'...give joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of His holy people in the kingdom of light. For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.' (Colossians 1:12-13, NIV.)
The Apostle Paul says we are ‘partakers in the inheritance of the saints’. We receive an inheritance when somebody dies: Jesus died, and we inherit everything He had! Everything God had in Jesus – we inherit! If I were to die right now, my family gets everything I possess. And literally that’s what happens to us in Christ. We don’t have to die to inherit it, it’s something we enjoy in life, come on! I’ve just received an inheritance from a relative I didn’t even know – I didn’t have to die to inherit it!!! I was a relative.
For us to inherit everything that was in Christ, we don’t have to literally die. But we do have to die to sin and be born again from above into the Kingdom of God. It’s only this that makes us a relative – inheritors because we are the family of God! I’ve been born twice. I was born into a human family, and I was born again into the Kingdom of God! I’m a child of God! I’m a son of God! And because my elder Brother Jesus died, I inherit everything!
This is wonderful!
We have redemption through His Blood, the forgiveness of sins, v14ff. And Paul begins to describe who Jesus really is. Jesus is the image of an invisible God. When people were talking to Jesus, they would say to Him, “Show us the Father!” And Jesus would say, “If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father!” We have such foolish ideas of God as an old man sitting on a cloud with grey hair and all that… Jesus was a young man in His early 30s. He began His ministry when He was 30 and died when He was 33, a young man in the prime of health and strength, the peak of power. And Jesus says, if you have seen Me, you have seen the Father! Jesus is the image of the invisible God!
And Paul says Jesus is the firstborn of every creature. He’s the firstborn of a family. We are all born in the likeness of God. God said, Gen 1:26, “Let Us make man in Our Own Image.” Of whom Christ is the firstborn. Col 1:16 says, “For by Him ALL things were created that are in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible…” I could spend a month talking about this! “By Him all things were made, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities, or powers – ALL things were created by Him and FOR HIM!’
Paul continues in v17, “He is before all things, and by Him all things consist.” For thousands of years, the atom has been considered to be the building block of all things, the smallest indivisible thing in nature, solid and immutable. But even from my youngest days, I knew the atom was in fact divisible. Most of the atom is – space, nothingness! The central nucleus is miniscule, and the particles in it, infinitely small and constantly in contrary motion. But the nucleus and particles are held together by the strongest force known to man in the universe, what scientists call ‘the strong force’! When you split the atom and release its power – it is incredible power! We have seen what it can do! But the Bible says it is Christ, the strong force, in whom ‘all things consist’ (Col 1: 17), in whom and by whom all things are ‘held together’ (Heb 1:3)! Look at the enormous power God has!
What an immense subject for exploration! In my life I’m trying to understand and to demonstrate something of the greatness of this Power that God has!
And so, Paul continues in v18, it is Jesus who is the Head of the Body, the Church. Not the Pope or the Archbishop, not some modern ‘Great Man of God’. No. let someone tell them please and remind them – the Head of the Church is Christ!
Christ is the Head, the Beginning, the Firstborn from the dead – yes, the First One to rise from the dead. And in Him, we are also born again and rise from the dead. But Christ is the first, that in ALL things He might have the pre-eminence. He’s the FIRST! The Elder Brother of us all. And in v19, Paul says, it pleased the Father that in Him all fullness should dwell. It pleases the Father that His Son should have the pre-eminence in the Church. Come on! It’s not Mary, it’s Jesus! Not the pastor or the priest, it’s Christ!
It pleases the Father, because, v20ff, Christ has made peace through the Blood of His cross, reconciling all things to Himself. You see, before we come to Christ, the Bible is quite clear that without Christ, we are in enmity against God!
God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. (Colossians 1:27 (NIV)
Paul says, v23ff, “I am a minister of this Gospel and I have suffered for you, filling up the afflictions of Christ in my flesh.” Paul was willing to suffer much persecution for Christ’s sake for the Church, for the Gospel, of which he says, “I am made a minister according to the dispensation of God which was given to me to fulfil the Word of God.” Paul was willing to suffer “for the mystery (of the Gospel), hidden from ages and from generations, but now revealed to His saints to whom God wants to reveal and make known this mystery – CHRIST IN US, OUR HOPE OF GLORY!
Paul is saying that Christ living in us is the living demonstration and proof of what is to come! CHRIST IN US! We have, within our new born-again bodies, the living evidence of ALL the Power, ALL the Glory of the Gospel – it is INCREDIBLE what God has done!