Bible Commentaries
Colossians 1

Verses 1-22

1 "Paul, a commissioner of Christ Jesus," introduces us to a glorified Christ in heaven and invokes the authority vested in Paul as His legate. Contrast the character assumed by Paul in Philippians.

4 Their faith in Christ Jesus and their heavenly hope reminds us of the opening words of Ephesians. Before these letters were written the saints among the nations had no clear indications of a celestial destiny This is practically unknown outside Paul's epistles, and even in them it is gradually approached. The Thessalonians are taught the Lord's descent from heaven to meet them in the air ( 1Th_4:16 ). The secret of the resurrection is made known to the Corinthians ( 1Co_15:51 ), showing that our bodies will be changed to fit the celestial spheres. But not until the prison epistles were penned are we given definite assurance that the saints are destined to enjoy a celestial allotment.

6 A true realization of God's grace is the accomplishment most to be desired of all things, for it is impossible to please God without faith and an intelligent grasp of His gracious purpose. Zeal must be directed by knowledge.

THE SECRET OF CHRIST

9 Here we have a prayer which is well worthy of our imitation.

13 The kingdom of His Son is a figurative allusion to the kingdom of Christ. Messiah's kingdom is literal and future and destroys and displaces earth's kingdoms ( Dan_2:44 ). The kingdom of the Son here spoken of is a present spiritual power. We are not rescued from earth's governments but from the powers of Darkness which direct and dominate them. The term "pardon" is borrowed from the kingdom phraseology to accord with this figure.

15 God is an invisible Spirit ( Joh_4:24 ; 1Ti_6:16 ). The Son of God is the visible, tangible embodiment of Deity. Only in Him can we see God. All other images are condemned because they are false and dishonor God ( Deu_5:8 ). All creation was in Him, as the tree and its fruits are found in the seed. In Him God created all else, for the whole universe was created in Him. This includes the celestial as well as the terrestrial spheres and every form of spiritual power and dignity. These exist through Him and for Him and He makes all a unit for the accomplishment of God's purpose.

18 As God's Complement, His supremacy becomes pre-eminent in reconciliation as well as creation. Their relation may be shown as follows:

The Image Of God

Firstborn of all Creation:

The Universe Celestial, Terrestrial Created in Him

The Complement Of God

Firstborn from the Dead:

The Universe Celestial, Terrestrial

Reconciled through Him.

The two paramount points in universal history are the creation and the resurrection of the Son of God. Through His death and vivification He will yet more than restore the lost creation to the Father. The cross, which speaks of His estrangement from God, is the basis on which reconciliation is built. The benefits it brings are not confined to earth or mankind, but include the celestial realms as well.

20 Just as His glories in creation take us back to the very beginning, so the greater glories of reconciliation take us to the very consummation. The universal reconciliation cannot be fully accomplished until the close of the eonian times, when all sovereignty and authority and power and even death are rendered inoperative ( 1Co_15:24-27 ) and when all mankind are saved ( 1Ti_4:10 ) and justified ( Rom_5:18 ). This takes us far beyond the new earth portrayed at the end of the Revelation of Jesus Christ, for there He still reigns, many of mankind are still lost, and death is not yet abolished.

21 At present reconciliation includes only those who, like the Colossians, believe in Him and have not lost their hold on this great truth (or indeed, have never heard of it). Salvation depends only on the work of Christ and is not affected by our moods: reconciliation depends,

on our side, upon our enjoyment of His favor.

Verses 23-29

23 The scope of reconciliation is not confined to mankind: it is as broad as creation. Its proclamation was made to every creature under heaven. It is God's loving purpose to bind all His creatures to Him with the cords of affection. To accomplish this purpose demands suffering-not only the essential suffering of Christ on the cross, but those of His afflictions which He endures in His members in the course of its dispensation.

25 This epistle may not have been the very last of the Greek Scriptures to be penned. The Revelation of Jesus Christ and John's writings might have been written, as we are told, long afterward. Paul completed or filled up the word of God in another sense. All the other

Scriptures were limited in their scope to the terrestrial, as to space, and to the eons, as to time. They were concerned with a fragment of the universe. In them the nations could have only a subordinate place and portion. As the secret of Christ breaks beyond the barriers of Judaism, these restrictions vanish. On earth Messiah never left the land of Israel. Now, in spirit, He walks among the nations, dispensing blessing as He did in the days of His earthly sojourn. Christ, Who never went among the nations before His ascension, met Paul outside the land, on the Damascus road, not as the lowly Jesus, but as the glorified Son of God. Gradually, in spirit, through the apostle's ministries, He unfolds His secret purpose to be to the nations, in spirit, all that He had been to Israel in flesh, and far more. This is the secret: Christ among the nations, a glorious expectation . Not a subordinate place in the earthly kingdom, but a preeminent place in His celestial domains. Let us, too, note the tremendous importance which he attaches to an appreciation of this most marvelous mystery or secret. It satisfies both the heart and the head. It reveals depths of affection in which we may revel. It discloses the treasures of wisdom and knowledge for which earth's sages and philosophers have been groping without avail. It solves the riddle of the universe-its beginning and its end, its creation and its reconciliation.

8 It is difficult to discern that the divine religion given to Israel in the flesh may be one of the greatest hindrances toward an appreciation of the grace which is ours in Christ Jesus. Hence the Spirit of God forces it down to the same level with human philosophy and tradition by alternating them in this passage. The empty seduction and rudiments, the circumcision, baptism, and shadows refer to the rites and ritual Jehovah gave His earthly people. Yet they are interspersed with references to the authority and teachings of men. Ritual is just as dangerous an enemy as rationalism. As God's Complement, Christ is the answer to philosophy: as our Complement, He is the end of religion.

8 By a striking figure the apostle warns us lest we lose all our possessions in Christ by a legal process, such as is served when property is seized for debt. Legality levies an attachment on us so that we lose the enjoyment of our possessions and philosophy interferes in the same way.

11 The spiritual history of those who know Christ as their Complement may be summarized in three words: death, and burial and resurrection. Not, of course, literally, but in Him. Two rites, in Israel, set this forth in figure. Circumcision is the cutting off of the flesh. It signifies death. Baptism pictures both burial and resurrection. Now, the believer need not be circumcised, for Christ, his Complement, descended into death itself. In Christ's burial he has been baptized. In His resurrection he has been raised from the dead. Faith in God's operation is all the ceremony needed to place the believer beyond the tomb in full possession of every privilege ever procured by the rites of religion. Christ, our Complement, makes full provision for our approach into the divine presence, just as the brazen altar and the laver provided for the approach of the priest in the tabernacle ( Exo_27:1 ; Exo_30:17 ).

14 The decrees issued by the apostles from Jerusalem ( Act_15:23-29 ) were a standing symbol of the subjection of the nations to the Circumcision even though they absolved them from observing all the rudimentary rites, especially circumcision.