Transcript

Author Max Lucado describes the pivotal nature of the cross in history and in each of our lives. He wrote,

“It rests on the timeline of history like a compelling diamond. Its tragedy summons all sufferers. Its absurdity attracts all cynics. Its hope lures all searchers.

“History has idolized and despised it, gold-plated and burned it, worn and trashed it. History has done everything but ignore it. How could you ignore such a piece of lumber? Suspended on its beams is the greatest claim in history.

“A crucified carpenter claiming to be God on earth. Divine. Eternal. The death-slayer. Never has timber been regarded so sacred. No wonder the Apostle Paul called the cross event the core of the gospel.

“It’s bottom line sobering: if the account is true, it is history’s hinge. Period. If not, the cross is history’s hoax. Which is the cross for you, hinge or hoax? Or in the words of Jesus, ‘Who do you say that I am?’”

Colossians 1:12-14: “Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:

Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.”

The words “giving thanks” are translated from one Greek word, eucharisteo. The Greek word for “grace,” in your Bible is the word, charis. You can see that charis, or grace, is at the root of the Greek word for thanks, euCHARISteo.

Grace is about giving freely. And giving thanks is about our response to God and what He has given, supplied, and provided by His grace.

Thanksgiving is a trait of a believer who is alive and sensitive to God’s grace.

Our giving of thanks here is directed to God the Father and what He has given and done for us. There are three reasons why we are to give thanks to the Father. First, He has qualified us for our eternal inheritance. Second, He has delivered us from the Satanic realm of darkness. Third, He has translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son.

The words, “which hath made us meet,” mean to make sufficient, render fit, enable, and qualify. And the “inheritance” we are rendered fit for, according to verse 5 is, “For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven.”

Ordinarily, to qualify for an event or a position, we have to prove ourselves. However, the inheritance, position, and hope of heaven that believers receive is not one that they have earned but one which the Father qualified us for by grace.

We are not fit, sufficient, or qualified in ourselves for heaven. No one can ever earn the right to be qualified for heaven. Good works or being a good person do not and could never qualify one for heaven. Rather, it is the Father who qualifies us for heaven by His grace.

The moment we trust Christ that He died for our sins and rose again, we are qualified, made sufficient, and ready for heaven by the Father.

We are made sufficient in Christ; God qualified us to receive full possession of our inheritance of heaven at the moment of salvation.

We are rendered perfectly fit for heaven by the Father at that moment and nothing could make us any more fit and nothing will ever take this away. By His grace, God qualifies us and makes us sufficient for heaven through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Thus, the reason we give thanks to the Father is because, by His love, kindness, and grace, He has rendered us fit, made us sufficient, and qualified us for His heaven, who are not deserving and are unworthy of this great, eternal blessing.

To be “partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light,” means we share in this inheritance of heaven with all the other members of the Body of Christ. Israel has an inheritance eternally on the earth, but ours in the Church is in heaven above.

We share this inheritance with “the saints,” Paul says. The moment we believe the gospel of grace, we become a saint. A saint is a person who the Spirit has united with Christ and has placed in Him eternally. This makes the believer set apart unto God forever.

And belonging to God, He makes us heirs and gives us an inheritance with all the other saints. And God’s inheritance for the Church in heaven is about “light” and dwelling in it.

1 John 1:5 reminds us that “God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.” And Paul wrote Timothy of God that He “only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto…” (1 Tim. 6:16).

Our inheritance in light is a reminder that we will dwell and live in God’s presence in heaven for eternity.

We are qualified and we will dwell in this light, because by grace, the Father “hath delivered us from the power of darkness.” Giving thanks to the Father includes being rescued from the satanic realm.

“The power of darkness” is an authoritative power, a state of control over us. It is a realm of wickedness, deception, destruction, and death. Its ruler is Satan.

But the Father rescued and liberated us from this authority, bondage, and control of Satan. Having been delivered, we are no longer under his evil rule. Darkness has no more authority over us.

We have been rescued from this power by Sovereign power. We have no power at all to deliver ourselves from Satan’s power and dark realm. God alone can remove us from the power of darkness and give us a place and inheritance in the light of heaven.

And when we trusted Christ, the Father did this for us; He did for us what we could never do ourselves, and He is owed our gratitude for it.

The reverse cannot ever take place. Compared to God, Satan is nothing. He is weak and powerless. All the combined strength and power of Satan and his demons cannot ever pull us from God’s kingdom of light back into the power of darkness. Our salvation is secure. We irrevocably and eternally belong to God.

The only thing Satan can do is to try to trick, deceive, and fool believers into thinking that they might have possibly lost their salvation, eternal life, and place in heaven.

Being under the power of darkness and not in the light means to be separated from God, and not only that it is to be within and under a state of being against God and at enmity with Him. But God has rescued us from this kingdom of rebellion, and we are out from under the tyranny of Satan and we are under a brand new and the best authority.

And as we give thanks to the Father for this deliverance from the grave danger of being within the power of darkness, we also give the Father thanks, because He also “translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son.”

The word, “translated,” means to transfer, to remove from one place to another. It has the idea of resettling colonists as citizens of a new country.

What you see here is that there is no gray area. There is no middle ground between the kingdom of Satan and the kingdom of God.

And there is no progression or being in a state of part way between the two domains. You are either in one realm or the other. You are in darkness or you are in light. You belong to Satan or you belong to God.

The moment we believe the gospel, God instantly removed us from the power of darkness and transferred us “into the kingdom of His dear Son.” And this is a permanent transfer.

This kingdom does not refer to the earthly, millennial kingdom, but rather the heavenly kingdom of Christ. Christ will reign over BOTH heaven and earth in eternity.

The kingdom of Christ is one kingdom with two realms. There is a heavenly kingdom and an earthly kingdom, a heavenly sphere and an earthly sphere of His kingdom.

Israel is promised and has the hope of the earthly kingdom of Christ. But as Paul stated clearly in this chapter, our hope is laid up for us in heaven, and we, the Body of Christ are promised an eternal inheritance in the heavenly realm of Christ’s kingdom.

And as the Father has translated us to this kingdom, Paul described it as “the kingdom of His dear Son,” which literally means the Son of His love, or His beloved Son.

Satan’s kingdom is one of darkness and hatred; while the kingdom of Christ is the opposite and is one of light and love. And as the Father loves the Son, we will be shown the love of God for all eternity in that kingdom.

Speaking of God’s beloved Son, and explaining how we have been qualified and rendered perfectly fit for heaven, and how we have been rescued from the power of darkness and transferred to the kingdom of Christ, Paul wrote that in Christ, “we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins.”

The Greek word translated as “redemption,” is the strongest word for redemption in the Bible. It means that Christ fully paid the ransom by His shed blood to set us free from the bondage of our sins.

In redemption, the price was paid by Christ to buy us out of the slave market of sin. We are bought out of the slave market, and we are then set free, and this term adds that the freedom He has provided us takes us far, far away from our slavery.

We are slaves no more. We are completely liberated; we are free forever from the penalty and bondage of our sins, never to go back. And with this, we are forgiven of ALL our sins.

The word “forgiveness” means to be released from bondage or imprisonment. The precious blood Christ shed for our redemption washes all our sins away and sets us free from their imprisonment and consequences. Our sins had separated us from God, but that barrier has now been removed, sent away, and taken away forever.

As a result of our sins being paid for and gone in God’s sight, we are ready, fit, and qualified for our inheritance in heaven. By the Cross and faith in His blood, we are rescued from the power of darkness and transferred permanently to the kingdom of light.

Colossians 1:15-17: “Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.”

It is easy to read verses 15-17 as a separate section and a new thought apart from verse 14. But how it should be read is, “In Whom [Christ] we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins: Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by Him were all things created…”

Paul, by the Spirit, is powerfully driving home the security of our salvation, by connecting and reminding us Who it is that shed His blood and redeemed us and forgave all our sins. Understanding Who the Savior is in His Person gives great assurance to our salvation.

And the Holy Spirit here presents Christ in His towering glory, majesty, and supremacy.

As the image of the invisible God, Christ is the EXACT image of God. God made man in the image of God, but Christ is the image of God.

Christ does not just resemble God, He is God. Christ is the visible manifestation and the revelation of God. The invisible God is visible and seen perfectly, supremely, and completely in Jesus Christ.

All that God is, Christ is, because He is God Himself. He is the Son of God, the second Person of the Godhead. Christ is fully God in bodily form. As Paul goes on to say in chapter 2, verse 9: “For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.”

Christ differs in no way in essence and nature from God. Like the Father and the Spirit, Christ is sovereign, all-knowing, all-powerful, eternal, unchanging, transcendent, holy, self-existent, and on and on.

As the image of the invisible God, Christ exactly reflects what He directly corresponds to and is: God. As God, Christ, the God-man, reveals God to man.

So, Who redeemed us by His blood and gave us the forgiveness of sins? Christ, the image of the invisible God, Who is God Almighty Himself in the flesh. And His shed blood was more than able to set us free from ALL our sins and provide us with salvation.

Next, Paul wrote that Christ is “the firstborn of every creature,” or the firstborn over all creation. Christ as “the firstborn,” is not referring to His birth, or being first created, or that He ever came into existence from a prior condition of non-existence. In His Person, Christ is eternal and has always existed in the Godhead as the Son of God.

Rather, the title firstborn in Scripture referred to rank, authority, privilege, and being the heir. It describes both priority in time and supremacy in rank.

As God, Christ has eternally existed, and He pre-existed the creation, thus, He has both priority in time and supremacy in rank over creation. He is FIRST in rank and priority over all creation and He is outside of, transcendent, greater than all He has made.

And as the firstborn, He is the Heir of the universe and He is Sovereign over it, having the authority and the right to rule over it all. As Psalm 89:11 says, “The heavens are thine, the earth also is thine: as for the world and the fulness thereof, thou hast founded them.”

As God and firstborn over all creation, verse 16 reads, “For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him.”

All things, in every place, of every sort, and of every rank, originated with and were created by Christ. As John 1:3 states, “All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made.”

He is the origin and source of all the creative wisdom and power in the earth and the universe. He is the Author, the Architect, and the Builder of the creation. He is the cause of creation and He designed it all. He planned it, and He produced it.

He made “all things…that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible,” taking in the entire universe, from the massive and infinite expanse of space and all the stars and galaxies contained in it, to the entire earth in all its beauty, wonder, and design.

Christ made everything that we can see and cannot see, things material and immaterial, and speaking of things invisible, He made all the ranks of angels.

The words “thrones,” “dominions, “principalities,” and “powers” refer to angels, and they specify the hierarchy of angels in descending rank, with thrones the highest and powers the lowest in rank. But no matter their rank, Christ reigns sovereign over all angels.

All angelic organizations, whether the holy angels or the fallen angels, they are all under the authority of Jesus Christ, and they all ultimately answer to Him.

As Creator, Christ is Master and over all, and all things are under His command. He has supremacy and superiority over all that He created, and is greater than all He has made.

Paul stated that “all things were created by him, and for him.” Not only did Christ create all things; everything was created for His purposes.

Everything was carefully and wisely contemplated and made in His infinite wisdom, power, and love. And it all exhibits His heart and greatness, and it all brings Him glory.

The Creation finds its ultimate purpose in Christ. It is all “for Him.” And that is where we find our true purpose, when we live “by Him, and for Him” and for His glory.

“And he is before all things, and by him all things consist,” Paul wrote in verse 17.

Christ is “before” all things in creation both in time and in supremacy. He, the eternal God, existed before and prior to the heavens and the earth. And being “before” it in time, as its Creator, He is “before” it as its Sovereign.

And by Christ’s supreme authority and oversight, all things consist or are held together, preserved, and sustained. Christ is both the Creator and the Sustainer of His universe.

Out of His limitless power, He governs and maintains His creation. He commands the stars, planets, the sun, and the moon. He controls the laws by which the universe functions.

This great and awesome Creator is the One “In Whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins.” If you ever wonder if the Cross is enough, it is more than enough. And you don’t need to doubt your salvation.

The Creator became a Man to be our Savior. This transcendent, great God Who created all things in His Almighty power and wisdom, is the One who died for us. He shed His blood and died for our sins that we might be forgiven.

There is nothing more that could possibly be done for our salvation. By the power of His Cross and His perfect sacrifice we are saved.

And all we have to do is trust it, and we are saved from all our sins and the Father qualifies us and makes us ready for heaven.

Colossians 1:18-19: “And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell.”

Continuing to extoll the supremacy of Christ, Paul stated that “He is the Head of the Body, the Church.” Christ is preeminent over both the Creation and the Church.

Christ is the Creator and Ruler over all things in heaven and earth and He is the Creator and Head of the new creation, His Church of the current dispensation of Grace, the Body of Christ. This Church and this office of Christ as Head is only found in Paul’s letters.

As its Creator, the creation is His, and as its Creator, the Church, the Body of Christ is His. This Church is made up of everyone who, by faith alone, has trusted in Christ’s death and resurrection to save them during the dispensation of grace.

Like the creation, as the Head of the Church, Christ has authority over it. He provides its leadership and oversight. He rules, directs, and guides us. Christ supplies it with life, power, and wisdom; He gives gifts to its members and places them in the Body according to His will. And like the creation, He actively sustains and governs His Church.

As God designed our human body to respond to its head, He created the Church, the Body of Christ to respond to our Head, the Lord Jesus Christ. We do this by living by faith according to Christ’s will and instructions for the Church found in Paul’s epistles.

By the action, coordination, and function of the Body in its many parts by faith, the Church is a powerful testimony for Christ in this world.

The Head of the Church, Paul says, “is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead.”

“Beginning” indicates origin and cause. The Body of Christ finds its origin in Him, He is the cause of its existence. Christ is the foundation of this Church. He is our Life.

And it’s through His death, burial, and resurrection and faith in His finished work that we are saved and become members eternally of the Body of Christ.

Our living Head is “the firstborn from the dead.” Christ is preeminent over Creation, over the Church, and over death. By His resurrection, He is the Master and Conqueror of death. He has authority over the grave.

The firstborn from the dead does not mean that Christ was the first Person to rise from the dead. From Scripture, we know that this is not the case.

But Christ WAS the first to rise from physical death to immortality, with a glorified body, never to die again. The others who were raised from the dead in the past died again later.

But as for Christ, Paul said in Romans 6:9, “Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over Him.”

And He is the “firstborn of the dead” in that His resurrection has supremacy in rank and preeminence. His resurrection is the One on which all other resurrections from the dead are founded. As Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:20: “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.”

His resurrection guarantees that the Church will one day be resurrected, and our resurrection will be like His. Our bodies will be changed and “fashioned like unto His glorious body.” And we will be raised to immortality, never to die again.

Christ is first and supreme over all creation. He is first and supreme over all angelic ranks. He is first and supreme over the church. He is first and supreme over the grave.

After all these things which glorify Christ, the Holy Spirit adds them up and gives us His true reckoning, “that in all things He might have the preeminence.”

“Preeminence” means to be first, to hold the first place.

Because of His greatness and glory, and as He is first and supreme over all things, so it is right that He should be preeminent over our lives. He is worthy of our worship, our devotion, and putting Him first in our lives.

Allowing Christ to have that rightful place of preeminence as the focus and true authority in our lives is the key to joy, meaning, and peace.

Understanding Who Christ is and His greatness as God can lead us to yield our lives to Him and give Him the dignity and honor and the first place He deserves in our lives.

Paul added, “For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell.”

The word “for” explains why Christ is “preeminent.” It’s because all fulness of the Godhead dwells in Christ bodily. He is God, 100% God and 100% Man.

And because He is fully God and fully man, He is able to do what no One else ever could: reconcile mankind to a righteous and holy God.

As verses 20 and 21 state, “And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled.”

Christ, Who is God and preeminent over all, is more than able to save you from all your sins, reconcile you to God, and give you a home in heaven. Have you made that decision to trust Him as your personal Savior?