Weekly Devotional - Week 2 (Colossians 1:15-23)

MONDAY: Colossians 1:15-16

We finished last week by looking at the One who transferred us from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of His beloved Son. The verses this week help us grasp the majesty of the One who did that.

These two verses are incredibly rich. Let’s start by looking at verse 15. What does Paul mean by saying that Jesus is the image of the invisible God? When Paul uses the phrase “image of the invisible God”, he is saying that Christ is the visible display of God! God isn’t visible, but in Christ God has made Himself known. And when Paul says that Christ is the firstborn over all creation, he does not mean that Christ is the firstborn as in being born of creation — people have misunderstood this before. However, Christ is not the firstborn as it relates to birth order, but the firstborn as it relates to status. Jesus has all the attributes associated with being the firstborn — yet He Himself was not made. Paul emphasizes this in verse 16. For, or because, by Him all things were created. How can all things be created through Him if He Himself is also created? No, Paul does not mean to suggest that Jesus is created. As John 1:3 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Paul firmly understands that Jesus is God in the flesh!

But what is interesting here is that Paul says that rulers and authorities (essentially angelic rankings) are created through Christ. Paul typically speaks of rulers and authorities in a negative way, and certainly they are a theme throughout the letter (2:10, 15). These, that Christ is head over, whom He disarmed with the cross, whom we wrestle against, these were made by Christ. Let’s be careful — just because some of them would later rebel does not mean that Christ created them evil. They were created through Him and for Him. What do we do with that? This is something we will work through tomorrow, when we talk about the idea of Christ being preeminent in everything.

Questions:

Additional Scripture:

Gen. 1:27; Ex. 20:4-6; Ps. 89:27; Rom. 11:36; John 1:1-18; Heb. 1:3; 1 Pet. 3:22

TUESDAY: Colossians 1:17-18

In Christ, all things are sustained and held together. He is the head of the church, the body, which is us. We find our nourishment and our growth in Him (Col. 2:19)! Paul emphasizes that Christ is above the church, and above creation. But why is Christ above all things? Paul says so that in everything He might be preeminent. Preeminent means more powerful than all others, having supreme rank, dignity, and importance. So in all things, in everything, Christ is of supreme rank and importance and value. This is amazing! All rulers, authorities, powers and principalities are insignificant in comparison to our Jesus. If we don’t grasp this, if we don’t understand that nothing in creation is greater than our Saviour, we can become riddled with anxieties and fears. Let this truth give you peace.

One final note: Paul’s phrase, “He is the beginning” stands totally and completely by itself. In the Greek, it is separate from his statements about the church. How is Christ the beginning? If all things are created through Him, created for Him, sustained by Him, held together by Him, He being the image of the invisible God, then our entire view of creation and our place in it should be utterly, and completely Christ-focused. Over the next two days, we are going to see why. 

Questions:

Additional Scripture:

Gen. 1:1; 1 Cor. 12:12-26; Eph 4:15-16; Rev. 3:14, 21:6

WEDNESDAY: Colossians 1:19

Verse 19 begins the “why” for everything that we have discussed so far this week. And this verse is a staggering one to meditate on. Colossians 1:19 is an explicit connection to Christ’s deity and the Trinity. The word “fullness” in this passage is tied to the Old Testament language of God filling the temple (see Ezekiel 44:4). All that God is, all of His attributes—His love, His justice, His patience, His faithfulness, His wrath, His wisdom, His Spirit, His sovereignty, His mercy—everything of God dwells in Jesus Christ. To say that in Him all the fullness of God dwells is no less than saying explicitly that Jesus is God. We have seen this in Scripture before: in John 10:30 Jesus says “I and the Father are one.”, and in Philippians 2:6-7 Paul says that “Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” This is incredible! Jesus, our Lord and Saviour, is not only a man but fully God! We will see this again when we talk about Colossians 2:9 - “For in Him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.”

How do we wrestle with such a mind-blowing concept? What does this mean for our relation to God and to Christ? Let’s turn our attention to the phrase “was pleased to dwell”. This is amazing! God is not bound by anything; He does as He pleases (Ps. 115:3; 135:6; Is. 46:10; Dan. 4:35). And here, we see that it pleased God to come in the person of Christ Jesus. The God that we serve was not coerced into saving us (Is. 43:11). It is His divine pleasure to save us, and make the sinners righteous (Luke 5:32; 2 Cor. 5:21). And God Himself came in Christ Jesus to make it happen. So today, let’s meditate on our God who saves. We respond in humility and awe, as God gets the glory in Christ Jesus for our salvation.

Questions:

Additional Scripture:

Ps. 115:3, 135:6; Is. 43:11, 46:10; Ez. 44:4; Dan. 4:35; Luke 5:32; John 10:30; 1 Cor. 8:6; 2 Cor. 5:21; Phil. 2:6-11

THURSDAY: Colossians 1:20

This verse is tricky to understand in isolation. Yesterday, we learned that in Christ all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. This verse continues that imagery. In Christ, the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through Christ, the fullness of God is pleased to reconcile to Himself all things. This phrase, all things, requires us to look back to verse 16-18. In verse 16, we learned that all things were created for Him; in verse 17, we learned that He is before all things and in Him all things hold together; in verse 18, we learned that He is over all things, that in everything He might be preeminent. Why is it that in all things He is preeminent? Because Christ is God! In 2 Cor. 5:19, Paul says that in Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself. God has made a way that all those who call on the name of Christ Jesus may be saved and reconciled to God.

Now all things being reconciled does not imply universalism, or that everyone will be saved. Paul does not mean that everything in creation will experience this reconciliation, as that would totally disagree with Christ’s teaching, not to mention the rest of Colossians (3:5-6, 25). Then what does he mean? Paul’s point here is that Gentiles, such as the Colossians and us, are now fellow partakers in the Gospel. He states this more explicitly in Eph. 2:11-22, “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” So, those who had no hope, those who were not Jewish or of the circumcision, God is pleased to reconcile to Himself through Jesus. Jesus’ blood is the way to salvation, and there is no other way! His blood has made peace, that all who call upon Him may grow as one body with one Spirit into Christ, who is the head of the church.

Questions:

Additional Scripture:

Rom. 10:12-13; 2 Cor. 5:17-21; Eph. 2:13-16, 3:4-6; 2 Thess. 1:9-10; Rev. 7:9-10

FRIDAY: Colossians 1:21-22

Yesterday we looked at reconciliation. Who is being reconciled? Those who were alienated and hostile in mind and doing evil deeds have been reconciled by the blood of Christ. These were the Colossian people; this was us! We were those whose minds were hostile, who loved the world and the things of this world above loving God. This is where the good news steps in; God came in the person of Christ Jesus to reconcile us to Himself by the blood of the cross. 

Why did God reconcile us to Him? What was His purpose in doing so? Here we see the answer: “in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before Him.” What does that mean? Why is our holiness that important to God? This is typically what we refer to as sanctification. Yes, God loves us the way we are, but He loves us far too much to leave us that way. God’s goal in forgiving our sins and empowering us with the grace that saves is not for us to continue in our sins! 2 Corinthians 5:21 says that “He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” It would do very little to demonstrate God’s saving power if our lives looked exactly the same as they did before. If we are saved from our sins, what good is it if our entire lives remain in sinfulness? No, that is not what God’s display of power in our lives looks like. We are to be holy as God is holy (1 Pet. 1:15-16). Our holiness matters to God because He is holy, and He is glorious! God wants to make our lives a display of His glory, representing His holiness to a creation that is in need of its creator. As we grow closer to Christ, as we grow in our walk with Him and abide in Him, we are made more and more into His holy image. 

Questions:

Additional Scripture:

Rom. 6:1-4, 12:1-2; 2 Cor. 3:18; Eph. 2:17-22; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Pet. 1:14-16

SATURDAY: Colossians 1:23

Yesterday we learned about God’s goal in making us holy and blameless and above reproach before Him. This verse immediately starts out with this clause: “if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast”. Notice this distinction—yes, it is Christ’s victory over death through being raised up by God that has brought about our reconciliation in order to present us blameless, but there is an expectation that we continue in the assurance that His blood satisfied God’s wrath towards our sin and that His resurrection confirms our debt was paid. This is what Paul means when he says that we don’t shift from the hope of the gospel! Yet how do we have the strength to do this? That is an overwhelming thought. But we are not alone—Paul makes it clear that it is God who works for us. It is God who sanctifies, it is God who holds us fast. Yes, we do work. Yes, we do fight sin. But the Bible makes it clear that our fight against sin, our holding fast to God, happens by the strength that God supplies (Ps. 46:10; Is. 41:13; Rom. 8:9-11; Eph. 2:4-5; Phil. 1:6, 2:12-13; 2 Tim. 2:1; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Pet. 4:11; Jude 24-25).

This message is what Paul became a minister for. The entire goal of Paul’s ministry is to proclaim the gospel, which is being proclaimed in all creation. The good news of the gospel is so radical, so transformative, that it becomes the entirety of our hope! Our whole lives take on new meaning. So, as we wrap up this week, let’s dwell on the preeminence of Christ, through whom are all things, who is above all things, who is reconciling to Himself all things, who is making us holy—let that be the strength that keeps you stable and steadfast in hope, continuing in the faith.

Questions:

Additional Scripture:

Ps. 46:10; Is. 41:8-13; 1 Cor. 15:3-4; Phil. 2:12-13; Jude 24-25