Episode 10 - Colossians 1:18-20 - Christology

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Introduction

What’s up, guys!

This is Josh with Shepherd’s Cast and I want to welcome you to the podcast where I talk to you about the things that I find important. My content is meant to inform, educate, puzzle, or be funny. If it does something other than what I’ve just said, then Soli Deo Gloria, we will just call it providence. All of what I say is read from blog posts that I have written and can be found on my website with the link in the show notes.

So, anyway, yeah, here we go…

The Text

Without further pause, let’s get into the text from Paul to the church in Colossae.

And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. Colossians 1:18-20

Something that is sincerely lacking in the church today is a study of Christ, or Christology. I know years ago when I was growing up it was not uncommon to hear elderly people talk about the “blood of Christ” and how we are all covered by it in the rectification of our wrongs. But I cannot honestly say that I still hear that. I mean, intellectually, we know and attest to that, right? The blood of the lamb on the doorposts of the Israelites in Egypt was a shadow of the blood that would cover the children of God as their sins were justified in the death of His Son. We know that. But really thinking over the blood of Christ and how precious it is has all-but-left the heart and mind of Christians young and old. It is for this reason that this verse in Colossians really called out to me - because, like the entire Bible, it is entirely Christocentric in that it exalts the incarnate God man. These verses, as we will come to understand, really assist us in understanding Jesus’ identity.

But why is this important? I think the question needs to be asked because it is the reason why the study of Christ has really been lacking. It would seem that we come to a clear understanding that He died to cover our sins, and then we move onto other theological truths. Or maybe we look back to the law in order to be obedient to Him and forget why we are obedient to Him, in the first place. Or maybe, even further, you’re a heretic who believes that you have no need for Christ. Either way, I want to answer this question in a way that will stick in your mind, and my own, as well.

The reason the study of Christ is so important, so absolutely detrimentally important to our walk as Christians, is because He is the point of all of this. The Bible isn’t a story about us, though we reap the benefits. The love of God is not a magnifying glass that focuses on humanity. Rather, the Bible is an explanation of how much God loves God. The truth of Scripture is a love letter, not to us, but to and about Jesus, inspired by the Holy Spirit. And if the Father places so much focus on Jesus in, quite literally all things, then it is imperative that those who benefit from the love God has for His Son study and meditate on His word and on Who He is night and day. As finite beings we will never be able to comprehend the vast nature of who He is, but, brothers and sisters, that should not stop us from taking in as much as possible. Rather, it should encourage us, and strengthen us, in knowing that no matter how much and how long we meditate and study and pray we will never consume the entirety of that knowledge. With that being said, let us dive in and begin to understand the text we have presented.

Digging into the Text

“And He [Jesus] is the head of the body, the church.” Jewish tradition held to a clear picture painted for weddings. I want to share only a couple of these different things that have made themselves clear in Scripture. For the sake of time we will not touch on them all. Firstly, the father of the groom would often go out and select a wife for his son. Then the wife would be purchased with what is often called a “bride price,” as brides back in the day were seen as a possession. And the final thing we will enumerate about this concept is that, in Jewish Tradition, the marriage covenant would be sealed with something called “the cup of the covenant.”

In explanation of point one, let’s point to where this took place in the Scriptures. The Father is the One whom drew us to the Son. Jesus says “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.” John 6:44, thus we were drawn by the Father, and not the other way around. Likewise, Jesus says “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain.” (John 15:16). So point one highlights the fact that Jesus, as the bridegroom, is who called us our.

For the second point we must see the payment made, or, the bride price. It may be quite obvious, but let us see what Paul has to say about this in his letter to the Ephesians. “Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold… but with the precious blood of Messiah, as of a lamb without blemish or spot.” Ephesians 1:14. Redemption, here, is our being bought with a price, a bride price, in order that we be set free from the ownership of the world and given to the One who paid. This person, of course, was Jesus Christ, who paid with His blood on the cross in our place.

And for the final point we turn our eyes to the moments just before the crucifixion of our Lord and Savior in which the Lord’s Supper was instituted. The Bride and Groom would share from this same cup as a show that their life was now shared. Likewise, in the Lord’s Supper, the wine that Jesus shared at the end of the meal was the cup of the new covenant, representing His blood, the bride price, that would be poured out for the sins of those for whom He died, the church. Ephesians 5:25.

All these points show us the big picture - The Holy Spirit through Paul in 1 Corinthians 11 says “But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband and the head of Christ is God.” So when Colossians says that He is the head of the church, or the gathering of believers, we can clearly see that, as our head, we are to submit to Him as a wife to a husband.

As we move down in the same verse we come to a parallel to this thought - “He [Jesus] is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything He might be preeminent.” We must remember that the context in this instance is the church, thus when we see that “He is the beginning, or the firstborn from the dead,” we can conclude that being first, there will be those to follow, those being the church. His church will be raised with Him, not simply spiritually, as is already done in the believer, but also physically from the dead. This is one of the many instances where we can use the phrase “already-not-yet” to connote something defined in the Scriptures. To explain, we are already alive in Spirit (Ephesians 2:5), being raised by Him as a servant to righteousness, not yet given our physical resurrection from death which comes to us all. And, with this being the case, He might be preeminent, or first in all things.

I want to pause for a moment to comment that often Scripture uses language that we, ourselves, make harder than it has to be. There are a lot of parallelisms, or phrases repeated to illustrate a point a different way, and contextual phrases that require the surrounding verbiage. This is one of the reasons why we hold to the simple idea of allowing Scripture to interpret Scripture. Simply put, allow more complex Scriptural passages, like Daniel chapter 9, to be interpreted by easier to understand Scriptural passages. We wouldn’t take Daniel chapter 9 and run to Revelation as that would be silly.

Now, to some Christological meat, so-to-speak, we come to Colossians 1:19. “For in Him the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.”

This passage brazenly covers something often referred to as the Hypostatic Union. And what that means is the union of substance, or subsistence, of the divine and human nature of Christ into one hypostasis. This is something that we can take a lifetime to truly study and ponder on. For instance, humanity does not contain the same ability as does God. We can say that God is omnipresent, or God is present everywhere at all times, while the same cannot be said of humanity. Thus we can say something like Jesus is both with us always and sitting at the right hand of the Father. That does not limit Him - He is God. But He also contains the attributes of man.

For instance, in His humility, or lowered state before glory, it is evident that He learned about who He is through the Scriptures, (Luke 2:46-50), rather than the assumed divine inspiration that often clouds the thoughts of those who hold to a more mystical view of Christ. The Scriptures go as far as to say that He (Jesus) grew in wisdom and stature (Luke 2:52) which differs greatly from the Jesus that many people think they know. However, we must remember that not only was this submission to humility voluntary, He was able to do as He pleased (Matthew 26:53) and we have evidence that He could access His contra-natura, or other than natural, abilities (John 1:48; 4:29) as He pleased. Likewise we must remember that His humility was also temporary and He is not eternally subordinate (John 5:19). For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen. (Romans 11:36).

Finally, we come to verse twenty of Colossians 1. “...and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of His cross.” I believe it may be helpful to be reminded of a couple of things when reading this text. The main thing being that our God is trinitarian, or three in one. We have the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; three distinct figures with one divine essence. Thusly, it is important that, when we read texts such as these, we use the surrounding context in order to understand what the text says.

To put this another way, “the fullness of God, the Father, was pleased to dwell within Him, Jesus, and through Him, Jesus, to reconcile to Himself, the Father, all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of His, the Son’s, cross.”

What is amazing, here, is that despite being the victim of the crime, which is our sin, the Father is the One Who consummated reconciliation with the blood of His Son. The Father gave to us the Son to reconcile us to Himself, the Son laid down His life for that reconciliation, and the Holy Spirit applies that reconciliation to the believer. The Christological point we must see painted in this verse, brothers and sisters, is something that John wanted to express to us at the very beginning of His gospel account. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:1-5) The perfect Adam is through Whom all things were reconciled. Jesus. Is. God.

The Final Word of the Day

I want to thank you for taking the time to listen to this podcast. It is always a pleasure to bring the word of God to those who are seeking to know more about Him.

The final word of the day comes to us from, well, me.

To add to the problem of a lack of Christology in the church, today, I believe another huge piece missing is discipleship. We do not have a gathering of believers who help one another any longer. We now have a building people meet at to worship God in their own way and then disappear from for a week. We must appeal to the corporate gathering to continue in the fulfillment of the great commission in making disciples. Reach behind you and drag those who need discipleship along with you. And likewise, seek it from those who are wiser.

A special thanks to Jesus Wannabeez for allowing me to use their newest track, Ephesians 6, in my intro and outro music. You can find a link to their Spotify in the show notes.

And, as always, may the light of the holy God shine upon you.

Amen.