Colossians 1:19-23 

The following is a Bible study originally posted on our Bible Study Group.

Happy Wednesday, everyone! :-)

I'll tell ya what... I've been studying and meditating on our passage for
this week, and I must confess it's a tough one (at least, for me it was).
It's full of "meat" and requires lots of "chewing." LOL! In fact, last
night, my husband Kraig and I sat at the dining room table for quite some
time discussing each phrase and trying to be sure we were interpreting it
correctly. So, much of what I'm going to write today really came from my
husband, and I'm thankful for his wisdom.

This week we're discussing Colossians 1:19-23 (NKJV):

19 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell,
20 and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on
earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.
21 And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked
works, yet now He has reconciled
22 in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and
blameless, and above reproach in His sight--
23 if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not
moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached
to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.

I'm so glad that last week we talked about Jesus being fully God. I would
like to paint a picture for you of the contrast between Jesus and ourselves.

First, it says that IN Jesus, all the fullness of deity dwells. I know that
when He was on earth, people couldn't see the fullness of His deity. They
saw glimpses, but they weren't willing to acknowledge all of it, nor did God
the Father choose to let all His deity come shining out -- except for on
rare instances, such as the transfiguration.

Verse 19 also says that BY Jesus we can be reconciled to the Father. You
see, if Jesus wasn't God, then how could He make peace for us? His death on
the cross would have been payment for His own sins. Yet, because He was
perfect and sinless as God, His sacrifice paid for OUR sins.

Verse 21 shows, in contrast, what WE are like. (Or what we WERE like, if we
have trusted in Christ.) We were alienated. It's like we were foreigners
or strangers to God. It was impossible to even speak God's language, so to
speak. Far worse, though, we were enemies -- opponents, adversaries -- of
God. We were enemies first of all in our minds. In other words, the wicked
works which we did, we CHOSE to do.

My commentary says, "It is important to note that people are reconciled to
God ('to Himself') not that God is reconciled to people. For mankind has
left God and needs to be brought back to Him" (Walvord & Zuck, The Bible
Knowledge Commentary: New Testament, Victor Books, p. 674).

A second time Paul says that we are reconciled through Christ (v. 21). How?
"In the body of His flesh through death." Completely because of what He
did, and not at all by what good works we do, we can be presented "holy, and
blameless, and above reproach in His sight." 1 Thessalonians 3:13 says, "so
that HE may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and
Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints" (emphasis
mine). 1 Thessalonians 5:23 says, "Now may the God of peace HIMSELF
sanctify you COMPLETELY; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be
preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (emphasis mine).
In other words, GOD does the work of making us blameless. We don't! In
fact, the Bible says we are "dead in trespasses and sins," utterly unable to
save ourselves (see Ephesians 2:1).

Now the question I stumbled over all week: If we were reconciled entirely
because of what Jesus did, why does verse 23 say, "IF indeed you continue in
the faith, grounded and steadfast, and ARE NOT MOVED AWAY from the hope of
the gospel which you heard..." Some days, the best of us can flounder in
our faith. We waver and wonder if God's Word is true... if we really have
the assurance of heaven... after all, we STILL sin! At first glance, this
verse appears to say that our assurance of salvation is left up to us, to
how good we are.

Well, good for Kraig, he knows how to look up the Greek words in our study
books. So we pulled several books off our bookshelf and searched for some
insight. First of all, Kraig said that some words in Greek just don't
translate well into English because we don't have very good equivalents for
all the Greek words. The word "if" in verse 23 is a good example of this.
Try substituting the word "since." (I was skeptical at first, but he showed
me another passage of Scripture where the word "if" means "since" --
Philippians 2:1.) Another word is "hope" which means "assurance."

But even with changing these words, I think it helps to remember that just
as our salvation is COMPLETELY God's work, our ability to continue to follow
God is His work, too. We just are not able to live sinlessly, whether we
profess to be a Christian or not. I know I try hard, but I continually
fail -- and you do, too. However, because of Christ's work on the cross, we
are holy, blameless and above reproach -- in HIS sight. A special verse to
me is Philippians 1:6, which says, "being confident of this very thing, that
He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus
Christ."

Well, I haven't asked you any questions yet. I've got one to ask in just a
second, but I want to tell you something important that I learned this week.
I learned that it's normal to have questions and to not be able to
understand a passage of Scripture. As Kraig said, that's why we are part of
the body of Christ. We can go to each other, to the wiser Christians (and
we women can go to our husbands!). We need to ASK when we have questions!
Kraig reminded me that we need to be like the Christians from the city of
Berea, who "received the word with all readiness, and searched the
Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so" (Acts 17:11).
Application: are YOU plugged into a local body of believers, where you can
grow?

Well, this has gotten longer than I wanted it to, but I intentionally didn't
talk about the very last phrase in verse 23, where Paul talks about "the
hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature
under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister." The message of
Colossians 1 is life changing, don't you think? Let's talk about how it
changed Paul's life. What drastic changes did he make because of the gospel
("good news")? You might enjoy reading in the book of Acts, beginning in
chapter 9.

And what drastic changes should the gospel make in OUR lives??????


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