buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.  (13) And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, (14) having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us.  And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

The Apostle Paul wrote the letter to the Colossians as a warning against false teachers at Colosse who were advocating ritual circumcision, dietary laws and mediation of various supernatural powers in the creation of the world as necessary to the process of salvation.   These teachings were contrary to the gospel divinely revealed to Paul who taught the absolute supremacy and sole sufficiency of Jesus Christ.  Paul tells the faithful, both Jew and Gentile, that the moment we believe by faith in Christ, a spiritual baptism occurrs – we are buried with Him in this baptism.  This is not a baptism of water but a baptism as an act of faith and the believer is under grace, not law.  In this baptism we acknowledge that nothing in us could have ever pleased God and we bury all that we were as children of Adam.  The physical act of water baptism is not the same as the spiritual act when the believer places his/her faith in Christ.

The believer’s spiritual baptism (death with Christ) and the very real resurrection with Christ through faith enables the believer to live a new supernatural life in Christ.  No outward ceremony or ritual brings us to Christ.  Faith that saves is a firm conviction and shows itself as genuine by a changed life.  Paul does not say that a new life in Christ is created by the act of a water baptism.

So the believing sinner’s identification in Christ in His death breaks the power of indwelling sin.  We were dead because of our unregenerated nature.  The wages of sin is death and through one man – Adam – death entered the world through sin and so all sinned.  A spiritually dead person – natural man – is dominated by the world, the flesh and the devil.  But God in his mercy, through the works of Christ Jesus, gave us free grace which is life in the soul.  He made the believer right with Him and safe from eternal destruction.  This new relationship with Christ through faith means that Christ is all we ever need.  Salvation is not improvement of the old nature but the imparting of a new nature.

The moment we believe we are completely forgiven all our transgressions. Forgiveness and being made alive are two facets of the same act of divine grace.

I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church,  (25)  of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God, which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, (26) the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints.  (27) To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles:  which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.  (28) Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.

The letter to the Colossians was written by the Apostle Paul.  The doctrine argued by Paul was to combat the presence of heretical teaching that threatened the well being of the church at Colosse.  Combining the separate elements of paganism, Judaism and Christianity, the heresy denied the true humanity of Christ Jesus and His role as sole mediator between God and man.  Paul wrote to teach the fuller knowledge of Christ.

The verses we study today are somewhat autobiographical but really concern Paul’s mission as an apostle by the authority of God and that his sufferings were in the interests of the Colossians – indeed for all Christians.  He is in no way saying that Christ’s sufferings and redemptive work was insufficient.  Paul states that those who preach the gospel are servants and they delight to be used by God.  That this usefulness is a privilege in his weakness;  not a burden but an honor. The underlying principal is the believer’s union with Christ.  Paul’s joy was not in suffering but in the fact that he saw in this a necessary part of his ministry.

Also part of this ministry was the proclamation of God’s message – to make clear the true nature of the gospel he preached.  Paul’s message is to clarify truth previously a mystery to man.  This message was “hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed.” – God’s truth that was not fully revealed in the Old Testament and not something that man would have thought of but a fact revealed by God and understood by believers.  The message to Jews and Gentiles is that they are fellow heirs and are to receive God within them through redemptive free grace, not by merit.

The essential part of the mystery which is now revealed as “Christ in you” – “the hope of glory”.   Glory is not an abstraction.  It is in us now and is a future blessedness of believers.   Deliverance from all evil is introduction to all good and is partially enjoyed in this world but will be possessed fully and forever in heaven.  Hope in scripture means absolute certainity of future good – an expectation of obtaining a present desire.  The truth Paul writes is that Christ living in the believer is the ground for certainity of complete salvation.

MacDonald writes of the hope of glory – “We have no other title to heaven than the Savior Himself.  The fact that He indwells us makes heaven as sure as if we were already there.”  Amen

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.   (16) For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.  All things were created through Him and for Him.  (17) And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.  (18) And He is the head of the body the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.

The Apostle Paul wrote the letter to the Colossians and in the verses we study today Paul emphasizes the centrality of Christ, the supremacy of Christ, the divinity of Christ and the incarnation.  Paul did not found the church in Colosse and may never have visited it – it was primarily a Gentile church with its culture steeped in Greek mysticism and customs.  Apparently Paul had been notified that the church there was threatened by heresy concerning the true doctrine of the supremacy and sufficiency of Christ – Paul responded to the news with this letter.

“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.”    This sentence overwhelms me.  Without knowledge from the Bible I wouldn’t be so quick to notice the sharp line between people rhaphsodizing over the beauty of nature without mentioning that this also is the image of God in His work in the world.  Where do all these naturalists think this amazingly complex world/universe comes from?    The invisible God means that God is not capable of being seen – this has always been a part of Jewish theology and this thought runs through all of the Old Testament.  But Jesus Christ has been seen and Paul is saying that Jesus is the image of the invisible God – the perfect representation of God the Father – Christ is the essence of the eternal God made visible in the flesh.  Just think about that.

God is and has been intimately involved in mankind. I believe that man was created with a need in his heart that can only be filled by God.   God has spoken to us in the written word of the Bible –  He has given us His son to reconcile sinful man to Himself.  Man could do nothing to become righteous on his own – it all comes from God through Christ Jesus and man has to say yes to God.  What Paul is telling us here is in essence,  that in Christ all things were created in the past, all things hold together in the present and all things are reconciled in the future.

My favorite,C.S. Lewis, writes in his brilliant Weight of Glory,  “At present we are on the outside of the world, the wrong side of the door.  We discern the freshness and purity of morning, but they do not make us fresh and pure.  We cannot mingle with the splendours we see.  But all the leaves of the New Testament are rustling with the rumour that it will not always be so.  Someday, God willing, we shall get in.”

But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.  (15) For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation.

(16) And as many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.

(17) From now on let no one trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.

(18) Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.  Amen

The context for today’s verses arises out of certain men coming from Jerusalem to the Galatians after Paul had founded a Christian church there.  These Judaizers/legalizers were Jews who insisted that circumcision and adherence to the Mosaic law was necessary for salvation.  The Apostle Paul wrote this letter to the Galatians insisting that what really matters is NOT external works but internal rebirth where one has been changed into a new and different person through Christ.  As this new person, Paul is preaching the cross as the central principle of his message – Paul gloried (boasted) in God and the cross which was an object of shame to the Judaizers but was an object of praise to Paul.

Faith in Christ Jesus and his completed work of redemption will make fallen man right with God.  The law of Moses has ended – no man was able to keep the law and no man was saved through the law.  With the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, we now have the new covenant with God.  As a new person we must not live according to the flesh – contrary to our nature – but now live according to the spirit.  There is a new creation and Paul blesses those who follow this new standard and those who embrace this new standard are the true Israel of God.  To all who believe in Christ all things are utterly worthless in comparison with Him.  We need desire no more than God’s grace through Jesus Christ to make us happy.

Paul takes over the writing tool from his scribe at the end of this letter to emphasize the importance of this doctrine and to verify that he, with his apostolic authority, was the author of this letter.  This is the time for us to sow that which we shall reap in everlasting life.  With his written Amen, Paul signifies his desire that he has laid to rest this problem with the Judaizers and that the grace of Christ be with his readers – and his faith that this would be so.

Stand fast therefore, in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.

(13)  For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.  (14) For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this:  “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  (15) But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another!

(16) I say then:  Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.  (17) For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.  (18) But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

The Apostle Paul wrote the letter to the Galatians, defending his authority as an apostle, and defending the gospel he preached.  The Galatians had turned from idols to the living God through faith in Jesus Christ.   They were set free from the law to be sons and heirs of God through God’s free grace.  However, false teachers from Jerusalem came among the Galatians and drew them from the truth of Paul’s gospel – the Jews were offended because Christ was preached as the only salvation for sinners.

Paul makes his point that freedom from the law does not mean license to do whatever one wishes, but Christians have a liberty that leads to holiness and responsibility through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  Verse one of today’s reading summarizes chapters 1 through 4 of Galatians and leads to Paul’s appeal to the Galatians to resist any attempt to come under the bondage of legalism – to do so would negate the works of Christ as saviour and redeemer.  The critical issue is that of works versus faith in Christ which is the essential Christian doctrine Paul preaches – legalism versus grace.

Paul then moves into the true nature of Christian freedom.  We have been called to a responsible freedom in Christ – freedom to serve God and others in love.  Paul maintains that the answer to the strife is to live by the Spirit.  He draws the difference between the flesh – the sinful nature of man – and the Spirit – the presence of God in a person.  They are in irreconcilable conflict.  The sinful nature does no good and the spirit does no evil.  The sinful nature is never eliminated in this life and the Christian is never released from consciously choosing God’s way.  Paul is talking of living a new, godly life that is a life of faith and love and submission to the Spirit.

It is not enough that we cease to do evil but we must learn to do well.