Month: August 2018

Some years ago, Eugene Peterson wrote a book with this title:  A Long Obedience in the Same Direction:  Discipleship in an Instant Society.  I never read it, but the title intrigues me.  Learning to obey takes a lifetime .  And the path winds through some rugged terrain.  That’s where the “if” confronts us.  But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Paul climaxed his previous paragraph revealing God’s purpose for the Son.  As the head of the body, the church, and as the beginning and the firstborn from the dead, in the new creation God will exalt Christ to the highest rank. According to Paul, he will have the supremacy.

Why?  Not only because of the foregoing (1:15-18), but also because of the following:

RECONCILED

“For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross” (1:19,20).

God was pleased to have all his deity dwell in the Son.  And God was pleased  to reconcile all things to himself through the Son.  He made peace through the Son’s blood, shed on the cross.  Thus at the heart of the gospel stands, not a tidy doctrine, but a bloody Savior nailed to a bloody cross.  The Son is supreme in the church because he sacrificed himself to reconcile all things to the Father.

All things?  Here we first confront the big “if”.  Christ will present you holy If you continue in the faith (1:21-23).  If “all things” refers to people, reconciliation is limited to believing people.  But “all things” doesn’t sound like people.  How about the vast creation?

In Romans 8 Paul tells us that God subjected creation to frustration.  It’s now in bondage to decay, groaning as in the pains of childbirth.  But “creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God”—our “adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies”.  It seems to me creation is part of the “all things” that will be reconciled to God.  And that will mean a new creation arising from the old.

That Christ should receive the supremacy shows us the cost of the cross.  The Son’s physical suffering was horrific.  Crucifixion is an unspeakably cruel way to die.  But far worse was the spiritual suffering.  The Son endured the Father’s  wrath against all our sin.  “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me” was more than the Son feeling forsaken; the Son suffered hell—the absence of God.  This was the cost of reconciling rebels back to God—and the cost of reconciling all things back to himself.  It’s a cost beyond human comprehension.

“Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.  But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation–if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant (1:21-23).

The Colossians–and we–were alienated from God.  The Greek is apokatallawsso—a stranger to God, separated from him.    We were “enemies in [our] minds.”  Greek ekthros—hostile toward God, opposed to him in the realm of understanding.  This enmity was expressed through “evil behavior”.

Has Paul gone too far?  Many who don’t believe in the Son’s work on the cross don’t act like enemies toward God.  Many, in fact, do what the Scripture calls “good works”–sacrifice to help the poor, for instance.  But, you see, everyone who tries to “make peace” with God apart from Christ’s costly grace on the cross opposes God’s way to reconciliation.  Even the good-doer’s deeds are evil if he disbelieves Christ’s reconciling work through his blood shed on the cross—or thinks he doesn’t need it.

The Colossians, writes Paul, were once alienated from God and enemies to him, “But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation”.

“But now” emphasizes the sharp transformation in the Colossians.  God has reconciled them “by Christ’s physical body through death . . . “  Why the emphasis on “Christ’s physical body”?  William Barclay (20^th century author and Professor of Divinity and Biblical Criticism at the University of Glasgow) comments . . .

“The Gnostics (whose influence with the Colossians Paul is confronting) completely denied the real manhood of Jesus. In their own writings they, for instance, set it down that when Jesus walked, he left no footprints on the ground. That is why Paul uses such startling phraseology in Colossians. He speaks of Jesus reconciling man to God in his body of flesh (Colossians 1:22); he says that the fullness of the godhead dwelt in him bodily. In opposition to the Gnostics, Paul insists on the flesh and blood manhood of Jesus.^”

With reconciling death of the God-Man Jesus,  God has a purpose:   that at Christ’s coming  we might be presented “holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation . . .” 

“Holy” translates the Greek hagios.  Its basic idea is set apartness.  The holy person is set apart from the world to God.  He will present us “without blemish”.  Blemish is that big pimple on my chin.  In this case, “without blemish” means having no (moral) defect.  Not even pimple size.  And he will present us “free from accusation”. No one will accuse us of wrongdoing.  In fact, no one will be able to accuse us, because Christ’s reconciling death makes us free from accusation.

IF

Christ will present us holy and blameless and free from accusation “if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel” .  The Greek, epimeno, means “to persevere or persist”.  If we epimeno, we will be presented holy.  Here the terrain gets rough.  Physical suffering.  Hostile persecution.  Unanswered prayers.  Opposing worldviews.  If we persevere in faith, holding on to hope, we’ll be presented holy.

And if we don’t?  That raises debate.  Some believe a believer can fall away from faith, not continue (Arminian belief).  Others believe God insures that believers will persevere to the end, continue (Calvinistic belief).

There’s a place for that debate.  But not here.  Paul’s “if” is meant to move us on.  To aim at continuing in our faith and gospel hope.

I used to jog.  No marathons, just 5 or 6 miles on neighborhood streets.  My goal wasn’t  speed or record time.  No way I could sprint 5 or 6 miles.  My goal was to continue on course and get back to my house without stopping, without turning aside.  If I could continue stride by stride, block by block, even if my legs ached or breath was short, I’d “win the prize”.

I can’t walk anymore; but I’m still running toward the prize!

I was surprised at the poll.  In 2015 George Barna found that  56% of all American adults said Jesus is God.  And 62% of all Americans said they’ve made a personal commitment to him that is still important at the time of the poll. If so, Paul’s words in Colossians 1:15-18 may not sound so extreme.  Yet they do to me; besides, I’m skeptical about polls.)

Christology is the study of Christ.  But we can’t study Christ as we’d dissect a frog or explore the history of the hemisphere.  Christ is a living person.  And Paul’s words about him here move us to reverence and awe.  We’re on holy ground.

“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation” (1:15).

“He” refers back  to the Son the Father loves (1:13).  “He” is ”the image of the invisible God”.  “ . . . image” is the translation of the Greek eikown.  The Son is the embodiment, living manifestation, form, appearance of “the invisible God”.  God is invisible, a spirit not able to be seen.  But Jesus is God in bodily form.  The unseen God seen.

Philip asks Jesus to show the disciples the Father. Jesus replies, “Don’t you know me Philip? . . . anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:8,9).

This, as we used to say, blows my mind.  Jesus, who walked this earth, who got hungry and thirsty and tired, who surrendered to crucifixion and whose tomb was empty on the third day, was God, the Creator of the universe.

He is “the firstborn over all creation”.  Does Paul mean Jesus was birthed first?  The Greek prototokos can refer to the first child in the family.  Or it can refer  to a preeminent one.  The context determines the meaning.  The words that follow—” the firstborn over all creation (not “in” or “of” ) . . . that in everything he might have the supremacy” (1:15,17)—govern the meaning.  Jesus is the firstborn—the preeminent one over all.

Paul is countering the beginnings of a religious philosophy that would blossom in the 2nd century, but was already influencing the Colossians.  Gnostics believed that God is spirit, and spirit is good.  But matter is evil.  The world of matter was mistakenly created by a lesser divinity.  Salvation–the escape from the world of matter to the spirit-realm–came by secret knowledge. Jesus is only a heavenly messenger.  Gnosticism gained notoriety in the 2016 Tom Hanks movie, “The DaVinci Code”.

“For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him” (1:16).

Paul gives the basis underlying the Son’s firstborn status.  He is the means by which all things have been created.  This includes  “ . . . things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible”.   In short, nothing anywhere was not created through the Son.

By him galaxies billions of light years from us in space and dust mites in the air around us were created.  So was a summer breeze and the sun’s heat.  A giant oak tree and bothersome weeds.  A bright full moon and a dark night sky.

“whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities . . . “.  Even the invisible realm of angels, good and bad, at work in the world.  The scope of the Son’s “firstborn” creative power encompasses all.

” all things were created . . . for him.”  All that is–mountains, trees, sky, human, rulers and authorities–was created for the Son of God’s glory and exaltation.  As Dr. Sam Storms (Pastor, Bridgeway Church, Oklahoma City) writes, “He’s . . . the consummation and culmination of every molecule that moves”.

“He is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (1:17).

“He is pro all things . . . ”  Before you and I were born.  Before Lincoln was President.  Before ocean waves licked the shores.  Before all things, the Son was.

And “in him all things soonistayme>” 

“Only recently have astrophysicists been able to offer a substantial hypothesis as to what it is that holds the universe together and keeps it from flying apart. Yet you do not have to be a physicist to know the simple answer!

“Astrophysicists look into the heavens and capture images and data with various scientific instruments. They know that the total mass of all matter is not enough to provide the gravity needed to keep everything in the universe from flying apart. They are left to ponder the question, ‘What is it that is holding the universe together?’

“International teams of astronomers scan stars and galaxies that are unimaginable distances away. Using modern instruments and means of detection, they have detected a mysterious cosmic force and have hypothesized that it may be the answer to the question. They call it ‘dark matter’” (tomorrowsworld.org).

Ah, yes, but what is this “cosmic force”?  What lies behind this “dark matter”?  The coherent power of the Son on God.

“And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy” (1:18).

” . . . head” means the Son is the sovereign, ruling authority of the church universal and each local church in particular.

That he is “the beginning and the firsrborn from among the dead” means he is the founder of a new humanity.  He rose from the dead, never to die again, and is the “firstfruits” of a resurrection promised to all who belong to him.

God’s purpose in all this, writes Paul, is “so that in everything he might have proteuwo”–first place, preeminence,  the highest rank, the greatest glory and exaltation.

With the Colossian heresy in mind, the apostle lays stress on the hierarchy of angelic powers.  Even the cosmic powers and principalities, which apparently received some prominence in that heresy, were created in Christ. Good or bad, all are subject to him as Creator.

* * * *

Barna’s poll claims half the country believes Jesus is God and have made a commitment to him.  But before such an awesome One belief and commitment aren’t enough.  A desire that he might have the supremacy in all things, in our little lives too, is what we must do.