COLOSSIANS 1:18-23
THE SON’S SELF-SACRIFICE RECONCILES BELIEVERS TO THE FATHER
Colossians 1:18 (BSB) And He is the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning and firstborn from among the dead, so that in all things He may have preeminence.
SUSIE: In addition to being the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, Jesus is the head of the church, the body of believers, the Messianic Community. He is Lord and Master of each individual believer and of the collective group of believers known as the church, the Bride of Christ.
SUSAN: Jesus was the first fruit of the resurrection, the first person to die and be raised permanently to eternal life as we eventually will be.
SUSIE: Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead, but Lazarus eventually died again. Jesus, on the other hand, has been permanently restored to life as we will be when He physically returns to set up His earthly kingdom. Jesus is pre-eminent in all things, even resurrection.
PRE-EM’INENCE, noun
1. Superiority in excellence; distinction in something commendable; as pre-eminence in honor or virtue; pre-eminence in eloquence, in legal attainments or in medical skill.
The preeminence of Christianity to any other religious scheme—
2. Precedence; priority of place; superiority in rank or dignity.
That in all things he might have the preeminence. Colossians 1:18.
Webster’s 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language
SUSAN: Equally important as Jesus being the Creator, the Son of God, and the first of those raised permanently from the dead, is the truth that He is the Head of the Church. In fact, “Head of the Church” should be regarded as one of the names of our Lord and held in high esteem, never taken lightly.
QUESTION: How does the fact that Jesus is the Head of the Church apply to you directly? How should we live in light of the fact that Jesus is our ultimate Leader and Boss?
Colossians 1:19 For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him,
Colossians 1:19 (CJB) For it pleased God to have his full being live in his Son.
SUSIE: Jesus has every right to be Head of the Church because God’s fullness lives in Him. This is a bold statement of the deity of Jesus, that He was fully man and fully God when He walked upon this earth.
SUSAN: One day it will be our pleasure to be completely one with the Lord even as Jesus is one with the Father. It is our reward for total trust and surrender to Jesus. At that point, we will understand fully and completely what it means to be children in the “familyship” of God. We will have the privilege of knowing God deeply like He knows us now.
1 Corinthians 13:12 (BSB) Now we see but a dim reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
SUSIE: This is the “good” that the Father works through all things, that we be made to be like Jesus, not in the sense of being “gods” but in having understanding. We will still be created beings worshipping our Lord, perfected and living in harmony with others, and enjoying abundant life as God intended us to; but we will have greater understanding of God’s love, grace, and will.
And we know that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose. For those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers.
Romans 8:28-29 (BSB)
QUESTION: How is God working “all things together for the good of those who love Him?” What does that look like in our daily lives? Does it mean everything is easy all the time? Describe the process of being “conformed to the image” of Jesus.
Colossians 1:20 . . . and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through the blood of His cross.
SUSAN: Jesus’ work on the cross was the final peace offering—the final, perfect sacrifice—to reconcile believing humanity to God.
SUSIE: As our High Priest, Jesus sacrificed Himself to Himself (since He is fully God and one with the Father), in order to redeem us from sin. A bit of a mind-bender, but true.
Unlike other high priests, He does not first need to make atonement every day for His own sins, and only then for His people’s, because He already made atonement, reconciling us with God once and forever when He offered Himself as a sacrifice.
Hebrews 7:27 (VOICE)
SUSIE: We receive what Jesus has accomplished on the cross for us when we surrender our lives to Him, trusting Him alone for salvation.
SUSAN: Jesus is both the High Priest and the sacrificial Lamb. He is the only one who could fulfill these two positions to satisfy the requirements of the Father for our redemption.
Colossians 1:21-22 Once you were alienated from God and were hostile in your minds because of your evil deeds. But now He has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy, unblemished, and blameless in His presence—
SUSIE: Before a person trusts Jesus, he/she is the enemy of the Lord.
“Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.
Matthew 12:30 (NIV)
SUSIE: However, Jesus died for those who would eventually believe even while they were still His enemies.
For while we were still helpless, at the right time, the Messiah died on behalf of ungodly people. Now it is a rare event when someone gives up his life even for the sake of somebody righteous, although possibly for a truly good person one might have the courage to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in that the Messiah died on our behalf while we were still sinners.
Romans 5:6-8 (CJB)
SUSAN: When we become Christians, when we trust in Jesus, He transforms us into brand new people. This is the foundation of Christianity, that Jesus does in and for us what we could never do for ourselves. His part was His sacrificial death on the cross in our place to redeem us. All we had to do was to receive this gift of salvation by trusting Him for reconciliation with God and eternal life. Then we will be privileged to live with Him forever.
SUSIE: His Holy Spirit is daily in the process of making us more and more like our Master. Paul is making the same point to the Colossians as he did in his letter to the Ephesians.
. . . in order to present the Messianic Community to himself as a bride to be proud of, without a spot, wrinkle or any such thing, but holy and without defect.
Ephesians 5:27 (CJB)
SUSIE: We do not first have to clean ourselves up to be His bride. He takes us where we are and does the cleaning Himself!
Colossians 1:23 . . . if indeed you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope of the gospel you heard, which has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.
SUSAN: “If” should be translated “for as much as” or “since”. There is no doubt that the true believer will continue in the faith because God will make sure that he/she does.
Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
Romans 14:4 (BSB)
SUSIE: Someone who completely leaves walking with the Lord, who denies or rejects Him, who walks away and never returns, most likely had never truly come to know the saving grace of our Lord.
SUSAN: The Lord takes those who trust in Jesus and changes them completely. He places His desires in them because the Holy Spirit lives in them. They are made into entirely new creations.
Therefore if anyone is in Christ [that is, grafted in, joined to Him by faith in Him as Savior], he is a new creature [reborn and renewed by the Holy Spirit]; the old things [the previous moral and spiritual condition] have passed away. Behold, new things have come [because spiritual awakening brings a new life].
2 Corinthians 5:17 (AMP)
SUSAN: God Himself enables us to continue growing in faith, but we must stay plugged in to Him by reading and meditating on His word, taking time to intercede for others as well as pray for ourselves, and being in “familyship” with other believers.
SUSIE: He has saved us, and that cannot be revoked; but it is also by His power that we continue growing in Christlikeness.
I am convinced and confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will [continue to] perfect and complete it until the day of Christ Jesus [the time of His return].
Philippians 1:6 (AMP)
SUSIE: The true believer WILL continue in the faith. This is referred to as “the perseverance of the saints.” We will NOT be moved away from the Gospel because the Lord will keep us there. That does not mean that we never sin or doubt but that the Lord will bring us back to Himself.
Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.
Jude 24-25 (NASB)
SUSAN: We should not take a detour from following the Lord; but if we as true believers do try to take the wrong path, the Lord will rein us in and redirect us as our Good Shepherd using his staff to grab a stray sheep.
My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.
John 10:27-28 (NASB)
What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go out to search for the one that is lost? And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he rejoices more over that one sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray.
Matthew 18:12-13
SUSIE: No one, not even ourselves, can separate us from the love of God once we have surrendered ourselves to Jesus.
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:38-39 (NIV)
PONDER THIS: Jesus DIED to reconcile you to Himself —to enable you to come into relationship with Him. He did not NEED us, but we NEED Him. Have you received this priceless yet free gift of salvation? Do you believe that Jesus Christ was God incarnate—fully man but fully God? Do you believe that He came to earth for the purpose of redeeming us, paying the price to buy His people back from sin’s slavery? Have you placed your total trust in Jesus to change your life and make it brand new? If not, what are you waiting for?