Colossian 1:19-23

[ Intro ]

Last week we discussed Colossians 1:15-19. Those verses were focused on the supremacy of Christ. Everything Paul emphasized was all about who Christ is. He existed before anything else. All things were created through Him. He is supreme above all. And He came as fully man and fully God to live among us.

As we go into the next few verses, which we’ll go through verses 19-29. I know we read 19 last time, but we’ll re-read it today as it goes well with everything.

Verses 19-23 are focused on what Christ did on the cross for us and what that means for us. And 24-29 is Paul explaining why he does what he does in committing himself in service to the Lord.

[ Prayer ]

[ Body ]

Colossians 1:19–23 NLT

19 For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, 20 and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross. 21 This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. 22 Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault. 23 But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News. The Good News has been preached all over the world, and I, Paul, have been appointed as God’s servant to proclaim it.

In verse 19 where it mentions God’s fullness was please to live in Christ. The two Greek words used here for fulness and live or dwell mean all of God and all his divine nature are permanently found in Christ. It’s important to understand it wasn’t something that had to be added to Christ that wasn’t already natural to Him. It was part of his essential being. It’s just saying this is Who He is. He is and always has been God.

And now what He did for us. Verse 20 mentions peace through the blood on the Cross.

I mentioned this a little bit last week, but some religions claim Jesus was here as God but not fully man, it was almost like an illusion. He was like a phantom. But you don’t go to the cross shed your blood and die without being fully man. He had to come fully as man to accomplish His mission. And when he was on the cross he took on all the sins of the world and satisfied the judgement that we should have received. His blood set us free. Where peace is mentioned in verse 20, it’s not about peace amongst mankind.

Matthew 10:34 NLT

34 “Don’t imagine that I came to bring peace to the earth! I came not to bring peace, but a sword.

The peace being mentioned that God wants for us is between us and God through the forgiveness of our sins. But we have to put our faith in Christ, who He is and what He did for us.

Verse 21 talks about what their situation had been with God and where they are at now. They were enemies of God. And that’s because at one point in time we were all enemies of God by the fact that we are born into sin. Our fleshly nature is against God. Our flesh hates God. But being covered in sin and totally wretched, Christ died for us. With our faith in Christ, he has reconciled us to Him. He doesn’t need us, but he loves us so much he wanted to re-establish the relationship between mankind and Himself.

Now I know I mentioned that there are religions that claim Jesus was just a phantom, that’s not just beliefs of our day that’s what these people in Colossi would have been dealing with as well. So that can be why you see some language that seems pretty obvious. Paul’s writing mentions specifically Christ on the cross, in his flesh, or my translation says in his “physical body”. Remember Paul has never met these people and he’s putting the truth of Christ in a letter, so he’s making sure to be very precise against all the confusing thoughts people in their area would have been trying to confuse them with.

And it’s good that he was very specific in his writings, because all those groups exist today trying to confuse the gospel too, so it’s great that we can go back and say no the Word of God is very clear on this. It’s not left up for debate.

The last part of verse 22 is very powerful. Sometimes we deal with conviction when we’ve done wrong, and we pray and repent to God. That’s something that should be done. But Satan can twist that into guilt, something that we feel we can’t escape. God wants us to repent and keep moving forward. Satan wants you to think God doesn’t want you anymore after what you’ve done.

But because of what Christ did and our faith in Him the Word says: As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.

holy and blameless without a single fault. All because of what Christ did for us.

Romans 8:34 NLT

34 Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.

Christ intercedes for us, he pleads for us. His righteousness is imputed onto us. And we have peace with God.

Now let’s read verse 23 again.

Colossians 1:23 NLT

23 But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News. The Good News has been preached all over the world, and I, Paul, have been appointed as God’s servant to proclaim it.

This is one of those verses that some would use to say oh my actions dictate my salvation. Your good actions or good works are produced because of your faith in Christ and Him working through you. You don’t do a good work and be saved or more good works to maintain salvation. You have faith in Christ. Paul makes it very clear everywhere he writes about salvation that Christ saved us, it’s a free gift, nothing to do with our own works. But yes actions are definitely an easier way to point out a believer.

Jesus said in the book of Matthew

Matthew 7:16 NLT

16 You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act.

You’ll be able to point at followers from their actions as a result of their faith.

Could someone claim to have faith, but not really mean it and then live a completely different life and put God behind them and completely turn away. Yeah, that could happen. But if someone is sincere in their faith to God, when they go before God to be judged he doesn’t look at where they were at in their sanctification process to determine if they are saved, it’s all about if they were justified. And justification happens when we submit to Christ, when we put our faith in Him. There’s justification, sanctification, and glorification.

As long as you are justified, you will enter heaven and then receive your glorified bodies.

And of course Paul had to deal with other churches that were like alright I’m justified I’m just going to do whatever I want now. And he had to confront those issues, because that’s a big problem. We’ll always battle with our fleshly desires, go through seasons and bumps, but the thing is we fight with the struggles and continue to pursue God.

Colossians 1:24–29 NLT

24 I am glad when I suffer for you in my body, for I am participating in the sufferings of Christ that continue for his body, the church. 25 God has given me the responsibility of serving his church by proclaiming his entire message to you. 26 This message was kept secret for centuries and generations past, but now it has been revealed to God’s people. 27 For God wanted them to know that the riches and glory of Christ are for you Gentiles, too. And this is the secret: Christ lives in you. This gives you assurance of sharing his glory. 28 So we tell others about Christ, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all the wisdom God has given us. We want to present them to God, perfect in their relationship to Christ. 29 That’s why I work and struggle so hard, depending on Christ’s mighty power that works within me.

Paul was an important part of the church body being an Apostle. However, keep in mind these people have never met him and He’s in prison. And just like other areas that had heard of Paul, there were probably rumors that he does things for his own good. So He gives some explanation to why they should believe what he says and why he peaches the Gospel. And he mentions the message that he just talked about, the blood of Jesus allowing us to be forgiven of our sins, being a mystery. What Paul is referencing is people from the old testament times. They didn’t know exactly what this new covenant was going to look like at the time. Of course there were many prophecies, and the Jews expected a messiah, but exactly how He would come and how the new covenant would be established was a bit of a mystery. They thought they knew what it would be like, and they were wrong.

And when Christ was revealed and the new covenant was established, the message was revealed for everyone to partake and receive salvation.

2 Thessalonians 2:14 NLT

14 He called you to salvation when we told you the Good News; now you can share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And that applies to everyone who hears the Good News and believes it. God called us all to salvation.

And the call is for all believers to partake in spreading the Good News. Because as he wrote earlier, no one can be at peace with God without Christ. So the message must be spread for people to be warned and to be taught. That’s the great commission.

Build up the body of Christ. Taking care of our neighbors in our own community is a great way to do that. And every time every one of you is out there at the food pantry, or helping out with other activities, you’re spreading the love of Christ. It’s a testimony.

In the parable of the sheep and the goats, Jesus said what you do for the least of those, you do for Him.