priest mocked Him.

They put a robe on Him and a crown of thorns. They played a Roman game known as “Hot Hand” in which they blindfolded Him and then all the soldiers would hit Him with their fists. One of the soldiers would not hit Him, and when they removed the blindfold He was supposed to say which one had not. Even if He named the right one, they would never have admitted that He was right. Then they would put the blindfold on and play the game again. They all pounded Him until the Lord Jesus Christ was marred more than any man.

They had beaten His face to a pulp before they ever put Him on the cross. He suffered in a way that no other man has suffered, because He suffered as the Son of God. And then He suffered as the sacrifice for the sin of the world. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and none of us can enter into that suffering at all. We can appropriate His death for us, we can recognize the fact that He took our place, but we cannot enter into it. He alone went to the cross. He was forsaken of God and forsaken by men. His was not the blood of martyrdom; His was the blood of sacrifice. In His first three hours on the cross, man did his worst. It was light from nine o’clock until noon; man was there at his evil worst. In the second three hours, from noon until three o’clock, it was dark; that was when God was doing His best. At that time the cross became an altar on which the Lamb of God was slain to take away the sin of the world. “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust …” (1Pe_3:18). That’s a suffering that you and I cannot bear; He could not share that with anyone else. 2. On the other hand, there are the sufferings Christ endured which we can share. These are the sufferings which Paul refers to in verse Col_1:24. There is the suffering for righteousness’ sake. In the synagogue in Nazareth, His own hometown, Jesus said, “But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth …” (Joh_8:40). He suffered for righteousness’ sake, and we are told very definitely that we will do the same: “But and if ye suffer for righteousness’ sake, happy are ye …” (1Pe_3:14). Paul wrote to young Timothy: “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (2Ti_3:12). May I say to you that if you are going to live for God, if you are going to take a stand for the right, you will find that you will be passed by. God’s men are passed by today in the distribution of earthly honors. The world will damn the man of God with faint praise, and they will praise him with faint damns. That is the way the world treats God’s men today. Athletes are lauded, people in the entertainment world are praised, politicians are praised, and professors are honored; but the man of God is not praised. If you stand for the things that are right in this world, you will suffer for righteousness’ sake.

Paul understood this, and he wrote, “As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter” (Rom_8:36). That will be the lot of anyone who stands for God. Then there is the suffering in the measure we identify ourselves with Christ for the proclamation of the gospel. John wrote, “…because as he is, so are we in this world” (1Jn_4:17). The Lord Jesus made it very clear, “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you” (Joh_15:18-19). If you are not of the world, the world will hate you. The popularity of the Christian with the world is in inverse ratio to his popularity with Christ. If you are popular with the world as a Christian, then you are not popular with Christ. If you are going to be popular with Christ, you are not going to be popular in this world. The child of God is to take his rightful place and identify himself with Christ. When we suffer for Christ, the Lord Jesus is also suffering through us, through His church. You remember when the Lord Jesus appeared to Saul on the road to Damascus, He said, “…Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” (Act_9:4). That young Pharisee was startled and puzzled. Saul of Tarsus thought that he was persecuting Christians. He was shocked to learn that he wa actually persecuting the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what Peter wrote about our suffering: “Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy” (1Pe_4:12-13). There is one thing for certain: If the gospel is to go forward today, someone must suffer. The late Dr. George Gill said that when a child is born into this world, some woman must travail in pain; and the reason there are not more people being born again is because there are not enough believers who are willing to travail. Suffering is not popularbut that is what Paul is talking about in this verse. All of us would like to see revival. We talk glibly about witnessing and about living for God and all that sort of thing. My friend, may I say to you that if the gospel is going to go forward today and if people are going to be saved, someone is going to have to pay a price. How much are you paying to get out the Word of God? What is it really costing you? Are you willing to suffer for the sake of the gospel?

Colossians 1:25

The word dispensation means economyeven by transliteration; it is a stewardship. We talk of political economy, domestic economy, business economy. God deals with the world on the basis of different economies or stewardships, 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 some day die for them. That was the economy or the stewardship which God has set 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 dispensation of God which is given to me for you,” Paul writes to the gentile people in Colosse. They are a part of this new dispensation. The Gentiles are to be included in the church. “To fulfill the word of God.” This was something that had been hidden in the Old Testament, but now God has declared that the gospel must go to the Gentiles.

Colossians 1:26

A “mystery” is 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 savedthat 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. “Now is made manifest to his saints"Paul wasn’t the only one who understood this mystery. God was making it known to His saints in that day.

Colossians 1:27

“Christ in you, the hope of glory"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.

Colossians 1:28

“Whom we preach.” The gospel is not what we preach, but it is whom we preach. No man has ever preached the gospel who hasn’t preached Christ. Jesus Christ is the gospel. He is eternal life. John wrote that he was going to show us eternal life, that he had seen eternal life (see 1Jn_1:1-2). Whom had John seen? He’d seen Christ. And, my friend, today you either have Him or you don’t have Him. The gospel is Christwhat He has done for us in His death and resurrection and what He is going to do in the future. “Warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom.” I believe there are two commands here for ministers todaythese are two things we should be doing. We are to preach the gospel in order to win sinners to Christ and to save them from the wrath that is to come, and we are to teach every man in all wisdom. In other words, we are to seek to build up men and women so that they may grow in grace and be faithful members of the body of Christ; they are to be encouraged to serve Christ in the local assembly. I am told that my teaching of the Bible helps the local churches, and that is the reason I have the support of so many pastors across this country. If I am not doing that, then I would have to say I am not fulfilling my ministry. “That we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.” Perfect actually means “complete or mature.” This is the goal of the teaching of the Word of God.

Colossians 1:29

Striving means “to agonize.” Paul is giving us his very personal testimony: “This is what I’m laboring, striving to do.” “According to his working, which worketh in me mightily.” Oh, this should be the desire of everyone today who is working for Christthat He would work in us mightily to do two things: to get out the gospel that men might be saved and then to build them up in the faith. These are the two things the church should be doing today.