(12) giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.  (13) He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, (14) in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.

(15) 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 dominations 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 at the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have preeminence.

The Apostle Paul wrote the first letter to the Colossians probably from prison in Rome.  The occasion for this letter was news from a Christian disciple from Colosse, Epaphras, telling him of teachers of false doctrine corrupting the church there.  The heretical teachings emphasized dietary laws, mandatory observance of holy days and especially a philosophy of various supernatural powers in the creation of the world.  The teachings were a combination of pagan and Jewish thought and Christian doctrine – relegating Christ to a minor place.  Christ was not denied but the heresy did not give Him a supreme place.  All of this philosophy was denying the real incarnation of God in Christ.  Clearly Paul felt a real threat to the Church in Colosse and thought it was necessary to write this letter.

Paul responds by proclaiming unqualified supremacy of Christ as Redeemer.  He gives thanks for the Christian Colossians and prays that they in turn will grow in giving thanks to God – thanks always be it for ill or good.  He tells them that they are not saved by man’s works – only God has qualified them.  God has conferred on us grace sufficient and they/we could never have done this ourselves.  Believers in Christ have the natural result of justification by grace and are delivered by God’s free grace, not by man’s work.  Believers have been rescued from the domain of darkness and if they step back into darkness, there is no proof that they were ever delivered in the first place.  We have been forgiven and sinners are justified – declared right before God – which is a gift by God’s grace through the redemption of Christ Jesus.  Our forgiveness and redemption in Christ is final and permanent.  Quoting C.S. Lewis – “Everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea until they have something to forgive.”