Colossians 2

vs. 21-22 And you who were at one time those who were in a settled state of alienation, and hostile with respect to your intents in the sphere of your works which were pernicious, yet now He reconciled in the body of His flesh through His death, in order that He might present you holy and without blemish and unchargeable in His searching and penetrating gaze.

A. T. Robertson stresses the idea of the preposition en here is "in" not "among." The context requires that we understand the phrase as referring to an inner subjective experience. The mystery long hidden is not a diffusion of Christ among the Gentiles. It is the indwelling of Christ in His people, both Jewish and Gentile. The declared "hope of glory" of both is "Christ in you." Paul has in mind the indwelling Christ in the heart of every believer. Though "among you" makes good sense, it is more probable "in you" or "within"

Romans 8:10 NKJV

And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

2 Corinthians 13:5 NKJV

Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.

Galatians 4:19 NKJV

My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you,

Ephesians 3:17 NKJV

that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love,

It is the personal experience of the living presence of Christ in the individual life of the believer that is the mystery of mysteries.

2 Corinthians 3:18 NKJV

But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

2 Corinthians 4:6 NKJV

For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

2 Corinthians 4:16 NKJV

Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.

1 John 3:2–3 NKJV

Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

Col. 2:5

For, as is the case, I am in fact absent in my flesh, yet I am with you in my spirit, rejoicing and beholding your orderly array and the solid front (phalanx) of your faith in Christ.

Col. 2:8

Be ever on your guard lest there shall be someone who leads you astray through his vain speculation, even futile deceit, which is according to the tradition of men, according to the rudimentary teachings of the world, and not according to Christ.

“The School of Athens Painting by Raphael”

Verticality is based on the duality of here (the surface) and up there (the sky). For all of human history, we’ve sought to escape the surface and achieve the sky. The resulting tension between these two worlds, and the fact that humanity is confined to one of them, is the same tension that exists between the two aforementioned figures’ philosophies. Plato believed in Idealism. For him, the world we experience is second to a higher, unchanging world that includes universal truths such as beauty, justice and wisdom. These ideas are true and unchanging, regardless of humanity’s beliefs or awareness of them. They exist outside the world we perceive with our senses, which is imperfect and changing. The objects we perceive in our world all contain elements of their ideals, but never achieve the ideal itself. In a sense, Plato is describing a form of Heaven, and he points upward to signify this. Aristotle was Plato’s student, and he believed in Realism. For him, the world we experience with our senses is the only world we can be sure of. He believed in the study of the human experience, including subjects such as relationships, government and justice. He gestures forward to the space around him, which represents the surface. In Aristotle’s world-view, there is no ideal form, because form exists within this world, rather than separate from it.

Col. 2:9

Because in Him there is continuously and permanently at home all the fulness of the Godhead in bodily fashion.

2:14 “Blotting out” is exaleiphō (ἐξαλειφω), “to wipe off, wipe away, to obliterate, erase.” “Handwriting” is cheirographon (χειρογραφον), “an autograph, a note of hand, a bond.” This bond consisted of ordinances. This bond was against us, both Jew and Gentile.

“Took out of the way” is in the Greek, literally, “took out of the midst.” Our Lord nailed it to the Cross. Again Vincent is helpful: “The law with its decrees was abolished in Christ’s death, as if crucified with Him. It was no longer in the midst, in the foreground, as a debtor’s obligation is perpetually before him, embarrassing his whole life.”

Translation. Having obliterated the bond consisting of ordinances, the one against us, which was directly opposed to us, and it He removed out of the midst with the result that it is no longer there, having nailed it to the Cross.