Colossians Study – Session 4
CrossPointe Community Church – Denton,
TX
February 3, 2013 - Larry Reynolds,
Teacher
I. The Supremacy of Christ
(1:15—23) — This passage is the very
heart of Colossians. As much as any other passage in the New Testament, this
passage teaches who Christ is and what He came to do. This passage gets at the very heart of
Christian theology. While there are many
areas of theology and biblical interpretation over which God's people may
legitimately differ, it is absolutely essential to our faith that we understand
clearly who Jesus is and what He came to our world to accomplish.
False teachings about Jesus abound in our culture:
·
Latter‑Day Saints (Mormons) ‑ Jesus was first spirit child born to God, the
Heavenly Father and His Heavenly Wife, the Heavenly Mother...Satan was the
spirit brother of Jesus and Jesus is spirit brother of man...
·
Jehovah's Witnesses ‑ Jesus was the first created son of God...Jesus and God are not
equal...before his earthly state, Jesus
was Michael, the archangel...became the Messiah at baptism...was not
resurrected physically but
spiritually...
·
Unification Church (Moonies) ‑ Jesus was illegitimate child of Zechariah and Mary...failed in His
mission as Messiah because did not marry
and father children of His
own…first Adam caused fall of
humanity...second Adam (Jesus) failed in
redemptive His mission...third Adam (Reverend
Moon) will accomplish task...
·
Islam -
Jesus was a prophet on the order of Moses but not as great as Muhammad…deny his
deity…
·
Radical Secular Humanists ‑ Dismiss Jesus as being product of someone's imagination...close
their eyes and minds to all the evidence
and refuse to admit any basis in fact/history to support claims Christians make
about Him...
And in world of such confusing messages, it is
imperative that we understand the truth about Jesus. In this session we have come to one of
greatest NT statements about identity of Jesus.
1. The scope of the
supremacy of Christ (15-18)
(1) In
Relation to God: Christ is “the image of
the invisible God” (15a) – The word image is eikon. It carries a double meaning
a. Jesus is the exact, precise representation
of God to man. He perfectly reveals God to man in a form which we can see
and understand and know. Eikon was used in the 1st century world to:
(a) Denote a portrait. The word carries the idea
of our word photograph. Jesus is the portrait of God.
(b) Describe the chief characteristics and distinguishing
marks of two people signing a legal contract. Paul is saying, “You know how if you enter a legal agreement
there is an eikon, a description by which you may be recognized. Well, Jesus is
the eikon of God. In Jesus you see nothing
less than the personal characteristics and the distinguishing marks of God. If
you want to see what God is like, look at Jesus.”
b. Jesus is the exact, precise representation
of what man should be. The word for image in the phrase “image of God” in the
creation story is the same as eikon. Paul is saying, “Look at Jesus. He shows you not only what God is, but he also shows
you what man was meant to be. Here is manhood as God designed it. Jesus is the
perfect manifestation of God and the perfect manifestation of man.”
(2) In Relation to Creation: Christ is “the
first-born of all creation…” (15b-17) – The word translated first-born is protokos. In English first-born would seem to indicate that Christ was the first production of
God’s creation. However, in Greek the
word translated first-born had only an
indirect relation to time. The word was
more a reference to rank that to chronology.
Our word protocol which comes
from protokos gives us some hint to
how the word is used here. We use the
word protocol to describe that which
takes precedence, that which comes first in order of importance. The word was used in in NT times as a title of
honor and refers to the peculiar rights and privileges of the first-born in an
ancient family. Paul is not saying that Jesus is the first created being (v. 16
contradicts that), instead he is saying that Christ is Lord over
creation.
In the
verses that follow, four prepositional phrases are used to describe how Christ
is “Lord over” creation:
a. “by (en) Him” (16) – The heresy that was infecting the church at
Colossae was an early form of a philosophy that came to be known
Gnosticism. One of the basic teachings
of Gnosticism was that material things were inherently evil. That being the case, how could a “good god”
create evil matter? The Gnostic answer
was that the supreme or true God did not create the universe. They taught that an elaborate system of
god-beings existed, and only the lowest one of these made the world. They also
taught that Christ was merely one of these beings. In contrast, Paul teaches
that Christ made all things, whether visible or invisible (even their so called
god-beings!!). Outside of His creative activity nothing was made. He is the Creator. As a part of the Godhead, the Trinity, He was
with God in the creative process (cf. John 1:1).
b. “through Him (16) – In other words, Jesus is the agent of creation. It happened through His activity.
c. “for Him”
(16b) - He is the goal and end of creation. Everything was made to be His and
to give glory to Him.
d. “in Him”
(17) – The phrase “…in Him all things hold together…” is one of the great phrases
of the Bible. He is the One who keeps
the cosmos from degenerating into chaos.
...the Son is the agent of creation in the beginning and the goal of
creation in the end and between the beginning and the end, during time as we
know it, it is the Son who, as it were, holds the world together. That is to say, all the laws by which the
world is an order and not chaos are an expression of the mind of the Son. Every law of science and nature is, in fact,
an expression of the thought of God … It is by these laws and therefore by the
mind of God that the universe holds together, and does not disintegrate into
chaos … So then, the Son is the beginning of creation and the end of creation
and the power that holds creation together.
He is the Creator, the Sustainer, and the Final Goal of the world. (Wm. Barclay)
(3) In
Relation to the Church: Christ is the “head of the body, the church…” (l:l8) - Three statements are made in verse 18
concerning the relationship between Christ and the church.
a. He is the head of the church
- Just as the physical body is powerless and dead without the head, so the
church is powerless and dead and without direction apart from Christ.
b. He is the beginning of
the church - The word for beginning is arche, and it has a double meaning. It means first in the sense of
time or order, i.e. ‘A” is the first letter in the alphabet. But it also
means first in the sense of originating power or the source from which
something comes. Christ began the church both in time and in originating power.
The world is the creation of Christ and the church is the new creation of
Christ.
c. He is the first-born from
the dead – To be consistent we must interpret the word “first-born”
in that phrase in the same way we translated it in the phrase “the
first-born of all creation” in v. 15.
The basic idea is not that Christ was the first person to be resurrected
completely (even though He was!). The basic idea is that He is Lord over death,
He has conquered man’s greatest enemy! Christ is not a dead hero or a past founder,
He is a living person!
The last part of v.18 gives the
result of Christ being “the image of the invisible God” (v.16a),
“the
first-born of all creation” (v.16b), and “the head of the body, the
church” (v.18). The purpose of
Paul’s telling us all that about Christ is “…so that He Himself will come to have first
place in everything…” If He is
indeed all that we claim He is, it makes perfect sense to give Him the absolute
priority in our lives. And that thought
leads into the next section of this amazing paragraph.
The result of these three statements is that in
everything Christ
2. The basis of the supremacy of Christ
(19-20)
(1) He is supreme because or
who He is (19) - He is God! “For it was the Father’s good pleasure for
all the fullness to dwell in Him…” The word translated fullness is pleroma. This was the term the Gnostics used to
describe the originating source from which all other gods came. Paul makes a broad, sweeping claim here about
Jesus. In effect he says go as far back
as you want, and it is Jesus all the way.
All there is of God is in Him.
And He is the full and final revelation of God, and nothing more is
necessary.
(2) He is supreme because of
what He has done (20) - He has reconciled to himself all things.
“reconcile”
– Means to return to the original owner or to bridge the gap. The initiative of
reconciliation was with God. We have been reconciled to God, not vice versa.
God never moved, humanity did!!
“all things” - Reconciliation extends not only to all persons, but to all creation,
animate and inanimate. God’s love did something for every part of the universe.
No doubt Paul was thinking of the Gnostics who were teaching that the world was
incurably evil. The phrase does not mean that every person is reconciled (universalism),
but the potential for reconciliation is available to all people.
“the blood of the cross” - It is the death of God’s Son on the cross which brought us back to God. The cross
is the proof that there is no length to which the love of God will refuse to
go.
“whether things in heaven or on earth” - Several different interpretations of this passage
have been suggested. Some say it:
·
Refers to the angels.
Some say even angels need reconciling to God.
·
Refers
specifically to Satan and his angels. Some say that in the end even
these will be reconciled to God.
·
Does not mean
anything definite or precise. A figure of speech to emphasize the complete
adequacy of Christ’s reconciling work.
·
Refers to angels
being reconciled but not to God, to men.
3. The result of Christ’s supremacy
(21-23) These verses give the complete history of every
believer. They tell us what--
--we were in the past before Christ...
--we are in the present in Christ...
--we will be in the future because of Christ...
·
Our past condition (vs. 21) - “...you
were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds...” is
quite graphic...there are several significant things to note about the word
translated “alienated”...
o
The word means to
be “cut off, estranged, or separated”... it carries the idea of being so
far from God that we have absolutely no use for Him...that we think we don’t
need God in our lives...that our own abilities and strengths are all we will
ever need...
o
The form of the
verb “alienated” indicates a fixed state or condition... wasn’t
an occasional estrangement/separation ...it’s not that we were apart from Him
one day but close to Him the next... we were permanently, continually in a
state of separation from God...
Verse 21
tells us this alienation from God manifested itself in two ways in our lives.
o
It made us “hostile
in mind”...that is, it polluted our thought process...it made us
incapable of understanding spiritual truth...you can’t reason on a spiritual
level with a person who is alienated from God...their minds are not capable of
understanding spiritual things...
o
Caused us to be “engaged
in evil deeds”...wrong thinking invariably leads to wrong
conduct...we’re not likely to do right it we don’t think right...
·
Our present condition (vs. 22a) – “…He has now reconciled you in His fleshly
body through death…” - “reconciled” is one of the great
word of the NT...it is one of five key words used in the NT to describe what it
means to be saved...the other words are justified, redeemed, forgiven, and
adopted...
o in justification the sinner stands before God
guilty and is declared righteous...
o in redemption the sinner stands before God a
slave and is granted freedom...
o in forgiveness the sinner stands before God a
debtor and the debt is canceled...
o in adoption the sinner stands before God a
stranger and is made a child of God...
o in reconciliation a sinner stands before God an
enemy and is made a friend...
V.22
tells us two important things about our reconciliation—
o It is something Jesus did...the verse says “...He
has now reconciled you...”...bridging the gap, overcoming the
separation which existed between us and God is something we could not
accomplish on our own...Christ did it for us...
o Our reconciliation was accomplished by the sacrificial
death of Jesus...He did it the verse says “...in His fleshly body through
death...”...this is a principle which occurs time and again in
Scripture...the sacrificial death of Jesus on the cross made it possible for us
to be reconciled to God...
·
Their future
condition (vs. 22b) - …to
present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach…” Paul makes them a wonderful promise...says
time will come when you will be presented to God “...holy and blameless
and beyond reproach...”...each of those were have special meaning…
o ”holy” means
to be separated from sin and set apart for God...
o ”blameless”
means without blemish...was used to describe animals acceptable for sacrifice
in the OT and to describe Christ as the spotless Lamb of God in the NT...
o ”beyond reproach” means a charge cannot be brought against us that will
stick...
No matter what a person may have done in the past...no
matter what mistakes a person has made...no matter what the shortcomings may
have been...when we stand before God He will see us as “holy, blameless,
and beyond reproach”...and that is so, because when He looks at us, He
sees His Son who became our substitute...Who paid the price for our sins...
Verse 23 describes the condition upon which our
transformation by Christ rests…
“If indeed you continue in that faith…”
·
In most English
translations, the first word in Colossians 1:23 is the word “if”...that
can be a little misleading...it’s easy to read this verse as if it is saying
that everything in vv.21-22 is true on the condition that you “continue
in the faith” and there is a possibility that you will not
continue...however, that is not at all what the verse is saying...
·
The grammatical
construction of this statement is such that it assumes the condition being
stated will be met...the phrase “if indeed you continue in the faith”
is not intended to raise doubts about their continuing...rather, it is an
expression of confidence that they will continue...the phrase can be
translated, “assuming that you will...seeing that you will...because you will...continue
in the faith...”...as one NT scholar put it, “The Greek indicates not
an uncertain prospect but ... a certain assumption. Paul is at once insistent and confident. They must continue [in the faith], and he is
sure they will.” [Radford, quoted
in Vaughn, p.50]
·
The word “continue”
is interesting...”epimeno”...another one of those compound words which
are so frequently found in NT...”epi” is preposition meaning “on”...”meno”
is verb meaning “to stay”...literally “epimeno” means to stay on
course...keep going right direction...to
avoid being sidetracked...
“…firmly
established and steadfast and not move away from the hope of the gospel…” - There is a graphic picture behind the way Paul
worded this verse which would have had special meaning to the Christians in
Colossae...Colossae was located in a region prone to earthquakes...several
times in its history earthquakes had caused severe damage to the town...and in
this verse Paul describes Christians as buildings strong enough to withstand
the earthquakes...real Christians are—
·
”established” - In the construction industry that word was used to
describe a strong foundation...
·
”steadfast” - In the construction industry that word was used to
describe a solid structure...
·
”not moved
away” - And that phrase literally
means “not earthquake stricken”...
